Quote:
Originally Posted by Trollheart
You're consistently avoiding our points. You say Arena, Millenium, Dream ****ing Theater for god's sake and Spock's Beard are minnows, then "prove" that by talking about some tiny prog band (whom you don't name) who "couldnt' fill 50 seats"! What does that prove?
Sure, prog rock is not as popular as it was in the seventies, but come on! It was a different time, and back then prog was new, and by new I mean really new. Nobody was doing what the likes of Keith Emerson or Peter Gabriel were doing, and it was pioneering stuff. But if prog rock was not still popular now, then how could events like Progfest exist and make money? Prog is still popular, just not mainstream.
And if you mean those bands are minnows in the overall music world, then yes, but so were the big prog bands back then when compared to the likes of the Stones, Beatles, Zep etc. So nothing has changed there. Prog albums were never consistently hitting number one, in the charts all the time, massive gigs (well yes probably but I'd venture to say not as big as any of the aforementioned) or screaming girls following them. But prog has always been something of an outsider, even when it was at its height, and that has not changed.
Have you the guts, I wonder, to go to progarchives, look at their top lists for last year or any of the preceding, and then come back and say none of those bands know how to play or compose music?
It seems like you're not so much sad that prog is not popular, you're almost gloating that it is. Whereas we want to, and do, find new prog bands we can enjoy, you seem content to say no no there are none and leave it at that. That's a fine attitude for someone in your position to have.
As for SB, yes, ask the man, woman or blue thing from Centaurus IX in the street who they are and they'll shrug, probably would about Anthrax or Skirillex or Saxon or The Drifters. Ask that question among prog fans and you'll get a whole different answer. It's all about context.
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All of our artists are discussed in the modern prog circles, that you mentioned etc. This has nothing to do with our label or artists.
There were huge advantages for prog being popular in the past. Much bigger budgets to realize projects for one thing. I hear complaints all the time how bands from Europe simply can't tour America because they can't afford to. That wasn't the case before. Make no mistake, bands really improve on many levels getting out and playing live. They make a bigger impact on the audience if they can tour with proper equipment and even some stage props. The funding of a major or any label with some cash flow can really help a project along from top to bottom. From the proper recording of an album in a good studio compare to the poor quality computer based recordings we hear all the time. Touring, promotion, equipment, keeping the artists alive and healthy. So many things.
I don't see a world filled with internet youtube bands very interesting.
Vinyl is making a comeback, but in all honesty, the vast majority of it is being recorded digitally, then basically just pressing a CD onto vinyl. It's not quality driven by any means. Trendy? Sure, and the artwork is cool. But it's also crazy expensive. People are complaining about the cost of new vinyl. It's not consistent with the past even figuring inflation.
This whole notion that we don't like new artists is not correct. Our artists are part of the scene in today's culture and doing fine. We have decent funding and we had 500 people at a show last year for one of our acts in a town people are afraid generally to even drive through.