Steven Wilson offers to let me prove I can do it better than him.

It’s hard to believe that so many people are into “prog” nowadays. Unfortunately, I don’t believe it’s actually legitimate. Somewhere along the line, the term “prog” became acceptable. I suppose we can thank Rush, Dream Theater and now Steven Wilson for that. The irony being that people who are into any of those bands frequently aren’t actually accepting of anything other than those artists or ones that are similar.

If I post anything Steven Wilson related, I am assured that many people will “like” it. But if I post a band like Airbag, who sound like if David Gilmour were in Porcupine Tree, no one seems to notice. Part of being into progressive music is having an open mind and taking risks. Well, that’s what I thought! As it turns out, prog fans are just as rigid as anyone else. Or are these people all really prog fans?

Part of being a “trend” or being more popular is that you attract people from ALL genres. Steven Wilson SHOULD be popular. He is VERY talented. The problem is that not everyone getting “pulled in” are actually progressive rock fans to start with. Sure they mean well. They will assume that liking him or Opeth or anything that Wilson and/or Åkerfeldt do makes them prog fans.

The problem is that they have no fucking idea that Cozy Powell was actually in ELP, albeit briefly. Or that there was a drummer in Rush before Neil Peart. Or that just blinding shitting out a 10 minute song does not make a band automatically good. These are fixable things. I think having more people who WANT to like prog (which is what they really are) is a good thing. And it’s up to those who are knowledgeable to keep pushing the classics AND the new bands who will carry this amazing genre for years to come.