I was discussing music with a member of the younger generation and he said that he loves Prog rock. There was a second where I thought, "Damn that is fantastic! A kid about 17 getting into smoking pot and listening to themed albums with complex musical structure." My follow up was "What bands are you listening to?" He said, and I am not lying, "Vampire Weekend and Linkin Park."

Oh son, that is not progressive rock. In fact, you couldn't be more wrong. I keep my iPhone stocked with a wide array of music for just this occasion. So I let him listen to Dream Theater. His face scrunched up and he stuck his tongue. "Ok well Dream Theater isn't for everyone." I put on some early Genesis, specifically the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Now that is a bit more pop-oriented than prog rock, but it still has a very complex musical structure. He shook his head "My dad listens to this crap."

"Fuck" I thought, have I turned into that old man? I scrolled through quickly to try and find a contemporary prog rock band, I went through Bigelf, Tool, and finally settled on Muse. Now Muse is stretching it in terms of the hardcore prog rock label. They are more symphonic alternative, but some of their music does contain the intricate musical patterns. "I liked Tool, but Muse is something my sister listens to from Twilight."

"What does Prog rock mean to you?" I had to be missing something and his answer was eye opening. "Lasers." He told a story about going to see the Australian Pink Floyd and had never seen lasers used in a concert before. I thought the use of lasers was almost ubiquitous and had become so overused it's almost a cliche. So when he went and saw Vampire Weekend and Linkin Park, they apparently used lasers and this is what he associated Prog rock with.

I walked away from the conversation attempting to teach this kid something and learned something myself. I sat and reflected upon my years of concert going experiences and realized that he was crudely associating lasers with an intricate stage show like Prog rock used to have. Take The Wall, for instance, Pink Floyd, and now Roger Waters, build a giant wall onstage and act out the themed album onstage. Australian Pink Floyd do the same thing, but cheaply with a complicated laser show.

Or the kid was just really stupid. I don't believe that. He just didn't have the concert experience to know the difference with what he saw on stage and the vocabulary to express those thoughts. But please, lasers do not mean progressive rock.