Also named: Complexity vs emotion.
This is something that I've been noticing a lot when it comes to a lot of the rock music I've been listening to. For those not aware, I have a wide array of music ranging from Symphony X, Mozart, Chopen, Fisher Tull, Jethro Tull, KT Tunstall, Kamelot, The Beatles, etc. I don't like to keep to one genre in my musical resume, but my main form is hard rock and metal with a concentration in Progressive/Power/Symphonic/Gothic (and not in that order).
But lately, I feel that rock music as a whole is starting to decline when it comes to emotion. We're still stuck in the 80s (can you blame us?) because of how the mainstream took us, and we drastically miss that. But, we still look at "power ballads" as cliche and overdone, when not realizing the full potential it can possess.
Now in the mainstream metal and hard rock of today's standards, the majority have kept to the KISS (Keep it simple, stupid) method and follow the simple pattern of pop music: Intro, verse A, pre-chorus, chorus, Verse B, Chorus, Bridge, guitar solo, chorus, end (give or take the guitar solo).
This is a theory that is still very prevalent in almost every genre now because of how mainstream and easy it is for the ears. When looking at that pattern, listen to a lot of the "top 40" songs and tell me I'm wrong (without stating the outliers).
Then there's progressive metal (which is a complete contradiction of the meaning of Progressive) which took that theory and gave it the skullfuck of it's lifetime. To this day, I'm still confused how bands like King Crimson and Frank Zappa came up with the sheer complexity they did that gave progressive metal it's "name".
....OK, aside from LSD. ;-)
But nevertheless, it's taken a turn for the worse lately and it's really starting to bother me. Bands like Dream Theater and the new Redemption seem to alienate most listeners by making the music so complex, that it has become almost inaudible. It's nice to be able to easily move the complex patterns of a 4/4 to a 7/8 to a 15/8 and then to a 7/4 and then back to a 4/4 to complete a phrase, you lose a lot of your audience who are not educated enough to understand how complex that is.
Thus why Rolling Stone and various radio stations have aptly named progressive music as "termally unhip".
It's an issue that you have to face as a rock musician to this day. If you're huge into bands like Dream Theater, you might want to copy them and not realize the fate that has been dealt to you, or you might take it a different direction... as some would call it, "selling out". It's that curse of trying to "sound progressive" as what "they" consider progressive, not taking yourself as a musician and applying that term to the actual dictionary usage.
Don't get me wrong, though. Dream Theater (and others) are a bunch of talented and very good performers, but my personal opinion still thinks that something is missing there.
And that would be emotion. It's something that seems to have faded away just as much as the hair metal days did. When I hear solos and when I hear a lot of newer bands, while I like the sound, it gives me a power of wanting more. I feel like I'm listening to technical musicians, and not those who bleed out the music. Those songs that put chills down your spine and give you tears seem to have faded away.
...Well, not all. Kamelot's Abandoned still puts tears in my eyes at the triumphant return of Khan's vocals and the hammering power chords of the guitar.
But where is that in the progressive movement? It seems to only be about how fast we can play or how slow we can play, rather than how can we show emotion in the song. I don't know if it's laziness or lack of time in the studio, but it just seems to have put a stop in a lot of the music I have on my iPod.
By the way, personal note, when writing a ballad to show pain and anguish or hurt and putting a guitar solo in, starting out slow and then building to insane licks doesn't make you a BETTER musician. It's just building to crap.
I think there is hope that's out there, though. Gothic and Symphonic metal seem to be doing a good job of bringing emotion back into metal. It's not always about how fast they can play or how many notes they can fit into one beat, it's about the band as a WHOLE and getting a message across both physically and mentally. I listen to bands like Kamelot and Sirenia and others who have got good names in the gothic/symphonic/power catagory, and the strength of emotion is there. The power of music is prevalent and meaningful, and it's not about the speed. It's about the concept and the art behind it, which makes for a much better performance live and in the studio.
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