Why aren't most Zoomers into progressive rock?

In 1971 Progressive Rock was huge in my hometown. I was in high school then and they offered a lot of musical activities to participate in. If not totally connected to the music programs then outside forces formed events revolving around performances. Battle Of The Bands and the high school dance. At most high school dances teenagers wanted to dance to music by Chicago, BS&T, Cream, Humble Pie, Ten Years After etc...and this opened up a realm for Progressive Rock.

And it certainly did. Teenagers wanted to see cover bands playing Jethro Tull, Genesis, ELP, YES, and so young musicians were stacking their keyboards like Wakeman, Rock drummers were buying gongs and chimes...and trying to play like Carl Palmer and Bill Bruford. I realize you may find that difficult to believe...but I'm being totally honest..people went crazy over Progressive Rock!! The music teachers were amazed by Keith Emerson.

They were already playing Switched On Bach for us in music class and they often discussed the Synthesizer. When the music teachers and the music director heard Emerson they just flipped out! It wasn't until the mid to late 70s that Prog craze began to die down.

In the 70s and 80s during the first wave, second wave, and possibly third wave of Prog...there were amazing Prog bands belonging mainly to the underground. Gracious, Curved Air, Beggars Opera, Trace, Greenslade, Rare Bird, Spring, Ange, Pulsar, Far East Family Band, Eloy, Guru, Guru, Gong, Hatfield and the North. ...and the list was endless!! It extended all through the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Underground Prog not commercial sell out Prog. It was interesting music and it's longevity continued all through the 70s, 80s,90's.

Regardless of the big 5 or 6 ...Regardless if the mass media still wanted Prog or not...Prog became an obsession for the starving artist. Think about it. It continued to exist for the sake of art. It wasn't about giving the people what they want. Hundreds of bands were signed to low budget labels or subdivisions of large labels for decades.

Some of the underground bands were directly emulating the style of the big 5 or 6. Regardless of what sub-genre of Prog they belonged to. RIO, Canterbury, Symphonic, Krautrock...and several bands were actually very original sounding. It was morally worth it to keep the spirit of Prog alive. Not for money...obviously...but to keep the art alive

Bands on the fringe of prog such as Elbow and Muse may fair better. These could be potentially be gateway bands although they've both now been around a while. Of course there are Black Midi and the like. My Nephew has also heard of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard although thought it strange that they are in anyway connected to say Pink Floyd. That is one of the problems, it's way too large a universe and the borders between experimental music and prog are not always clear and seem to be more a matter of opinion than actual reality.

Magog2112 wrote: As someone who loves having music conversations, it's a struggle when your peers consistently don't understand your music taste and treat it like it's the most bizarre genre. Being a young progger isn't easy sometimes.

YES!

This

I embrace I've got a weird taste in music, it's fun

The golden age of Prog coincided with the upsurge of album sales, when albums outsold singles for the first time. Prog was largely an album-oriented genre, a lot of the time with elaborate packaging that added to the overall appreciation of the music.

So, is admitting to a short attention span some kind of badge of honour?

^I absolutely agree with all of this.

^ I’m talking about general societal trends, not trying to be patronizing. Obviously, there are Zoomers out there who enjoy Prog and other forms of creative music and who love to listen to albums all the way through and have a great deal of patience in spite of all the distractions. But, there is a reason why music in general is becoming shorter and shorter in length and perhaps focused more on rhythm rather than on interesting composition.   Not all music obviously. There are plenty of exceptions. We are a more distracted society because we are being bombarded with communications in many forms. Kid sick from school one day? You’ll get a text, an email, and a phone call all within 5 minutes of each other. Ask how many artists a typical Zoomer can name. Ask someone who grew up in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s. There will be a difference of one or two orders of magnitude. Again, not all Zoomers. And, it is due in part to the times we live in. Even non-Zoomer generations are getting more distracted, present proggers excluded.

Edited by Jaketejas - January 22 2024 at 08:56

Turns out I'm a zoomer, this is news to me. I was born in 2006 and didn't discover the land of prog until like 2020. I was watching a YouTube guitarist play weird riffs when he played "Frame by Frame" the rest is history. I have listened to probably too much prog from the popular to obscure to the practically non-existent(I'm talking to you Spectra). What brought me to love this music can be best explained by something Rory Ridley-Duff said on an interview here on PA is was along the lines of "prog is for people who want more from music than a three minute love song". As a zoomer prog head I can say that the reason they aren't really into prog is it is extraneously difficult to discover. I never heard of prog despite hearing Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Supertramp etc. my whole life. That's just what I think because no one I talk to knows what prog is and neither did I. But attention span also probably has something to do with it.

Edited by VultureCulture07 - January 22 2024 at 10:30

What an interesting thread! 

Edited by cstack3 - January 22 2024 at 12:15

It just shows how times have changed.In the 70s and 80s if I was subjected to CCR, The Eagles and Led Zeppelin I'd exit the room. That's a major red flag to society today. I don't conceive it that way. I've always disliked that music.