How old were you when got into prog? how

My prog evolution had three distinct stages:

Around age 14: Through friends and my father, I got into classic rock, which led me to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Pink Floyd. I also got into 80's thrash at this time. My only true prog album then was Selling England By The Pound. I also discovered Tool at this point.

At age 21: I discovered Opeth, randomly while messing around on the Internet. This led me to Porcupine Tree, Meshuggah, Dream Theater, and others.

At age 24: I was desparately searching for new music, and managed to discover Muse, The Mars Volta, Rush, Ayreon, Riverside, and others. I eventually stumbled upon this website in May of 2006, and now I have a 300+ CD collection that is made up of mostly prog, prog-related stuff, and metal.

About 2 years ago, I wasn't terribly into music, just barely stumbling my way through some really shallow classic rock.  My friend recommended I picked up this really weird album from 1969 by some group called King Crimson.  

I can remember vividly! It was 1977 and I was 17. Our english teacher allowed us to listen to the radio, (can't remember why). When "Roundabout" started I was immediately immobile. Mesmorized, hypnotized, I was rivited. I never heard anything like it. Of course, after the song was over, the DJ played another song without mentioning who the previous band was. I asked one of my classmates who the band was and of course the rest, for me, is history. I will say that I listened to Kansas having both "Leftoverture" and "Point Of No Return", but neither album gave me the reaction that this one particular song did. In hindsight, maybe listening to Kansas made me appreciate longer songs, kinda softening me up for more complex song structures. I remember going to the local record store, buying "Fragile" and had to have everything else Yes did. I never did thank my english teacher ;-)

Back a few years ago (13-14) I used to listen to stuff like Linkin Park. After a little while I got an interest in music and started exploring classic rock. I discovered all the important bands like Zeppelin and Floyd and dove into "good rock". I was into Rush and Floyd and certain popular prog bands for a while, but I didn't really know what progressive rock was and didn't explore it.

Prometheus wrote: haha...i'll offer my story since i'll be the first person not from the 70's. a modern prog story: i was probably 14 and caught a listen of Tool...became obsessed with them for probably two years and then desperately wanted more. my girlfriend was learning The Mahavishnu Orchestra on the piano ("dance of the maya" --eccentric music teacher) and she burned me the CD..i loved it. then a friend of mine suggested Radiohead, picked up Kid A, as a fluke, and became obsessed with it. then, just by chance i found this site...and you people have made me spend too much money. (oh..and now i have a college roomate who listens to thrash and death metal...so being subject to his music allowed me to see the merits of extreme prog like Meshuggah and Ephel Duath. that's been the biggest evolution for me since prog itself; every other prog genre came easily)

Edited by Chus - March 13 2007 at 21:31

Probably Dream Theater when i was about 15 or 16, so that's 5 or 6 years ago. I remember listening to Scenes From A Memory for pretty much 3 months straight (as in barely anything else). I was obsessed. Rush came along too. Then it was Opeth and then i discovered this place somehow.... that's right, i googled The Flower Kings. And then came Zappa etc.

I was 10 when I really got into prog. Starting with albums like Foxtrot, Nursery Cryme and ITCOTCK. The whole experience was orgasmic and have been since!

Deathrabbit wrote: Kansas  leads more people to prog than any other band I know of, at least as far as the States' is concerned.EDIT: Rush is a a close second.

Well, back then I just thought of them as classic rock. Progressive wasn't even a blip on my radar.

E

Unfortunately, very recently.

My story is typical: I was a teen in love with Zeppelin,Guns 'n Roses and other similar gritty rock and roll. One night I got bored and decided to go through my Dad's album collection (all vinyl) and pulled out a few records that looked interesting. One was the ubiquitous prism cover we know so well. This particular album was the only one that struck a chord with me, and I soon found myself in love with Pink Floyd, and bought everything I could find over the next two years (I lived in a small town, and in those days--1988 and 89--it was hard for me to find good music).
After I had exhausted all the PF albums, I began to search out other similar music, based on the recommendations of relatives, friends, even a boss I had. Within a few more years, I was a huge Yes, Genesis, ELP, & Rush fan. My progophilia then laid semi-dormant for several years, until I discovered this wonderful site. Bands that I have subsequently fallen in love with are Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Gentle Giant, Van der Graaf Generator, Camel...along with many others.