Faux Prog Fans

 

In effect, you say: I don't know what I like.

 

Guess you'd better marry her, and stay married for a good while, before you decide whether or not you like her....

 

(We could extend your illogic to trying jobs, fields of post-secondary study, countries to live in, clothes to wear, food to buy, genders to have sex with, etc: stick with it -- you might learn to like it -- but then again, maybe not....)

 

Back in the day when these bands and artists were just starting out they were just doing their thing,  they weren't Progrock or Artrock or Post-Neo-Doucherock or anything. They were just making music. I mean, Lemmy was in Hawkwind for chrissakes.

 

I was saying the exact opposite.  People who pretend to enjoy something they don't so they are thought of as someone who enjoys it.  If they really do enjoy it, then they are not posing.

 

I found that my tastes in music became more fixed as I matured.

You know, when we're teens (and maybe in our early 20s) we usually don't really know ourselves, let alone have set tastes in art. We experiment and change a great deal during those formative years. (I was the same.) Over time, we usually stop trying to decide what we want, and start pursuing what we now know we want.

 

 

(And sorry if I came across a bit harsh.)

 

Thus, I don't need to hear an entire 40-50 minutes of music that is just not for me to discern that, nor do I feel I have any obligation to do so. My tastes in music are already quite broad, but not wide open by any means. I think part of maturity (wisdom, or self knowledge, if you like) is the ability to make fairly rapid judgements for yourself on such things, on the basis of prior experience and learning.

 

Yes, we can "learn to like" many things, and "acquire" tastes, but for me, at least, at this time of life, the possibilities along those lines are more limited (& I seem to know my own limits.). 

 

My music listening & leisure time (indeed, my lifespan) is limited, and less that it was in my younger years. I simply don't have the time, desire, will or patience to subject myself to art (which I turn to for pleasure, and an enjoyable break from the less pleasant aspects of life) which does not soon give me pleasure, or at least apparently fall within the parameters of that which I've found can give me pleasure. Nor am I actively looking for "more more more -- different, different, different) as I used to be. (I can recall "liking" or appreciating music which made me feel almost any strong  reaction -- even anxiety. But not now -- I want pleasure.) I found a few new bands here to follow back around 2004-5, but that was enough for me. I'm a prog fan, but I don't really seek out new prog artists much. Keeping up with those I know I like, filling in blanks in my collection -- with limited time & money, that's more than enough such music for me. I have "mapped out" plenty of room for myself to manouever, musically.

 

Lately, I've explored many new folk artists via Itunes and internet radio (Folk Alley), but that's within the scope of a genre I already KNOW I like. Still, I don't think the expansion in my range of favoured folk artists will be indefinite, nor will it "need" to be -- soon, perhaps, I'll have found more than enough new (to me) folk artists to explore, listen to, and devote my limited time & money to.

 

As a final example, I used to like roller coasters and horror books and movies -- now I know that i don't like to be scared needlessly, or made to feel revulsion. I have better things to do (for me), and I know what they are.

 

Sorry for the long post, but I like this topic (even if I took issue with your stance). Thanks for reading!

 

Theoretically -- yes, lol.

 

I have to admit with the rise of popularity in prog, it may be the next cool.  Hey, it happened almost forty years ago.

I do it every Tuesday.