Nerdiness and Progressive Rock

In the CNN article below there are some interesting comments about being nerdy and liking odd time signatures.  

Edited by sealchan - September 30 2010 at 14:14

It seems that anything which involves using one's intellect is considered nerdy by those who don't value intellect.  I find those kind of people very boring, and that is simply uncool in my book. 

I hate stereotypes, I hate a lot of popular culture, and I don't give a toss what people think, to be frank. I LOVE prog, and if that makers me a nerd in others eyes, then so be it. It's their intellectual loss that they feel the need to categorise in the first place.

sealchan wrote: In the CNN article below there are some interesting comments about being nerdy and liking odd time signatures.

Edited by moshkito - September 30 2010 at 15:52

It takes a certain nerdiness to go from "Wow that's hard to dance to," to taking the time to actually say "That's in 11/8, cool." Similarly, alot of what makes prog prog is A) complexity and B) Being willing to say "Screw what's popular."  Both of which appeal to nerdy folks (like me.)

Of course saying nerds have less social skills really begs the question of what group you are socializing in...some may take this as an insult...but if, or maybe we should say when, relating to the world becomes a skill with mainly technical dimensions then the norm for how we social relate to one another may shift from empathetic modes to more nerdy modes of technical accuracy.

I do think that progressive rock, as a whole, does draw in a particular breed of individuals.  I'd characterize them as people willing and capable of noticing/appreciating threads of complication.  I think to truly 'notice' music you need, in some fundamental way, to be a nerd.  Or a geek, in my case: longtime Tolkien obsessee, YA and steampunk enthusiast, Ursula LeGuin fixation etc.  I've made numerous friends who have an interest in prog, and they generally fall into three categories:

Nerd: is either intensely technically or musically minded, or both.  I have a friend who teaches classical conducting at the University here, and is a rabid Gentle Giant fan.  I've also met numerous engineering students that can get pretty enthusiastic.  They do tend to obsess over the moribundly technical death metal groups, too.

Geek:  Like me, a literature-obsessed bookworm, someone who primarily enjoys prog for its lyricism and emotional evocation.  I think prog can be the perfect accompaniment for the lit geek, actually - it bears many of the same trappings as the poetic excesses of the Romantics, and certainly has a baroque appeal.  It also accompanies fantasy and science fiction, for obvious reasons. 

Hipster:  A prog fan who justifies their enjoyment of prog by getting off on its uncool, partially-forgotten appeal.  He/she is into it as long as it's away from the mainstream.  These folks are usually obsessed with Radiohead, first and foremost.  Also ELP, I have no clue why.

40footwolf wrote: Lozlan wrote: Hipster:  A prog fan who justifies their enjoyment of prog by getting off on its uncool, partially-forgotten appeal.  He/she is into it as long as it's away from the mainstream.  These folks are usually obsessed with Radiohead, first and foremost.  Also ELP, I have no clue why. Really? All the hipsters I know who like prog tend to gravitate to King Crimson, probably because they're the most "respectable" prog act from that age along with Pink Floyd. Sometimes early Genesis too, but rarely.

Maybe I know some defective hipsters.  Which really isn't all that surprising. 

I am not a nerd. 

 

I'm not particularly smart. I found the appeal of prog because I got terribly bored with almost everything else in the music world. I am a geek in a general way. I don't read Lovecraft, I buy comics occasionally, I don't understand math, but odd time signatures excite me.