Prog Songwriting: Where are the hooks?

[thedunno]

Not so sure of that. Yes, the music I heard in my adolescence and twenties formed my tastes. No, more recent genres don't really grab me most of the time, and when an isolated track does, it usually has musical elements similar to some earlier genre from my youth. But much of the music I heard when I was young didn't grab me either. The theory you cite seems to imply that a young person is a sponge, happily sopping up whatever they come in contact with. Yet plenty of the radio-pop, rock, and prog I grew up hearing made little impression - I just didn't think it was very good at the time, or it was OK but not to my taste. Mostly, I still have those opinions - I have not changed my view that Grand Funk are music for lunkheads, and while I can see the point to and value of soul music, most of it just doesn't resonate with me personally.

However, when it comes to more recent music: I'd heard this album when it came out a year ago, and liked it, but didn't really follow it up. But a month ago, the band played their first and so far only performance, I saw them, and I bought the CD. And it grabbed me like crazy - I don't know whether it has hooks to many other people, but it certainly does to me.

Thanks for brining this under my attention. I am enjoying this a lot.

But on topic: I would not call this music with hooks but I would call it relatively accessibel RIO. Sometimes it reminds me a bit of Far Corner.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Statements of principle:

1. It is possible to love both Magma and the Monkees; King Crimson and KC and the Sunshine Band; After Crying and ABBA; Henry Cow and the Cowsills. (OK, maybe that one is stretching just a little.)

2. Disdaining hooks is as anile as only liking music that has them in abundance.

3. Popularity is no indication of music's quality - positive or negative.

4. Sturgeon's Law applies.

[Baribrotzer]

But on topic: I would not call this music with hooks but I would call it relatively accessible RIO.

That's how Tim Root (the composer/pianist/bandleader) describes it. Although he doesn't really accept that label, or any label for it, he realizes that he does have to describe it in some way so people will have some idea of what it is, and that's the way he chose. Personally, I don't consider it quite spiky enough for RIO - it's always melodic, even if the melodies aren't easy or particularly diatonic - and it tends to follow some version of song structure. If anything, it makes me think of a 21st-Century successor to Raymond Scott and the Quintet, and Scott's peculiar classical/pop hybrid:

[Camelogue]

The Tangent have plenty of hooks.

[Splicer]

The Tangent have plenty of hooks.

I agree with this. Once you get used to Tillison's talk-singing style, the songs are memorable.

[yamishogun]

9 pages and no mention of the many hooks of Snarky Puppy?!

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ Do people like you even know how irony works? Or do you simply pretend?

[bill g]

Statements of principle:

1. It is possible to love both Magma and the Monkees; King Crimson and KC and the Sunshine Band; After Crying and ABBA; Henry Cow and the Cowsills. (OK, maybe that one is stretching just a little.)

I like Henry Cow and the Cowsills. 'The Rain, The Park, and other things' is a great little tune. I don't actually know the rest of their stuff admittedly.