Why is prog fizzling out again?

[Zantera]

It's just too little new ideas happening. What's the last new idea in progressive rock/metal? Djent? Even that's like 10 years old now and got stale pretty fast.
At best the current progressive bands are either doing the same thing they have been doing (Anathema comes to mind) OR they're doing something others have done before (SW comes to mind).

There's obviously no shame sticking to what you enjoy or making music clearly influenced by artists you admire - but I think it's hard for the genre to gain new fans when little new is happening.

While I hear what you're saying how many bands in a long career change and add what's in the musical scene at that moment.  I've always heard people complain about Rush delving into other styles and not liking it or the opposite, "It still sounds like Rush".

A band should do what they want and it's up to us to follow of not to follow.  And to be honest, my taste have changed over the years and I don't follow other bands like I used to.

While I agree it's not the most common for bands to change the game twice in their career (if they're good enough they might have the first wave of being groundbreaking but rarely a second) I think it's also a problem with the bands coming in. Certain bands/artists like SW or DT have been going long enough to know what the fans want and are able to also deliver something they enjoy making, but then very few new bands seem to break the mold in interesting ways.

I don't see much variety or new things happening in the genre as a whole. Like it's perfectly fine for every band/artist to stick to their guns, but then you zoom out and look at the bigger picture and you got a lot of bands basically plodding along doing what they do. And that's something that's great for people who are already fans, but I think might make it harder to break any new ground or reach out to new audiences.

[King Postwhore]

We are also narrowing our view of certain prog bands.  Like any style there are so many genres and those bands don't stretch too far from their comfort zone.   

So as fans buy other bands.

[Skeever]

The one thing that occurred to me in reading the responses of this thread is that a lot of the characteristics of early 70s prog have been absorbed by other genres. Not just long, non-traditional songs, or incorporating new technology into music, either. You've got 90s acts like Bjork, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, and many others who really took experimental elements of music to a new level, but would never be considered prog. So as the initial spirit of prog carries forward to new and unexpected places, prog continuously becomes further defined by certain tropes that were common of the 70s band and the retro bands of today. A similar thing happened to jazz as the old guard became increasingly academic and disconnected with the new blood. Any genre more concerned with specific traditional or aesthetics is probably gonna go in and out of phases, while there will always be something new carrying the torch that isn't necessarily accepting or even acknowledged by the old guard. 

[King Postwhore]

Agreed.  I'm a weirdo that in my 50's I'm searching for new music.

[Nekov]

While I agree it's not the most common for bands to change the game twice in their career (if they're good enough they might have the first wave of being groundbreaking but rarely a second) I think it's also a problem with the bands coming in. Certain bands/artists like SW or DT have been going long enough to know what the fans want and are able to also deliver something they enjoy making, but then very few new bands seem to break the mold in interesting ways.

I don't see much variety or new things happening in the genre as a whole. Like it's perfectly fine for every band/artist to stick to their guns, but then you zoom out and look at the bigger picture and you got a lot of bands basically plodding along doing what they do. And that's something that's great for people who are already fans, but I think might make it harder to break any new ground or reach out to new audiences.

I think you can agree with me that Pure Reason Revolution was a band that tried to push things in the prog scene and they didn't last long.
Using them as an example, can it be that the prog scene is a little close minded and doesn't like innovation that much? It's hard to please the current established audience while bringing in new listeners. Steven Wilson like it or not is trying to do just that, with his last 2 albums going into a more accessible sound and the old school proggers are not liking it. I think if more of the established bands tried to go that route it would set a good base for new bands to come in an innovate.
Or maybe prog needs to fizzle out to understand that they need to change, just like it happened at the end of the 70s.

Yeah there’s oversaturation, but the disappointing part of that is that listeners get saturated with a lot of shit from the bedroom/iphone “artists” but can’t seem to tell that it’s shit. Otherwise great prog and other types of quality music would be more popular.

Do we all have to like the same bands you like? Do we all need to find bands you don't like to be shit? Do you really think there is an objective method to determining what shit is?

[cramx3]

The one thing that occurred to me in reading the responses of this thread is that a lot of the characteristics of early 70s prog have been absorbed by other genres. Not just long, non-traditional songs, or incorporating new technology into music, either. You've got 90s acts like Bjork, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, and many others who really took experimental elements of music to a new level, but would never be considered prog. So as the initial spirit of prog carries forward to new and unexpected places, prog continuously becomes further defined by certain tropes that were common of the 70s band and the retro bands of today. A similar thing happened to jazz as the old guard became increasingly academic and disconnected with the new blood. Any genre more concerned with specific traditional or aesthetics is probably gonna go in and out of phases, while there will always be something new carrying the torch that isn't necessarily accepting or even acknowledged by the old guard.

Good point.  Even a band like Iron Maiden has prog elements in their new music and no one would call them a prog band at all, but there's definitely an influence.