Song from ADTOE for a progressive newby

[jdprsaga]

on the weekend i was driving my car to get some food with a friend. I had ADTOE album playing kind of low when my friend asked me "is this the band you always talk about". We have been friends for a short time so i haven't had the chance to show him DT and i don't know what kind of music he is into, altho i know he went to a blink182 concert recently and he played bass in his church band.

So i took the oportunity and turned up the volume, BAI was playing.. he doesn't know  progressive (he don't know rush, yes, genesis, opeth, pt. Nothing) so he was interested in learning both what DT play and what Progressive music is.  He listened for a good part of the song and then he told me, it sounds like dragon force (my jaw dropped to the floor) but well.. thats what he thought.

so i had to defend progressive rock, and i told him, "no, progressive music is not like dragon force" so he asked me, "is it kind of like speed/power/trash metal?" and then beneath the surface started. so i told him, you'll not usually hear a song like this from a regular metal band.

He listened, liked the song, but he was kind of confused about what progressive music was. I was trying to explain but he didn't got it. so i was thinking, what song can i play so he can understand me and he will not think it's like power/trash/death metal or something.

the one that came to my mind as a best example was OTBOA! we didn't had time to play it tho so i can't tell you if he would get it or not.

[jdprsaga]

well.. BAI was my first option, but it was the one he said sounded like dragon force!

[Ben_Jamin]

I listen to "progressive" bands and still don't understand what progressive music is.

[The Letter M]

I'd say either BAI or BITS. They've got the most proggy-moments on the album, IMO, but if you want to show him how VARIED a prog band can be, this album shows it - heavy, metal moments to complex proggy moments, as well as a piano ballad and a power rock ballad, to an acoustic ballad at the end.

I'd say between ADTOE, 8VM and IAW, you've got a good set of albums that show a lot of sides of the band.

-Marc.

[Infinite Cactus]

Go with OTBOA. It's fairly tame but still crazy enough that it wouldn't be "mainstream" sounding

[TL]

As an introduction to this style of music, I'd definitely go with OTBOA. It gives them a taste without being overwhelming, and is varied enough that it doesn't omit anything.

[johncal]

Well, I'd explain it like this (and I'm sure everyone has a different opinion).

Progressive music generally has multiple elements that make it "progressive". First would be that a lot of different styles can be incorporated into it. There are elements of Rock, Jazz, Metal, Pop, Classical, etc. and depending on the band and the song there can be a lot of room for the songs to sound very different coming from the same band. This is something you would have to point out to your friend because it may not always be apparent if you don't know the different types of music. For instance there is a part in SFAM in Beyond this life where Jordan using his keyboards does a type of Scat which is a certain type of Jazz singing only he does it with keyboards.

Also, there is a lot of "progression" that is based on Classical music structure. There are overatures (like on SDOIT) and various amounts of "movements" or parts as they would be called in classical music. There are also a lot of experimental sounds and combinations of sounds used at the same time within the same song.

There are also lots of tempo changes or "time signature" changes within progressive music. Some DT songs change the time signatures 30 times or more.

From Wikipedia..."
"The Dance of Eternity" by Dream Theater. This instrumental contains mixtures of faster and slower beat groupings in 8, 7, 6, 5, and 4. It goes through over 128 time signature changes in just over six minutes.[105]"

Sometimes DT will play multiple time signatures at the same time. One thing MP used to do a lot was change his snare from the downbeat to the upbeat and basically flip the rythm around and play it backwards while keeping the same beat. MM plays 3 time signatures simultaniously on the new album.

Also, if you have a good vocalist (which I believe JLB is) the vocalist is very adept at singing with different types of voices depending on the types of songs. Basically, progressive music is not "dance" music. It is often complicated and meant to be pleasing and challenging to the mind. Good musicians have a tendancy to admire progressive music (whether they like it or not) because it allows the musicians to be very expressive and not be limited in using all of their abilities. MM commented that before Dream Theater he had all of these techniques and special drum set-ups but was very depressed because he never thought he'd be able to use them playing with anybody.

That's just a tiny bit of it and I'm sure other guys here that are classically trained or progressive musicians can add a lot to the discussion.

[Jaffa]

Just let him borrow the whole CD.  Progressive is an ever changing ever varying genre; that's the definition of 'progressive'.  While some songs represent the genre as a whole better than others, I don't think any one song is realistically going to be enough to explain what the genre is.

Because honestly, in various DT songs, yes, I can hear similarities to power metal, and yes, I can hear similarities to speed metal, and yes, I can hear similarities to thrash metal.  And while I've listened to Dragonforce enough to know that they don't really have much in common with Dream Theater, I CAN understand why, with some songs, a person not used to either band could feel like the two bands are similar.  To me, that's part of what's so great about progressive metal as a genre - it can borrow elements from various genres and weave them together into something better. 

So, yeah, I'd say let him listen to the whole thing.  Show him the variety. 

[gmillerdrake]

Just let him borrow the whole CD....

So, yeah, I'd say let him listen to the whole thing.  Show him the variety.

This would be a perfect idea. ADTOE would be a great introduction to progressive music...and DT for that matter. ADTOE has a vast array of music incorporated into it and would greatly show off DT and allow your buddy to get aquainted with them and get a bit of a lesson on what progressive music is.

[jdprsaga]

Yeah.. i'm borrowing him the album..

My question was more like.. if you could show one first song which one would it be from the album.. like i had the oportunity to play it in the car but had time for one song or maybe 2.

[theseoafs]

BiTS is probably a good option. It's extended and not without a progressive edge and instrumental, but it's still very catchy and accessible.

[Cranky]

If he already feels like it sounds like Power Metal/ whatever else, just don't show him Lost Not Forgotten, because the chorus is very power metal-esque, it might confuse him.

I'd say Bridges In The Sky, or even On The Backs of Angels, because it is very accessible, but also fairly progressive and defining of Dream Theater's style.

Good luck, and I hope that you can recruit another one.