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Topic ClosedIs Prog fan base getting older and older?

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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 07:40
Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

Of course first and second gen proggies are getting older but frankly it seems the 'new' fanbase, if such a thing exists, is actually getting younger .
If such a thing exists? Yeah, all these young people who listen to Pain of Salvation, Riverside, Opeth, Haken etc only refer to themselves as metal fans because none of them know what prog is. Tongue

I was commenting more on the status of progressive rock rather than the existence of a young fanbase.


Well, other than a few bands who get labelled prog such as Muse or Radiohead or whoever, prog isn't mainstream. It's still underground. I suppose that's not news to most of us here though. Tongue
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 07:19
I guess I lower the age average in here a bit with my 24 years.

Since I discovered prog 3 years ago, I have listened almost exclusively to bands associated, one way or another, with this genre. I listen more to bands from the last 20 years or so (favorites include Porcupine Tree, Motorpsycho, The Mars Volta etc.), but I also love many of the more classic prog bands, such as Soft Machine and King Crimson (seeing the latter live in July!).

I think out of all my friends and acquaintances only 2 are into prog. My impression is that 95% of people my age have no idea what prog is, or even that such music exists. It's a lonely obsession... This forum helps :)  
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 07:00
Originally posted by ForestFriend ForestFriend wrote:

Haven't listened to much post-rock, but GY!BE just turned me right off the whole genre. Maybe it's just them, but I found it way too ambient and boring. A bit of ambience is nice, but a whole album of it? No thank you.
That was my exact same feeling about them.  When I first came to PA GY!BE were all the rage so I had to check them out.  One of my bigger disappointments since I have come to PA.  That being said, I actually did enjoy most of their most recent album.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 06:58
What I like about this whole discussion is that at least still there is influx of young new fans for this music that is almost 50 years old now. When I really started to get into music about 1980 I wouldn't give a toss about anything done between 1930 and 1960, say, perhaps except the odd "modern classic" composer such as Ligeti. I appreciate musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk now bit still prog looks much more alive now than whatever one would deem the analogous "thing from the past" in those days except jazz which is still going about as strong as prog or even stronger.


Edited by Lewian - February 22 2018 at 06:59
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 06:49
Originally posted by mlkpad14 mlkpad14 wrote:

Post-rock is THE new genre. In my opinion, it is the most promising, and it is still fairly new, so it could expand and expand and expand.

Mmmh really? I found out about post rock in some cool radio shows in the mid 1990s, and in my perception, these cool shows have long moved on to newer more or less (!) exciting things (or are not cool anymore ;-) ).
Post rock has produced the odd classic that hopefully won't be forgotten and still has some potential in my view, but as a trend it is on a downward trajectory for quite some time.  
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 06:17
Originally posted by ReactioninG ReactioninG wrote:

I got into Prog when I was 12 and now I'm 30. Oldness happened. But maybe members of the younger generations somewhere are listening to the prog bands on Spotify or something  for the first time at this very moment.


Oldness hasn't happened to you yet...

30 is very young for a prog rock fan. I'm going to see King Crimson in November with my girlfriend. I've warned her we would be among the youngest people there, and we're 50!

We went to see Kyros last year; a young prog band from the UK, probably in their late 20's. The audience looked like a combination of their dads and uncles...
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 02:22
I agree with whomever asserted most kids these days associate prog = metal bands.

This has been happening for about a decade here in New England. We even have the NE Hardcore and Metal Fest yearly. Lots of "progressive" acts on that bill.

Most kids think Mastodon is the top of the heap, and bands like Rush and Yes were just primitive attempts at being heavy and brutal, but from the 70's! LOL


Edited by Frenetic Zetetic - February 22 2018 at 02:23

"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 00:27
Originally posted by ForestFriend ForestFriend wrote:

Originally posted by Mortte Mortte wrote:

^To me it seems music isn´t really even near as important to today´s youth as it was my youth.


I think it's just oversaturation - kids these days seem to be wearing headphones 24/7 if they can. Of course, if you have a choice of millions of artists anywhere you are, it's really not as special as back in the day where you'd have to pick and choose a few albums and wait until you get home to listen to it. At least that's what one of my music teachers theorized (makes sense though).
I think quite many young people of today music is just the back of doing something else in the internet. In my youth - no internet, no playstations etc. Commandore 64 become in the eighties, I used it, but never had it on my own, also music was a lot more interesting to me. Still I enjoy much more to pick few great powerchords from the guitar than sitting and staring the screen.

But yes, when you hadn´t got the endless collection as today´s people have, you also listened those few ten albums much more and really found out how great they were!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2018 at 22:07
Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

Of course first and second gen proggies are getting older but frankly it seems the 'new' fanbase, if such a thing exists, is actually getting younger .
If such a thing exists? Yeah, all these young people who listen to Pain of Salvation, Riverside, Opeth, Haken etc only refer to themselves as metal fans because none of them know what prog is. Tongue

I was commenting more on the status of progressive rock rather than the existence of a young fanbase.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."   -- John F. Kennedy
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2018 at 21:08
Haven't listened to much post-rock, but GY!BE just turned me right off the whole genre. Maybe it's just them, but I found it way too ambient and boring. A bit of ambience is nice, but a whole album of it? No thank you.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2018 at 20:20
Post-rock is THE new genre. In my opinion, it is the most promising, and it is still fairly new, so it could expand and expand and expand.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2018 at 19:46
Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

Of course first and second gen proggies are getting older but frankly it seems the 'new' fanbase, if such a thing exists, is actually getting younger .


If such a thing exists? Yeah, all these young people who listen to Pain of Salvation, Riverside, Opeth, Haken etc only refer to themselves as metal fans because none of them know what prog is. Tongue


Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - February 21 2018 at 19:47
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2018 at 18:20
Of course first and second gen proggies are getting older but frankly it seems the 'new' fanbase, if such a thing exists, is actually getting younger .

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."   -- John F. Kennedy
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2018 at 17:02
older an older.. yet better and better haha. My ass hasn't starting sagging yet and my legs will stop 20 year old strippers in their tracks (until they see my face at least hahah).

Oh what was the topic. Let me guess without bothering to read.  However some are trapped by nostalgia.. look at the idiocy we see in polls here.  Yet advancing age does not have to mean one is stuck in the past.  Open ones eyes.. and see today's progressive scene rivals... tops I'd argue.. the classic prog scene of the 70's.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2018 at 15:35
My son who is a musician/producer says that most of his contemporaries discover prog through tech metal/math rock route; I took him and some of his mates to see Rush and Hawkwind and although initially I think they were a bit bemused, they certainly started to explore whats out there. My son and I fairly regularly have sessions where we listen to some of my old lps and he is pretty astounded by what he hears- it may not be to his personal taste but he is amazed that this music was ever made and the discipline and ingenuity that went into it with the technology that was available then. It may not all be to his taste but he has developed a hefty respect for those artists and bands that went before.

We oldies are just getting older and we cant halt time. that's just the way it is. Hopefully, a younger generation is at least seeing and respecting the effort, strength of will and pure inventiveness that went into a lot of music from the 60's, 70's and 80's and using that as a springboard to create new music..

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2018 at 15:22
Getting serious for a moment......almost everyone (make that everyone) I know that's into prog rock are already older guys. I tried to get my son in law, age 36, into prog rock but he doesn't seem interested.
The young man (age 24) who works for me likes a few prog bands he's heard but he's not really into prog per se. 
The youngest prog head  I know is 50...the rest are in their mid to late sixties.

I did introduce a lady friend who is 37 to Porcupine Tree and Wilson and now she's a huge fan of them and I burned quite a few prog things for her from other bands both known and obscure...and though she says she likes most of it she seems to be only interested in Wilson's material.

I have a few patient's that are into prog and they are all old farts like me. I am often surprised how many young people are on this forum that are into various prog bands.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2018 at 15:01
I was recently in a non prog environment where I was talking a little bit to a guy who happens to be a local musician. I thought he said he was 31 but I can't remember for sure now. Anyway, out of curiosity I asked him if he knew the term prog and he said something like "yeah, isn't that like Rush?" I didn't press on further but mentioned that PF are considered prog too. For some reason I didn't continue much with that particular conversation or try to "school" him about prog. There was another guy at the same place(maybe in his early or mid fifties)who's favorite band is Yes and he unsurprisingly knew a bit more about prog but still not really what I would call a huge prog head(just mainly the most well known seventies bands and not a whole lot beyond that). 

These days I think it's mixed. While there's a lot of people who aren't even necessarily prog fans who know what it is(yes even younger people)there's probably just as many who don't. However, I think most people who spend a good amount of time looking up music stuff on the computer probably at least know what prog is(eve if they aren't into it)regardless of age.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2018 at 14:57
Yes it is.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2018 at 14:39
The other day, I saw a young fella in at my work doing the shopping with his mother. He would’ve been around 17, and wearing a Floyd shirt of The Wall. I said I dig his shirt, and he thanked me and said   “ Floyd are cool, I really love ‘Stoner’ “. He was familiar with WYWH and Animals !! Point is, many of the younger generation aren’t really aware of the term ‘Prog’.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2018 at 14:04
[Ask a Floyd fan under 25 about prog and you'll most likely get a 'huh?' look right back atcha]

I think for 99 percent of them that's the case but then there's the one percent(at the most) who maybe got into prog through Floyd. I know there are several on here like that. Then there's also fans who somehow discovered prog maybe through prog metal or something then discovered Pink Floyd or Rush(who they were already fans of) are often labelled prog and got into prog that way. Yes, I realize those are the exception and not the rule. Smile
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