[atlantaprog] Re: Give Me That Old Time Prog Rock

I recently went through my entire itunes library revising the genre tags in to something that meant something to me. When I got to The Flower Kings, I named a genre "new Prog". As I worked through the library, I realiazed how many recent groups do indeed have a very formulaic approach to prog - not much differentiation, not much innovations - the very things that made prog so special to me in the first place.

Maybe. But as a genre, doesn't it have as much "right to life" as any other? Reggae/ska? Country? Nu-country? Death-metal? Bluegrass? Indie-rock? What sort of "negative dispensation" has progressive rock been given that these weren't?

If I didn't think it had a right to exist, it wouldn't be in my iPod! When i said I named a genre "new Prog", what meant was the process where I named various genres for the tunes in my playlist as a means of finding what I was looking for based on similar aesthetic characteristics. I found myself dividing the various "proggy" type acts into eight categories:

Classic Prog - the well-known prog acts from the 70's,
New Prog - Flower Kings, Spocks Beard, Glass Hammer, Anglagard - artists who use the classic prog-rock vocabulary without bringing anything really new to the mix,
Post-Prog (artist with roots in prog, but who are still striving to incorporate new elements, approaches, and influences - Crimson and its various offshoots, Gabriel, Djam Karet. (I consider Z-Axis to be Post-Progressive),
Canterbury - groups from the classic Canterbury lineage - Soft Machine, Caravan, Hatfield & the North, etc.
Italian Prog - a whole bevy of prog acts that sprang up in Italy during the 70s - so many acts, and such similarities in their approach that they deserve they're own genre name - PFM, Banco, Le Orme, Aqua Fragile, etc.)
Space Rock - the trippy, jammy bands, who typically perform with light shows - Hawkwind, Ozric Tentacles,.
Psychedelic - typically the precursors to prog, or trippy jammy bands that don't typically having the driving jammy feel of the space rock acts - pre-Dark Side Floyd, Gong, Amon Duul II.

For all of the rest, I just have a Progressive Rock genre.

Of all of them, the New Prog acts are probably the least "progressive", but that doesn't mean I don't LIKE them!

...the Flower Kings, Spocks Beard, Echolyn, Glass Hammer, etc. will eventually fade away.

Not Echolyn, please. *as the world* and *suffocating the bloom*, at least, will go down as acknowledged classics. Maybe the FKs' *Stardust We Are*, too, and Anekdoten's *Nucleus*. People keep talking about Anglagard's *Hybris*, too.

Acknowledged Classics by whom? The only people who even know these acts exist are prog fans. No matter how great a particular artist is, if people beyond a specific demographic don't know their work, it WILL fade away. Remembered only by fans and collectors.


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