OFF: Progressive really progressive?

[Alex S. Garcia]

Martin (dench) wrote :

>What I think I find most amusing about all this sort of thing is the fact
>that we seem to have to categorise things (not just music, obviously).  I
>tend to think that music is music - if you like it it's good, if you don't
>it's bad.  When you start sticking labels on something, then it loses
>something.  I can see that some people would embrace KC as a progressive
>band, but for me they are just (or were!) a killer band, like many others.
>I think, actually, it takes something away from ourselves when we label
>ourselves as lovers of a certain type of music.  And, to my mind, there is
>nothing sadder than someone who only likes a specific type of music - it
>would seem that there is not much scope for taste or discretion there.
>
>But these are only my own opinions on it.  I just think that music is
>music, why label something when it can speak for itself?

As I've said in an earlier post, I agree with this. But I feel I need to
reply to this because I was one of those to insist on calling KC a "prog
band". The thing is, I don't consider the term "progressive" as a label.
What I mean is that it encompasses such a large variety of different styles
and influences that I feel more inclined in using it and - obviously - it
doesn't bother me as do other labels.

And, as Pam said :

>It seems that the
>"Progressive" label tells me that someone has made the effort to make
>their music more complex, therefore more "stuff" to listen to and in my
>case, pick apart.

How's that for a definition, lil ab ? ;-)

Anyway, all this to say that I tend to use the word "prog" a lot, maybe even
more then I should, I dunno, but I guess that's because, IMO, prog music
breaks all boundaries and goes beyond labels. In fact, maybe that's
precisely why it is so hard to define... Once again, I can't help but to
compare this with Science-Fiction. In the same fashion, SF goes beyond all
labels (it isn't a genre, but rather contains all genres within itself) and
is hard to define... no wonder a lot of SF fans like prog as well, and
vice-versa ;-) (not to mention the artists themselves, considering most prog
lyrics).



Alex S. Garcia.

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