[fleemur12]

In my experience, it usually depends on the person's musical "enlightenment" when introducing people to musical genres with which they are not familiar.  My high school students that play instruments and that may in classic/jazz band are much more likely to #1) sit down and really listen to new music and #2) appreciate "progressive" music, or music that is unlike that which they are normally exposed to in their daily lives.  The jazz band kids are particularly enthralled with "jam bands" like Jaga Jazzist and Snarky Puppy.  Quite a few kids are familiar with Genesis and Pink Floyd from their parents, but this association tends to make it uncool with many kids.
 
When I have a "free period", the kids in my AP bio class break out Drake, Armine, Young M.A., Rihanna, and other top 100. Music is often used as background for socializing, although they sometimes sing along as a group to a particularly popular song's chorus.  When I played a Zero 7 tune for them, a few of them recognized it and to my chagrin, said that their "parents listen to this stuff." 
 
When it comes to adults, I find a lot of it depends on if they were brought up as casual listeners, listening to the pop of the day, or whether they listened to a broader pallet of music.  Personally, I was exposed to The Beatles, The Rooftop Singers, and Burl Ives from my parents and was quick to fall in love with Rush and Yes when I met fellow musicians in high school.  Incidentally, I got my dad to a Jean-Luc Ponty show in '83 when he was 47 and he loved it.  Today at 80, he loves Holdsworth, Virgil Donati, Al Dimeola, Spock's Beard...

 

[KopaneDePooj]

On a Thanksgiving evening I have a question for the progressive community. In my 50 years on the planet I have never been able to convert a soul to the love of progressive music. Sure someone might like a song or album or two but my entire music library is progressive as is my musical mentor who at 52 admonished me to give up trying to convert anyone as he also has never been able convince anyone outside of already prog lovers of the beauty of the music.

My older sister and I would listen to Genesis, Yes, ELP, Rush etc. in our youth and loved it all and still do. Progressive is not popular it is more like a cult based on sales. What is it that draws us to the genre when most reject it? Is it genetic thing or early exposure?

 
In my early youth my friends were so clearly divided between hard rock/metal on on side and pop/disco on the other, and the reactions were so clearly "against" each genre, that later on when getting into prog rock I didn't bother to convert anyone because I knew that if they don't have it by then, they won't acquire it. (Acquiring The Taste that is

For me it was clearly inheritance from my parents, although they listened to the usual pop and some rock bands from the 60's and 70's and also The Beatles and some Pink Floyd. But the spirit of value above entertainment or at least value along entertainment in music I got from them.

I always had and still have a very broad horizon of music styles that I like but when I first discovered Rush it was such a revelation for me.
Before getting into prog, I was very passionate about Sci Fi literature, and I also had a book about music genres and there was this genre of "Space rock" that I didn't know anything about, but the name sounded very exciting I thought it was something with lots of synthesizers and effects so I ordered a tape with Vangelis an J.M. Jarre. Of course that was not space rock

So I discovered Rush by chance having two or three songs recorded at the end of that tape. That songs were there to fill the space left. "Tom Sawyer" and maybe two more. At that time I had no possibility to buy original vinyls or cassettes so I contacted a journalist that had written an article about Rush, took the train and traveled 200 Km to his home just to record his Rush vinyls on my tape recorder.
Later on I got into Fish era Marillion, I explored old Pink Floyd albums and so on. Curiously I got into P. Gabriel era Genesis much later because I loved Marillion and I was pissed that everybody thought Fish is copying Gabriel which I didn't agree at all.

Another funny story:
After recording the Rush vinyls I was working as a bingo caller for some time, and I played a lot of Rush in the bingo hall during game breaks. I remember a few people telling me to "change that music, put some Ace of Base", but also all the staff from a nearby electronics store came daily to my bingo hall just to listen to Rush and Marillion and have a beer. I was very happy with that .

I am curious about how you guys got into prog rock and what was the band that started it all for you.

 

[KopaneDePooj]

Now about
"The Similitude Of A Dream by The Neal Morse Band".
 
Wow, just wow! I think it is a masterpiece.
 
Not original at all, and I may begin to sound like a broken record saying again that I hear a lot of influences - early Genesis and Marillion on keyboard riffs (especially on the beginning of "The Slough" but generally throughout the album) , Kansas "Carry on My Wayward Son" -style vocals, some Foreigner / Journey style backing vocals, brief Al Di Meola guitar style on "Draw the Line", Pink Floyd style echoes and atmospherics. Oh and the very Beatlesque with a pinch of Queen "The Ways Of a Fool" (On the Hill?).
Basically the album sounds like a homage to all the great classic prog bands and more.
 
But... I can forgive them for that because it is such an accomplished album, it sounds so musical, luminous and enjoyable that for me it stands along albums like "Selling England by the Pound" or "Misplaced Childhood".
 
Stars of the show: stellar keyboards and drumming.

 

[fleemur12]

Originally Posted by KopaneDePooj /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
For me it was clearly inheritance from my parents, although they listened to the usual pop and some rock bands from the 60's and 70's and also The Beatles and some Pink Floyd. But the spirit of value above entertainment or at least value along entertainment in music I got from them.
 
So I discovered Rush by chance having two or three songs recorded at the end of that tape.

I remember the very first time I heard Rush, and it was also by chance.  I had similarly inherited a palate for being ardently involved in music, particularly if it was something new and original. I was 12 years old and outside in my front yard, when I heard music coming from somewhere down the street.  I was a shy, introverted kid, but I liked the music and decided to ignore my internal fears and follow the music.  I was so enthralled with the reverse-tracked guitar and high register vocals, I forgot my shyness and walked into a backyard with an older kid sitting on a deck drinking a genesee cream ale listening to The Necromancer through his Peavy Backstage guitar amp.  We connected on the music and for most of the remaining afternoon he turned me onto cream ale, Hemispheres, Anthony Phillips, and The Snow Goose.  We became fast friends. 
 
I bought Hemispheres, Caress of Steel, and 2112 that weekend and I bought my first guitar a month later so I could learn how to jam with him. We've seen Rush a dozen times together over the years, starting with the Signals tour at Radio City Music Hall where they played early versions of Kid Gloves, Red Sector A, The Body Electric, and The Weapon from p/g.  And Marillion opened but I have no recollection of them. 
 
I'll never forget that day.  Getting into prog rock was an important part of growing up for me. 

 

[fleemur12]

 
Trying to branch out from jazz fusion and deliver a little more melody, metal and vocals to my amygdala and auditory cortex. 

 

[swspiers]

I guess I was listening to prog get a really young age, although I never really considered it "progressive". At the age of 13, I guess I was a little too young to understand what the term meant. So, I listened to Emerson Lake and Palmer and Yes quite a bit back in 1975/1976.

Then on one fateful Sunday morning in 1977 I was listening to the Toledo, Ohio, radio station WIOT. They had a Sunday morning show called "slam jams", in which prisoners and their families got to make requests. And that's when I heard it: "21st Century Schizoid Man". I had never heard anything like it, and it certainly didn't get any radio airplay other than that one time. It hooked me from the gate, and within a few weeks I had "In the Court of the Crimson King" in my possession.

So, for me, King Crimson is the Alpha and Omega of progressive rock.…

 

[YtseJamer]

The Best Progressive Rock and Metal of 2016

http://www.popmatters.com/feature/the-best-progressive-rock-and-metal-of-2016/

 

[sigtransduction]

been zoning out on RPWLs new release of their take on Floyd;s concert suites "The Man" and "The Journey"

 

[sigtransduction]

a lot more going on here than with"The Endless (or should I say interminable?) River

 

[fleemur12]

The Endless River isn't very deep, but it does slowly and surely meander on.  Sort of a Division Bell session outtakes album.  Not a terrible album in my opinion but definitely one of my least favorite Floyd albums and not a frequent spin for me. 

I'm enjoying the RPWL.  I really liked the
Beyond Man And Time album. 

 

[waynes world]

Side note: Enjoying Drifting Sun's new one, Soul Safe Asylum.

 
Started listening. Can't focus on work. Yup. Good. 

 

 

[spook76]

Great news! Big Big Train just released on Bandcamp their live album 'A Stone's Throw from the Line'. The concerts the material came from were three shows in August 2015. The concerts won Prog Show of the Year.

https://bigbigtrain.bandcamp.com/album/a-stones-throw-from-the-line

Post script: based upon my ears and the input on my KSE1500 energizer this album might have the largest dynamic range of any album in my entire library. A great live master.

 

[KopaneDePooj]

The Best Progressive Rock and Metal of 2016

http://www.popmatters.com/feature/the-best-progressive-rock-and-metal-of-2016/

Some new stuff for me to explore, but I don't agree with Marillion - F.E.A.R. at no. 3. For me it is a bland album in a long line of bland albums featuring S. Hogarth. Three notable albums after Fish's departure: Season's End, Holidays In Eden, Brave. After that they went downhill and are a far cry of what they were.

 

[god-bluff]

That time of year again....
 
.

 

[KopaneDePooj]

From time to time me and others are posting albums that are not really prog rock but might be interesting and not very out of place for this thread. I like this and I encourage you to post more
 
I know Apoptygma Berzerk for their more upbeat past albums, but here they are with a different one.
The first track sounds more like JM Jarre but later on, the album moves to a more organic/analog krautrock feel.
 
Album:
Apoptygma Berzerk - Exit Popularity Contest