"Every Home Is Wired": 2 -- The Progressive Rock Subculture and the Net

"Every Home Is Wired":
2 -- The Progressive Rock Subculture and the Net

Many of these CDs are released on an increasing number of specialty Prog labels, and distributed through a range of specialised mail-order stores. While "some of the owners of the small labels that specialise in neo-progressive music are unwilling to release any new music that is insufficiently 'seventiesh'" (Macan 268), a number of labels are also largely dedicated to releasing genuinely new Prog-related music that for want of a better term might be called 'post-Prog'. These include (despite some traditionalist-sounding names) the American Cuneiform, the British Discipline Global Mobile (King Crimson's home label, formed by guitarist Robert Fripp), the Swedish Ad Perpetuam Memoriam, and the Japanese Belle Antique. In addition, Progressive Rock festivals like ProgFest and ProgDay have been organised in the U.S. (where there are still relatively few bands, but many fans) in connection with the labels, bringing a range of foreign acts there (yet another addition is ProgEst, in Quebec). Finally, even the revered Mellotron is making a comeback: with remaining models being restored by dedicated services, many third-generation Prog bands (especially from Scandinavia) are now using the instrument again -- the acclaimed, but short-lived Swedish band Änglagård even employed two of them.	Bit 25
Such developments, then, may ultimately also force a reconsideration of the Prog canon: "attempting to keep a style alive in a state of pristine, unchanging 'perfection' (not only by acknowledging a canon of 'masterpieces,' but also insisting that the value of new music rests on how closely it mirrors the 'masterpieces') may be a sign of a kind of cultural paralysis, a refusal to acknowledge the realities of one's current cultural situation", as Macan writes (197); as new bands are trying to overcome this traditionalist paralysis, then, they will claim their place in a general canon, or limit the validity of the existing canon to the waning sector of traditionalism. That sector, Macan believes, will remain stagnant, much in contrast to the progressive end: "the original progressive rock bands will not surpass their best music of the 1970s in either style, substance, or cultural resonance. ... The most formidable obstacle these bands have faced ... is an overriding sense of historical self-consciousness" (196).	Bit 26

Many of these CDs are released on an increasing number of specialty Prog labels, and distributed through a range of specialised mail-order stores. While "some of the owners of the small labels that specialise in neo-progressive music are unwilling to release any new music that is insufficiently 'seventiesh'" (Macan 268), a number of labels are also largely dedicated to releasing genuinely new Prog-related music that for want of a better term might be called 'post-Prog'. These include (despite some traditionalist-sounding names) the American Cuneiform, the British Discipline Global Mobile (King Crimson's home label, formed by guitarist Robert Fripp), the Swedish Ad Perpetuam Memoriam, and the Japanese Belle Antique. In addition, Progressive Rock festivals like ProgFest and ProgDay have been organised in the U.S. (where there are still relatively few bands, but many fans) in connection with the labels, bringing a range of foreign acts there (yet another addition is ProgEst, in Quebec). Finally, even the revered Mellotron is making a comeback: with remaining models being restored by dedicated services, many third-generation Prog bands (especially from Scandinavia) are now using the instrument again -- the acclaimed, but short-lived Swedish band Änglagård even employed two of them.

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Such developments, then, may ultimately also force a reconsideration of the Prog canon: "attempting to keep a style alive in a state of pristine, unchanging 'perfection' (not only by acknowledging a canon of 'masterpieces,' but also insisting that the value of new music rests on how closely it mirrors the 'masterpieces') may be a sign of a kind of cultural paralysis, a refusal to acknowledge the realities of one's current cultural situation", as Macan writes (197); as new bands are trying to overcome this traditionalist paralysis, then, they will claim their place in a general canon, or limit the validity of the existing canon to the waning sector of traditionalism. That sector, Macan believes, will remain stagnant, much in contrast to the progressive end: "the original progressive rock bands will not surpass their best music of the 1970s in either style, substance, or cultural resonance. ... The most formidable obstacle these bands have faced ... is an overriding sense of historical self-consciousness" (196).

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Section 2 -- Go on to Bite:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30