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Topic ClosedIs Prog fan base getting older and older?

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progoma View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 07:19
I guess I lower the age average in here a bit with my 24 years.

Since I discovered prog 3 years ago, I have listened almost exclusively to bands associated, one way or another, with this genre. I listen more to bands from the last 20 years or so (favorites include Porcupine Tree, Motorpsycho, The Mars Volta etc.), but I also love many of the more classic prog bands, such as Soft Machine and King Crimson (seeing the latter live in July!).

I think out of all my friends and acquaintances only 2 are into prog. My impression is that 95% of people my age have no idea what prog is, or even that such music exists. It's a lonely obsession... This forum helps :)  
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 07:40
Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Originally posted by Atavachron 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. Tongue

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


Well, other than a few bands who get labelled prog such as Muse or Radiohead or whoever, prog isn't mainstream. It's still underground. I suppose that's not news to most of us here though. Tongue
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 07:57
Originally posted by Lewian Lewian wrote:

What I like about this whole discussion is that at least still there is influx of young new fans for this music that is almost 50 years old now. When I really started to get into music about 1980 I wouldn't give a toss about anything done between 1930 and 1960, say, perhaps except the odd "modern classic" composer such as Ligeti. I appreciate musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk now bit still prog looks much more alive now than whatever one would deem the analogous "thing from the past" in those days except jazz which is still going about as strong as prog or even stronger.

Revisiting what I just wrote, I'm actually curious whether you think jazz does better than prog in rejuvenating its fanbase and keeping up with the times?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 07:58
Originally posted by rushfan4 rushfan4 wrote:

Originally posted by ForestFriend 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.

GY!BE is one of my favorites, if only for their masterpiece album... Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven is one of the best albums EVER.

I suggest you just try and sit through it one more time. Hopefully, it will click at around 11 at night.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 08:07
Originally posted by Mortte Mortte wrote:

^To me it seems music isn´t really even near as important to today´s youth as it was my youth.

IF you take away the rap .... stuff is as important today to them as it was important to us THEN ... just a different "stage" ... in general the older folks get sent out to the pasture, you know?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 09:23
Originally posted by fredyair fredyair wrote:

When I attend prog gigs I notice that the average attendant is about my age, fifties, mostly guys and a few ladies, my wife occasionally goes depending on the show. Are we a dying breed?
 
Well before being a dying breed, we're first an endangered specie.... Ouch
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 10:19
How many bands from the 70s are still popular today regardless of genre?
How many of these appeal to young people?
Did the 1970s youth listen to much music from the 1930s?

I think most people fall in love with music from their own generation. Every time I am invited somewhere new I instantly go for the in-house music collection (and books), because it is the easiest way for me to break the ice. Most oftenly I find music that corresponds with the owner's age - again regardless of genres. If there's old school stuff to be found, there is a very good chance we're talking classic rock/pop albums.

Edited by Guldbamsen - February 22 2018 at 10:19
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 21:30
Originally posted by Lewian Lewian wrote:

Originally posted by Lewian Lewian wrote:

What I like about this whole discussion is that at least still there is influx of young new fans for this music that is almost 50 years old now. When I really started to get into music about 1980 I wouldn't give a toss about anything done between 1930 and 1960, say, perhaps except the odd "modern classic" composer such as Ligeti. I appreciate musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk now bit still prog looks much more alive now than whatever one would deem the analogous "thing from the past" in those days except jazz which is still going about as strong as prog or even stronger.


Revisiting what I just wrote, I'm actually curious whether you think jazz does better than prog in rejuvenating its fanbase and keeping up with the times?


I was born in 79, and most of the music of "my time" I guess would be music from the 90's, and even 80's. But I do love music from the 70's and 60's... however, I really am not interested in music from the 30's to 50's (though perhaps I should check out for any good stuff, but somehow I guess it would be the odd one out). Still, I do remember from class mates and so on, music from the 60's, and even more so, 70's, was actually mostly apreciated, as the classics (though not much prog, anyway... still I barely knew about music back then, and even less so about prog).
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 22 2018 at 22:58
In the begin of eighties I really wasn´t interested a music of my own time, found those plastic sounds of Wham an others really awful. It was the time when I found prog, before that listened 60-70 rock, Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, the Who, Creedence, Lynyrd, Allman etc. Naturally it had something to do about my older brothers who also listened those. But when speedmetal came, I also joined to youthcultur of that day. Also when I got friends from the speedmetal listeners, few of them start to listen older music when I gave them examples what to listen. 

Also, there was a period in the very beginning of eighties when my brother was a part of fifties movement. So I also listened fifties music then and I still love Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent and Johnny Burnette.


Edited by Mortte - February 22 2018 at 23:00
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 23 2018 at 19:51
Getting older? GET OFF MY DAMN LAWN!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 23 2018 at 20:29
No
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 23 2018 at 20:30
Younger generations are probably starting to appreciate modern prog more than older prog though 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 23 2018 at 20:50
What is remarkable to me is that ANY young fans get into prog from the 1970s! 

The music is over 40 years old.  When I was in college, listening to CTTE etc., I would have been kicked out of the room had I tried to play music that was 40 years old (1930's vintage).  Some of that was very good (big band jazz, primitive blues etc) but we didn't sit around and listen to it!  

I listen for progressive influences in modern music, and there are quite a few if you look hard enough.  

 However, the modern stage spectacles of twitching, twerking dancers detracts from my enjoyment of the music, if that is even possible!  I quite like acts like Lady GaGa, but the emphasis upon dance is rather annoying to me.  

Then again, I'm a guitarist. 

No problem at all with bands like Muse, Tool etc., they carry the torch of the 70s. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 23 2018 at 21:13
Originally posted by Pigwheeler Pigwheeler wrote:

Younger generations are probably starting to appreciate modern prog more than older prog though 

Yep. But you would think most of them would discover Yes, Genesis, ELP, Gentle Giant and other older bands soon after getting into prog through prog metal or whatever way most younger people are getting into it these days.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 23 2018 at 23:48
Originally posted by cstack3 cstack3 wrote:

What is remarkable to me is that ANY young fans get into prog from the 1970s! 

The music is over 40 years old.  When I was in college, listening to CTTE etc., I would have been kicked out of the room had I tried to play music that was 40 years old (1930's vintage).  Some of that was very good (big band jazz, primitive blues etc) but we didn't sit around and listen to it!  

I listen for progressive influences in modern music, and there are quite a few if you look hard enough.  

 However, the modern stage spectacles of twitching, twerking dancers detracts from my enjoyment of the music, if that is even possible!  I quite like acts like Lady GaGa, but the emphasis upon dance is rather annoying to me.  

Then again, I'm a guitarist. 

No problem at all with bands like Muse, Tool etc., they carry the torch of the 70s.


I think the 70s was simply a special time for rock music (prog or not), whereas in the 30s it just didn't exist. Just like classically trained musicians aren't going to forget about Bach, Mozart or Beethoven anytime soon, I think rock musicians are going to remember the greats from the late 60s and 70s for quite a long time.

I also think things are just slowing down in the world of rock music... like people still hail Tool as one of today's modern prog bands, even though they've been around for a good quarter of a century. I mean, 70s prog bands were considered dinosaurs in the late 70s (not to mention that many of the bands were to release more great albums in half a decade each than Tool ever has). So that 40 year gap means less going from today to the 70s than from the 70s to the 30s.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2018 at 01:35
^I agree totally. I think there happened something really special in 60-70ties, that has not happen as great ever since. At least the new bands I think are great have a lots of influences from that period and really big revolutionary changes in pop music hadn´t happened after seventies (even hip hop born in the end of seventies).
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2018 at 03:10
Originally posted by Guldbamsen Guldbamsen wrote:

 Old people tend to favour old music just like younger people mostly go for the newer stuff.
You right, in general. But I was a teenager in te 1980s, in the Soviet Union (dark nightmare). And the favorute bands for me and for my friends was Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, King Crimson and Van Der Graaf Generator. Now I'm old hag, and I still love prog rock. And I grow up with it.


Edited by charles_ryder - February 24 2018 at 03:11
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2018 at 05:28
Obviously, most of prog fans nowadays are up 50 years old , but in fact I know lots of new prog fans under 30 years old. I believe which Progressive Music is the Classical Music of 20 century and like as traditional classic music tends to rejuvenates their public. 
The quality of composition and musicians is almost a guarantee of this renovation !
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2018 at 07:05
Originally posted by maryes maryes wrote:

Obviously, most of prog fans nowadays are up 50 years old , but in fact I know lots of new prog fans under 30 years old. I believe which Progressive Music is the Classical Music of 20 century and like as traditional classic music tends to rejuvenates their public. 
The quality of composition and musicians is almost a guarantee of this renovation !
I'm not sure. Prog is the music of another era, and we lost the spirit of that time.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2018 at 15:53
Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Originally posted by Pigwheeler Pigwheeler wrote:

Younger generations are probably starting to appreciate modern prog more than older prog though 

Yep. But you would think most of them would discover Yes, Genesis, ELP, Gentle Giant and other older bands soon after getting into prog through prog metal or whatever way most younger people are getting into it these days.

Correct! 


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