Why so much Genesis love?

Big Kid Josie wrote: OK, I am prepared to get flamed for this but: why so much Genesis love on this forum? I actually love Genesis's work, particularly SEBTP and the 2 post-Gabriel albums before Hackett left---TOTT and WAW.  I think they're a great 70's prog band and up there with Yes, ELP, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Rush, et al.  I get that Banks is a fine, elegant keyboardist, Collins a great prog drummer in their early days, and Hackett an original guitarist who made some beautiful, melancholy olde English ballads.  I absolutely love Entangled, Blood on the Rooftops, Carpet Crawlers, Cinema Show, etc.  I like Gabriel with Genesis, but actually like his early solo work even better.  I don't like at all what Collins turned Genesis into, but I don't hold that against the band in their 70's prime either.  I see them as 2 totally different bands, with Hackett and without him. But I don't understand why they are lauded on this site above all those other fine 70's prog bands...can someone enlighten me?  It's not that I don't think they're a great band, just not better than the others I mentioned above...

Actually if you hang around here enough, Floyd, Yes and Tull get about as much love.   And to be frank, Genesis, in many ways, were better than the others mentioned, so I can't blame people for the love.   Plus remember they are practically an institution in Britain.

^Don't forget that a lot of this love for Genesis was well after the fact. The most successful 'retro loved' prog band, IMHO.

This is almost an impossible question because it is not about why I like/love Genesis, but why everyone else does too. My guess is that many like me discovered Prog through Genesis and thereby became the gold standard. I have always found their stature to be equivalent to Yes, but with better stories, better drama. Their playing is not quite as virtuoso-ish as ELP, but with more consistently better song(/instrumental) writing. Their song writing is equivalent in quality to Pink Floyd, but with better more intricate playing. I have always found their stature less than that of King Crimson Among Prog pundits, but there was a warmth to Genesis not found in KC (not at least until Wetton or Belew). Their instrumental work was more intricate than Jethro Tull. Rush is just plain different, nuff said about that.

Genesis were the first Prog band, to my knowledge, accrue a line tribute bands (unless we're counting the Beatles). This tends to indicate that they were quickly associated with a "golden age", most likely motivated by the sense of loss from PG's and to a lesser extent HF's departures. Genesis were also superior to many many other bands in terms of storytelling, but with their movement toward Pop came a movement away from that sort of storytelling, which brought a desire for the return of the old lore. Notice how many more references (like that of Hogweed and such) can be pulled out of Genesis material in a fashion that is widely recognizable across the PA spectrum.

yeah Genesis did it all man... except sell records...

SteveG wrote: Because they invented prog, silly!

hahhah.. love the avatart man!!

Because they invented prog, silly!

easy listening prog..  non-offensive.. ie... not challenging.  Easy to build up a large fanbase.. oh wait.. they didn't do until they discovered their true talents as pop masters supreme. It wasn't that far a turn for them anyway.

hahhahah..