[atlantaprog] Whew! Alrighty then...

Wow, so somebody has to be unsubscribed because of all this banter?  I
think that's a good thing.  We haven't had all that many lively discussion
here, so I think this is a potentially good thing. It's amazing how
opinionated we are, which is great, but I guess I had forgotten just how
extremely subjective opinions are.  One man's (or woman's :-) trash is
truly another's treasure.  There just is no room for argument - in fact,
there is no argument to be made - when you are comparing apples to oranges.
 Still, to find out what everybody thinks is truly interesting to say the
least, and I have enjoyed it.

Alex, I hope you weren't taking offense by my comments about "shallowness."
 You responded in great detail, so I'll just add a little bit more comment,
then I surrender the floor. 

>Well, they will also say "the singer is cute" or "She's so hot".  Those
>are shallow reasons for liking a band.  "I like the attitude" in many
>cases, can be viably construed as shallow.  Another thing that you will
>hear people say is "I like them because they are popular" or "I like
>them because the DJ on a radio station really likes them".  These are
>all arguably very shallow resons.
>
>Hell, not liking someone because he wore capes and ate curry on stage?
>THAT is shallow!  Younger writers just see the pics of the guy with a
>cape.  They forget at that the time, it was different.  Bowie was
>dressed in drag, Kiss was a band wearing clown makeup, Alice Cooper was
>some sort of witch wanna-be, George Clinton was wearing (gasp!) capes!
>
>Ahh, but they don't see that.  They don't remember it.  They just see a
>cape and comment about how bad that is.  Shallow...

Alex, are you saying that you are never, ever shallow when it comes to
liking bands? :-)

>I don't like or dislike any band on the basis of cape-wearing!  :-)
>
>> of shallow and deep.  It's not smart to act like elitists and 
>
>I wasn't being elitist, I was being honest, and a little bit sarcastic
>as well.
>
>
>> isolate ourselves by making blanket statements about the 
>> shallowness of the "common folk" if we ever want people to 
>> buy our product and see us play.  What's wrong with being in 
>
>Ahh, but I was just commenting on the Blender writers.  Remember they
>came up with the final list and the "reasons" why the groups sucked so
>much.

You really did make a blanket statement about the general public being as
"shallow as a a kiddie pool."  If you were instead talking about Blender,
it wasn't clear in what you actually said.
 
>I *never* thought that prog was just for "special people," nor
>insinuated it.  However, in this time of extremely short attention spans
>and music that acts like bubble gum for the brain, it could be argued
>that prog's penchant for longer, more complicated musical pieces takes a
>"special" mind to appreciate.  It's a matter of culture and environment.
>In the 70's the same idiot who today like Blink-182 would have loved Led
>Zeppelin & Yes.  The reason that they don't today is because of the
>musical environment around them...

Every era of "popular music" has been one of short attention spans.
Nothing much has changed since recorded music began.  Popular songs have
always been generally short, 3 minutes, no matter what genre.  It's only
been since the era of Stairway to Heaven and Bohemian Rhapsody that radio
began playing 7 and 8 minute songs regularly.  Even now the average
Metallica radio song is about 5 minutes, Tool is almost 6 minutes, many
rock radio staples are anywhere between 4 1/2 and 8 minutes long, so in all
honestly, "this time of short attention span" doesn't really apply.  BTW,
am I an idiot if I like Blink 182? :-) - VH

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