About "Good Music" - Part 1: Progressive Rock

(Image copyright by denis_m)

Hey all,

so this is of course a very controversial topic, as music is art, and as with all things art: Tastes differ. Still, as a long time music player developer, I get to hear a lot of music (basically all day), and I also happen to take music quite seriously. However, I should note that I am myself not a musician.

Anyway, since I might be somewhat knowledgeable in this field, and as I have been asked to write about this, I will write about my personal music taste. Some recommendations on what I find "good" music

My music taste can be coarsely split into three broad categories:

1) Progressive rock
2) Electronica
3) Classical music

As a teenager, when I first started to listen to music seriously, one my first loves has been Queen (rock music), and Mike Oldfield (complex symphonic rock). I should note one aspect of my music taste that might be a bit special: I do not tend to neglect or dislike artists that I have once loved (hey, the same is true for relationships!). I rarely say "OK, I might have liked this band 10 years ago, but now I just find them a joke!". Instead, I tend to stick to the artists I liked. E.g. I am still a big fan of Queen and Mike Oldfield today.

So the first of my beloved music categories would be progressive rock, also called symphonic rock, because of its similarities in structure with classical music. To this day, I love this genre. Here are a few listening tips:

Mike Oldfield
Oldfield is probably my favorite musician and composer overall. I know most of his works, named an application in honor of him ("Amarok"), and I admire this man. I personally believe him to be one the greatest musical geniuses of our time (a modern Bach, so to speak).

Mike Oldfield covers a wide range of musical genres, from progressive rock to classical, to pop. He's a virtuoso guitar player, but also a multi-instrumentalist (plays something like 15 instruments by himself).

I can only strongly recommend to check out his music. And don't just stop at one album - his musical range is too wide to judge him by one album alone.

Genesis
One of the founders of progressive rock, this band started out with Peter Gabriel as their singer, a part which was later on taken over by Phil Collins (also a drummer). This is a band that has been active for bloody ages (like from the late 60s or so), and is still semi-active today (nowadays just 3 people though). They are a must listen for every fan of the genre.

Porcupine Tree
Although they don't like to be stuck into this genre (they find it old fashioned), this band represents a modern form of progressive rock, with masterful composition and extremely good musicianship. The mastermind behind the band is front man Steve Wilson, who also happens to run many other musical side projects.

PS: One Amarok developer, Nikolaj Hald Nielsen, is a major fan of this band. If you are interested in them, talk to him sometime

Some more bands of this genre that I highly appreciate are:

Marillion, IQ, Fish, Magenta (Welsh band), Pendragon.


So I've just realized that this blog has already become quite long (personally I hate reading long blogs - thanks ADHD!), so I've decided to split it up, and to write articles about the other important genres another time. But I can already tell you so much: Electronica (electronic music) has become very important to me, and is currently probably the genre I listen to most often.


So long, and thanks for reading