I should be introducing more people to prog at my gigs..since they show appreciation for me. I usually don't go beyond grabbing a plastic cup of diet Coke, saying hello...and running out to my car and spending my break time listening to Univers Zero. I recently introduced my sound tech to the music of Happy The Man on our break and he was blown away. It sounds like I'm being selfish and I'm not. People are not really all that interested in Prog...so I head for the door , turn on the heat in the car and listen to what I like. Some people will follow me out to the car, shake my hand while I'm sitting IN the car and they will over-hear some underground Prog from my car stereo and look at me as if bombs are dropping on the earth's surface. You wouldn't believe the looks on their faces as they kneel down to my driver's seat and say..."What the hell is that" Just like Steve Martin did on "Saturday Night Live". "What the hell is that?" I will softly respond by saying..."Oh that's Prog Rock"  Then they are like..."OOOOO-KAY?"  It's very funny to witness and it's not such a bad thing when you think about it. People can't help themselves. They want to jump in my car and listen to AC/DC because they want me to relate to them and respect the Rock music they like...which isn't going to happen in my car, but I feel sorry for them and so I walk with them and listen to how they praise KISS, AC/DC, and whatever else and if that makes them feel good then it's worth the distance making a person happy.

The only people I have introduced have been older than 45 .....a few got into some of the more classic prog bands. I did try to get my son in law into prog a few years ago and while he did like a few tracks here and there by Tull, ELP, and Yes....he has never really dug any deeper into it.

Sometimes it's a matter of people asking about my musical tastes, and I'll oftentimes recommend them something based off of what they listen to (Led Zeppelin fans may like Rush, Deep Purple fans may like Uriah Heep or Quatermass, post-hardcore fans to Mars Volta).

Now that I recall, I turned on a friend who is a Styx and Journey AOR fan to Spock's Beard's X album. He later bought the new SB Brief Nocturnes album.

Edited by SteveG - December 08 2014 at 15:57

One of my friends asked my about the kind of music that I listen to after became curious in the Genesis shirt I was wearing. The next day she told me that she had looked them up and listened to most of their albums online, and that she had really enjoyed them. Since then I've been sharing some of my other prog CDs with her, most of which she has also liked.

^I stand corrected MM, but that's why I brought up the young man's girlfriend who seemed more open minded.

With me it’s been sporadic at best. 

 

My biggest “success story” was with a guy I had a correspondence with in the 1980s, originally out of mutual interests in comics and animation.  We were already around the same age, and when we started discussing music, we found out our interests already overlapped in some areas.  His tastes were already pretty varied; he was already a fan of Tull, Yes, ELP, but oddly was unfamiliar with Genesis prior to their more commercial period.  So through mix tapes I sent him I turned him on to Genesis, Steve Hackett, Ant Phillips, Happy the Man, Kit Watkins and much much more.

 

Other than that, the reactions I’ve gotten might best be described as a raucous burst of indifference.  When I was staying in a Navy barracks between 1981-83, I would leave the door to my room ajar so that anyone who wanted to could stick his head in and inquire about whatever I had playing.  But I got very few if any takers. 

 

I had a manufacturing job a few years ago where I was usually working in a slightly more isolated area (though with a lot of passing foot traffic) where I could pretty well listen to whatever I wanted.  But again I’d get little response.  There was one guy who often worked the same hours I did, and our tastes overlapped a little but not so much in prog.

With gusto (and no catchy Peter Gabriel in the vein of Sledgehammer!)!

Introduction usually goes something like this:

"It listens to Kohntarkosz or it gets the hose again"

And if you are wondering, yes, that line is from Silence of the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

Edited by Tapfret - March 30 2015 at 01:15

Kati wrote: Are you guys willing to do a little test survey with me? This could be interesting for PA site too. I'll make a new forum topic and post 3 completely different songs by one artist (certainly prog by anyone's view), with this band I have converted some women and men into liking "prog".

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