Introducing prog to friends...?

Well one of the hottest girls in my workplace liked it immediately when I played Porcupine Tree's "Even Less" one day.

paganinio wrote: Well one of the hottest girls in my workplace liked it immediately when I played Porcupine Tree's "Even Less" one day. What does this mean?  It's important to have a mainstream drum sound, a mainstream guitar sound, and basically a mainstream alternative rock sound. And it's important to have Steven Wilson's voice. Girls love that stuff.

PhideauxFan wrote: Many of my friends like this album very much: Quantum Fantay: Terragaia (Belgium-2014). The spiritual sons of Ozric Tentacles. (18/20) http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=44769 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjyGIgl5D5Q

A_Flower wrote: About a week and a half ago, my friend and I showed a group of our other friends all 23 minutes of Echoes by Pink Floyd. Many of them quite hated it, I kept getting them excited for the one guitar riff during the build up at the end. When it came, one of them yelled "I waited 20 minutes for THIS?" It was actually pretty funny. But more importantly, later that day, I showed this girl So Sincere by Gentle Giant. I was almost certain she would hate it but she loved it. I showed her some other funny prog rock songs and she liked them as well. No, she wasn't too atractive, but now I can say I met a girl who likes Gentle Giant

I find it interesting when someone puts forth the observation that some music appeals to heart and emotion (good) but if there is an intellectual quality to it then immediate override. That intelligent music cannot have an emotional appeal is utter rubbish.

Or that music that does have a highly sophisticated component to it in developed composition is lesser than something that is immediate. Reminds me of the more annoying aspects of Rolling Stone.

I heard Topographic Oceans Side 3 when I was a kid and thought it was great.

Give me the great British bands who started the whole thing than the watered down Budweiser (when you should be drinking Czech Budvar for the real thing - flavour, body and strength) to American watered down versions like the more flaccid moments of Styx or Kansas.

And yes, the Italian bands are fine as they are coming from a classical background unlike British bands that had the challenge of abandoning the umbilicial cord of blues - before metal did and being very progressive. And kick starting the Italian scene all of whom thought Genesis nd King Crimson were the business. And who am I or anyone else to disagree with these guys?

I was never able to successfully introduce it to many people. I had one friend a long time ago who seemed rather receptive it to it but when he got a girlfriend I pretty much lost touch with him. I'm pretty sure he bought tales from topographic oceans though because of my telling him about bands like Yes(who he was already vaguely familiar with). My brother never really took to it however despite him liking Yes and also seeing them and King Crimson with me. He saw Yes with me two different times, King Crimson once and Jon Anderson solo once. He never really warmed up to prog much other than them and some early Genesis(most of which I actually bought for him because I knew he liked Peter Gabriel). 

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - December 08 2016 at 20:00

Upbeat Tango Monday wrote: If my friend is into pop: neo-prog bands, some Marillion or IQ (I hate Marillion, but it might serve as a gateway) or 80's Genesis/Yes If my friend is into death metal: Opeth or Nocturnus If my friend is into power/speed metal: Angra, Dream Theater, Symphony X or Spiral Architect If my friend is into Bjork, Radiohead and indie crap: Pink Floyd or Porcupine Tree...even some Jethro Tull If my friend is into Rush, PF, Porcupine Tree or Dream Theater but doesn't know anything about prog, I go big: Yes, Genesis, ELP, Camel

Me: Hey do you guys like prog?

I can get people into prog. I like my prog to be perfect. Nice melody, good sound, good vocals etc. I don't like overdone prog. E.g. Over complex, too medieval, too jazzy, too cheesy, too folky, too old sounding. I don't listen to so called pretentious prog. Most proggers go over the top with their prog. A good example check out the rating of hoelderlins traum compared to rare birds. Rare birds smashes traums unless you're a flower power stoned hippie. But of course trauma has a stronger rating. You gotta play quality prog if you want to get people into it

What's pretentious about prog rock anyway?