Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ)
June 20, 2002
`Prog' rock's progress
Page: 1F
Estimated printed pages: 5
Article Text:
Thanks to the Internet and radio programs, progressive rock is
finding a wider audience BY:By CHUCK DARROW
Courier-Post Staff
When Maple Shade's Tom Gagliardi first went on the air, in
1992,with his weekly Gagliarchives program his was truly a lone voicein
the musical wilderness.
The show, on Burlington County College's WBZC-FM (88.9), focusedon
progressive rock, the genre whose hallmarks have always beenvirtuoso
instrumental work, complicated, `symphonic'-stylearrangements and
imagery-laden, often-obtuse lyrics.
But in the early '90s, grunge ruled the rock scene, and hip-hopwas
well on its way to becoming the dominant pop format it is today.
That made `prog,' which had its commercial heyday in the firsthalf
of the 1970s, little more than a relic of a time long gone. `Ifelt like I
was teaching Latin, (progressive rock) was a dead language,'says the
30-year-old disc jockey.
A decade later, it appears Gagliard! i was ahead of the curve.
Back then, he says, he may have had `50 to 100' listeners.
Today,between local fans and those tuning in via the Internet, he
estimateshis weekly audience to be about 2,000.
Those listening to the program are hearing bands like Norway'sWhite
Willow, Sweden's Flower Kings, England's Porcupine Treeand two Burlington
County-based acts, Scott McGill and Mastermind.All have built global
followings despite their exclusion fromthe rock mainstream.
And throughout the year, `prog-rock' festivals are stagedin the
United States, Mexico, England and elsewhere.
One of the largest is next weekend's NEARfest -- the NortheastArt
Rock Festival -- at the Trenton War Memorial. The two-day gathering,whose
featured artists include such ex-Genesis guitarist SteveHackett and '70s
favorites Nektar and Caravan, is the fourth annualedition of the event.
According to festival organizers all 1,000tickets sold out in less than an
hour.
`There'! s definitely a (vital) scene, with new bands,'
saysGagliardi.
G agliardi, whose program airs Saturdays from 10 p.m. to 2
a.m.,says the current `prog-rock' movement began to take shape in
mid-1995,a time that coincides with the Internet revolution.
Those in the prog-rock scene acknowledge the World Wide Webhas been
key to the form's ongoing resurgence.
The ability of acts to bypass the conventional music industry and
get the word out and sell records on their own has made the Internet `the
Mecca for progressive rock bands,' says Gagliardi.
`If it wasn't for the Internet, my show, and the scene, would not
have taken off.'
The Internet, says Bill Berends, co-founder of Mastermind, `kind of
leveled the playing field. As a matter of fact, a lot of independent bands
have hipper Web sites than major-label bands.'
Peter Morticelli,who runs the Rochester, N.Y.-based progressive
music label, Magna Carta, suggests the Web's main value in promoting prog
rock lies in being a source for unfiltered news and informatio! n.
`Because of the Internet, there's a whole new sub-strata of press
that has evolved. There are a whole lot of Web pages devoted to
progressive rock,' says Morticelli, whose roster of acts includes such
contemporary favorites as Shadow Gallery, Magellan, Tempest and Cairo.
Not that the Internet has led to explosive sales of prog CDs.
Berends estimates his group has sold about 100,000 copies, in
total, of its six albums. And according to Ken Golden, who owns the
Voorhees-based Laser's Edge label, sales of 10,000 copies of one of his
artists' albums would constitute a success.
By comparison, Michael Jackson sold 2 million copies of his last
CD, Invincible, and was considered a `failure' by mainstream music
industry standards.
`There is a very small, but fiercely dedicated, fan base' for prog,
says John Collinge, editor and publisher of Progression. The decade-old
quarterly, based in Lowell, Mass., boasts 8,000 subscribers in 49
countries.
What is drawing the current generation of fans and musicians are
pretty much the same things that lured them three decades ago -- a desire
for more serious instrumental and lyrical work, and a disinterest in
commercial radio fare.
`I became interested in (prog) because of the musical intricacies,
and differences from mainstream music,' says Philip C. Terry of Millville.
`Progressive rock music just seems (to have) more in depth and
(expressiveness).'
Morticelli suggests the form's emphasis on instrumental prowess is
a powerful draw. `(Modern audiences) always listen to the guy who is
angriest, or the guy who has the best mask,' he says. `But if you want the
best musicianship, you find your way here.'
For Berends, Mastermind's singer-composer-guitarist, prog is the
only place to be. He and his drummer-brother Rich started the band in the
mid-1980s to counter what they considered shallow, uninteresting sounds
topping the charts at the time.
Prog, he continues, `has the power of rock, and the intellectual
levels ! of jazz and classical music. It's smart music. It has brains and
(brawn).'
What it also has is an overwhelmingly male listenership. Gagliardi
figures 85 percent of his listeners are men. The ages of prog fans,
however, are hard to determine.
`The fan base has gotten younger,' says Golden of Laser's Edge.
`It's the kids who grew up on Iron Maiden and Rush.'
But Progression publisher Collinge suggests prog fans are mostly
college-educated men in their 30s and 40s, although he speaks of a nascent
prog scene evolving among Boston's college set.
There is at least one fundamental difference between past and
present prog audiences, says Golden: Three decades ago, `progressive rock
was hip. Now, if you listen to prog, you're considered a dork.'
Gagliardi agrees there was a `coolness' to being a fan of such
bands as Yes, Genesis (when Peter Gabriel was its lead singer) and Jethro
Tull. There was also a lot of money to be made: Progressive rock band! s
of the '70s measured album sales in the millions, and top acts like Tull,
Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer filled arenas and outdoor stadiums
around the world.
But prog rock's fall from grace was swift and hard.
Progressive acts were often vilified by the mainstream music press
as excessive and self-indulgent. And by the late-'70s, new wave and punk
music had many rock fans moshing on the genre's grave. The most
commercially successful of the classic-era prog outfits, Genesis, didn't
achieve superstardom until it left behind progressive music for more
pop-oriented modes.
But the music itself never totally disappeared. Those who listened
to the original artists continued to immerse themselves in such albums as
Brain Salad Surgery by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Yes' Close To the
Edge.
In addition, the Canadian trio Rush continues to be a top
attraction, and popular acts of the 1980s and early '90s, like Metallica
and Queenryche, gave their brand of prog a violent, high-decibel edge that
captured the ears of th! e younger, hard-rock crowd.
Now, a new generation of artists has brought the progressive
blueprint into the 21st century. But, says Gagliardi, the current crop of
progsters `aren't just rehashing the same old ideas. A lot of new bands
have their own sounds. Some have a harder edge.'
And others, adds Progression's Collinge, are incorporating modern
formats, like electronica and world music, into the prog equation.
Interestingly, observers of the scene note that England, which
spawned the original progressive movement, isn't much of a player these
days. Instead, Italy, Scandinavia and Japan are hotbeds of both musicians
and fans.
For instance, while Mastermind is not that well-known in this
country, Berends boasts of selling out 1,000-seat venues during a tour of
Japan several years ago.
Despite prog's current niche status, Ken Golden suggests a true
commercial revival is on the horizon.
`Every (1970s) genre has had a resurgence,' he ! reasons. `Metal
has come back. Disco has come back. And progressive ro ck will come back.'
John Collinge isn't sure if today's progressive bands will ever
again achieve the fame and fortune of their ancestors. But he is confident
the music is here to stay.
`We might be seeing a whole new progressive movement independent of
anything that happened before,' he says.
`I think it's probably going to be here forever, as long as there
are people looking to get more out of the listening experience than just
something playing in the background.'
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