Your Favorite Prog: Older, Newer, Doesn't Matter?

It doesn't really matters for me whether the band is old or new or anything else. Actually both eras had thier awesome bands and a lot of dull artists.

Older prog, exclusively (though my cut off date is a little sooner-1983)
             Even my classical music collection is dated (mostly recordings before 1960)
    Believe me, i have tried with the newer music, and it just doesn't work for me, unfortunately

Older "prog" (includes music that I consider to be under a fairly wide progressive rock tent, which goes even beyond PA's big umbrella as however loosely defined today).  The vast majority of the rock and rock related music that I listen to is from the 60s through 70s, though I listen to a lot of avant prog from the 80s (especially early 80s) as well.  There's a lot I also love that is newer, but in my collection there is not nearly so much post 80s music.

From my experience, I'm much more likely to enjoy a wider variety of so-called Prog music from the late 60s through 70s than after that.  A lot of what I listen to is fairly obscure, but certainly looking at the popular Prog lists, there is more that I like from the "classic" years than from the newer years, and despite already owning far more from the 60s and 70s, my collection is still growing faster from that time (that said, I very rarely get new-to-me albums these days).

When it comes to 80s-up music, the vast majority is on the RIO/ Avant prog side (if not necessarily classed in that category at PA), and, well, a lot of the earlier than that music in my collection is also fairly experimental/ avant garde, but there is a wider amount of music that I like from the earlier years, and there will be plenty of music I love from every category that is used from music from the late 60s through somewhere in the 70s, but I can't readily say that of all post-classic era categories of Prog music.  I'm being not as precise nor nearly concise enough with my words and personal perspective/ ideas as I would like here, but whatever.

If I chart out my top 5 bands, I find there's pretty much an even split:

VDGG

Wetton-Era KC

Opeth

Discipline

Riverside

I got my start on classic groups and started incorporating more modern groups within the past year or so, thanks to discovering this site. I'll never hold one era over another, because quality is timeless. That works both ways.

And, because I saw the OP's inquiry, I'm 23.

Edited by Neo-Romantic - November 20 2013 at 22:37

So difficult to just single out just one band! But if I have to choose a discography for a castaway island I'll have to choose Pink Floyd.

It's not as if old and new prog are each in one homogeneous style.  So I can't say I prefer one over the other.  There are more 'classic' albums that I like compared to new ones but that's simply because I started with them.  It's much easier to just pick off the essentials and get familiar with prog.  Over time, my favourites from new prog will grow.

I've pretty much stopped acquiring older prog as I have built up a substantial amount of it and played it over and over already.   I do various rotation schemes to keep the older stuff in circulation.

Edited by Slartibartfast - November 21 2013 at 18:34

I tend to listen to older prog, mainly because it contains the musical and aesthetic characteristics that I enjoy listening to. That being said, I love new prog too, so it doesn't really matter to me.

It doesn't matter to me when the music is made, so long as it sounds good, and there's passion in it.

There is so much more new prog than old, and although I prefer 70's prog, I also enjoy the thrill of the hunt for prog coming out today. When I do find something  newer that I like, I'll listen to it over and over again just like I did back in the 70's when classic prog was coming out. Then I'll file it with all my other recently discovered new prog. So I spend a lot of time listening to recent stuff. Getting a strike takes a lot of work, but the reward is that you have something that is totally new and fresh to your ears. To me that will always beat going back and listening to an old classic one more time..

Edited by aldri7 - December 03 2013 at 18:45