Did Punk really kill prog all that much?

Hope you don't mind me adding my opinion... and that is, that

Punk didn't kill Prog at all. Moreover, PROG is *alive and kicking* nowadays like it hasn't been in decades!

What I rather see is Prog being "killed" by so-called music lovers who still whine and moan about Genesis and Yes not being like they were in the 1970's anymore and such... people refusing to come out and visit a band's concert if that band isn't yet well-known... people not having investigated any NEW bands since 1978 and so on. Oh, and don't get me started on those so-called Tribute Bands, which  I tend to consider the *death* of true progressiveness !

Instead, I see the modern Prog Scene as a very healthy one - Prog Metal is very, very popular nowadays, for instance, but also note the gazillions of young bands having incorporated a massive influence from the 1970's bands - Porcupine Tree, Anathema, The Flower Kings, Riverside (who I've seen performing in a tiny pub some three months ago...!), Anekdoten, even the aforementioned Radiohead - the list is endless.

So, thinking "Punk killed Prog" is waaaayyyy too much honour to Punk!

Whereas Radiohead had their punk/alternative early era then came OK Computer and the Floyd influenced sound.Not much punk on Ok Computer.>>

Paranoid Android that part before the 7/8.

2+2=5 has that ambient guitar opening then goes into the Johnny Lydon bit.

For those who think that prog and punk can't mesh,think twice. Canadian band(from Quebec) Grim Skunk masterfully blended both genres on their eponymus album released in 1994.>>

The other more obvious example is Radiohead.

By the way, there is a different song which sounds like disco to me: "Roundabout" by Yes. >>

Yes. I can imagine John Travolta dancing to Roundabout. Actually there is a little known fact that the Bee Gees approached Yes to use this in the score.  There was much dissention in the band as Jon and Chris were split.  Steve Howe was torn.  Years later the band would comment that they were sorry that they had not let the Bee Gees use it because Pink Floyd became known as the first prog band to use disco.  Yes could have had that distinction. 

Punk didn't "kill" prog. (actually nothing "killed" prog.)  Prog. sort of faded away under the promotion of other styles of music.  I remember the time very well, in the late 70's and early 80's.  Punk was there and getting more attention, but it was never a huge force in music (as the myth goes).  Disco and dance music however, did get a lot of attention and promotion.  Flashy bands like Kiss were also extremely popular.  And "new wave" bands like Talking Heads and Blondie were also getting a lot of attention.

So in short, there was a big shift in music towards flashy, trendy NEW bands, with simplistic and/or bouncy song ideas.  It was 180 degrees from the non-trendy, complex thinking music of prog. bands (which radio and the music press were getting bored by).  The kings that controlled the music industry wanted to promote music that people could FEEL, not music to be listened to and valued for it's quality and talent.

In some ways, we're still stuck in that mode, with the high promotion of hip-hop and rap "artists" and people like Britney Spears.  But things are improving now that progressive and eclectic musicians can get their music out on small labels and through the Internet.  But the music atmosphere will probably never be like it was in the early 70's.

Punk never killed prog, even thought the myth says so. Punk came along becuase of political and economic matters in Britian. We hit a slump, we went into Eurpoe, Kids weren't to sure of their future, with their dads being laid off etc. So they looked to music and found nothing all they found were heroic rock bands and bands that had got out of touch with their roots and their fans, all had gone up their own arses and were now in either cloud cuooko land or in valhalla feasting on mead and meat (probably due to the vast amount of drugs they were taking) and so began to make some bad albums. So punk was created out of frustation of the world around them and because of bands that did not speak to the kids anymore, no connection.

I think also it was just a sign of the times, prog ahd been around for about 8 years (even longer prehaps if you think that most of the prog bands first started life as pychedellic bands in teh pychedellic movement) and so people began to get bored of it and so alligences switched new forms of music were championed by the mainstream masses and those who wanted to look cool and hip. (just like now with certain musical tastes eg boy and girl bands are out of favour or punk itself from 1981)

Yet though as the saying goes everything comes full circle and prog and rock and metal are now back in some sort of vouge so we are now seing the rise or the nu-prog along with new rock and metal bands. The next to genres of rock I predict will become vouge in a few years time are Prog (with Co & Ca, Muse, Dream Theater leading the way) and Power metal (with Dragonforce leading the way with more trad. bands like Hammerfall, Stratovarious, Blind Guardian following behind) 

BTW: music history - some one above said that punk was 'a British thing.' Untrue: punk started in NYC w/ Patti Smith & The Ramones.>>

Punk was actually a Long Island thing.  Even Billy Joel was doing it back in the late 1960s. It seems to be historically linked  in the literature with Lenny Kaye and Patti Smith doing poetry readings with guitar and then it moved to CBGB's; but it was going on already with bands on the Nassau/Suffolk border, really the outer limit of NYC.

prog had enoguh time. it was dying when punk came, so its easy to say punk killed prog. Well, i wasint alive then, so what im saying prob has no backup whatsoever...

Hemispheres wrote: chromaticism wrote: I guess it used to be true as punk was the antithesis of prog in its simplicity and rawness, but now I think some punk bands are trying to make innovations to their music themselves so in a sense they are "progressing" as well.  I even think there are even punk-influenced prog bands like Birdsongs of the Mesozoic and that Finnish band Alamaailman Vasarat. Alot of the post punk bands were more experimental and innovative and shall i say progresive in the fact they were moving forward then most prog bands were at the time and they were influenced by prog bands such as Can,Captain Beefheart,Roxy Music and others although punks dont like to call them prog one punk i spoke to refered to them as being experimental anarchists.

I agree with what you're driving at.  These artists may prefer different terms besides "progressive rock" yet in the essense of innovation they are doing similar things.  As a side note, I think Robert Fripp himself disliked the term progressive rock (and even once thought of punk as a breath of fresh air) as well as other bands like The Mars Volta and Porcupine Tree.