Do newbies still discover prog through 70's bands?

Rush seem to be pretty hip among many younger music fans so I can see that. Ditto for Pink Floyd. Yes not so much it would seem at least not compared to RUSH and Floyd imo.

My first experiences with Prog were with Rush. At the time, I really didn't have any idea what Prog was, but I determined that Rush was my favorite group and went with that. I later figured out what Prog was, but didn't go too deep into it largely because I was influenced by my father's choice of music, which was more of the typical classic rock. 

I got into the early stuff first when I was 17-18. I'd heard a lot of Pink Floyd and liked it okay, but Procol Harum got me interested in other prog. Then I got into Yes, who became my favorite band. I was biased against modern rock back then. I was an idiot. I didn't get into newer prog until I was 22. I still know more about classic prog than modern prog.

I discovered it in middle school when my father took me to see Kansas in 1977 at the Palladium in NYC...it was an unbelievable show.  It was hard to believe these guys were "rock" musicians. I saw Jethro Tull a few months later, but Kansas at that time were much more "classical" with a hard rock edge.  My kids have all heard progrock from a very young age...Utopia's "Singring and the Glass Guitar" is always a good starter piece for a 5-year old  :-)

^ So why does that disqualify it?   The cover art is why I was listening to Tarkus when I was eight and bought Hemispheres when I was nine (I already loved science fiction & fantasy so it seemed a natural).

You're right, the music took awhile to appreciate at that age.   It didn't seem to match the art, but of course in the context ot rock history it absolutely did.   I think the prog artists were quite smart to spend a little extra for topnotch art that did justice to the music and gave us something to look at.

TheRollingOrange wrote: Prog_Traveller wrote: TheRollingOrange wrote: I'm 20 and started getting into prog through Pink Floyd and later Genesis, and I honestly don't really listen to new prog, so yes, I discovered prog through 70's bands. Do you mean later on you discovered Genesis or do you mean later Genesis as in the post Steve Hackett era? I started with Selling England, and I've mostly listened to the the Gabriel-era-Genesis. =) So yes, Genesis.

Oh I see so you are one of those people who think that Genesis eventually turned into Phil Collins' backup band. Gotcha. ;)

I’m 55 and I was a huge prog fan in 70s. But later, to me that music was dead. So I switched to Blues and World music. But I rediscovered the prog about 2 years ago with Steven Wilson and P.T. Wow! There are so many good bands from Sweden, Holland, Poland ECT. I like it so much that I started an Internet Radio Station.

welcome snowbound! 

sounds like an epic "how i got into prog"-story.. wish u much joy on your musical journey!

Sort of, I guess. When I was a young kid in the mid-late 80s, I was a fan of the poppier output of prog-bands and artists like Genesis, Yes, Peter Gabriel, etc. (and non-prog bands that are often cited as faviourites by a lot of prog fans).

Then when I was in high school in the mid-90s I hung out with a girl who was into Pink Floyd. From there, I discovered other prog-related stuff like Jethro Tull, older Yes and Genesis, Queen, Deep Purple, Kansas, etc. through classic rock radio, but I was also online, so I started discovering new bands through newsgroups and web sites that might still exist, but stopped updating ages ago. 

It was also around the dawn of the mp3, which I guess was good timing for a kid with a computer and internet access.

My brother was also discovering prog too, so we'd share whatever we find with each other and we found a lot of the 70s prog bands that don't typically get a lot of air time on local classic rock radio that way (i.e. Caravan, Gentle Giant, Camel, etc.). We also found and listened to a lot of then-newer bands too though, like Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, Flower Kings, etc.

Edited by FunkyM - July 09 2014 at 19:11