Why aren't most Zoomers into progressive rock?

Prog-jester wrote: What also important is showing boomers some zoomer prog! I'll start doing this right now, with this fire of a record released today:

This isn't quite "Zoomer" prog. Jay MacLendon, the brain behind glass beach, formerly of Casio Dad fame has been around for a while.

Prog-jester wrote: jeez some skull mearusing theories in this thread... Lotsa zoomers are legit into weird music, thanks to memes and reddit and TikTok, and some of it IS borderline prog. The problem is not with the music itself tho but with the culture around prog - it's "boring dad music", always was*, always will be. So it will never be popular again, unless another cool modern prog artist temporarily changes that, just like The Mars Volta did twenty (!) years ago. Actually Sleep Token could've become THE New Prog Band but these days they're too busy ripping off Deftones and The Weeknd instead *well, starting from the arrival of punk

I recall being is a record store some years ago that had a prog section and a big one at that. A zoomer couple were walking by the prog aisle when the female stopped and started looking through the Spock's Beard catalogue. She asked her male counterpart what "prog" was. He dismissed her immediately and said "it must be stupid sh*t! Look at the band's name of the album you're holding. Spock's Beard! Stupid!" He rushed her back to the Coldplay music section, but she still looked back at the prog album titles. I hope she came back one day and looked further. So, condemnation from the male without even knowing what the music sounded like. That speaks volumes.

Edited by SteveG - January 19 2024 at 07:25

As a boomer myself, I don't recall many that listened to progressive rock back then. And it wasn't labeled as prog or progressive where I grew up. Never heard the label until the early 90's.

So it appears not much has changed.

Maybe if "Stranger Things" saturates another episode with a prog rock classic another career will be resurrected.

Cristi wrote: Hercules wrote: What is a zoomer? I didn't know either, but I googled it.

Same. I had too google that to make sure it isn't something different than a Gen Z-er. xd

What is a zoomer?

First of all, most of prog's history was in the 70s and not 80s. Prog wasn't much more known in the 80s than in the 90s. In fact pure prog started to resurge in the 90s whereas in the 80s it was mostly commercial and poppy stuff from the 70s bands (with some exceptions of course). Anyway, the truth is there are prog fans from all generations. A lot of times it seems there are hardly any prog fans who got into it in the 80s (like me) because you didn't hear much about it. At the time I didn't know anyone else who was into it (or even heard of it or most of the bands). Sure, people knew Genesis, Rush and Pink Floyd but hardly anyone at the time associated them with the term prog because you didn't hear that term much (if at all). Being a Yes fan or being a Genesis fan didn't (and still doesn't) make you a prog fan (imo).With the exception of the 70s prog has pretty much always been a genre that you had to go out of your way looking for to find it (for the most part). You might stumble upon it by accident online but if you weren't already at least somewhat familiar with the bands associated with it you would probably pay no attention to it and not investigate further.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - January 18 2024 at 09:26

Here are a few of the multiple reasons why Gen-Z is less likely to embrace Prog/Jazz/Classical.  

Edited by omphaloskepsis - January 18 2024 at 08:56

Easy Money wrote: I teach music to a lot of young people. Today's youngster is not much into bands or live music. Go to your local live music club and you will see mostly middle-aged and older. Most young people I know are into music you can do by yourself with a phone, ipad or computer. They like electronica, rap, hip-hop, video game soundtracks etc. I quit teaching guitar because few kids want to rock out anymore. Oddly enough, playing a band instrument and getting in the school marching band still has its appeal and I still get a lot of students on saxophone and flute because of that. I still have a lot of piano students too who like a wide variety of music including classical.