Which Prog Band Made The Best Pop? - Progressive Rock Music Forum

A lot of these posts seem to be talking about pop chart success rather than just the genre as the question seemed to suggest. If anyone deserves the doubtful accolade of prog pop makes then it would be Clouds, who in a way had that very problem.

I don't see Trespass being pop.

Crushed like a rose in the riverflow.

Ambient Hurricanes wrote:

Textbook wrote:

For me it's Rush. Even in their most progressive years, there were always tracks like Something For Nothing, Closer To The Heart, Circumstances, Entre Nous, Freewill, Limelight etc around which managed to sound ready for the radio (though many of them weren't even singles) without being stupid or predictable. Perhaps because they were younger than a lot of their prog peers, they found the shift to pop rock and synths a lot more natural, and Peart's refusal to write dumb lyrics helped too.

I agree. In my opinion, all of Rush's more pop-rock oriented 80's albums are worth four stars at least, if not five. They were always songwriters at heart anyway, unlike other 70's prog greats who could well be classified as "composers" in the classical sense. That's really where Rush separated themselves from most of the other 70's prog bands; they were able to lose "proginess" without losing quality.

Agreed on both posts. I've said it a thousands times, Hold Your Fire is really great. And the sprinkled tracks throughout their career that were highly accessible, were great mentions.

Fly By Night, Closer to the Heart, Spirit of Radio, Limelight, Subdivisions. etc.

Crushed like a rose in the riverflow.

Supertramp would have to be my pick hands down.

Supertramp, indeed.

Porcupine Tree does some very fine poppish stuff, heard on Stupid Dream, Lightbulb Sun, Deadwing, etc.

I think the biggies, when they wanted to, tended to make the best 'pop' in the guise of Artrock (or the other way 'round) ; Floyd, Tull, ELP, Yes

Earth and Fire! I've made myself a CD of all their singles and b-sides from the 1970s. They were incredible at that kind of thing.

My other avatar is a Porsche

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased.

-Kehlog Albran

dredg

https://epignosis.bandcamp.com/album/a-month-of-sundays

HolyMoly wrote:

Earth and Fire! I've made myself a CD of all their singles and b-sides from the 1970s. They were incredible at that kind of thing.

That's true, they were very good at that.

resurrection wrote:

Clouds Watercolour Days

I see the point, Clouds could write pop songs, but never really played like a pop group, definitely one of the earliest - perhaps even THE earliest - progressive rock band. In any case, The Clouds Scrapbook is a better contender for pop songs than Watercolour Days.