prog when friends are around

I hate it when people are automaticly turned off when you mention prog.

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Well for us older dudes, I certainly can't put on Dream Theater or even Porcupine Tree.  But 70s era Floyd is always welcome by any average dude in my house.   Traffic, Santana, Moody Blues or Procol Harum.  Yeah, I know they're not Prog, but they have their moments.  Tangerine Dream is acceptable.  And later day Marillion. 

Agree with Pink Floyd, Some Tull often works as well, and some bands that are at the very least kind of prog-related (Radiohead and Sigur Ros springs to mind) usually work pretty well. But most of the time some sort of fusion like weather report och Return to Forever seems to really go a long way of bridging the gap etween us progheads and the bleating masses. Mostly, I think because they are too anxious of coming across as uncool if they were to object to anything jazzy. But whenever I get too drunk and forget I have company and put on some Opeth all my guests mysteriously vanish. Go figure.

kingfriso wrote: What do you do when friends are around?

My friend and i just listened to Tales From Topographic Oceans a couple of days ago and it was pretty enjoyable. It was the first time I listened to it the full way through and he seemed to like it so I will declare it as a success.

The Truth said the truth.

I seldom played prog when friends come by, except when they're prog lovers (I have about three rather good friends who love prog the way I do). But even then, tastes differ and I can enjoy prog best when I'm on my own.

It feels kind of unfair sometimes because when I have a guest at home who doesn´t like prog-music I try to make him pleased by playing light-prog like 10 CC, Styx, Kansas, Journey etc - I even play non-prog albums like Dire Straits, Paul Simon, Thin Lizzy or something else I know that we both can appreciate. But when I visit someone who is into, for example, rockabilly - I have to listen to rockabilly all the night! And I don´t even complain!

Yeah I agree with most of you guys. Some music is acceptable to play as background music, but most of it I really want to listen to fully and devote a good amount of my attention to. If there's people talking, it's nigh impossible to do that. Plus I don't like to hear people to complain about the music until I let them put on something annoying and stupid. So I'll try to put on something low-key, but not necessarily prog, so I don't have to listen to them complain (or let them choose the next song ).

I strongly believe that Progressive Rock is music that cannot be easily and fully appreciated the first time you hear it (just about any Rush fan can tell you a record by that holy trinity flowers over time)

I believe most people are capable of appreciating Progressive Rock, yet only after many listenings. (For the record, the same applies to Classical and Jazz music, in general.)

One way to convert your friends and loved ones is to play more moderate songs ("YYZ" is simpler than "Natural Science", for instance) relatively softly and many times over the course of weeks or months or even years!

(They will feel the waves coming on if you take the time!)

Through patient conditioning, they will be able to properly digest such alienatingly different music, and then they will take a liking to it.

Also, there's a way to say things; if I say that this is the best type of music in the world, a non-believer will be less likely to enjoy Progressive Rock than if I say it's music most wouldn't enjoy without an open mind.