Where are the front men? (Rant)

Usually, in Qobuz, I can scroll to the bottom and find suggestions or similar artists.  This much better than letting them hand me a playlist. 

Meanwhile, if you like Americana or country, there are more male singers.  There have been several who have made it big.  Tyler Childress, Sturgill Simpson, Zack Bryan.  Heartfelt lyrics with good stories, or bad.  Sturgill especially has jumped around .  He is a dynamic emotional singer and good guitar player.  Good recordings.  Try Turtles All the Way Down you can continue the album if that hits ya.  Album: Meta Modern Sounds 

Maybe because the whole Paradigm of the band of musicians with the alpha front male is fading away. Just as the big band paradigm with the 30 musicians fronted by the charismatic male instrumentalist has also faded away. Just as the doo-wop group morphed into boy bands which have also started to fade away. Yeah, I agree that a lot of the singers, especially the female ones, tend to sound like clones. But just about every '80s hair metal vocalist sounded exactly the same, just as every 90s grunge singer sounded pretty much the same. It's a formula and it's what the public wants at the moment.

@n80 

I hope you mean "watching", as that particular video shows the band at its best!

;o)

@simao + 1, but I wouldn't say it IS fading away, I'd say it HAS faded away - still there, of course, but it's not been the predominant genre for decades. Time marches on, as do musical styles and trends. 

@sls883 and @n80 

I've been a member of the Riverside Fan Club since 2007 or 2008.  Fantastic Prog Band from Poland founded in 2001 by Mariusz Duda (bass, vocals), Piotr Grudzinski (guitar), Piotr Kozieradzki (drums), and Jacek Melnicki (keyboards).  Melnicki was replaced in 2003 by Michal Lapaj (keyboards).  Grudzinski (Rest In Peace) was a fantastic guitar player.  His playing on the first 3 albums reminds me of Gilmour at times, especially if you listen to the live album covering the first 3 releases or watch the live concert video they released.  Grudzinski's guitar tone is freaking beautiful -- few can match it. 

I HIGHLY recommend listening to Riverside's "Trilogy" -- the title the Fan Club gave to their first three studio releases: 2003's "Out Of Myself", 2005's "Second Life Syndrome", and 2007's "Rapid Eye Movement".  In 2011, the band released a 6 CD Box Set called "Reality Dream Trilogy" -- I grabbed a copy when the Fan Club got a pre-release offer.  I'm glad I did -- copies are pretty pricey now when you can find them for sale.  Another must listen is the 2008 live release "Reality Dream", which contains live performances from the Trilogy albums.

Tragedy struck the band in 2016 when founding guitarist Piotr Grudzinski died from a heart attack after attending a concert by The Winery Dogs in Warsaw.  The band members, especially Duda, were deeply impacted by his death.  The first album released after his death, "Wasteland", reflects the sadness and despair felt by the band.  I saw one of the early tour dates from the "Wasteland" tour, and let me tell you, Duda and the other band members left everything on the stage that night.  It was a very dark and depressing aura, but the music was spot on unreal.  I was very happy when the band announced that the touring guitarist, Maciej Meller, had been officially hired as the fourth member.  The first album after this announcement, "ID.Entity", was a drastic departure from the bleakness of "Wasteland" and showed that the band's head was in a good place.  The tour for "ID. Entity" was a drastic difference from the previous tour.  Very upbeat, cheerful.  Even thought it is bleak and apocalyptic, "Wasteland" is one of my top 4 Riverside releases (the Trilogy being the other 3).

If you dig Riverside, I highly recommend you listen to Lunatic Soul, a side project started in 2008 by Mariusz Duda.  Start by listening to the 2017 release, "Fractured".  It was recorded and released following the death of Piotr Grudzinski and Duda's father, both in 2016. Duda has stated that the main theme of "Fractured" is "coming back to life after a personal tragedy" and that he wanted to create an album with a positive undertone which would suggest how to cope with loss, as well as inspire to overcome fear.  2020's "Through Shaded Woods" and the first two Lunatic Soul releases are also very good.

We are in what I call the "2nd Generation of Progressive Rock Music" -- began around 1995 - 2000 when the original classic Prog Bands were getting older and stale, and musicians that grew up with a foot in Prog Rock and a foot in Heavy Metal found a way to fuse the two genres, giving us Prog Metal.  Bands such as Opeth, Fates Warning, Queensryche, Symphony X, and Dream Theater emerged. 

This led to a wave of new bands that didn't want the Metal elements, so they went back to the roots of 1960's and 1970's Prog Rock, Symphonic Prog Rock, and Fusion Prog Rock and updated the sound utilizing the newer technology and gear.  Bands emerged such as Porcupine Tree, IQ, Riverside, Soup, Spock's Beard, Arena, Mystery, Big Big Train, Anathema, The Pineapple Thief, Transatlantic, The Flower Kings, Airbag, Ozric Tentacles, The Neal Morse Band, Frost*, Soen, Arena -- I could go on and on and on .

I hope you enjoy some of these bands if you have not heard them before.  Have a Very Proggy 2025!