How did prog rock become the laughing stock...

Don't forget some punk bands had epics of their own.

zravkapt wrote: Don't forget some punk bands had epics of their own. ...

Gentle Yes wrote:  Well my opinion is that there are many factors which led to that demise. To begin with, in the late 70s most prog bands changed their sound (and not for the best). I could say that before that they were hated for their theatrics, the dress-ups, the concepts of their music (both lyrically and musically) but personally I believe that punks and ''generic'' audiences consider prog to be elitist exactly because prog artists succeeded in what punks failed. Prog artists have absolutely no regard towards the audience, they will play whatever they want, i mean listen to Starless and Bible black, with the exception of The great Deceiver, all the rest of the songs are pure Fripp craziness, he definitely didn't aim for the audiences approval. And many of these bands , which initially didn't care about fame fortune but worked to bring music a step ahead, are now considered as the ''musical authority'' concerning rock. I guess that's what makes em mad, that prog is a different notion, a part of music that is different from all the others and that lives autonomously without having much in common with other genres. Basically i guess prog actually succeeded into being different and original but based only on the music ( i mean , i'm 22 and i've seen many dvds, lives and whatever of prog bands, and yeah, the theatrics and dress ups are ridiculous, but i listen to the music, who cares how they dress or behave?).  Punks tried to be different by simplifying their music, (i mean, what's so different and revolutionary about a 4/4 track with heavy distortion guitars, not tuned right for the ''i dont care about rules'' effect, and a blast beat?) and actually a lot of theatrics. Like the braking of guitars, the clothes, the alcohol, the drugs.. what? isn't that all marketing? Well acting like a monkey on and off stage definitely doesn't make you a real rock n roller  Johnny rotten . I don't know what makes you a rock n roller, but i know what makes you a musician, hard work, decades of practice, infinite musical stimuli, and the desire to push music forward.

I appreciate your post. One thing you brought up in passing, along with some other posters, was that there was a disdain for the costumes, but if Punk rockers were somewhat okay with David Bowie, that was certainly someone who was deeply into costumes. Moving to music consumers in general, costume fatigue didn't figure in with the popularity of Kiss or Alice Cooper. Costumes continued right through the 80s with Glam Metal. Costumes were well accounted for with New Wave as well. No doubt there were some who disliked costuming, but I see no reason to think that it was a game changer for the music industry and buying public.

Elsewhere in other posts big arena rock was also implicated. I see no basis for that either. Arena shows were commonplace with Metal bands in particular throughout the late 70s and 80s.




Edited by HackettFan - June 12 2016 at 19:27

^ I kinda get the gist of what you're saying, but it only really goes for fans of mainstream radio - folks who like music when it's on yet at the same time don't actively pursue new sonic avenues and such.
Then again, I know a lot of music fans into the progressive stuff. People with much the same mindset as the old school proggers, yet they tend to listen to pop, hip hop, electronic, jazz, metal, freeform, darkwave and so forth. These may all sound like plastic throw-away genres that perpetuate the conform, but the fact of the matter is most of em produce artists that are about as cutting edge as any recent artist featured on PA. See Animal Collective, Death Grips, Flying Lotus, Liars, Joanna Newsom, F*ck Buttons, Autechre, Dälek, Kamasi Washington, Chelsea Wolfe, Lil Ugly Mane and Oneohtrix Point Never for proof - all of which are doing pretty good in today's market. Just like you encounter in most prog you'll hear complex rhythm changes, angular difficult riffs, unusual instrumentation and melodies, strange musical meetings between fx modern classical, avantguarde hip hop, jazz and modern electronic. On top of this you get a whole new generation of musicians experimenting with a wide array of new instruments and technologies, which again rather mimics a certain time and place oh so long ago. The fact that most old school prog fans don't like these new kids on the block is rather to be expected, but then again that only reflects how different tastebuds work. It's all subjective. Sure you'll struggle to find an experimental hip hop artist able to perform Foxtrot, but I'd bet my spare ankle that it would be equally difficult getting Genesis to cover MF Doom's Madvillain successfully.
Progressive music doesn't exist in a prog rock vacuum - never has.




Edited by Guldbamsen - June 15 2016 at 06:57