Comments on: Prog Conservatism?

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 11:57:53 +0000

A bit like this blog post, then?

Bollocks! I’ve been rumbled

By: PaulE

PaulE — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 11:49:59 +0000

The point ? I could be really cynical and say (a) to fill a few pages of a publication easily and (b) to give the readers something to complain about.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 11:03:28 +0000

If the result is a predicable and conservative list, what’s the point?

By: PaulE

PaulE — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 11:00:45 +0000

The method of creating the aggregated list is designed to remove unusual selections. None of them have stated their method, but I suspect a simple linear scoring system – 10 points for 1st place to 1 point for 10th place. Which makes one 1st equal to 10 10ths, 5 9ths or 2 6th places. Albums scoring consistently across all lists (even in the bottom half) will overhaul those scoring high on only a few lists.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 12:55:31 +0000

There was definitely a bit of a “Circle the wagons” approach a few years back, and that attitude dies hard. I don’t think that sort of tribalism really does any good, but I can understand why it exists.

One thing I’ve noticed of late is that the more a band’s sound is “prog”, the less they want to identify with the label. And there is some logic to that; if a band are already well-known in the “scene”, calling themselves prog risks limiting their potential audience, while for a straightforward melodic rock band, calling themselves prog may get them on prog fans’ radar. Nowadays I try to avoid using the p-word in reviews for artists with a lot of crossover appeal.

By: David Lack

David Lack — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 12:17:36 +0000

Interesting piece, I think Prog was a seemingly ‘dirty word’ for a such long time, it made some people quite defensive in the musical outlook, sometimes going as far as to criticise artists who tried to distance themselves from the genre a while back. Perhaps this is where some of the conservatism stems from? I don’t know if I’d call myself conservative in my musical tastes but then again most of my 2013 ‘discoveries’ (Haken, Airbag, Leprous, Days Between Stations, Dead Letter Circus) have at least one toe in the Prog door. Some of those however, have come from looking at these lists and exploring from there, so they do have some merit I guess.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 13:04:19 +0000

The list-by-committee approach tends to favour the records many people like rather then the ones some people love.

Of course, the downside of individual lists is that they’re restricted to the music the lister has had the chance to hear over the year.

By: Dave C

Dave C — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 12:35:59 +0000

I’ve thought similar myself. Aggregated lists can end up looking like a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster by their very nature, and I think that was noticeable in the Prog magazine overall top 20 this year. There were albums showcased that hardly featured in individuals’ lists at all, which appeared odd.

Best to identify writers, bloggers, or in fact anyone with a love of music that share your tastes – that’s where the real interest is for me. As you’ve suggested Tim, lists from individuals work best.