When was the game up for prog rock?

ExittheLemming wrote: Fripp disbanding King Crimson and Gabriel departing Genesis were in hindsight, potentially pivotal moments in Prog's subsequent decline in popularity. I think both happened circa '74-75 and although there were plenty of great Prog albums that followed, the writing was on the gob flecked Roxy wall as far as enduring career longevity was concerned. Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel were prescient enough to both correctly intuit future music developments with WOMAD, Real World Studious under the broad umbrella of 'World Music' and the New Wave oriented 'Guitar Gamelan' of Discipline, Three of a Perfect Pair and Beat all mirroring a new aesthetic perspective that even the archly reactive Prog cognoscenti who populate these forums appeared ready to buy into.

Fripp disbanding King Crimson and Gabriel departing Genesis were in hindsight, potentially pivotal moments in Prog's subsequent decline in popularity. I think both happened circa '74-75 and although there were plenty of great Prog albums that followed, the writing was on the gob flecked Roxy wall as far as enduring career longevity was concerned. Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel were prescient enough to both correctly intuit future music developments with WOMAD, Real World Studious under the broad umbrella of 'World Music' and the New Wave oriented 'Guitar Gamelan' of Discipline, Three of a Perfect Pair and Beat all mirroring a new aesthetic perspective that even the archly reactive Prog cognoscenti who populate these forums appeared ready to buy into.

siLLy puPPy wrote:   The 80s was anomaly and a forced one by the recording industry.

Manuel wrote: Maybe all of the above.

Could beNeither did Waters fire Wright. The three other members did. 

Edited by Sean Trane - October 26 2021 at 06:19

I didn't expect this to generate so much discussion.  Having lived through it all, it's almost as if prog bands were willfully chasing commercial success by the late 70s.  There were some exceptions, mainly from Europe including Henry Cow's last album, for instance.  Many punks were in fact proggers as well (e.g. Capt Sensible).  Record companies became risk averse too.  Prog rock itself (and up to the present) became conservative and this includes the neo-prog of the early 80s (I was an avid participant).  After that, for me, prog returned when I went to see The Orb at Brixton in 1991.  The reason?  To get my first sighting of Steve Hillage for over 10 years so past and future came together.  

essexboyinwales wrote: Good grief, it isn't over! Stronger than ever these days😎 Some of you people need to stop living in the past! 🙄

I suppose it depends on whether you consider 'the end' to mean, when prog bands stopped shifting millions of units and selling out arena's and stadiums. As you suggest, the music has always been there, but when did prog cease to be a popular music movement, and the bands household names.

I would suggest that was sometime in the late 70's or early 80's. It's all rather subjective really, and while many blame the rise of punk, I don't entirely agree. I think the 'golden era' was probably over 76 or so, when the big bands were approaching their 30's, and it was simply time for the 'next thing' Many of those punk characters from the 70's grew up listening to some kind of prog, but a) they couldn't play it and b) they faced different social pressures and influences growing up and wanted to write songs about that, instead of abstract concepts and musical complexity It became about the message, rather than the composition and the musicianship. IMO..

As many people have said, I don't think punk had much of a hand in killing prog music. I see the situation as more of the 1983 Video Game Crash effect, in which there was an oversaturation of bands who lost the plot on what progressive rock was "meant" to accomplish, and a mix of that and changing trends led to the genre's decline. Not to mention, a lot of bands were either changing or breaking up before the punk movement even started - King Crimson's original 1974 breakup being a solid example of this. 

Edited by Necrotica - October 25 2021 at 21:33

essexboyinwales wrote: Good grief, it isn't over! Stronger than ever these days😎 Some of you people need to stop living in the past! 🙄

Logan wrote: I would sooner think that the rise of punk was symptomatic (a symptom/ evidence) of Prog's decline in health rather than Punk being the cause of it, and even then I think that would be too simplistic an analysis.

^ Yep. Even Psychedelic Paul knows prog is still around and isn't just music from the past eventhough his ipod might tell a different story. ;)