Yeah I'm still here.
I haven't been able to get access to a computer for a coupla' days. When I left the thread seemed about dead. I came here with the express intent of saying, "Rick, does this mean you can't 'hang better' than me in the forums?" and forgetting all about it.
Instead it turned into a serious conversation. I really wasn't expecting that, it's nice (I could've done without the scattered insults, though - it's not fair to insult me when I can't argue back, lol). According to Dinosaur I was proud that that happened, even though it "backfired" on me. Funny.
But since everyone's being serious now and not (for the most part) going after me any more, I will attempt to be serious myself. So no exaggeration, inflammatory remarks (well, excluding the one I've already written), or propoganda, just what I think, as clearly and without deception as I can make it.
Podakayne said earlier that "to have [prog] accepted and become the music of the majority masses would kill it." I disagree. Here's why: If prog is more... I don't want to say popular... more well-known, then more people would listen to it. I know this is true because, although I don't know any prog fans (off the cp) I have had limited success marketing prog bands to a minority of people. This suggests that there is a reasonably large fraction of people who would become prog fans as a result of its "more well-known"ness. Not surprisingly, most of these people, in my limited experiences, have been musicians. Surely some of these musicians will begin playing prog rock. That means more for us! Think about it this way: If there was one progressive rock band in the world, no matter how good or amazing they were, they probably wouldn't even come close to being the best if everybody in the world was a member of a prog band (that was a serious exaggeration). Therefore my standpoint is, basically, the more the merrier.
Back to what Podakayne said. I'm assuming that by "kill it" she means water it down, make it less interesting. I don't see that happening. What I do see is Yes, Rush, and Genesis becoming fairly normal bands in the 80s. Would this have happened if prog was the music of the masses?
But the biggest reason I would like prog to be more popular (without the bad connotation) is to find an answer to the question, "If prog was mainstream, what would crazy people like us listen to?"
Now to defending myself. I'm a firm believer that the end justifies the means. When you insult someone, they tend to fight back. Rather than run the risk of being politely rejected, I decided to be radical and inflammatory. It almost didn't work. If Yesspaz hadn't reiterated and built upon my original remarks in more polite language, it probably wouldn't have. So I admit my approach may not have been appropriate in this case, however (
) it
was fun to write.
Now to prove that the first thing Dino said about me, not the second (it seems to have magically un-backfired on me, actually)
is absolutely dead-on.
Out of all the Dream Theater threads, I think this one is the best - and I'm very proud of that.
Oh, almost forgot. Yes, Kevishev, I'm sure you do resemble that remark (sorry I couldn't resist).