How the Internet Saved Prog, Part II

How did we prog fans find out about things before say, 1995? Word of mouth, newsletters... the usual. And this worked. Word of mouth is powerful, but it's even more so when the word can be spread far and wide, and quickly at that.

It was sometime in 1994 that I first became aware of the World Wide Web, but by '95 it was catching on, or so it seemed. As more and more web sites propagated, and search engines appeared on the scene, it wasn't long before I began seeking out progressive rock info.

And I found it--lots of it. Especially email lists. Now here in Rochester, NY, there are a fair number of Marillion fans, but seeing so many more fans online was very heartening. There's a great power in a tool which allows many like-minded people to communicate quickly and efficiently, bridging global distances.

And so it was that in 1997, one fan had an idea to "take up a collection" to enable Marillion to come to North America. The result was known as "The Tour Fund" and was a wonderful success. They even played right here in Rochester, the show of which was used for "The Tour Fund CD" which was given to those of us who'd donated money to the effort. You can read all about that here.

The mid-90's, with the rise of the web, really helped reinvigorate prog in my opinion. I knew what was happening as quickly as the information could be put out.

I clued into another little internet revolution in late 1997: file sharing. The scene as I first encountered it involved trading of bootlegs, almost exclusively. And this is my thought about bootlegs: bands should allow the free trading of them, and not get upset about it. Why? Well, the people who tend to want bootlegs in the first place are we, the rabid fans. If we're rabid fans, then we have already purchased every legitimate product the artist has put out there. So how exactly is this taking money away from them? I'd still love to hear a rational, logical explanation of this if anyone cares to enlighten me.

And so I began collecting MP3's of my favorite bands bootlegs via FTP servers and later, by IRC, which was cumbersome to use. And then we come to 1999, and a little program called Napster.

I wasn't an early Napster user. But once I got on board, the world of prog transformed for me. But before I explain how, I need to clarify my tastes a bit.

As I had stated in earlier posts, I got into the "Big 6" prog bands. And I did not stray a whole lot from that. Sure, I liked Marillion and other bands that were lesser-known, but the one thing that was common to this all was that they were English language bands. Pretty much from the UK. Nice and safe.

Back to the Napster thing. One of the aspects of the program was the instant messaging feature. This was the breakthrough for me. I was sharing a small collection of prog bootlegs, and over time, strangers would pop up on my screen, asking what bands I liked, or complimenting my taste. I met many interesting people from all over the world who urged me to open my eyes and ears to non-English prog. How could I not know about Le Orme and PFM? Because they sung in Italian, that's why.

I can be pretty resistant to change, especially if somebody is trying to force something on me. But left to my own, I can also be open-minded. And here were a bunch of people sharing studio albums, in MP3 format, easily downloaded over several days (with a 56K modem, of course).

I sampled. And once I liked something, inevitably I would have to seek out that album on CD. I won't claim to have purchased every CD for the MP3's that I had, especially since much of it was not under the RIAA, and some was out of print. I was not looking to break laws here, just to easily hear music that otherwise would be difficult to find.

Point is, this opened the floodgates for me. And more and more resources became available, such as the Gibraltar Encylopedia of Progressive Rock. A friend of mine from college days also was experiencing the same awakening, perhaps in small part to my influence (or so I'd like to think!)

Why did it take me so long to come around to all of this wonderful music? Mostly it was my closed mind. But also, I didn't know people back in the late 80's who were saying, "Hey, check out this band from Brazil, you'll love it!" Just didn't happen.

So where are we today? We have a handful of yearly prog festivals with bands from all over the world getting to play for appreciative crowds. Bands able to keep going because they have a direct line to the fanbase. Bands that lay dormant for decades reforming, because they now know the interest is there for them.

But still we get made fun of for loving this music. Gotta love the internet!