Was prog actually popular in the 70s??

I feel, despite the POV of an earlier post, that significant numbers of the mainstream rock press did hasten the Prog genre decline in the '70's halcyon era. It never attracted enough chicks, and that is anathema to what rock critics think popular music should do.

progbethyname wrote: Accessibility is a key term that should be closely attached to the 70's generation of prog musicianship. I look at GENESIS as the front runners for being absolute genius's by the way they shaped their sound to adapt with the times and create massive hits. You look at how much Genesis's overall sound changed from the years 1971-1976. Their was a reason for it. The album, TRICK OF THE TAIL ushered in a new, more accessible style of prog that people of the 70's gen really freakin' enjoyed. As much as we like to cut up and make fun of GENESIS for just how much their sound changed, especially in the 80's, but their was a big reason for it. Long story short, when I think of GENESIS I think of creative expression and accessibility. They are Geniuses and absolute masters by how they combined pop and prog so wonderfully together. I do not care what anyone says, but I think they are the titans of the prog world and still the big leaders. In 1976 they pretty much created the start of the Neo Prog genre. Then they took it one step further in the 80's by blending a new style of a more simple and stylized version of pop music by adding prog to the mix. MASTERS I SAY!!! MASTERS!

Accessibility is a key term that should be closely attached to the 70's generation of prog musicianship. I look at GENESIS as the front runners for being absolute genius's by the way they shaped their sound to adapt with the times and create massive hits. You look at how much Genesis's overall sound changed from the years 1971-1976. Their was a reason for it. The album, TRICK OF THE TAIL ushered in a new, more accessible style of prog that people of the 70's gen really freakin' enjoyed. As much as we like to cut up and make fun of GENESIS for just how much their sound changed, especially in the 80's, but their was a big reason for it. Long story short, when I think of GENESIS I think of creative expression and accessibility. They are Geniuses and absolute masters by how they combined pop and prog so wonderfully together. I do not care what anyone says, but I think they are the titans of the prog world and still the big leaders. In 1976 they pretty much created the start of the Neo Prog genre. Then they took it one step further in the 80's by blending a new style of a more simple and stylized version of pop music by adding prog to the mix. MASTERS I SAY!!! MASTERS!

Stool Man wrote: BlackenedGass wrote: It was certainly popular enough to make several hundreds of thousands of people to want to carry on making it after it stopped being popular! Quoting from the main PA page "music discographies from 7,787 bands & artists" - not sure there are several hundreds of thousands of people in fewer than 8000 bands, (there'd be more than twenty people in every single band, and they can't all have the rotating lineups of some)   But your point is fine - plenty of people still making the music

It was certainly popular enough to make several hundreds of thousands of people to want to carry on making it after it stopped being popular!

FM Radio was the catalyst  for the promotion of progressive rock of many varieties.  Record companies were bewildered of what people wanted to hear and signed a lot of groups in the late 60's that would never have been signed 10 years later.  The advent of FM formats from AM megawatt stations was clearly the way for companies to promote these bands. Unfortunately FM  could only reach a 50 mile radius at best so most of this music could only be heard in larger population centers which explains the fact in the US the Northeast, some big midwest cities  and large population centers on the West Coast were the places that progressive rock thrived. By about 1975-76 the record companies were creating format styles and radio stations followed suit.  Free format shows and DJ driven playlists became a thing of the past very quickly and gave way to more strict playlists and styles.  This alone had more to do with the decline of the older bands and the squelching of newer bands being signed and recorded which did exist in America. 

In Detroit, we had three great rock stations: WABX , the first Detroit radical/progressive FM station in the 60s and 70s  with "Headphones Only" every night (Floyd, Kraftwerk, Traffic, Procol Harum, King Crimson, etc.), and everything else from Iggy and the Stooges to Savoy Brown to John McLaughlin; WRIF played album sides all night long (Yes, ELP, Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Sabbath, Floyd, Tull, Genesis, etc.);  and WWWW, known as "Quadzilla"  (the first quadrophonic station in the state), played the quad versions of War Child and Aqualung in their entirety, and also had "All Night Album Replay", where listeners called in requests for albums.

It was a great time to listen to radio.

Another U.S. radio station that really prog-rocked listeners was WLAV in Grand Rapids. Two of their DJs, Aris Hampers and Doc Donovan, in the bygone days when DJs were allowed to program their shows, were especially active in exposing listeners to not only ELP, Yes Procol Harum, Moody Blues and Pink Floyd but also Gentle Giant, Greenslade, Triumvirat, Stackridge, Strawbs, Caravan, Camel, Fireballet, Renaissance, Esperanto, David Sancious, PFM…you get the idea. Genesis, of course, well before their big commercial success. They were playing Kansas from their first album on. Some other fairly high-profile acts, oddly, I never heard them play, like Soft Machine, VDGG, and Curved Air. But they were a huge force in irreversibly reshaping my musical tastes from 1974 on.

Edited by AreYouHuman - April 23 2013 at 23:59

Going For The One was advertised on TV in the UK. That tells you all you need to know.

Slartibartfast wrote: It's really funny whenever someone in the forums asks this question.  I was there, and yes it was.   Then punk allegedly came along and killed it when it was getting too self indulgent or whatever, total bullcrap.  I got on board around '78 and it was still going on strong.

OK, just wondering what prog bands do you consider to have been popular in the late seventies who were playing prog in the late seventies? I can't wait to hear the answer.