[Cozy]

Michael,

FWIW, I think you have a good premise, but I think along the way you say a few things that my experience has found to be a little different.

I don't think it's very fair to call the average music listener a "sheep" because they happen to like the music they are exposed to. If you are going to apply that analogy in other places, are we all sheep because we might read magazines we find on the shelf, books in Barnes & Noble, TV shows on network television, movies shown on 2,000 screens? I'm sure *most* people aren't completely underground with their tastes in personal entertainment, but that doesn't necessarily make them robotic.

Secondly, it's not so much that people don't have the "ability" to enjoy a lot of progressive rock and other complex musics, they are likely more of a casual listener. Music means something a little different to them and they like music that scratches itches other than the ones many prog fans do.

Lastly, a good number of prog fans could be considered very 'comfortable' listeners, relatively speaking. They tend to enjoy music that has a strong tie in sound and aesthetics to the 70s, along with a mixture of other popular rock/AOR/metal they grew up with after that, without really exploring much beyond their already established tastes.