Is Prog fan base getting older and older?

I think most of the older bands that still appeal to the younger crowd do so not because they are prog, but because the band went above and beyond the prog sticker....like the Floyd...who to some never really was a prog band. There's been many folks on PA expressing exactly that. Ask a Floyd fan under 25 about prog and you'll most likely get a 'huh?' look right back atcha.
The up and coming bands that share some form of success in today's music scene, that also happen to be listed on PA, are not really known as prog rock to the general consumer. Experimental rock/post-something/metal/avantguardista and so forth are more oftenly monikers associated with such acts.

In the case the OP is referring to prog like in the classic prog sound, then think about how long it's been since a symph prog band made a hit record or just one that resonated broadly amongst the younger crowd. Yep. You'd have to fly back to 1976.
Does that mean the rest of us can't enjoy the music? Thankfully no


Edited by Guldbamsen - February 21 2018 at 13:30

The other day, I saw a young fella in at my work doing the shopping with his mother. He would’ve been around 17, and wearing a Floyd shirt of The Wall. I said I dig his shirt, and he thanked me and said   “ Floyd are cool, I really love ‘Stoner’ “. He was familiar with WYWH and Animals !! Point is, many of the younger generation aren’t really aware of the term ‘Prog’.

I was recently in a non prog environment where I was talking a little bit to a guy who happens to be a local musician. I thought he said he was 31 but I can't remember for sure now. Anyway, out of curiosity I asked him if he knew the term prog and he said something like "yeah, isn't that like Rush?" I didn't press on further but mentioned that PF are considered prog too. For some reason I didn't continue much with that particular conversation or try to "school" him about prog. There was another guy at the same place(maybe in his early or mid fifties)who's favorite band is Yes and he unsurprisingly knew a bit more about prog but still not really what I would call a huge prog head(just mainly the most well known seventies bands and not a whole lot beyond that). 

Of course first and second gen proggies are getting older but frankly it seems the 'new' fanbase, if such a thing exists, is actually getting younger .

Post-rock is THE new genre. In my opinion, it is the most promising, and it is still fairly new, so it could expand and expand and expand.

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Atavachron wrote: Of course first and second gen proggies are getting older but frankly it seems the 'new' fanbase, if such a thing exists, is actually getting younger . If such a thing exists? Yeah, all these young people who listen to Pain of Salvation, Riverside, Opeth, Haken etc only refer to themselves as metal fans because none of them know what prog is.

I was commenting more on the status of progressive rock rather than the existence of a young fanbase.

I agree with whomever asserted most kids these days associate prog = metal bands.

Edited by Frenetic Zetetic - February 22 2018 at 02:23

mlkpad14 wrote: Post-rock is THE new genre. In my opinion, it is the most promising, and it is still fairly new, so it could expand and expand and expand.

Mmmh really? I found out about post rock in some cool radio shows in the mid 1990s, and in my perception, these cool shows have long moved on to newer more or less (!) exciting things (or are not cool anymore ;-) ).
Post rock has produced the odd classic that hopefully won't be forgotten and still has some potential in my view, but as a trend it is on a downward trajectory for quite some time.  

ForestFriend wrote: Haven't listened to much post-rock, but GY!BE just turned me right off the whole genre. Maybe it's just them, but I found it way too ambient and boring. A bit of ambience is nice, but a whole album of it? No thank you.

That was my exact same feeling about them.  When I first came to PA GY!BE were all the rage so I had to check them out.  One of my bigger disappointments since I have come to PA.  That being said, I actually did enjoy most of their most recent album.