Epignosis wrote: ReaganwillshottyLibs wrote: chopper wrote: Qboyy007 wrote: Women are too stupid to understand prog obviously, I have yet to meet a female with the mental capacity to understand music as deep as progressive rock.   That post shows your enlightened attitude to women even  better than your avatar!!! Just wait till Rachel reads this. Prove that women are capable of listening to enlightened music and I'll change my mind.

Never knew Trolls like enlightened music either, certainly riddles maybe, This discussion is rediculous.

And I really thought this was such a civilized site...

Edited by The Sleepwalker - April 24 2010 at 05:50

Wow, all reaganwillshottyLibs and Qboyy007' s posts have vanished into thin air, disappeared into a puff of illogic.

Well... at the end I think we all agree that men and women are different in tastes and that's nothing to do with brain capabilites, just that we are different... and I do repeat: that's what we love each other... and I have met maybe 8 or 10 girls that like prog... and that's more than my male friends... which are maybe 3 or 4 so...

chopper wrote: Epignosis wrote: ReaganwillshottyLibs wrote: chopper wrote: Qboyy007 wrote: Women are too stupid to understand prog obviously, I have yet to meet a female with the mental capacity to understand music as deep as progressive rock.   That post shows your enlightened attitude to women even  better than your avatar!!! Just wait till Rachel reads this. Prove that women are capable of listening to enlightened music and I'll change my mind.  You don't define "enlightened" music but assuming you're talking mainly about prog there are enough females on this site to prove you're wrong.

I find this whole notion of guys being more into prog than gals to be a bit overrated. 

FusionKing wrote: Beacuse overall men have better taste. (I'm female by the way)

^ I don't know why, exactly as I do not have all the answers...However one can assume that women, having been used to being subservient for the most part in our cultural past, are easily made to feel insecure even in today's world, as old stereotypes still linger in the minds of many. Thus, ultimately, those who are weaker willed will turn to what they assume will bring them popularity, security. In the music world, the popular, secure genres are such things as pop and indie. That is how the musical divide is so and that is why, overall, men are inclined to have better taste. Men tend not to play it safe when it comes to thier individualism to the same degree. They tend not to worry about what other people think of them when it comes to such trivial things as dress and music taste.

Let me present this question. Has anyone observed this elsewhere?  I have never been to a concert outside of North America, in particular, the West Coast.  Admittedly my observations are very limited.  Perhaps it is entirely different elsewhere.  I was a little surprised that there weren't more replies saying it's not that way where I live.

You have to realize.  The only time I am among fellow proggers is when I attend a concert.  It has always been that way.  When I told people at work that I was going to San Francisco (from Seattle I might add) to see Transatlantic, all I got was a blank stare.  I work for a big company BTW.  Most of the people I run into have never heard of any of the groups I listen to.  The concert was far from a sellout.  The best concert I have possibly ever been to out of hundreds, was not even sold out in a 1000 seat theater.  Perhaps the economy has something to do with that.

One of the coolest things about going to prog concerts is that I feel I am among friends, family.  There's a certain warmth, comfort zone in knowing these are my people.  I do not like crowds but at prog concerts I am at ease.  I don't know these people personally, but I know we will connect because of our strong emotional ties to this form of music.  I feel the same way about this web site.

My daughter and I  watched the Transatlantic live in Europe DVD yesterday and we observed that there were plenty of females in attendance.  This was back in 2003 I believe.  The concert took place in the Netherlands.  Perhaps it's different in Europe.

I'll end with this note:  Both my wife and daughter are going to go with me next time, if Transatlantic ever returns (I can only hope).  Now how cool is that!


Edited by Ethos - April 25 2010 at 03:02

It's simply that as in many other spheres, men outnumber women in absolute terms so people also tend to associate the 'greats' with males.  Seriously, Barbara Dennerlein, Rhoda Scott, Annie Haslam, Minnie Riperton..if these are not amazing performers, then I don't know who are and they can kick several of their (overrated) male colleagues in the butt.  Taste indeed! It's quite difficult to take socio-cultural generalizations to explain this phenomenon seriously.  I say, give it time, things will change.  There's also the not entirely unfounded perception that rock is a sausage fest which probably keeps talented female musicians away from rock and by extension prog. I have noticed a lot more female artists in jazz and classical. Almost the whole violin section in a symphony orchestra performance I attended was made up of women. 

That being said, what I'd love to hear is a female songwriter in the same league as Lennon-Macca, Stevie Wonder, the Floyd etc.  I am not fully acquainted with Joni Mitchell's work but that's about the only thing I felt came close.  There have been really good female songwriters like Kate Bush or Tori Amos but not quite in the league I speak of...don't know why this is the case (or what am I missing) because there have been some great female writers before, so it's not a question of imagination.

Edited by rogerthat - April 25 2010 at 03:26