The Album That Killed Prog?

 

The sex pistols did mortally wound prog...

 

Just to make a fll recovery!

 

Many classic rock and prog (a sub-genre of classic rock) "dinosaur" acts went extinct, while others adapted, "walked right out of the machinery" and evolved, finding new ways to be "prog." (See Gabriel's groundbreaking and commercially-sucessful third solo effort, and Bowie's constant reinvention of himself, especially in his "Berlin" trilogy of albums, and even Let's Dance.)

Times change -- and change they did.



From this list, however, I'd point to ELP's overblown, bloated WORKS (and its successor) as a weak album (overall) that really helped turn the tide against prog rock. The album and its financially disastrous tour pretty much encapsulated all of the "shortcomings" (actual, or assumed) of the genre: pompous, out of touch, irrelevant, unrealistic -- big and complex just for the sake of being so. It was the wrong album, at the wrong time. ELP were never exactly the rock critics' darlings, but now the rock press lined up to heap scorn upon the album, the band, and the genre it was a part of. Rock was returning to its simpler "anyone can do it" good time roots, and classically trained (or classically aspiring) "rock" musicians just didn't resonate with the prevailing sensibilities. Less had become more -- rock needed to ROCK again, and prog's reach had, with Works, far exceeded its grasp

Another prog album that helped to turn the tide against prog was of course Yes's messy, fatally-flawed Topographic Oceans. The pretension levels and mystic, druggy "obtuseness" of it all were leaving even many longterm fans of the band behind, and shaking their heads in perplexed bemusement. ( Genesis had a similar, fan-polarizing album with The Lamb Lies Down.)

But, of course, prog did not "die" -- it simply went even further underground, and hibernated for a time. When it re-surfaced in the Eighties, it had -- for better or worse, depending upon your perspective -- "learned a few lessons," adopted some new sounds and simpler melodic structures, and become leaner, tighter, hungrier, and more widely accessible overall.

These days -- as with popular music in general -- the music we deem "prog" has fractured and branched out in many directions, for many different audiences. From the poppier, radio-friendly, shorter songs of bands like It Bites, Radiohead and such, to the widely popular metal prog of bands like Dream Theater and Opeth, etc, to the "retro" old school prog of bands like Marillion, IQ, Pendragon, Echolyn, etc, to today's really far-out, perhaps truly progressive, innovative artists like Deus Ex Machina, Godspeed You Black Emperor, the Mars Volta, Mr Bungle, etc, there's now a type of "prog" for just about everyone!


 But is it all "prog?" Is 'prog' even a valid single genre? Has the term long outlived its usefulness, and lost whatever meaning it once may have had? That's another topic!

Thanks -- I was hoping someone would actually read such a "long" post.

 

 

My vote went to love beach a very sad album indeed.