How you got into prog?

Dream Theater - A Change of Seasons.

The word epic led me to Supper's Ready, Close to the Edge, Shine on You Crazy Diamond. I found the word prog. Looked at the roots Crim, Elp and Tull. Expanded the tastes to prog-metal (my fave) and jazz (most impressive).

I believe this has been done many times...

And I have the most uninteresting answer to the question: I was raised listening to it. But, because this is so boring, I use the story where I realized prog was THE genre (see my profile if you're interested.)

Sckxyss wrote: Basically, someone lent me a copy of The Mars Volta's De-Loused in the Comatorium, I became obsessed with TMV, and researched their influences. That eventually led me here

I first got into Genesis and Yes through their more commercial albums, Abacab and Genesis for the former, and 90125 for the latter, around the age of 13 or 14.  That led me to check out their earlier works.  Once I had all of the Genesis and Yes catalogs, I began looking for more music similar in style.  That led me to ELP, King Crimson, Floyd, Rush, Marillion and so on. 

I didn't find prog, it found me.

Edited by Arsillus - October 26 2007 at 16:48

The first good music I got into was The Moody Blues. Then I got into classic rock like Led Zeppelin, CSNY, and Stones then Pink Floyd which lead me to other 70's stuff until I found ELP. This band was obviously different. I found out that it was called prog and i got into the classics. I am now into jazz and all kinds of other music. My favorite bands currently are King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, Soundgarden, Miles Davis, and Transatlantic. It was prog though that opened my mind to all kinds of music.

Yessongs...

I've seen this topic before, but to put it simply, my brother listened to Dream Theater, and I was interested in them.  I discovered Porcupine Tree through recommendations for DT, and I was off from there.

classic rock background (The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Queen) --> PINK FLOYD (obsessed for a couple years) --> Rush --> Porcupine Tree (pink floyd cover band told me about them) --> Yes --> all other symphonic prog (Genesis, Camel, etc.) --> progressive metal --> experimental post-rock/post-metal (Oceansize!, Explosions in the Sky, Isis, Tool, 65daysofstatic...)

so i guess in short, i didnt start consciously listening to progressive rock until Porcupine Tree...but growing up listening to classic rock (mostly Floyd, Rush, and Zeppelin) led me to it.  and of course this website.  it has led me to many incredible bands


Edited by Oceansizzle - October 26 2007 at 18:34

I was a big Rammstein fan when I was 15, my art teacher liked them too and he gave me a mix CD with all sorts of bands, like Shriekback, Cheap Trick, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Dead Can Dance, and Judas Priest. Basically that mix CD defined my musical tastes from that point on. From only knowing Rush's "Anthem" I got more and more into them, and built up a bit of a Rush album collection.

I had bought Yes's Relayer years earlier on the strength of its album cover alone (ah, to be a teenager and have 15 dollars burning a hole in your pocket) and LOVED it.

I got into Yes separately from every other band, and then I slowly started listening to more and more Jethro Tull, Symphony-X, Yes, and finally I heard King Crimson when Guitar World magazine rated "Red" one of the best guitar albums of all time. After a while of noticing all these bands were known as "progressive rock" I started noticing a trend in the music I liked and realized they were all labelled together for a reason, and since that point a few years ago I've been pursuing different bands in that paradigm.

So basically thanks to my art teacher I listen to what I listen to.

But that's not fair to my parents. My dad grew up in the city in the 1970s and is a complete disco duck, a big fan of funk and disco, while my mom got me into heavy metal bands, and stuff like Talking Heads and Roxy Music, all genres I absolutely adore (all of them genres I let affect my own musical playing style as well).