It also explains why listeners are turning away from FM to XM in droves. The FM stations have to follow strict play lists, concocked by some marketing executive, and so they play the same 20 songs or so all day long, day after day. And since maybe 95% of the FM stations are now owned by only a handfull of media giants, is it any wonder they all sound the same?
Hi all
I'm delighted to find myself embedded in that prog list!
I call my music progressive because it 'progresses' from the standard rock form to quite involved. structured pieces, relying heavily on counterpoint, modulations, theme development and other classical devices.
Much of my material is on the web at www.soundclick.com/tombyrne Do drop by an have a listen.
Best regards
Tom
I'm delighted to find myself embedded in that prog list!
I call my music progressive because it 'progresses' from the standard rock form to quite involved. structured pieces, relying heavily on counterpoint, modulations, theme development and other classical devices.
Much of my material is on the web at www.soundclick.com/tombyrne Do drop by an have a listen.
Best regards
Tom
My daughter has been asked to do an assignment on Dream Theatre - I'd never heard of them.... After listening to some of their stuff on Youtube, here are the conclusions I came to (feel free to disagree..
Dream Theatre - Genre: Heavy metal – originally from ‘heavy mettle’ – clumsy ability
Although their style followed on from ‘progressive’ rock in that their early music was not based on short song forms, their compositions amount to little more than extended riff rock relieved by shows of technical dexterity – what Frank Zappa once referred to as “clouds of educated gnat-notes” (He also referred to their "pathetic lick-spewage and freeze-dried stereotypifications.")
Metal lyrics tend to be juvenile and banal, with romantic tragedy being a standard theme of metal. Heavy metal songs often feature outlandish, fantasy-inspired lyrics, frequently inspired by mythology and fiction, lending them an escapist quality. This theme was probably initiated by Black Sabbath's "The Wizard’ and Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On’ . Dream Theatre have nothing new to offer here.
Early Heavy metal bands, such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath, had singers with vocal strength and range that matched the power of the bands – a necessity in the days of inadequate PA systems. Very few bands following this era had singers who could do little more than speak the works of their songs. None of the singers in Dream Theatre appear to have had more than mediocre ability. The current fashion in the Metal formula, which Dream Theatre follow, is for the lyrics to be screamed and heavily distorted. This covers up any lack of vocal ability.
Legacy: their early hit ‘Pull me Down’ appears to have set in stone the formula for modern Metal sound, particularly the sound of the bass and guitar doubling the underlying riff, which nearly all metal bands use today. Although there later albums appear to be more oriented to shorter song based music, there appears to have been little musical development in their style over their career. It remained for a few Bands such as System of a Down, who used Armenian folk tunes and political protest, and Rammstein, who combine theatrical performance with more melodic songs, to break the mold and bring new life to the genre.
Dream Theatre - Genre: Heavy metal – originally from ‘heavy mettle’ – clumsy ability
Although their style followed on from ‘progressive’ rock in that their early music was not based on short song forms, their compositions amount to little more than extended riff rock relieved by shows of technical dexterity – what Frank Zappa once referred to as “clouds of educated gnat-notes” (He also referred to their "pathetic lick-spewage and freeze-dried stereotypifications.")
Metal lyrics tend to be juvenile and banal, with romantic tragedy being a standard theme of metal. Heavy metal songs often feature outlandish, fantasy-inspired lyrics, frequently inspired by mythology and fiction, lending them an escapist quality. This theme was probably initiated by Black Sabbath's "The Wizard’ and Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On’ . Dream Theatre have nothing new to offer here.
Early Heavy metal bands, such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath, had singers with vocal strength and range that matched the power of the bands – a necessity in the days of inadequate PA systems. Very few bands following this era had singers who could do little more than speak the works of their songs. None of the singers in Dream Theatre appear to have had more than mediocre ability. The current fashion in the Metal formula, which Dream Theatre follow, is for the lyrics to be screamed and heavily distorted. This covers up any lack of vocal ability.
Legacy: their early hit ‘Pull me Down’ appears to have set in stone the formula for modern Metal sound, particularly the sound of the bass and guitar doubling the underlying riff, which nearly all metal bands use today. Although there later albums appear to be more oriented to shorter song based music, there appears to have been little musical development in their style over their career. It remained for a few Bands such as System of a Down, who used Armenian folk tunes and political protest, and Rammstein, who combine theatrical performance with more melodic songs, to break the mold and bring new life to the genre.
Maybe someone has cited Kluster, Cluster(Moebius+Roedelius), Faust, Harmonia, Michael Rother, Tangerine/Edgar Froese and others, in the early post, but they are very good. 
Cluster is all that Kaftwerk could have been, and nor was a quartet, only two persons, sometime ago they made various concerts.
http://www.roedelius.com/
Regards
Cluster is all that Kaftwerk could have been, and nor was a quartet, only two persons, sometime ago they made various concerts.
http://www.roedelius.com/
Regards
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For those who like this type of music and want to explore it further with other fans, I suggest taking a look at www.progressiveears.com and reading the forums there.
Prog definitely is not dead. There's a lot of very good new music being made, in all it's genre's. A lot of it is from outside the US, of course, since our commercial music machine is controlled by a computer program telling fans what to like instead of identifying what fans are listening to.
A couple of relatively new bands that I've been listening to and liking are:
Porcupine Tree
Sieges Even
Sylvan
Magenta
Riverside
The Flower Kings
Spock's Beard
Enjoy,
Bob
Prog definitely is not dead. There's a lot of very good new music being made, in all it's genre's. A lot of it is from outside the US, of course, since our commercial music machine is controlled by a computer program telling fans what to like instead of identifying what fans are listening to.
A couple of relatively new bands that I've been listening to and liking are:
Porcupine Tree
Sieges Even
Sylvan
Magenta
Riverside
The Flower Kings
Spock's Beard
Enjoy,
Bob
I saw them in 1970, so I missed every thing of that album. I think it came out in 73.
Yep. One of the most contradictory, infuriating, inane, childish and hatred band in history, at their best. If anything, they undermined the entire prog rock cult from within.
I have all their albums on vinyl. Unfortunately (but not unexpected) all the eventually remastered CDs are, sound wise, pretty much garbage.
Eddie Jobson? Wow. No 'Fripp and Eno' or 'Phil Manzanara'?
Good to see Roxy Music represented, I was first introduced to them about 1973. It's hard today to get a sense of how 'out there' they were back then. Virginia Plain baby.
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