Progs' Resilience

Punk was never about musical ability,even punk rockers who know little to nothing about music, they will never argue for the musical talent of their bands, they were looking for speed and some nice anti government statements, I feel like with alot of the prog/psychadelic movement, it did have some anti government in there but was a little too passive aggressive.  

prog4evr wrote: Interesting thread-bits here. Once I heard someone comment that parts of Genesis' "The Lamb..." gave inspiration for punk as a genre (not to mention the direction Peter Gabriel was going himself). That comment up for debate, I would agree that punk was less a reaction to prog and more a reaction to other mainstream pop music of the mid-1970s (esp. disco)....

Yeah, and the first grunge song was Pink Floyd - Nile [actually, it kind of was...]

May be wrong about this, but I'd say punk was less of a reaction to music in itself but rather to a certain attitude connected to music. A lot of times prog seemed to take all the fun from music, and disco was just silly/annoying at best. Perhaps it was just restoring the balance with a more rock'n'roll act rather than rock'n'art?

Good solid musicianship and honesty in music will always stand the test of time. Even if prog has pretty much been for a niche audience, those same people are still listening to it today. Whereas I will admit punk has its place in music history but it was a genre of its time I think and has not stood the test of time well. There is alot of punk inspired musicians yea but that kind of music seems to always change with the times for whatever is fashionable or 'cool' that week.

    What strikes me as funny is this idea that punk bands were out to destroy prog. In actuality, many punk musicians were fans. I saw a video of one of Henry Rollins' stand up shows, where he talks about meeting Adrian Belew. The guy is absolutely in awe of him, and King Crimson.

Interesting thread-bits here. Once I heard someone comment that parts of Genesis' "The Lamb..." gave inspiration for punk as a genre (not to mention the direction Peter Gabriel was going himself). That comment up for debate, I would agree that punk was less a reaction to prog and more a reaction to other mainstream pop music of the mid-1970s (esp. disco)....

Frasse wrote: Snow Dog wrote: Magic Mountain wrote: I think that punk was more in response to disco than prog.  For the most part, one cannot dance to prog.  I believe that young people that liked to dance wanted an alternative to disco music. You are right.....it was the dire singles chart, but also big bands like Led Zeppelin that Punk was a reaction too, as much as it was Prog. It was against the establishment and established acts. And by now they are established acts themself.

Who are? Punk bands of the seventies? I don't know ao any who are currently established acts.

Do you mean that they became establishered acts? If so, yes, a small ammount of them did, but what of it?

Magic Mountain wrote: I think that punk was more in response to disco than prog.  For the most part, one cannot dance to prog.  I believe that young people that liked to dance wanted an alternative to disco music.

You are right.....it was the dire singles chart, but also big bands like Led Zeppelin that Punk was a reaction too, as much as it was Prog. It was against the establishment and established acts.

I think that punk was more in response to disco than prog.  For the most part, one cannot dance to prog.  I believe that young people that liked to dance wanted an alternative to disco music.

I'm not a huge punk fan, but one can not deny the impact it had and it DID give music in general a renewed focus and sharpness, imo. I even like the odd punk track- shock! horror!, though it's not something I'd go out of my way for by any means. I'd argue prog was perhaps at its lowest ebb in the late 80s- prog bands were still having big hit albums in the late 70s, lest we forget. Punk WAS resposnsible for a whole lot of rubbish and talentless imitators, something a lot of the bigger punk bands would be quick to admit. The ones with a wider musical outlook such as The Jam, The Clash, The Stranglers, The Damned etc survived into the 80s because they broadened their horizons somewhat. The fly-by-nights did not- something that is the same in prog.

And also, I feel one look at the pop charts of the mid to late 70s it's possible to argue that had as much on impact on, if not more than, the anger of the punk movement towards the music scene. They were literally filled with MOR and lightweight disco/pop.

progismylife wrote: smithers wrote: sex pistols were horrible. There's a start :)      The sex pistols weren't that bad...