Why Do Critics Hate Prog?

In this video, we're taking a look at some of the most common critiques of progressive rock from major music critics over the years. Progressive rock has been treated pretty harshly by critics over the years, so this video is dedicated to thinking about why that might be the case, and what problems the big critics had with the genre. Because of their prominence as tastemakers and critics, a lot of this video focuses on Lester Bangs and Robert Christgau, and what they thought of the genre compared to others, such as punk music. Many of their critiques are the same ones that we still hear today, from internet commentators and modern critics. Often, Prog is considered by critics to be pretentious and somewhat "tasteless", sacrificing feeling and emotion for show off-y composition and instrumental acrobatics. We'll try to make a case for this not entirely being the case. We'll also put a lens to the Prog community, and see whether or not the fans (snobs) contribute to some of the negative stereotypes around progressive rock, and how this feeds into the critical response to the genre. ----- Special Thanks to my Patrons on Patreon: Darren Baker Ben Guevara Eric and Sheri Carbenia Evan Satinsky https://www.patreon.com/isitprog Check out the patreon for early access, members only videos, and extras! From now on, you will only be billed on months where a video is released, I'm sorry about my erratic upload schedule! Changes to patreon pledges will be updated upon the next upload. ---- Citations and More: Blenders 50 Worst bands (list only) https://www.morrissey-solo.com/threads/blender-magazine-rates-the-50-worst-bands-of-all-time.19647/ Lester bangs, The Clash essay https://books.google.com/books?id=riLXDgAAQBAJ&lpg=PT3&ots=RTPNqwayDK&dq=lester%20bangs%20the%20clash%20six%20days%20on%20the%20road&pg=PT94#v=onepage&q&f=false Suppers ready fan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpJ60JHQwrk Robert Plant and Brian Johnson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDbRlHLpPw4 I've had it with Prog fans! (Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sMhbMB3gq0 Lester Bangs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOqo6scHOwc articles https://www.reddit.com/r/LetsTalkMusic/comments/4q46nw/lets_talk_was_rock_critic_lester_bangs_on_to/ http://www.jimdero.com/OtherWritings/Other%20Prog.htm https://www.klcc.org/post/cant-prog-rock-get-any-respect-around-here https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/the-whitest-music-ever/534174/ https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/08/08/25335242/everything-thats-wrong-about-the-atlantics-prog-rock-diss https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/music/long-player-critics-canning-prog-rock-tad-harsh commentary https://www.reddit.com/r/progrockmusic/comments/9h15wo/this_music_is_pretentious/ https://medium.com/music-voices/under-cooked-raw-music-74bf02ccde9d Horror Sound Effect by F1Fan0001 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDmmraANLOA