The irony of a Prog revival in the digital downloading age

The past 10 years have probably been the best years for the prog genre since the 70s. Whereas no prog acts have been downright stadium fillers/chartbusters (at least not unless you count Radiohead and Muse as prog) a number of acts are scratching the surface. Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, Opeth, The Mars Volta and Pineapple Thief are all examples of acts who may be considered prog in some way, and whose audiences are growing, and the still rather new Prog magazine initiated by the Classic Rock writers also seems to go down well with a large part of the audience.

The ironic thing here is that this is a genre that sells almost exlusively on the old CD format (and to some extent vinyl). Directors of prog related labels like Inside Out, Kscope and Roadrunner will confirm that digital sales of their acts are very poor. Prog fans still want actual physical records with gatefold covers.

So exactly how is it possible for the prog revival to happen in the midst of the digital download revolution?

because all the simple songs have been written

;)

old people still don't know how to d/l?

But sad bastards can, so it remains a mystery

I don't quite understand this question. Do you mean that the irony is that a genre that calls itself 'progressive' is using old fashioned technology for distribution?

The irony is that a genre calls itself 'progressive' when its fans are Geir Hongro-like

So exactly how is it possible for the prog revival to happen in the midst of the digital download revolution?

Because Prog fans, up to now not best served by contemporary releases, have had to rely on expensive albums not re-released on CD.

As the overall concept of a prog release lends itself to gatefold artwork and large format companion booklets, the schema continues.

It's a simple step to have offered top quality pressings in expensively tooled formats to 'connoisers' who can pay high prices, which then lends itself to funding prog bands that may not sell a large amount, but when their profit equates 1 sale to 100 sales of some other artist on a low-price format, the band makes enough money to keep going.

There you go. that's it.

Anyway, I'm not sure I buy the argument that there is a "prog revival". My brother plays in a prog band these days and when he joined, I was like, "Oh great you'll be able to play in Eastern European and South America, because we all know there are still thousands and thousands of prog fans out there"... he's played once in Lithuania, to about 12 people

Pash to thread,obv.

He played in Rotherham once too (xp)

pash will tell you that loads of bands who made a living off selling cds now sell bugger all, countering what Geir has said.

Well, these guys don't get rich, but they can easily make a living from prog having an audience all over the world. And the bands I mention have been in the albums lists in some places too.

The sales figures for prog digital downloads are real enough, but it makes sense in a way too. Not only because of the gatefold design covers associated with prog, but just as much because prog itself is very much an albums genre, associated with concept albums.

That said, gatefold covers and concept albums aside, one could easily make a case for some bands to be better off releasing their 20-30 minute suites as one off tracks instead of putting together an album with two 20-30 minute suites that their fans consider masterpieces, and then filling out the CD with 3-4 shorter tracks considered filler by most of their fans. Particularly in the case of trad-prog bands such as Flower Kings and Spock's Beard, their fans tend to prefer the suites and ignore the shorter tracks, so why not release the suites as single tracks for download instead of bothering with albums?

why not release the suites as single tracks for download instead of bothering with albums?

That's SO unprog of you Geir. For shame.

except radiohead & muse have been around forever

It's pointless to even bother releasing progressive music now, entitlement-filesharing, and ego-mp3 blogs have made it unviable. The days when even a no-body like me could sell 500CDs are gone. Prog rock's fanbase cut out the middle man and started directly ripping off the artists.

Progressive rock has been creatively moribund since Angalgard's last album, or maybe some more recent Guapo album. Far too much that I have listened to in recent years has fallen too easily into one of 2 categories - retro symph shite, like the prog equivalent of Oasis, or bordeline unlistenable RIO knock off.

Progressive rock is as dead as any other form of rock music, the difference with prog is that it doesn't have money behind it, making the dead frogs legs twitch one more time.

i dont see the point of rehashing symphonic prog rock like Genesis perfected by the mid 70s. It's hardly progressive.

i thought prog got revived because of math rock, postrock, "paranoid android," at the drive-in becoming the mars volta, battles, and the decemberists, no?

and asa-chang and junray? and mastodon?

I think those indie acts are part of the reason, and also not least because of prog metal. But it also probably happened because people finally have enough of a distance to the values of punk. Surely there was also a prog revival in the 80s (Marillion, Pendragon, IQ, It Bites) but it was always looked down upon by a large number of people back then.

more like people have synthesized punk attitude with prog chops

Well, there's not a lot of punk attitude in the music of Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater or Pineapple Thief.

I dunno, I'm not totally sure how Radiohead or the Decemberists have more 'punk attitude' than, I dunno, Jethro Tull or King Crimson did in the first place.

xpost

Radiohead, surely. But they have always denied being influenced by prog.

But they have always denied being influenced by prog.

Any chance of you citing your sources on this? It might be true, but then again it might just be some unverifiable bullshit you spout to support your microscopically-thin worldview.

am preeeeeetty certain radiohead have acknowledged prog

sund4r, you're right -- and i was unclear. i meant the attitude of bands like radiohead and battles is different from geir-cited bands like marillion and IQ and pendragon

Russian Circles are bitchin'.

also, steve malkmus emulating mellow candle and the groundhogs might have something to do with the geir-shift