In todays next blog post I will continue to cover my classmates final presentation project on a variety of different genres of popular music. This project as given us students the opportunity to present our a genre of music that we particularly like and enjoy listening too. It makes the process of learning different genres more enjoyable. It is also nice to learn from our peers for a change rather than the typically structured lecture class. This blog post will be covering a type of music that is difficult to describe and one that I have never been exposed to before the presentation done in class today. I will be talking about Heavy Metal/Progressive Rock. To start off I will talk about the song “Octavarium” by Dream Theater. Before I begin, this song is way out there… It is something that I personally have never heard or experienced in my entire life. It is a very long and complex song. I was impressed with the presenter TJ’s ability to diagnose it and break it down for the class, but with that being said I am still not completely sure I understand the genre or song. It seems to me that this genre and song choice is one that you would have to listen to a million times to get the full and true meaning from it. It also is one type of genre that is hard to relate to unless you are musically experienced/talented, which I am not. This genre is a combination of Heavy Metal and Progressive Rock. It has a tremendously aggressive guitar driven sound. It is a sound that you can not help to appreciate the difficulty in playing it. Some bands that fall into this unique category are Animals as Leaders and Trivium. The group Dream Theater was formed in 1985 is Boston, Massachusetts at the Berkley College of Music. They originally had the name of Majestic, because one of the head members of the band overheard someone say that in line for a club. The Dream Theater’s have thirteen studio albums and eight live albums. Their logo is unique and has subliminal meaning behind it, which actually spells out Dominici which was the name of the first singer in the band. They are known for very long, and complex songs. The intro to the song “Octavarium” sounds like guitar but is actually a weird, uncommon instrument called a fingerboard. The fingerboard produces a very unique sound which brings a different style into their music that sets them apart from many other bands. Overall, I found this genre to be very interesting and intriguing. It caused me to have a different opinion on Heavy Metal and Progressive Rock. I was so interested after hearing this artist and hearing that a lot of talented musicians have an appreciation for this type of music that I decided to look up and listen to a few more songs. I cannot say that I will listen to this genre a lot going forward, but at least I will be able to recognize it and appreciate the talent that is necessary to create and perform it.