How Did You Get Into Prog?...or music in general

i have, but to be honest, as i said, cudn't be arsed

It's 6 o'clock in the morning, and I don't want to go down and watch tv because it'll wake up the rest of the house, and if I go down, I'll have to let my cat in, and a he's a noisy little terror (loudest and most talkative cat ever...It's a black cat as well, oh Spooky)

Reet-o, basically I thought people could write down here how they got into prog (this may have been done before, but I am too lazy to look for it)

So my real journey into music began when I was 4. I listened to my mum & dad's cassettes (early 90's as well, we weren't ready for cds I think). While listeing to The Searchers, The Archies etc., I was given a lend of one of my first cds (Michael Jackson's History). I put it onto tape, and every day after reception (kindergarten for Americans), I would come home, and just listen to it non stop, I even wore out the tape, and even rememeber all the stops and skips in the music (one in Heal The World). I also listened to alot of contemporary pop music when I was child, e.g. Simply Red (Stars I think was my first real album I had heard non stop on the radio, and then I was hooked on Fairground), Lighthouse Family, Spice Girls (oh the shame, still like them to this day)

Throughout my early adolescent years, I did listen to quite a bit of Eminem & Nu Metal (Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Drowing Pool). That soon progressed into pop punk, which soon progressed into Metallica.

After my Metallica period, I was hooked on Iron Maiden (my first real prog band). I always loved how they just performed these amazing songs, and even making them over and under 10 minutes long.

When I was a first year in my secondrary Grammar school (that was 6 years ago, mind you), a friend of mine, who shared my likeness of Iron Maiden & another band called Dragonforce (who I had just discovered, a year before everyone else did mind you), told me I should listen to a band called Dream Theater. He whiped out a very early model of an mp3 player, and showed me the song Under A Glass Moon. I thought it was pretty cool, it had some Maiden qualities about them.

A few months later, while I was in a hairdressers, my brother came in and said he got a Dream Theater album (I told him about them, but he didn't really show any interest), and I saw that it had a very dark and odd cover (Train Of Thought). Went home (remembered just their I had to clime through my kitchen window in order to get into the house), and blasted the first song (As I Am). I was so blown away, I just listened to that album again and again and again and so on.

I also rediscovered my love for a pop punk prog band, that goes by the name Coheed & Cambria (who I still love to this day), and Opeth, which again flaired my prog and metal tastes

After being an addict to Dream Theater, and researching about prog, I discovered that I really wanted to get into more technical music, so one day I went into a shop and bought Close To The Edge (that day I also bought Cradle Of Filths Damnation & A Day, which began my love for extreme metal).


Put on the first song, and was just blown away by that opening section, with the almost improv avante garde jazz sections, and Jon Andersons superb vocals.

Yes, became Genesis, Genesis became Marillion, Marillion became Rush, Rush became Death, Death became Dimmu Borgir, Dimmu Borgir became Scar Symmetry, Scar Symmetry became Enter Shikari, Enter Shikari became Immortall, Immortall became Deathspell Omega, Deathspell Omega became Simply Red, Simply Red became Frank Zappa, Frank Zappa became Supertramp, Supertramp became Pain Of Salvation, Pain Of Salvation became SteelyDan, Steely Dan became Merzbow, and so on and so forth.


So basically I'm at an all round musical advantage. I still love all those aritists from my past, and have never really lost touch with them. Really my music taste is open to something thats different, and if it's not different, then it better be interesting and catchy.