Was Genesis really that influential?

^Can't even argue against that statement. Rush was class from A to (YY)Z no matter what their styles were.

^I like post Hemispheres Rush better but generally prefer pre Collins Genesis. Go figure.

^The point of my post was to help establish that early Genesis was appreciated at a much later time, nothing wrong with that as great painters were often celebrated centuries after they died. A little honesty from the bands the bands I posted about woud have gone along way to boltser their credibilty. There's nothing wrong starting out with Motorhead and then discovering The Lamb a bit later.



Edited by SteveG - June 12 2014 at 15:31

Well, I'm obviously referring to Trespass up through The Lamb... here. Wikipedia says that from Trespass onwards they did crack the top 20 in Continental Europe even getting to number 1 in some countries like Belgium and Italy, but in the UK didn't even get to 12 until Foxtrot.

Selling England by the Pound did get to number 3 in the UK and went gold in the US, though. I'm pretty sure that album was mighty influential.

Have people here perhaps looked at the contemporary charts and seen how Genesis' now-classic LPs stack up against those by ELP, Jethro Tull, The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Yes etc.? Would be the easiest way to answer the question if you ask me.

^That seems to equal out

^Early Rush always sounded to me like they were mainly influenced by Zep, Yes and Larks era Crimson. Subdivisions and other 80's keyboard heavy songs seem to owe more to the then contemporary Collins led Genesis. What are your thoughts?

Note From The OP:  glad to see all the response. Just to make things clear, the bands that were citing Genesis influence were all hard rock and metal bands. Prog On!

Given that most reviewers resort to comparisons with other bands when appraising Prog music, one of the most common examples cited is something along the lines of this bit kinda sounds like Genesis on Foxtrot etc. It seems self evident that Genesis are used in this fashion because they are one of the most widely known Prog bands of all time and the writer believes the reader will have no problem understanding the frame of reference. To wit, the admittedly tiresome barb from mainstream rock fans in the 80's that Marillion sucked because they sounded 'just like Genesis' (i.e. probably the only prog band they had ever heard) I sorta agree with David (Atavachron) here in that anyone's answer to the question depends on how you define 'influential' They are a standard against which we measure Prog but as far as hearing Genesis music in other bands, their post Gabriel output has probably had more influence on artists from a wide gamut of genres than that of their earlier material. (let's face it, that sh*t is very difficult to play)

As a survivor of the 60s and 70s in the UK I can happily confirm that Genesis were astoundingly popular and extremely influential at that time.    Ignore all the Phil Collins solo stuff later and listen to their early pieces. They were ahead of their time and had the following to match.