Unlikely Listeners

See, the problem right there is relating it to a scene. I think prog is just a medium. An expansive medium that could be anything. Therefore I don't think there should be a stereotype. At least not in the way that punk or metal is stereotyped. Certain dress codes, etc. I find all that stuff excessively silly. And I do love death metal too. But scenes are incredibly stupid.

With all that being said. What is the prog stereotype really?
Being from South Africa, I can't say I've come into contact with any stereotype, unless being 60+ counts. I'm 29 years of age, which is young, but I can't say I've ever encountered the whole "Good lord, you listen to prog?!" scenario. It seems rather improbable considering the few people I've met like other forms of music too, making it about a love of music and not about any particular scene.

The only people that do tend to have that reaction are people that are part of some ridiculous scene or don't really listen to music, so to them it seems strange, because most people want to belong to some sort of clique. Just take a looks at the punks and their whole 'non-conformist' conformism.

I might've got slightly side-tracked, but hopefully you get the gist of it.

HemispheresOfXanadu wrote: I love stoner rock and I don't drink or smoke weed. And I'm 21 so I'e been legal drinking age for almost 3 years.

Me too, although I'm 22. The music is more than enough to feel stoned 

I'm a geek, I love Kajagoogoo, and Gorguts, Sade and Art Zoyd. Talk about messed-up.......

I'm not a prog fan as much as I'm a rock/pop fan who enjoys prog rock, especially RPI. 

And I have all the Carpenters albums.   

Well I'm a 22 year old female and I've been listening to prog for about 4 years now. Anyways, there does seem to be a stereotype that many prog fans are males. In reality though, prog fans seem to be quite a diverse group that live all around the world, which only reflects the diversity of bands and musicians within prog. You can find just about any type of influence in prog. It is a shame that the stereotype surrounding prog is that of white men (usually English) who sing about fairies and elves when in fact the reality is so different. You can find prog bands and musicians in any country of any ethnic background who sing about everything from relationships, current events, by-gone days, politics, war, environmentalism, fantasy, sci-fi, spirituality, religion, etc.


Honestly, I dont know what it is about prog that interests me so much. I guess it is the individuality. Each group (at least the ones that I loves) seems to have their own unique sound, and the music has depth so I dont get tired of it in two weeks time.  Honestly, it just seems to gel with my personality. I have an old soul, I'm interested in many different things, and I like things that are unique/ different, and prog is a perfect fit.


Edited by BunBun - September 15 2016 at 21:13

I am 19 years old. Places like Brazil are very strange to like something as progressive rock.

Edited by crimson_smoog - September 15 2016 at 17:03

If you don't have a van with a rad wizard painted on the side, prog isn't for you.

As far as I'm concerned age doesn't really play into it. There are tons of young dudes that listen to prog (and classic rock and stuff like that) a ton if not exclusively on principle. (I'd say, if anything, race is probably more of a notable factor than age. We do tend to be a somewhat white-heavy listener-base, though rarely if ever is that a conscious let alone purposeful distinction.)
Now as far as gender goes, I would say that females are a fair bit less common, but the girls I see into prog tend to be super into prog; prog fangirls (and a lot of these are younger, too, in my experience).

Well, I got into prog when I was a teen. I am male. Most of the times I see people with prog shirts at the mall, they are either white men over the age of 40 Or white men in their twenties. That doesn't mean that black people dislike prog, because a lot of blacks listen to jazz, which is related to prog because of its complexity. I can relate to the men in their twenties, they discovered prog thanks to the internet or probably their fathers.

It's okay if you listen to prog being a girl, listen to what you like, that will make you happy.

Does a 16 year old fit the image of a non stereotypical proghead? ;D
I wouldn't call myself as an extremely introverted type though, but rather introverted than extroverted. I just listen to prog because I like more complex music (love to analyse) and prefer it to classical because classical just gets a little boring after a while and I adore the progressive nature of prog.
Having a different taste than most others/against the mainstream suits the image of an introvert well, however, artists on stage don't seem like introverts at all. And the showing off part resonates more with an extrovert rather than an introverted type.

Edited by DDPascalDD - September 14 2016 at 14:27