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Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Ntumbuluku - 03-18-2011 03:20 PM
Greetings, fellow Floydians!
This is my first post on these forums. I needed to bring something to the attention of the general Floyd fan base. There is a tournament going on on a U.S. sports website called espn.com in which people get to vote for their favorite band. The tournament is meant to mimic the college basketball tournament going on in the U.S. right now.
Pink Floyd is in the final 8 after beating 311, The Grateful Dead, and The Who in the first three rounds. Floyd is now up against Aerosmith and is LOSING! What a joke. I think Aerosmith is getting a bump among young people because Steven Tyler is on American Idol (gag me).
Don't let The Floyd lose to Aerosmith! Follow this link and help them out!
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/story?page=bracket/rockbands&match=109047
No registration required! Just go to the site and vote!
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Lady Floydian - 03-18-2011 03:45 PM
Eh, let people vote for Aerosmith. I don't get annoyed at things like this, if only because I can't control what other people think or how they feel about this band or that band. We all know Pink Floyd is superior to Aerosmith, and that's really all that matters. Some online tournament bracket isn't really going to change anything.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Arno Sluismans - 03-19-2011 02:56 AM
If The Beatles don't win that tournament thing, I'm officially declaring society as culturally impaired.
Also, what Lady Floydian said.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Joe - 03-19-2011 08:54 AM
I don't think The Beatles are going to win. I'd totally be happy if they did though. And, also, I don't believe in rating musicians. If this poll, for some reason, declares The Naked Boots as the best band, I'd still pick Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, RHCP, Marillion over them. In other words, this poll doesn't mean sh1t.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Lady Floydian - 03-19-2011 10:42 AM
Personally, I don't get the hype surrounding The Beatles at all. They did some nice pop songs in the early years, but a lot of their latter stuff I just don't care for, honestly. There are a few songs from that period I really enjoy; Here Comes The Sun, Something, Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, Let It Be; but that's about it.
I can't really say that about Pink Floyd at all.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - hunter21291 - 03-19-2011 10:45 AM
I personally find The Beatles to be the most overrated band in existence. I respect what they did for music and how much they changed it, but they sound like any ordinary band to me. I only really like Come Together, Hey Jude, and Twist and Shout. Other than that, I don't like them.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Arno Sluismans - 03-19-2011 10:57 AM
(03-19-2011 10:42 AM)Lady Floydian Wrote: Personally, I don't get the hype surrounding The Beatles at all. They did some nice pop songs in the early years, but a lot of their latter stuff I just don't care for, honestly. There are a few songs from that period I really enjoy; Here Comes The Sun, Something, Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, Let It Be; but that's about it.
I can't really say that about Pink Floyd at all.
(03-19-2011 10:45 AM)hunter21291 Wrote: I personally find The Beatles to be the most overrated band in existence. I respect what they did for music and how much they changed it, but they sound like any ordinary band to me. I only really like Come Together, Hey Jude, and Twist and Shout. Other than that, I don't like them.
The "hype" is there for a reason, and I don't think they're overrated at all. If you look at what they wrote and played, back in those days when rock music simply didn't exist, there's no reasonable way to say that they weren't four of the most brilliant musicians ever. I prefer listening to Pink Floyd, but there's no way that Roger, David, Rick and Nick could have done what The Beatles did.
Just my 0.02 euros though.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - hunter21291 - 03-19-2011 11:02 AM
Like I said, I respect what they did for music. Without them, my favorite genre (rock n' roll) would probably be non-existent, or at least now what it became. they're just not my style, I guess. I think they just might be too soft, but as a whole, I found them rather uninteresting. When it comes to rock music, I much prefer the likes of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, and The Who (among others). To each their own, though.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Joe - 03-19-2011 11:47 AM
I see what you're trying to say, Hunter. I respect what they did for music aswell. Their music might not be as good as what they caused but, they were the one to start it, therefore, theoretically, they're very good musicians. But, yeah, I get your point.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - silverpot - 03-20-2011 05:37 AM
(03-19-2011 10:57 AM)Arno Sluismans Wrote:(03-19-2011 10:42 AM)Lady Floydian Wrote: Personally, I don't get the hype surrounding The Beatles at all. They did some nice pop songs in the early years, but a lot of their latter stuff I just don't care for, honestly. There are a few songs from that period I really enjoy; Here Comes The Sun, Something, Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, Let It Be; but that's about it.
I can't really say that about Pink Floyd at all.
(03-19-2011 10:45 AM)hunter21291 Wrote: I personally find The Beatles to be the most overrated band in existence. I respect what they did for music and how much they changed it, but they sound like any ordinary band to me. I only really like Come Together, Hey Jude, and Twist and Shout. Other than that, I don't like them.
The "hype" is there for a reason, and I don't think they're overrated at all. If you look at what they wrote and played, back in those days when rock music simply didn't exist, there's no reasonable way to say that they weren't four of the most brilliant musicians ever. I prefer listening to Pink Floyd, but there's no way that Roger, David, Rick and Nick could have done what The Beatles did.
Just my 0.02 euros though.
I agree completely!
The Beatles were the first band to write their own songs, the first to experiment with sounds and instruments in the studio. I understand that it can be hard for young people today to grasp the huge impact they had at the time, but The Beatles were the main driving force in popular music in the sixties. Everybody else in the business were following their lead. Not least a band called Pink Floyd.
To say that they are overrated is simply ignorant. They deserve to be hyped.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Lady Floydian - 03-20-2011 07:08 AM
I really doubt The Beatles were the first band to write their own songs, nor were they the first to experiment with sounds and instruments in the studio. The Beatles get credit for it because they were the most popular to do it, but I really, really doubt they were the first.
While The Beatles were the driving force in "popular" music in the sixties, that doesn't really encompass Pink Floyd. The two bands, while rock groups at their base, are vastly different in basically every way possible. They didn't write the same kinds of music, didn't play the same kinds of music, didn't have the same aesthetics......the only thing the two groups have in common is they're both British.
They're just too soft and namby-pamby for me. Like I said, they did some really catchy tunes, but on the whole I don't like listening to them.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Arno Sluismans - 03-20-2011 09:07 AM
The Beatles and Pink Floyd are vastly different?! If there are two bands who are practically each other's equals in rock music, it's Pink Floyd and The Beatles. Their approach to music and the way they evolved from simple, yet popular, pop music artists to ground breaking, very rational, progressive music - are exactly the same. The first big difference I can come up with, is that The Beatles had George Martin while Pink Floyd mostly did everything on their own.
When aesthetics and kinds of music are concerned, you're right. But that's logical; Pink Floyd wouldn't have been original/new if they'd just have copied their ideas and sounds from The Beatles.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Lady Floydian - 03-20-2011 10:15 AM
Yes, IMO they are vastly different. Neither group sounds the same in any way. The Beatles were never "progressive rock" and frankly, neither were Pink Floyd. They bristled at that label, and rightly so. Progressive rock bands were groups like Genesis, Emerson Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, Yes.....not The Beatles and not Pink Floyd. Nothing either group did was on the same level as anything those previous groups put out. Pink Floyd started out very much in psychedelia, and evolved into more of a space-rock type thing in the very early 70s, but by the time they did Obscured By Clouds, they were a rock band, pure and simple. Not progressive rock, not space rock, not art rock, but just plain old rock. Pink Floyd belonged more with groups like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin than The Beatles.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Arno Sluismans - 03-20-2011 11:18 AM
This is literally the first time I've heard anybody describe Pink Floyd as plain rock in my life.
Edit: By the way, The Beatles are, along with bands/artists like The Beach Boys and Bob Dylan, considered to be the first progressive rock artists (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, anyone?). Then there's bands like Genesis and Yes, and Pink Floyd is out there too.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Lady Floydian - 03-20-2011 11:38 AM
It's not the first time in my life I've heard them described that way. They were a rock band. Period. They dabbled in different types of rock (psychedelic, space, art) in the very beginning of their careers, but like I said.....come Obscured By Clouds, they were a rock band. I don't know how many interviews of theirs I've read/watched where they talked about intentionally moving away from something they felt they were being pigeon-holed into. They were never progressive rock, and as I said, hated being called that.
Also, Bob Dylan was not progressive rock. Bob Dylan is so far removed from what progressive rock was and is, you couldn't see it with the Hubble telescope. Same with The Beach Boys. Making a concept album/thematic album doesn't make you a progressive rock band. Frank Sinatra is credited as releasing the first concept album, is he progressive rock now too? Sgt. Peppers wasn't progressive rock, either. What it was was the first time a band made an album that was meant to be a whole album, not a collection of singles. That may have been progressive thinking for the time, but it wasn't progressive rock.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - silverpot - 03-20-2011 11:54 AM
@LF, I'm beginning to wonder if you've actually heard Revolver, Sgt. Pepper or
Magical Mystery Tour.
To say that those albums weren't progressive or that The Beatles wasn't in the lead with psychedelia is rather astonishing.
This song was pretty far out when it was released.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a3NcwfOBzQ
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Arno Sluismans - 03-20-2011 11:55 AM
I'd love to know what you consider "progressive rock". Sgt Pepper is progressive rock's grandfather, that's for sure. I haven't heard The Beach Boys, but I read that their album "Pet Sounds" was one of the first albums that were described as progressive rock.
By the way, whether Pink Floyd hate being called progressive or not does not change what they do. If you check any rock music catalog, all of Pink Floyd's albums will most likely be labelled as progressive rock from Meddle onwards. Do you really think a "plain old rock" band plays songs like Echoes, On The Run, Sheep, Pigs, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, or Time? I beg to differ.
Edit, @silverpot: Words can not describe how much I love that song. :D The drums in it are the best ever.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Lady Floydian - 03-20-2011 12:20 PM
I've also seen Pink Floyd labeled as punk, but that doesn't mean they were. People will call anything lasting more than 5 minutes "progressive rock", because it got played a lot on FM radio back in the 70s.
Quote:Do you really think a "plain old rock" band plays songs like Echoes, On The Run, Sheep, Pigs, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, or Time? I beg to differ.
If you had read where I said that from Obscured By Clouds onward, they were basically a straight rock band, and that they had moved away from being pigeon-holed into the earlier forms of rock music they were known for performing, you'd realize that while Echoes certainly had elements of art rock and space rock in it.....none of those other songs do. Those are rock songs as performed by a rock band. Not a progressive rock band. Progressive rock were groups like ELP, Genesis (before Peter Gabriel left), The Soft Machine, Yes, Nice, Gentle Giant, and King Crimson. The only thing Pink Floyd has in common with any of those bands is they're all British. Time is a rock song. Sheep is a rock song. Pigs is a rock song. The usage of synthesizers and vocoders doesn't make you progressive. Progressive rock was artsy-fartsy drawn out sh!t, that was pretentious and overblown. Pink Floyd was definitely not artsy-fartsy, pretentious, or overblown. They were too popular and too melodic. Try listening to an ELP record sometime. You'll wanna claw your ears off the side of your head.
From 1967-1972, they were very much experimenting with different types of sounds within the context of being a rock band. Art rock, space rock, psychedelic rock....they basically did it all. Then however, they got sick and tired of being lumped in with those groups, and wanted to do something else. So they dropped a lot of the spacier, more glacial aspects of their sound and did a 180. The Dark Side of the Moon is nothing like Atom Heart Mother.
(03-20-2011 11:54 AM)silverpot Wrote: @LF, I'm beginning to wonder if you've actually heard Revolver, Sgt. Pepper or
Magical Mystery Tour.
I've heard them, and I don't like them. I wouldn't comment on something I've never listened to. Kinda makes no sense to do it that way.
BTW, while I have zero problem with either of you disagreeing with me (life would suck if everyone agreed on everything all the time), I'm kind of getting the impression you guys are shocked that someone is disagreeing with you.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Arno Sluismans - 03-20-2011 01:24 PM
Actually, yes, I'm quite shocked to hear that you think The Beatles and Pink Floyd are not progressive music, and even more to hear that you think progressive rock is pretentious, artsy-fartsy and overblown. Not shocked in the "I'm so devastated, I'm going to go slit now" sense, but more in the "I really don't understand" sense.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Lady Floydian - 03-20-2011 01:37 PM
Maybe it's not for you to understand. I don't strive to know the ins and outs of why others think what they do about any number of things that I like that they don't. I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. You may not. I don't really care to know why you may not like them; if you say you don't like them, that's good enough for me. I don't insist on picking your brain, trying to figure out all the little details that led to you saying you don't care for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Maybe because I surround myself with people who don't think like me on absolutely every little subject about music, when I come across someone who disagrees with me about X point, I don't get all shocked about it. The same as they aren't shocked that I disagree with them. Hence my slight surprise at the both of you being shocked that I don't agree with you re: these points. I'm used to disagreeing with people occasionally, and in turn, them disagreeing with me. So for me, the fact we don't agree on this isn't really that big of a deal.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - silverpot - 03-21-2011 01:07 PM
If Floyd is just a plain rock band it's interesting that so many of the later progressive bands hold them in such high esteem. Bands like Marillion, Porcupine Tree, Tool and Dream Theater cite them as a huge influence on their music.
In Prog rock circles both The Beatles and Pink Floyd are considered the giants of the genre, together with Genesis, Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull and King Crimson.
But I think I'm getting the drift. Since you don't like prog, Floyd can't be prog.
ELP are great by the way. Very diverse, sometimes heavily rocking, sometimes soft and accoustic. Here's a good one for you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoxHGxQw9ws
And Greg Lake had the best voice of all.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Lady Floydian - 03-21-2011 02:16 PM
I don't like ELP. If someone says they don't care for rap music for example, I don't tell them to go listen to a rap song. So you can like them to your heart's content, it's all good to me. I just don't care for them at all.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - forreverendgreen - 03-21-2011 04:17 PM
There is a difference between progressive rock and art rock, and I think Pink Floyd fell more into the art rock category, or at least in their "classic" period, since their 69-72 stuff is definitely leaning more on the prog side. Both genres are pretty loose in definition, though.
Also ELP are one of the worst bands in the world, regardless of their abilities. They're basically the Dream Theater of the 70s. As far as 70s prog goes, Genesis and Yes are about the only bands that are worth anything.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Arno Sluismans - 03-21-2011 05:00 PM
I honestly can't tell the difference between art rock and progressive rock, in most cases. Tomorrow Never Knows (the song silverpot posted) is a good example of prog that is not art rock, but when Pink Floyd is concerned, I think just about every progressive rock song they made could as well be classified as art rock. Why are there even two names for this? :P
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - forreverendgreen - 03-21-2011 07:54 PM
I always thought art rock was basically any type of rock music with an emphasis on pushing boundaries and experimenting with sounds and things within the realms of the rock/pop sound, like Roxy Music or David Bowie, or The Who's 70s stuff, none of which are prog. Likewise with The Beatles. Prog basically does away with those constraints, i.e. classical overtones and jazzy rhythms, influence from world music, almost nothing in common with the typical verse-chorus-verse structure of rock and pop music, etc.
Although it's true all prog rock is art rock, not all art rock is prog rock. (idk if that made any sense or I'm just rambling here)
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Lady Floydian - 03-22-2011 04:19 AM
Made perfect sense to me. Yes was prog rock -- Pink Floyd wasn't.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Arno Sluismans - 03-22-2011 04:40 AM
With that description, you could say The Beatles aren't really progressive indeed. It does, however, show that Pink Floyd definitely is. Rick's jazzy influences, David's bluesy influences and their general like for orchestrations definitely contribute to that. Verse-chorus structures aren't rare in Pink Floyd, but they definitely didn't use that structure in every song they made. Especially The Wall and The Final Cut could be considered as progressive on that aspect.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Ntumbuluku - 03-22-2011 07:33 AM
Well I guess we know who wields the big (troll) stick in these parts!
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - hunter21291 - 03-22-2011 09:21 AM
And this is why I hate subgenres.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Lady Floydian - 03-22-2011 10:56 AM
(03-22-2011 04:40 AM)Arno Sluismans Wrote: With that description, you could say The Beatles aren't really progressive indeed. It does, however, show that Pink Floyd definitely is. Rick's jazzy influences, David's bluesy influences and their general like for orchestrations definitely contribute to that. Verse-chorus structures aren't rare in Pink Floyd, but they definitely didn't use that structure in every song they made. Especially The Wall and The Final Cut could be considered as progressive on that aspect.
There's a difference between Rick Wright being influenced by Miles Davis, and David Gilmour being influenced by Hank Marvin.....and say, Yessongs. A big, big, big difference. Yes was your archetypal prog rock band. Listen to and look at their compositions. They are absolutely nothing like anything Pink Floyd did. Yes would regularly incorporate 20 to 30 minute live keyboard solos into their shows, and have these extended almost jazz fusion-type breakdowns.....prog rock was about taking 7 or 8 different genres of music, throwing them in a blender, and then pouring the product on a vinyl album. While PF definitely experimented musically, they didn't do that.
They were above all else, a rock band.
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Arno Sluismans - 03-22-2011 11:47 AM
Not completely related to the discussion/"argument": I looked up some opinions on this. Although just about everybody on the interwebs seems to agree that Pink Floyd can correctly be described as space rock, psychedelic rock and progressive rock, there's one comment that I can't help but agree with:
"genres are marketing.
pink floyd is pink floyd."
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - forreverendgreen - 03-22-2011 07:25 PM
I disagree but whatever
RE: Greatest Band Poll on U.S. website - Cabbage Love - 03-23-2011 03:59 AM
This is prog rock:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKI-UpksQyM