Wednesday 27 May 2015

Modern Prog Classics - some analysis

In the week leading up to Monday 25th May 2015 Progzilla Radio broadcast the Top 100 Modern Prog Classics, as voted for by their listeners. The results can be found here.

Since the poll was published, I've been doing some analysis of the results (because I'm on holiday and it's raining):

The 100 songs come from 64 albums (assuming the studio version of the track was chosen)

There are 48 acts represented:
    27 have 1 song in the list;
    5 have 2 songs
    9 have 3 songs
    4 have 4 songs
    1 has 6 songs (Steven Wilson)
    2 have 7 songs (IQ & Big Big Train)

The most songs from one album is 5 (The Raven That Refused To Sing)
The most different albums represented by a single act is 6 (IQ)

Of the 48 acts, 30 are from the UK; 8 from USA (including Transatlantic, who are 50% American); 8 from Scandinavia; and 2 from the rest of Europe (France & Poland)

There are 7 tracks under 5:00; 11 between 5:01 & 7:30; 23 between 7:31 & 10:00; 28 between 10:01 & 15:00; 12 between 15:01 & 20:00; 11 between 20:00 & 30:00; and 8 over 30:00.

The shortest tracks were 3:16 (Spooky Action & Anisina), and the longest was 77:54 (The Whirlwind)

17 of the tracks were originally released in the 1990s; 42 from 2000-2009; and 41 since 2010
The five most popular years were 2013 (16); 2012 (9); 2014 (8); 2000 (7) & 2006 (7)

Which perhaps goes to show that, in terms of modern Progressive music, the best years appear to be now; the UK seems to be a strong force on the prog scene; and we still like an epic!

Friday 15 May 2015

Wassail





13 weeks from today, Big Big Train play their first live show, and I will be there! For now, here's the title track from their forthcoming EP, due for release on June 1