Are proghead nerds?

Atavachron wrote: "Progheads" are almost entirely nerds.   But in its day, liking Tull and Yes and Floyd and ELP was entirely acceptable and even cool. Which is to say proggies are nerds now, but not so much then.

Same goes for jazz. Used to be cool, now it's seen as a bunch of snobby intellectuals or music nerds.

Edited by Gnik Nosmirc - May 27 2025 at 16:29

richardh wrote: Anyone that starts a sentence ''dude'' is probably a nerd. I kinda consider myself a nerd. I'm single and intend on remaining that way. I don't like socialising. I enjoyed being a chess player as I didn't have to speak to people and I like prog because it's something I can obsess over endlessly. I wear my prog nerd badge with total pride although I think I'm a lightweight as I'm too lazy to check out everything and tend to stick what I think is 'prog' (Yes being the centre of that universe).

I am single and intend on remaining that way. My family members are obsessed with pickelball, and to be nice, I play it a bit with them. My fixation is with prog and older classical music recordings, which my friends and family don't really get, but I guess that is ok.....Bruckner and Mahler and Triumvirat are my musical "triade", even though most don't "get it"...

Sean Trane wrote: I never considered myself a nerd or a geek in whatever I forayed in (music or others), even when I spent many hours in the early times for this site.

It's just a word, and I think there's been too much criticism of being "nerd", as the way I see it, there're both some pluses and minuses in it.

^ It's interesting because even when PA began Symphonic Prog was already 30 years old. Now it is about 50 years old and has not replace classical music yet

Gnik Nosmirc wrote: I'm quite sporty, and my taste in literature and film leans more toward the classic and art-house end of the spectrum than toward fantasy or sci-fi. While some branches of progressive rock could be labeled as nerdy, genres like RIO, Krautrock, post-rock, or the Canterbury scene evoke a completely different atmosphere—more psychedelic, experimental, and offbeat. To me, listening to that kind of music suggests an eclectic, countercultural, and intellectually curious mindset rather than the stereotypical sci-fi/fantasy nerd identity.

This rings very true. I'm more at home with the countercultural, and intellectually curious. That is pretty much what my whole life has been about. However I do have that nerd like tunnel vision kind of focus/obsession, which has made me "an expert" at only a couple of things in life, while I suck at the rest.

-I've met plenty of genuine Progheads of the ELP/Yes/Gabriel-era Genesis-worshipping ilk. Some of them only like the first King Crimson album (but not Moonchild), are mostly indiffernt to Jazz Rock Fusion, RIO etc (they might do an exception for the worst Return to Forever album, Romantic Warrior) and want to talk about time signatures, often do a lot of air drumming, are into sci-fi etc... And their idea of an interesting topic seem to be: but is Rush/Pink Floyd/Canterbury Scene etc... really Prog? Many of them are unable to snap out of it, and talk about other stuff. I got nothing agianst the prog nerd-type. I still like him (sorry, it's a him ca. 95% of the time), but we don't seem to share much common ground. It's usually easier for me to have a conversation with someone who's not into prog at all.   

David_D wrote: Today, I consider myself mostly as an aficionado of progressive music, and thus as something else than just a progger, even Progressive Rock (rather strictly defined) surely still is the genre, I'm most fond of. Anyway, I've definitely been quite a music nerd in the largest part of my now long life.

I never considered myself a nerd or a geek in whatever I forayed in (music or others), even when I spent many hours in the early times for this site.

"PROG" (fùck I hate that word) was never the only style of music I liked and I'd even given up following whatever was still around in the later 80's... and if it wasn't for a Scandinavian mail-order catalogue that fell onto my desk, I might've missed the whole 90/00's slew. In some ways those same catalogues got me interested in those RIO bands that I only discovered in the mid-90's.

Today, I consider myself mostly as an aficionado of progressive music, and thus as something else than just a progger, even Progressive Rock (rather strictly defined) surely still is the genre, I'm most fond of. Anyway, I've definitely been quite a music nerd in the largest part of my now long life.







Edited by David_D - May 26 2025 at 07:52

I am a bit of an obsessive researcher on topics that I'm passionate about - not sure if the makes me a prog nerd (or geek). [This has been going on for around 50 years now.]

Edited by Floydoid - May 26 2025 at 04:51

I think I'm a nerd, but it's mainly a reaction to those who don't understand why a song can last more than 3 minutes and have unusual signatures. I'm not only into prog, even if it's what I prefer. I like blues, some country-rock, celtic folk, pagan metal other than jazz and classical, but I'm everything but an expert on the last two. So I'm probably a music nerd, more than a prog-only nerd.

I'm a sci-fi lover, but I'm also into politics and because of that I've had some problems with the police when I was young. So I can love the lyrics of Jon Anderson, David Bowie and Roger Waters. (three different kinds)

Can I be considered a proghead if I don't like Genesis?

Enchant X wrote: No! we are very cool

I mean we do love Steely Dan on PA, right?