Truth is, there are a number of issues at stake here. It's not only a matter of gaining or 'regaining' mass popularity, it's also a matter of content and context to make that happen. Let me so bold to suggest it's also a matter of finding an audience that is "capable" of appreciating or digesting the level of complexity inherent in prog. Without getting too elitist here, because I don't feel that's the issue, there has been a major push to shorten attention spans that all started in recent history with MTV.

This form of cultural-conditioning to shorter snappier songs, or even edits in movies has not helped progressive rock in anyway. But wait you say haven't pop songs always been short…in the two-minute range? Yes, but that's not what I'm referring to. It's one thing to listen to a shorter song when you are capable of listening to longer things. It's another matter entirely to be force fed short-form material and no longer be capable of listening to anything longer than two or three minutes. And it's not only in music that our attention spans have suffered. Just watch a movie from the seventies (when prog made its initial impact) and you'll quickly see that we've become quite accustomed to shorter and shorter images and sound-bites. I remember an industry friend of mine telling me that movies these days rarely hold one camera angle for longer than 90 seconds.

You might think this would be good for prog given the dynamic changes in the music, but this then gets back to the publics seeming inability to process the volume of variables. As a friend of mine said listening to Spock's Beard, "it's too spinny." I asked when he was listening to the music. He indicated it was over breakfast on Sunday morning so I guess not everyone is geared up to absorbing prog at that time of the day. I suggested to him that one of the things prog is not, is background music.

Media guru Marshal McLuhan once said "The medium is the message" and there is a prog application here. A sonnet or a symphony has a complex structure that takes some effort to understand. It challenges us; we have to work to appreciate it. That's why serious study of English or music will invariably work around Shakespeare and Mozart. But who takes classes to understand Brittany Spears? Who takes Soap Opera 101? These and many other popular forms of entertainment require virtually no intellectual discipline or effort. The point has even been made that popular culture strives for the most part, to avoid making the audience work. It's intended to be simple, entertaining, and easy to understand, offering immediate gratification. Moreover, popular music (books, television and movies too) is often written to a formula, with predicable plots and stereotypical characters, so the public will almost know what's going to happen. However progressive rock is rarely predicable and hardly stereotypical.

Popular culture is for the most part cotton-candy for the mind. Now there is nothing wrong with a little cotton candy in a balance diet. You know what I mean. But the point of this harangue is that a steady diet of the lowest common denominator that popular culture has to offer will inevitably break down a person's ability to tackle more challenging offerings. By offering easy consumption and emotional gratification, it discourages us from analyzing what we see and hear. And to be truthful progressive rock has always been the kind of music that requires a certain amount of mental activity. It's a thinking form of music by virtue of its' musical construction and lyrical content.

Speaking of lyrical content, this is another aspect of prog that in many ways causes a mass consumption problem. Prog grew out of a time that was very idealistic, viewing the future with almost utopian ideals. The lyrics were sometimes spiritual, sometimes philosophical and many times pondering the various forms of human nature. The same holds true for much of the modern progressive rock. There is still a very pronounced effort to explore the deeper inner workings of our minds. The subject matter often times will even explore the darker moments. Then, tied to this is the element of science fiction, which borrows both from the futuristic and utopian aspects to summon up images of either a more perfect world or one where human endeavor supersedes technological advancement. All of this escapes much contemporary thought that's consumed by either self preservation, self absorption or simply material consumption. Today's postmodern culture has become extremely cynical in its approach to virtually everything. You see this in all forms of media and entertainment.

As if all this weren't enough, for prog to become popular with the masses once again would require the mass media to go through a pretty radical change and revert back to an earlier time that set programming and audience satisfaction ahead of strictly profits. Now I'm not against making a buck. Hey, I'm in sales that's what I do for a living, but I believe there is a balance that we've lost sight of.

So then, in order for prog to be popular with the masses again three things would have to change;

· Instant gratification would have to give way to personal effort
· Cynicism would have to give way to Idealism
· Mass Media would need to create and not simply compete

Now if you see the opportunity for these three things to come about in the near future, then perhaps prog will be popular in the mass media. But until then, the only thing that will make prog popular is money. If the media mavens see the opportunity to line their wallets with money from prog, prog will then become popular. Until these things happen, don't hold your breath. Call me a cynic. I'm always open to your comments and appreciate hearing your thoughts.

About the Author:
Jerry Lucky is the author of the book The Progressive Rock Files, now entering its 5th edition. Please feel free to send feedback to Jerry at www.jerrylucky.com.