I once spent a long night with a girl I sort of vaguely knew, chatting on MSN Messenger (is that still a thing?) about all the cool bands we were digging up from the PA database as we talked. Discovering stuff like PFM, Isildur's Bane, Novalis etc. together.

This is quite an enigma to me. It seems to make little sense. That Prog is not popular generally is a non-explanation if, as I suspect, there is skewing that is beyond chance. I do wonder also how the distribution of female fans with other styles of music compares. There are quite a number of women who take an interest and may even play Classical music and perhaps major in it in college. One thing there is not are many women represented among players of Prog music, and I wonder if this affects the fan base. No, one doesn't have to be a player to enjoy Prog, but I think it's influential enough to be a serious factor. Perhaps women don't identify often enough with the creation of Prog, even if it's merely a fleeting hypothetical daydream. I would love to hear from the women PA members on this.

Pekka wrote: I once spent a long night with a girl I sort of vaguely knew, chatting on MSN Messenger (is that still a thing?) about all the cool bands we were digging up from the PA database as we talked. Discovering stuff like PFM, Isildur's Bane, Novalis etc. together. That was 12 years ago - now we've been married for six years, have two kids and about 2400 albums. They're out there somewhere, you might bump into one when you least expect it.

awesome man... good see ya Pekka.. and that isn't enough.. kids or albums

and no one understands that better than me

Magnum Vaeltaja wrote: Catcher10 wrote: Only we, this insane group of people, call this music prog....That's our problem if we are concerned with why more people do not like this music. I think this is a big part of it. It's not that women don't like prog, because in general I've actually known them to like it quite a bit. I've put on Yes, Genesis, PFM, Harmonium, Focus, Mike Oldfield, Gentle Giant, and all shapes and sizes of jazz fusion, at parties and get-togethers. Did everyone with ovaries leave the room screaming? Of course not; everyone just enjoyed it as they would any other classic rock. If you just present prog as what it is - good music - as opposed to a profound philosophy lecture or moving mythological epic, prog can actually have a pretty wide appeal.  So it's not that women don't like prog, it's just that they don't obsess about it the way men tend to.

hear hear!!!!!

plenty of women love prog.. along with lot of other things.  Only losers play group association and hang out on prog sites wondering where all the white women are at  

Women have better things to do than hang out with a bunch of losers....  if you want women.. start drinking JD, toss a few frat boys out bar windows and burn rubber through town blasting Willie Nelson. Then you'll get all the women you want.  Women like their men bad.. not frickin wimps and pussies like most prog fans.

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: There are plenty of women at ProgDay & RIO, mix is probably 75:25.

Indeed. Almost half of ProgDay's organizing committee are women - all good friends of ours, and into rather challenging stuff, as I am myself. If you want to get an idea of what I like, click on either of the links in my signature. Unfortunately, due to personal issues and general burnout, I have given up reviewing, but I am still on the lookout for interesting new music. Though I don't dislike  music that has plenty of melody (far from that), a lot of what is widely considered "woman-friendly" prog bores me to tears. Maybe I am an exception, but I am not the only one.

As a side note, these discussions (which crop up on the site every now and then) do not really help to make PA more attractive to women. In fact, some of the remarks I have seen in this thread are not particularly complimentary towards us. Anyway, one thing is for sure: women as a whole tend to look at the big picture rather than obsess about the tiniest detail. The obsession with categorizing that is so distinctive of the "prog community" (though not limited to it) is definitely more of a masculine than a feminine trait.

I know several women who love prog.  Old and new.  Yet, none of the women I know like prog harder then Dream Theater.   They dig Steven Wilson, Big Big Train, IQ, and Italian Prog.

Catcher10 wrote:    Why dont many girls like prog?   Simply brilliant !!!!

Logan wrote: ^^ Yes, but we also have

"Why don't proggers like girls?"