Download Generation and Prog

Today, the West gets its music online. There are many advantages to this situation, as music is now more accessible, more portable, and via both legal and illegal means, cheaper than ever. However, all these changes have put one negative effect into the Prog Rock relm, but many positive ones.

The losses Prog Rock takes from the download culture are easily apparent. Back in the vinyl days, bands could really take full advantage of the visual aspect of album products. It's impossible to get the same effect on CDs and 3- inch thumbnails as it was on four sleeves worth of cardboard that's nearly a square foot. Art was always a big avenue of creativity for the progsters, and this loss is pretty significant.

However, downloading gives a nice global perspective to Prog Rock. Back in the 70's, importing Krautrock, French Prog, or just about any non-English prog into the world outside of its parent country was rather difficult. While things did get around, it was on a much more limited basis than today. With the digital age, it is easy to discover old Italian prog bands just surfing iTunes, and at least until recently many of these were for discount prices. Globalization has proved a positive way to generate much greater quantities of word of mouth. Also, the digital file does not scratch and warp, so for such intricate music it is a far superior format to the vinyl record.