Report: DREAM THEATER Won't Pander To Rock Radio
May 1, 2008, 16 years ago
Straight.com has issued the following report from Steve Newton:
Progressive rock has sure taken its lumps over the years. Back in the ’70s, British prog bands like YES, GENESIS and JETHRO TULL were all the rage, selling mountains of vinyl, but punk put a major kibosh on popular music that favoured technical virtuosity and complex arrangements. There are a few survivors of the antichops purge, though. Canadian power-trio RUSH has managed to thrive and continues to pack arenas worldwide, but it also enjoys the support of commercial radio. DREAM THEATER hasn’t been so lucky. Without access to the airwaves, the New York–based quintet has had to travel the fan-driven, underground route, but it’s done so brilliantly, and with amazing results.
Dream Theater’s latest release is a two-disc collection titled Greatest Hit (…and 21 other pretty cool songs), referring to the only song—1992’s 'Pull Me Under' - that has garnered significant airplay during the group’s 19-year recording career. But the times they are a-changin’, and progressive acts like Dream Theater may yet break into the mainstream. One need only consider the full-on embrace of prog by hipster-approved acts such as COHEED & CAMBRIA, BLACK MOUNTAIN and THE MARS VOLTA. As Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie explains in a call from Barrie, Ontario, the return of the 20-minute epic might not be too far off.
“I think that it’s definitely trying to make a resurgence,” he says of the prog-rock genre. “There are bands that really care about the quality of music that they’re writing, and that just don’t want to go down the same avenue as most of the bands you hear on the radio today. Unfortunately, radio basically says to a lot of the listeners out there that what you hear is what music is. There’s so much more to it.”Read the full story at Straight.com.
