The Best Genre In Music

[Modest Man From Mandrake]

I have to go with Prog Rock on this one. It is the most imaginative and expressive music style IMHO. Also not just any hack with an acoustic guitar and six months of lessons can play this type of music. It takes precission ability beyond any other.

[anagramking]

I chose prog as well. I've posted this passage from Neil's book Travelling Music before, but here it is again:

 

QUOTE

...As much as the notion of "progressive" music has been mocked, used to denigrate a particular style of experimental, ambitious arranging and musicianship, it was really the only possible kind of honest music. Not to say that the simple passage of time meant that one's work necessarily got *better*; it didn't have to be *qualitative* progress, but it was certainly a chronological progress.  LIfe cannot be seen any other way than as a progression -- forward, if not necessarily upward -- and thus it followed that one's  work had to be looked at that way too.  For me, each milestone, each benchmark was necessarily progressive, reflecting what I had learned musically, as a drummer, and what I had learned existentially, as a lyricist.  As my friend Mendelson Joe said, "Art doesn't lie," and that was especially true in cases where it *tried* to lie -- pretending to be something it wasn't to attract an audience it didn't deserve.  That's what it *really* meant to be "pretentious."  In an unfortunate contradiction, progressive music was described by ignorant, biased critics as "pretentious," but what a confused value system that terminology represented.  Seldom was there a more *honest* style of music, based on solid principles of musicianship, exploration, and fascination.  It did not "pretend" youth, or adolescent passion, like so much pop music written by aging men and women with cynical formulas, and it did not "pretend" rebellion, like so much pop music written by leering mercenaries in motorcycle jackets and careful hairdos.  (From "The Sound of Muzak," by Porcupine Tree, a modern-day "progressive" band: "The music of rebellion makes you wanna rage/ But it's made by millionaires who are nearly twice your age"). At its worst, progressive rock may have become bloated and top0heavy, but inevitably it had to collapse on itself anyway, in the cycle of self-correcting mechanisms common in popular music:  the previously-described "garage band " principle.  As soon as popular music outgrew the ability of beginners to emulate it, a revolution would follow.  How few of the '50s pioneers survived commercially into the early 60s, and how few of the early 60s bands survived into the late 60s, and so on.  It is unfortunate, in a way, that many good artists become undeservedly marginalized by an imagined line drawn in the sand, between old and uncool, and new and hip, and there's nothing they can do about it.  When punk and new wave styles exploded in the late 70s, some established artists were nimble enough to respond to the changes around them.  Some grumbled, "What am I supposed to do, forget how to play?", and continued to ride their dinosaurs into extinction....

[Moonraker]

Classical. There is a reason why people remember work that remember work that is centuries old.

[anagramking]

QUOTE (Moonraker @ Oct 11 2005, 01:27 AM)

Classical. There is a reason why people remember work that remember work that is centuries old.

Oh, don't you worry, stuff we hate that was done in the past 50 years will be remembered for centuries, and not for the same reasons that classical is remembered. It should be said that classical had a big influence on a lot of prog.

 

[Moonraker]

I agree there, maybe I should ammend my post to say that it is my opinion classical is the best. I am still waiting for the day for some new form of music or sound to completely blow classical away and leave many more generations in awe. That new form may have already come to rise, or may not have, but to me nothing beats classical.

 

I should make note though that the first 15 years of my life, I was surrounded in an atmosphere where classical music was present. I think that had a deep impact on my views towards this subject. Anyone who grew up with any kind music as the background to thier life would probably say the same thing about their ideas of what the best music is.

[plodder]

I hate the whole splitting music into genres thing. That's why I left the prog forum. If I like it, I like it. Simple as that.

[rushgoober]

QUOTE (Moonraker @ Oct 10 2005, 11:41 PM)

I agree there, maybe I should ammend my post to say that it is my opinion classical is the best. I am still waiting for the day for some new form of music or sound to completely blow classical away and leave many more generations in awe. That new form may have already come to rise, or may not have, but to me nothing beats classical. I should make note though that the first 15 years of my life, I was surrounded in an atmosphere where classical music was present. I think that had a deep impact on my views towards this subject. Anyone who grew up with any kind music as the background to thier life would probably say the same thing about their ideas of what the best music is.

I think you hit on a major point that influences our tastes, our religous and political views and SO many areas of our life. How we're raised and what we're suurrounded with CAN have a great impact on who we are and what we like later in life. I , for example, was NOT brought up with classical music at all. In fact, in the abasence of my parents seeming to be much of music fans at all (before my father discovered new age / electronic music in my early teens), I discovered what I liked through television, radio and friends. I never got the whole classical music thing. I don't dislike it, but neither can I understand its enduring appeal, other than it's music that generally (a stereotype, i know) older people seem to like that is non-threatening, non-rebellious and benign. I think classical music works great as movie soundtracks or as bacgrounds to other things, but on its own, and no offense to anyone who is a fan, I find it generally extremely boring. That being said, I can almost always tolerate classical as sopposed to genres like rap and especially country where I start climbing the walls if I can't get away from.

 

Unfortunately there isn't a psychedelic music opition, or I would have chosen that. Classical rock incorporates psychedelic, but it's for me a much broader term that includes a lot of AOR from the seventies, that while good, is most often decidely not psychedelic. Prog is my second favorite genre of music. Other genres I love are also not represented - krautrock, ambient, electronic (not techno) and some others. I've never been one to listen to or love genres (since my heavy metal days anyway) that have a lot of curent popularity or even recognition, so my tastes are generally pretty far from the mainstream, and I would be surprised if they would generally be even included as options, much less as something people still listen to, especially younger people who often don't venture past the last 5-10 years to find out what great music existed before that. Even in the prog rock arena, I don't really consdier the post 70's stuff, current stuff to be progressive - not to put it down, but it doesn't have the same feel or the same sound of the more classic progressive rock, just as what people call psychedelic music today has very little in common with the vintage psychedelic music. I like the term neo-prog, not because I'm a big fan, but because it rightly separates it from the 70's stuff.

 

Anyway, I'm often way too opinionated about music for my own good , but what can I say? I passionately love what I love, and the rest leaves me anywhere from cold to frigid. I didn't vote in this poll as I didn't want to compromise since my specific genre of choice wasn't there - I could vote prog as a second favorite, but it's really my second favorite. Now the worst genre poll, I'm all over that one...

 

Peace,

Gary

[invisibleairwaves]

Classic Rock

[NeilPeartFan2112]

Can't choose between prog and classic rock. Both so good.

[Oberon]

[Grandpa Grizz]

Classical.

[MrMiltonBanana]

Prog.

[endlesslymocking]

I voted alternative.

 

Becuase its different.

 

They arent trying to fit in.

 

Classic rock is also good, except when they were making it they weren't making "classic" rock.....

[rushgoober]

QUOTE (endlesslymocking @ Oct 12 2005, 12:59 PM)

I voted alternative. Becuase its different. They arent trying to fit in. Classic rock is also good, except when they were making it they weren't making "classic" rock.....

if you want to get technical, alternative music hasn't been alternative for many years. i remember when "alternative music" came out, though of course many bands that had been already recording for years were suddenly being called alternative. alternative music stopped being alternative the moment it acheived mass popularity (didn't take long once the label was established), and it was then really mainstream music. there may be some "alternative music" groups that are "different" and "aren't trying to fit in," but once being different and not trying to fit in became the expected norm, well, you can figure the rest out...

[endlesslymocking]

QUOTE (rushgoober @ Oct 12 2005, 04:43 PM)

QUOTE (endlesslymocking @ Oct 12 2005, 12:59 PM) I voted alternative. Becuase its different. They arent trying to fit in. Classic rock is also good, except when they were making it they weren't making "classic" rock..... if you want to get technical, alternative music hasn't been alternative for many years. i remember when "alternative music" came out, though of course many bands that had been already recording for years were suddenly being called alternative. alternative music stopped being alternative the moment it acheived mass popularity (didn't take long once the label was established), and it was then really mainstream music. there may be some "alternative music" groups that are "different" and "aren't trying to fit in," but once being different and not trying to fit in became the expected norm, well, you can figure the rest out...     I like music. OK?

[ABZ Highlander]

Voted For Celtic, That's my living these days!

 

Off to Nanning, China, Tuesday to play a Festival!

 

Report when I get Home!!

[PuppetKing2112]

I did not vote in this poll, as I abhor the dividing of music into confining genres.

[rushgoober]

QUOTE (endlesslymocking @ Oct 12 2005, 02:30 PM)

QUOTE (rushgoober @ Oct 12 2005, 04:43 PM) QUOTE (endlesslymocking @ Oct 12 2005, 12:59 PM) I voted alternative. Becuase its different. They arent trying to fit in. Classic rock is also good, except when they were making it they weren't making "classic" rock..... if you want to get technical, alternative music hasn't been alternative for many years. i remember when "alternative music" came out, though of course many bands that had been already recording for years were suddenly being called alternative. alternative music stopped being alternative the moment it acheived mass popularity (didn't take long once the label was established), and it was then really mainstream music. there may be some "alternative music" groups that are "different" and "aren't trying to fit in," but once being different and not trying to fit in became the expected norm, well, you can figure the rest out...     I like music. OK? sorry, not meant to put down what you like in any way, i don't even dislike alternative music, i'm just sayin'...   peace, goob

[annylei]

*votes for Alternative*

 

This forum needs more indie fans!