Why classic prog faded?

Looking at the latter part of the seventies. We all know Gabriel's costumes got bigger.  The ELP crew got enormous.  The bigger the show, the better.  
Did the evolve from musical experimentalism into overblown stage antics during this period cause prog's demise against the punk movement?
Why would the huge show that never ends fail? Were there other factors involved that ended classic prog?

Because prog wasn't a genre of music then really, it was just a gimmick rock musicians were trying out to in order sell records and as soon as it quit selling, they moved on. I'm not saying there wasn't talent or there's no good classic prog, but lets call a spade a spade here.

Edited by Failcore - November 07 2012 at 16:41

A fairly similar thread here:

Neelus wrote: Looking at the latter part of the seventies. We all know Gabriel's costumes got bigger.  The ELP crew got enormous.  The bigger the show, the better.   Did the evolve from musical experimentalism into overblown stage antics during this period cause prog's demise against the punk movement? Why would the huge show that never ends fail? Were there other factors involved that ended classic prog?

Record companies became more involved in shaping what was allowed to be marketed and played on the radio. At some point it became obvious that prog was a bit of a niche market and didn't necessarily have mass appeal. Sure, Yes and ELP and maybe a few others sold lots of albums but it was always a bit of a hard sell and the longer songs meant less airtime for other artists especially when punk came on the scene. Punk and new wave (and to a lesser degree disco)pushed prog in the background and ultimately under ground. Prog was barely visible in the 80's except to those who went out of their way looking for it. At some point, people started to become interested again when old prog albums(even obscure ones)were reissued on cd. It was still underground at this point but catalogs started to appear and then the internet happened which helped to make prog visible once again although still mainly to those who went looking for it(at least at first).


But, getting back to your initial statement there were things that the press jumped on and used as fodder to badmouth prog. Rick Wakeman eating chicken curry on stage while performing, Greg Lake's persian rug, Gabriel's "superman" costume(and others), double albums with outrageous concepts or few long songs, the list goes on and on. Purists thought prog was ridiculous or at least became more ridiculous. Greg Lake once said in an interview "of course we were pretentious." Comparing prog to punk is like comparing a filet mignon to a mcdonald's hamburger. 


Music as it's marketed in mainstream music media such as the radio is almost always going to be viewed as fashion. Fahion's come and go. I'm not sure if the internet saved prog or that it resurrected prog since it never really died but it did make it easier for many people to be aware of it.

all movements fade and morph. nothing stays the same. it never faded, it just changed, and so did the mediums used to present it. you could just as easily stay that it's still here to some degree, and argue that it never faded completely.

The classic Prog bands simply stopped making great albums.. so did many of the great rock bands.
The bands that kept making great albums survived.

I disagree that it was required that bands stayed with the times and did cheesy 80's pop.  Look at Van Halen or Metallica.
The Cure and U2 did artsy albums with a lot of Darker material.  Ozzy did fine without going Flock of Seagulls.

Let me ask this question..

Did any Classic Prog bands release a great album in the 80's?

I would say YES got lucky with their pop anthem..

To me Fripp is the only one that rode the wave and kept things interesting right up into the mid 2000's. 

It wasn't just punk. There's disco as well, which was massive and outsold everything else. (And in retrospect, didn't suck as much as we all thought it did at the time - at least, not all of it) In the late 70s, Blondie and Chic's Nile Rodgers got together to play and somehow in the process "Rapper's Delight" was created, and voila, rap as a mainstream phenomena was born. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapper%27s_delight )

smartpatrol wrote: Surrealist wrote: Did any Classic Prog bands release a great album in the 80's? Rush - Moving Pictures King Crimson - Discipline Genesis - Genesis to name a few

Don't forget Yes 90125 and Drama. Also a few more by Rush and Emerson Lake and Powell.

Surrealist wrote: The classic Prog bands simply stopped making great albums.. so did many of the great rock bands.The bands that kept making great albums survived.I disagree that it was required that bands stayed with the times and did cheesy 80's pop.  Look at Van Halen or Metallica.The Cure and U2 did artsy albums with a lot of Darker material.  Ozzy did fine without going Flock of Seagulls.Let me ask this question..Did any Classic Prog bands release a great album in the 80's?I would say YES got lucky with their pop anthem.. To me Fripp is the only one that rode the wave and kept things interesting right up into the mid 2000's.

GENESIS's DUKE album is an absolute slam dunk    I mean that album is the Perfect blend of pop and prog tied together. Never thought it could work, bug it certainly did. Genesis pulled that one off

richardh wrote: Dayvenkirq wrote: ^ He said "a great album in the '80s", not ... "an album in the '80s".   indeed   The bands that made prog recognisable simply got old and the bands that should have replaced them were largely ignored after punk. Be Bop Deluxe and Lone Star were two interesting bands that just stopped around 1978 for commercial reasons yet had made some really interesting music. Coloseum 2 were another example. ELP,Yes and Genesis just didn't evolve at all and very few people believe there later albums get close to their earlier albums. Therefore the writing was on the wall regardless of punk happening or not. The baton was never passed on.

I think GENESIS evolved immensely. As the 80's loomed forth GENESIS ushered in a new and fresh sound by blending pop and prog together. I said it once and I'll say it again, DUKE is a masterpiece because it shows the promising evolution of GENESIS all together. In my opinion, GENESIS evolved greatly