Do you feel overwhelmed by amount of prog?

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the amount of prog (and music in general) available? We can now listen to countless bands and artists on sites such as Youtube, Spotify, Pandora, etc. I do find them helpful for deciding what I want to spend my money on. But it also can be daunting sifting through so much stuff to find something I like enough to buy.

What I’ve been doing is writing a list of the bands and album titles that perk my interest from discussions on the board and from the reviews on the main Prog Archives site. Then I will see if any are on Spotify so I can check it out. I’ve been pulling back a bit now and try not to listen to too many, so I don’t get overwhelmed by it. I know that with prog we need repeated listens for it to click with us, so it’s hard to decide if a band is worth coming back to later on. Is there anything you do that helps you narrow things down?

I haven't gotten to the point of feeling overwhelmed, because I haven't adopted the idea that ALL music is free, which has led to a feeling in people of "why not take (try) it ALL?" Having taste is sure to become extinct with the ability to "binge" on everything at little or no cost. The real cost is you've now filled your head up with crap.

If I felt overwhelmed by it I wouldn't make any myself. Of course there needs to be more. We can always use more. That way I can break down my tastes into something very specific. 

very overwelmed. When started out listening to prog it was just the main bands like yes, jethro tull, genesis, pink floyd, but then I started going deeper and deeper and deeper. Now I'm going through the avant garde sub genre. It just seems like it's endless the amount of bands in the prog rock genre.

Even though I breathe, eat and sh*t music (sometimes I listen to it too), I have become totally overwhelmed by all the recorded music out there (prog or not). At some point I wanted to get into more non-rock/non-electronic music but I keep discovering more stuff in rock/electronic. I know what I like and what I don't, so even ignoring stuff that doesn't interest me I'm still overwhelmed by all the potential 'might likes'. 

Only when I try to stay on top of everything in the field, but I stopped doing that a long time ago.  I feel much better now, thank you.   The trick is to balance staying open to new artists while having a good sense for your own tastes.  This is probably easier for us geezers than for the young 'uns.  There is a lot of good music out there, some of which you will like and some of which you won't.  Listen to your ear's content, but do not feel obligated to like anything no who says you should.  That's part of why I distinguish artists whom I enjoy listening to from artists I respect.  I don't always like what I respect, and quite frankly I don't always respect what I like.  My no-guilt listening policy helps me overcome the apparent contradiction in that statement. 

I've been on a serious buying bender for about five years now & I'm starting to get to the point where its tough to carve out enough time to listen to what I already have and give the new stuff I'm getting every month the time it needs. 

The Sloth wrote: I haven't gotten to the point of feeling overwhelmed, because I haven't adopted the idea that ALL music is free, which has led to a feeling in people of "why not take (try) it ALL?" Having taste is sure to become extinct with the ability to "binge" on everything at little or no cost. The real cost is you've now filled your head up with crap.

Wow, I'll try and stay off your lawn! I think you might be missing the point. Listening to music online for low or no cost allows us to learn what we might like to listen to more of. I listen to everything I can on YouTube or Bandcamp first. If I like it, I purchase the CD, either the electronic version or a hard copy.

As for too much? No. We need to figure how much exploring versus staying with the familiar works best for us.   When I am more tired or stressed, I prefer to stick with what I know. When I am relaxed, I explore the many artists I haven't yet discovered.

Edited by twalsh - April 10 2015 at 00:59

I feel overwhelmed by the amount of crap out there these days due to the internet, but not the amount of progressive music.  I wish there was more of it actually. 

zravkapt wrote: I actually miss the old days when I could play the same Metallica cassette for a month straight.