Punk: A Logical Extension of Prog?

SteveG wrote: For something that's deemed to be so small, Punk's lasting impact on music cannot be underestimated. There would be no New Wave movement without it and no Grudge movement as a response to New Wave. And let's not forget the entire arty Post Punk movement. Prog simply has not have had that impact on Pop music, regardless of how big it was, unless we look in terms of Punk being a reaction to Prog, which would place Prog right back into the negative light that it was cast into in the middle to later seventies.

Have to agree with most of this but as for the reasons, things get a tad blurry hereabouts. As Dean has correctly pointed out already, Punk's musical legacy was rudimentary and meager at best, until such time as we reached circa '79 and the so-called Post Punk artists emerged. I guess that what Punk bequeathed to music were the sorts of values I personally still hold dear e.g. discipline, brevity, economy, focus, structure etc in stark contrast to the spacey improvs and lengthy noodly meanderings that afflict some of the worst Prog. It also probably goes without saying that Punk was accessible so that anyone with a very basic set of chops and a cheap guitar could join a band with like minded souls without being subjected to ridicule or having to attend a conservatoire beforehand. Similarly, the subject matter was considerably more pragmatic, prosaic and political (at least in the UK) than the sort of conceptual tangents so beloved of Sinfield, Anderson, Gabriel, Lake et al. Prog was effectively overripe and rotting by circa 1974/75 and had lost much of its customer base. I'm still unsure what deserting Prog fans started to listen to instead between then and the end of the decade?


Edited by ExittheLemming - March 07 2015 at 15:15

^Wakeman's capes were part of the Yes concert experience!

Finnforest wrote: That too, yes, but prog rock also. (being Glam)

Agreed. I saw Wakeman perform with Yes in the early seventies with his trademark capes. Now, that was Glam! 

Edited by SteveG - March 07 2015 at 12:37

That too, yes, but prog rock also.  I think the musical artistry of an album like Synchronicity owes something to prog rock. 

Oh I certainly recognize its influence on later music, but I think prog also had an influence on later pop artists which may be unrecognized because punk seems to be favored more by music writers.  Would many of the "colorful" 80s bands have embraced such flamboyance and freedom without prog pushing boundaries a decade earlier?  Maybe, maybe not.  

 

Finnforest wrote: Dean's comments ring true to me, about how small it really was.  Despite the consistant baying of every music publication of the day, there were just a handful of kids at school getting into the whole punk/new wave thing.  95% of the student body just wanted their Who, their Angus, and their JimmyP.  Everyone listened to hard rock and very few cared who Johnny Rotten was.  Even as regards prog, the established prog and prog related bands had more fans than did the punk bands.  It wasn't until later, by the time MTV was getting huge, that the "new" sound would rival Mr. Townshend and Mr. Page in terms of popularity in those high schools halls around here.

SteveG wrote: ^We will continually disagree on this  Dean, as I'm more interested in discussing music then playing with academics. We both have different priorities and it's better just to give each other space and move on.   Agreed?

SteveG wrote:  Oh well, I guess we're back to semantics then.

Edited by Dean - March 07 2015 at 10:16

Dean's comments ring true to me, about how small it really was. 

Despite the consistant baying of every music publication of the day, there were just a handful of kids at school getting into the whole punk/new wave thing.  95% of the student body just wanted their Who, their Angus, and their JimmyP. 

Everyone listened to hard rock and very few cared who Johnny Rotten was.  Even as regards prog, the established prog and prog related bands had more fans than did the punk bands.  It wasn't until later, by the time MTV was getting huge, that the "new" sound would rival Mr. Townshend and Mr. Page in terms of popularity in those high schools halls around here.

^ Schick rock?