About that age poll...

I'm now 17, got into prog when I was about 14/15.. I borrowed Jethro Tull's Aqualung and Kingston Wall's 1 from my friend. After that I realized my father was a huge fan of JT also and he started showing me many great bands..Before that I basically listened to bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and so on..

47, got into prog belatedly at age 23, due to a friend playing Genesis and Pink Floyd. Still my favourite genre, although my musical taste is very broad.

FuzzyDude wrote: I'm assuming the much older fans were all killed during the Genre Wars of '77-'78.. *sighs* Damn the punks... *shakes his fist*

=45
I got into Prog properly(buying albums)when I was 12/13
I was listening to a friend's brother's Prog collection from the age of 11 (1971)

Now.A lot of people are going to hate me for this but,I think that Punk did a lot of good.Prog was becoming IMHO too self-obsessed and stale.I still bought prog albums but I also bought Punk records.Robert Fripp and Brian Eno
moved to New York and produced and played with members of the then Punk/Post Punk bands of the time i.e.Talking Heads,Richard Hell,Devo.Even Peter Gabriel's band at the time looked Punky especially Sid McGinnis who resembled Sid Vicious.

Twenty-four and have had the prog disease for some six years now. Got into it thanks to recommendations of DT, Porcupine Tree, King Crimson and Pink Floyd. Also thanks to prog I started appreciating jazz, jazz-rock, fusion and some weirder genres.

Before that it was heavy music of all shapes and sizes. I remember listening to Black Sabbath at the age of five and absolutely loving it. Then I got into classic heavy metal and bands like Europe. I expanded my metal taste during the next few years, but then I dropped almost all of it and started flirting with punk and NYHC. At about sixteen I rediscovered metal in a huge way, and focused on its extreme forms that time around. And while the prog/jazz revolution showed many of my metal favs the door, I've found myself unable to kick the death- and doom metal habit completely... 

Now 18. Got into Prog at 16 thanks to Dream Theater.

19 for me college freshman, first got into prog as a high school freshman but high school had a bunch of music for me

Before 10: Listening to my Dad's music (Cream, Clapton, Marley etc blues rockers)

10-13: Whatever was in the Pop mainstream, I was listening to on my local radio station.

13-14: Starting getting into Rap and Hip Hop alot more with the mainstream rappers at that time. Plus Canadian hip hop groups like Swollen Members and I became obssesed with 2pac ( Yes I did! )

14-15: Started to get into the underground rap scene (MF Doom, Blackstar, Jedi Mind Tricks and Canibus) and wrote my own rhymes to become a rapper, but the dream soon faded and I lost passion for it.

15-16: I began to tire of the music I was listening to and slowly got into popular metal and some punk music for a short while. Then I heard about "progressive rock" and noticed that some of the stuff was older music which I assumed was good because I had some good memories with my father's music. Then I began listening to Spock's Beard, Dream Theatre, and Metallica at the same time .

16-17: Enhance my tastes in Prog and began listening to more and more artists and then getting myself into Jazz and Fusion. I stopped listening to metal and punk, but got into alt-rock for a short while. I started a band to start reflecting my new tastes in music and never really looked back at rap.

Aaron wrote: pre 16- nothing, i actually never listened to music, i honestly didnt own an album before then

Yeah, before I got into Pink Floyd I really didn't listen to music, and I didn't own a single album.

Age 16, got into prog with 15, first prog band i liked: KC

Got into prog: 15

Age: 16 (was a big Alt. Rock fan, still am, but prog is tied with it as fav. genre).