Prog Magazine Top 100 - The Full List

[dnieper]

Using the top 100 lists at the main three prog ratings sites, it looks to me like the most egregious omissions are mostly albums without English lyrics.

Anglagard's Hybris is #17 at Progarchives, #70 at RYM (for "Progressive Rock"), and #10 at Gnosis (or #5 if you remove the re-releases).

PFM's Per Un Amico is at #16 at Progarchives, #55 at RYM, and #6/#3 at Gnosis. The first PFM album isn't far behind at all three sites. A few other Italian albums (Banco, Museo Rosenbach, Le Orme, etc.) are in the top 100 at all three sites too.

Maybe there was some rule excluding albums with non-English lyrics?

[aplodon]

Now THAT is a great list (Gnosis top 100) if one wants to broaden their tastes.

Agreed!

I own (or have owned) all 100 on that list.

I own all except these on the Gnosis list:
25. John Coltrane - Complete Village Vanguard (12.38)
40. Miles Davis - Cellar Door (12.20)
75. John Coltrane - First Meditations (11.88)
95. John Coltrane - Transition (11.76)

[Esoteric]

I cant see why anyone would think they are narrow minded at all, they do feature lots and lots of European bands, young new bands, classic bands, prog metal bands , if it was all about fairly obscure or just new European or US bands, to put it bluntly it wouldnt sell enough to make it viable, other than as a subscription fanzine . You only have to look at this list to see this.

They do features with both big classic bands and small new bands. They cant tailor it to suit every potential readers taste, its a very big genre to cover. Personally if it was up to me I would have a bit less Prog metal as its covered a lot by the metal mags, but thats just me, lots of others like it I know and would have more of that and less Genesis/Mike Oldfield etc , so if you apply that to everyone on here and the various sub genres they really like, you can see it would be impossible. As Ive always said before, if you see a gap in the market in your niche area of Prog, then have a go yourself.

[aplodon]

I cant see why anyone would think they are narrow minded at all,

I may be wrong, because I haven't read a full issue of the mag, I'm just judging from the impression I've got from the little I've seen of it and from comments here on PE.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that they mainly cover classic 70s style symphonic prog (old and new bands), prog metal, and other more mainstream prog + that they are very much focused on English and US bands and pretty much neglects most that comes from the rest of the world. I would call that narrow minded. And I'm not saying that it should be "all about fairly obscure or just new European or US bands". I just wish they would broaden there coverage to include more of the wide genre that prog is.

[zombywoof]

Ian - get Rock Bottom immediately

It's on my extended wish list, though I admit I'm not a huge Wyatt fan from what I've heard through Softs. I understand it's an important Canterbury album, so I should probably be familiar with it.

[Valen]

I may be wrong, because I haven't read a full issue of the mag, I'm just judging from the impression I've got from the little I've seen of it and from comments here on PE.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that they mainly cover classic 70s style symphonic prog (old and new bands), prog metal, and other more mainstream prog + that they are very much focused on English and US bands and pretty much neglects most that comes from the rest of the world. I would call that narrow minded. And I'm not saying that it should be "all about fairly obscure or just new European or US bands". I just wish they would broaden there coverage to include more of the wide genre that prog is.

As someone who has bought every issue and can take a longer-term view of the magazine, I have to respectfully suggest that you're a wee bit wide of the mark.

There have been plenty of articles on European bands, and they have a regular section on (1) new bands, often still unsigned (2) obscure bands (usually curated by Steve Davis) and (3) bands from all corners of the globe beyond the UK and the US. The reviews section is actually pretty diverse, and once you get past the opening page reviewing a "Headline band release", the reviews pages dig deeper beyond the establishment and try hard to promote releases by lesser known or newer bands.

Perhaps people need to be a little patient with the editorial staff as they're trying very hard to cover the genre as widely as possible with a limited run of issues each year. They do eventually get round to covering requested artists, even though it may take a few issues between printed letter of request and finished interview article, sometimes due to the availability of the artist rather than any bias towards covering the big guns.

It's easy for us to sit in judgement on a forum, but as Esoteric above says, if readers feel a niche is under-represented, then perhaps they should have a go themselves (and see how much hard work it can be to put it all together and then see it criticised....)

Personally, my taste in music would be a lot less enlightened if it wasn't for the efforts of Prog magazine.

[KeytroneK]

No Bruford, Brand X, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Kansas 1st & 2nd albums, Sound of Contact and what’s with all the Van Der Graf Generator? And who the hell is Jeff Wayne, Can & Mansun? Hackett can do no better than #97?

[zombywoof]

I do think that this list is pretty indicative of what the popular prog opinion is. On my radio show, if I play something from The Big Five (especially Genesis), my listenership goes through the roof, but if I play something from the Cow, or something more obscure, it shoots way down no matter how good (or even better IMO) it may be.

[undergroundrailroad]

and #10 at Gnosis (or #5 if you remove the re-releases).

Ugh. Gnosis needs customized filtering so badly. It's a great place to find the best post-bop albums and to determine whether or not the Sound of Music soundtrack is a better album than Going for the One. But it takes so much machete work to actually use the data, especially for prog.

[Scott Bails]

I think they should limit the list to just one from an artist...

Then maybe you'll get some exellent ideas from the less known bands...

But then, that's a different poll.

I'm sorry, but you can drop the tone; nowadays Henry Cow and Magma (as with Beefheart, Zappa and The Residents) are mentioned with a far higher level of frequency amongst actual artists adherent to experimental, transcendent and eclectic rock based music *at large* - if not with those alluding to somehow constitute "proggy-prog". I thought general relevance was part of it?

.

Um...no. It's a popularity poll, plain and simple. Among fans, not necessarily artists.

good for them I guess... they focus on the Justin Biebers of Prog and that's just fine... but then really what we have here is a 'Top 100 commercially popular Prog' list, not a 'Top 100 of all Prog music'

"Justin Beibers of Prog?"

That doesn't even make sense.

Im pretty sure this is a "voted" for list. so blame your fellow "voters" who clearly have no taste according to some of you-

Exactly.

You could put it like that, but I would say that if we should "blame" someone, it's Prog magazine. They have a very narrow view of prog, and I guess they therefore get readers with mainly the same narrow view. Thus, that list.

C'mon, man. Really? That's what the magazine is! That would be like women complaining about Playboy because they don't have enough nude pics of Ryan Gosling. (Yeah, I know, no one even reads Playboy anymore. Does it even exist?)

I actually find it a bit sad that the only(?) easily available prog magazine should be so narrowminded. It sort of works against the whole idea of progressive rock. If they could include the whole spectrum of prog I would be happy to by it. As it is now, I have no interest in it.

Good luck selling a magazine that caters to obscure prog artists. The raging demand for that would make you a multi-billionaire, I'm sure.

[Scott Bails]

No Bruford, Brand X, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Kansas 1st & 2nd albums, Sound of Contact and what’s with all the Van Der Graf Generator? And who the hell is Jeff Wayne, Can & Mansun? Hackett can do no better than #97?

Welcome to the board. Explore a little bit, and you'll learn all about Jeff Wayne - his cited work was featured here just a couple weeks ago, and there's plenty of discussion about it.

[NogbadTheBad]

CAN are one of the most important German Psyche bands, the better question is why aren't they higher and where are Amon Duul II?

[Facelift]

\Good luck selling a magazine that caters to obscure prog artists. The raging demand for that would make you a multi-billionaire, I'm sure.

Exactly. I don't have a lot of use personally for the Prog magazine, based on what I've seen of it, but there's just no way that such a mag could exist unless it was squarely focused on the remaining active '70s bands from the UK and, to a lesser extent, the newer bands who are heavily influenced by them. People shouldn't forget that part of what the magazine is selling is '70s nostalgia - it is produced by the same people who make the Classic Rock magazine.

People want the magazine to be focused more on non-US, non-UK artists and/or more cutting edge music? In other words, those same artists who never (or almost never) perform in the US because they can't even gig at the club level? I'd love to see coverage of those bands too, but they wouldn't help sell the magazine, IMO.

Sometimes I think that, through participation on sites like this one and others, some people get the idea that the majority of prog fans are as comitted to the genre as they are. There are lots of people out there who perceive prog as a '70s phenomena that, for the most part, consisted of less than a dozen bands.

It will be interesting to see if Prog magazine is still around in 10 years, when all of the original '70s bands will have retired. Our beloved NEARfest couldn't survive without legacy anchors - I don't know that the magazine can survive without them, either.

[Dodie]

I may be wrong, because I haven't read a full issue of the mag, I'm just judging from the impression I've got from the little I've seen of it and from comments here on PE.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that they mainly cover classic 70s style symphonic prog (old and new bands), prog metal, and other more mainstream prog + that they are very much focused on English and US bands and pretty much neglects most that comes from the rest of the world. I would call that narrow minded. And I'm not saying that it should be "all about fairly obscure or just new European or US bands". I just wish they would broaden there coverage to include more of the wide genre that prog is.

I haven't actually read your post properly, so I may be wrong, but my impression of it is that it isn't very reliable, and that you don't know much about the actual content of the printed magazine.
:-)

As for the inevitable whining of some posters, I feel obliged to apologise for being English, supporting Prog magazine as a loyal buyer (and sometimes subscriber, depending on how organised I am), and for being totally disinterested in trying to prove the size of my penis or intellectual superiority according to how much obscure non-English language strange rock music I may or may not listen to. I should also apologise for having about 70% of the top 100 albums voted for by the magazine's readers - even if my own personal top 10 that I emailed to the magazine was actually very different (though the reader's quote in praise of Big Big Train's English Electric was me, by the way).

I should also apologise for liking British, American and Canadian artists, with a smattering of Swedish, German, Italians and Dutch thrown in for good measure (but not usually when the kids and wife are in the house, with the strange exception of some of the Swedes, who seem to make their music more broadly appealing)

Most of all, I must apologise for thinking that some of the utterly predictable moaning about the alleged UK, "neo" and "commercial" focus of the magazine is quite simply pompous bollocks, with a particularly absurd perspective of what counts as "commercial" in today's music industry.
I very much look forward to reading all of your international prog rock magazines when they get off the ground.

Look, I don't agree with everything that's in Prog magazine's Top 100 (as voted for by the public - which could actually have included any of you, by the way, not just subscribers). That's democracy for you, isn't it?
Moreover, I don't actually like everything about the style and editing of the content of the magazine. I can always point to some reviews, news stories and features in every issue that I think reveal an amateurish standard of writing (I am a professional music journalist, and some of the content of Prog magazine makes me cringe).
In fact, I don't even like the idea of doing a "Top 100". When the classical music magazine I work for does those kinds of things, I always feel embarrassed by it.
All that said, I think the majority of the moaning here is way off the mark, and rather silly.

[Matt Stevens]

No Bruford, Brand X, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Kansas 1st & 2nd albums, Sound of Contact and what’s with all the Van Der Graf Generator? And who the hell is Jeff Wayne, Can & Mansun? Hackett can do no better than #97?

Mansun are amazing!

[burning_muscles]

Mansun are amazing!

Agreed.

For what it's worth...

"Six" (the UK version) is absolutely amazing. Britpop flavoured prog - Yes, please!



I always thought the album cover was intentionally Marillion-ish, as well.

[zombywoof]

CAN are one of the most important German Psyche bands, the better question is why aren't they higher and where are Amon Duul II?

CAN are brilliant and Tago Mago was one of my Top 10 choices. They are actually known outside of prog and are appreciated by people who don't identify themselves as prog fans. In fact, many people have argued with me that CAN are not a prog band at all!

[NogbadTheBad]

Dodie - no one is looking for and apology for liking those bands, and we are not looking to emphasize the size of our penis' by liking obscure music (though it is huge), we're just talking about some bands we would consider worthy and we personally enjoy listening to

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

You could put it like that, but I would say that if we should "blame" someone, it's Prog magazine. They have a very narrow view of prog, and I guess they therefore get readers with mainly the same narrow view. Thus, that list.

I actually find it a bit sad that the only(?) easily available prog magazine should be so narrowminded. It sort of works against the whole idea of progressive rock. If they could include the whole spectrum of prog I would be happy to by it. As it is now, I have no interest in it.

spot on!

If we make the analogy to Pop music, there are magazines that focus on the Biebers, Spears and Cyrus' but then there are those that will go beyong that level of Pop and champion artists like Gotye and the White Stripes. Prog magazine focuses on the Biebers of Prog.

[Liquid Tension]

I may be wrong, because I haven't read a full issue of the mag, I'm just judging from the impression I've got from the little I've seen of it and from comments here on PE.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that they mainly cover classic 70s style symphonic prog (old and new bands), prog metal, and other more mainstream prog + that they are very much focused on English and US bands and pretty much neglects most that comes from the rest of the world. I would call that narrow minded. And I'm not saying that it should be "all about fairly obscure or just new European or US bands". I just wish they would broaden there coverage to include more of the wide genre that prog is.

LUCKY you!!!

I wasted a two year subscription reading about the same bands I grew up with over and over and over....

If they have to do this in order to exsist for the small amount of different music you may learn about then I'll rely of this computer to enlighten me...

[Liquid Tension]

[QUOTE=Scott Bails;291382]But then, that's a different poll.

Thanks for the reply captain obvious...

I would hope that people look at these polls in order to find music they haven't heard otherwise what the purpose of doing this???

[NogbadTheBad]

The purpose of the poll is to sell more magazines

[zombywoof]

Dodie - no one is looking for and apology for liking those bands, and we are not looking to emphasize the size of our penis' by liking obscure music (though it is huge), we're just talking about some bands we would consider worthy and we personally enjoy listening to

It's the whole "I don't get it and if you do, it can't because you actually like it" mentality. I've been told that I like prog because I'm a hipster and want to 'appear' cool. Some people just can't accept the fact that we actually have differing tastes!!

[Liquid Tension]

The purpose of the poll is to sell more magazines

So did you make the purchase???

[Esoteric]

spot on!

If we make the analogy to Pop music, there are magazines that focus on the Biebers, Spears and Cyrus' but then there are those that will go beyong that level of Pop and champion artists like Gotye and the White Stripes. Prog magazine focuses on the Biebers of Prog.

Total rubbish--yes it does have a lot about the main "prog bands" from the 70's because thats what a lot of people who actually buy the magazine like reading and talking about(see Yes threads on here for more information) but it is stuffed full of newer bands and the successful and newer but not 70's as well (Opeth for instance) . Opeth and Amplifyer for instance would be the Gotye and White Stripes and I would hardly say White Stripes arent mainstream. I know we have a good feature in on David Sancious which I was unaware of but was a nice suprise and there are big features on Prog Power USA, Engineers, as well as Gentle Giants Power and the Glory and Opeth etc as well as newer bands Empress Ad, Sophies Earthquake (german) Perfect beings (USA) . I thought Dodie was absolutely spot on the nail. Oh and by the way for those of you into Henry Cow--yep they have a piece in there about their Autumn shows. Please tell us what you would have in it and who you would have on the cover etc taking heed that it needs to differentiate itself from Classic Rock and appeal in various territories and we can vote whether we would actually go out and buy it.