Is prog dying out, or coming back?

I heard some Prog in my teens, I was born in 1961 but by the end of the 70's, stopped listening to it for decades , apart from Hawkwind and early Pink Floyd occasionally, Genesis 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' ,and Yes' 'Relayer'. Now listen to Prog to a lot, and discovering Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Nektar, Focus, Caravan, ELP  Camel, and rediscovering Yes , Mike Oldfield, and more. 

So intrigued to hear that there maybe people returning to Prog as well as new generations discovering it and forming bands themselves. 

I would be surprised to hear that Prog was dying out. From my time away, and returning to it, looks like there are Prog scenes all round the world, which is a really positive development. 

I bet there are still people(mostly non prog fans)who probably think prog died in the late 70's and never returned. In all honesty at this stage of the game I can't imagine there being many people who were really into prog in the old days who still think prog is dead and are unaware of the current scene but I suppose there are some. Maybe some just lost an interest in music or got into other things besides prog or maybe they just aren't curious enough about it to do the research. You would think that even with those who assumed it died and that's it might have somehow come across it by now by accident. That could be the case but not necessarily since after all you don't hear about it on the tv, radio or even online(unless you go looking for it). 

My situation is probably at least a little bit unique. I got into prog at the most unlikely time and that is the 1980's. It's true that many of the big named prog bands were still popular then. However, most weren't playing pure prog music and you didn't really hear the term prog used that much(not to mention no internet). I somehow got lucky and came across the term since I had rock books and a guitar book(that mentioned Robert Fripp and his progressive rock band King Crimson). By the end of the 80's I had discovered prog catalogs and then eventually prog online and so I have seen it's gradual growth first hand. It's been very interesting and reward to see prog's popularity grow in the past thirty years but it's mostly been in an underground way. It's not as though even now your average person knows what prog is. Most musicians and "music people" do but that's about it. 

As for giving up onprog in the 90's I kind of did that too. While I was already a big prog fan by the mid 90's Istarted to become a bit disillusioned since it seemed like I was the only one I knew who was into it. When I went back to college I got more into alternative and grunge(both of which I still like)and stopped listening to prog for a few years. In mid 1998 I rediscovered my old catalogs and then prog online by the end of the decade. I went to my first prog festival in 1999 and haven't looked back since.

You have to think about which songs are the easiest to digest for a mainstream listener. 

I think Yes and Genesis are good, but some of ELP's more commercial, Lake-penned songs would be even better tbh.

I'd suggest "In the Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson.  That is the one that hooked me. 

The first ever record I heard that could be described as prog was Love over Gold by Dire Straits, actually. I didn't used to be into prog until I heard an album that can only be prog related and realised what I was missing.

By the way, this thread is huge! So many answers! I'm not complaining, it's provided a lot of insight for me and hopefully others. Wasn't expecting this, though! 

Same with Foxtrot, it took a while to my younger self to enjoy Supper's Ready.  Selling England by the Pound, ATOTT or W&W are better options to start exploring Genesis by a newbie. 

No. Why would you think that? 

I was a teenager when I first listened to Yes, listening to mostly metal. I borrowed The Yes Album from a friend and enjoyed it instantly. Then my older brother had a couple Yes vinyls and I enjoyed that, too. 

We all started some place, there's no right or wrong.