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PROG ROCK FM.CO.UK:
A PERSONAL VIEW OF THE UK MUSIC SCENE At the moment,
if the weekly/monthly press is to be believed, prog rock is
undergoing a bit of a renaissance, citing bands like Radiohead,
Ultrasound, the Verve etc as bands exploring the forms of prog
rock and churning out something new and exciting for the indie
kids tired of the same old guitar driven miserabalism. If there is room in the charts for a six minute Radiohead song, why not a six minute Flowerkings/BJH/Pendragon? Without exception, all of our favourite prog bands have produced, at some time in their career, a song commercial enough to do some serious chart business: so why aren't Pendragon snuggling up to Aqua/Cher/Bewitched/Oasis/REM etc? Clearly,
the UK record buying public have no problem with musical diversity.
Check out the top twenty album charts of any week and you'll
find a broad selection of music. How is it going to reach more listeners? The reason is clearly lack of radio play. Whatever any artist/musician may say, commercial success is something to be to actively pursued. Without it, what is the point? Making music for yourself - though rewarding - is selfish. Surely, if you have talent you should want as many people to hear your creations as possible? I know I do! This isn't
to say that artistic integrity should be left behind. Far from
it. Write what you want, what you feel. After all, there may
only be several hundred thousand people in the world that may
like your music, but they will never know unless they get the
chance to listen to it. It's hard enough making music as it
is, without the dreaded thought that maybe, just maybe, no one
will ever get to hear it. Small bands who run their own labels have the biggest struggle of all. It is virtually impossible (unless you have regular gigs and, therefore, a captive sales outlet) to get anyone in the UK to stock a CD unless you have a distribution deal. Virgin/Our Price/HMV etc... just don't want to know. With very few exceptions (stand up GFT/CRS/CDS), apathy is about the best response you can expect. Conversely,
in the US, where enterprise and independence is seen in a totally
different light, it is a lot easier. It is still extremely hard
work, but more calls are answered and, providing your CD is
good enough, you will be stocked. Quite frankly,
it does more harm than good. All it does is pander to the advertising
agencies, the real bosses behind radio. All they want radio
to play is safe music: stuff that everybody knows by the old
pop groups and all those little inoffensive dance tunes that
crop up with alarming regularity one minute and are gone the
next. Music of any substance is denied the right to exist because
it stretches the concentration of the listener if it is more
than 3 minutes long or there are too many stylistic or tempo
changes. Tough.
It can't. No matter what anyone does or says, the prognosis
is still the same: music of any worth - of any genre - is doomed
to a life of marginalised optimism. Die hard fans will seek
it out, so there will always be a 'scene', but don't count on
it paying the mortgage!
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