The Single Non-Event that Changed Prog Rock ?

I don't quite see how Punk had anything to do with the slump of Prog music. Somehow Prog just seemed to have ground to a halt.

Edited by npjnpj - February 05 2010 at 07:11

And amen to that! I wonder how we can still fall into the trap of the 'punk killed prog' stereotype (so we're all here to worship a corpse?), when we should know all too well how the media love to put up new idols and tear them down in the space of a few years (or even a few months).

And yet...

Prog never died, but something definitely went underground in the late seventies, early eighties. In the eighties I was subscriber to a Dutch prog rock magazine, which started in the early eighties with yellow leaflets and is now a big full colour monthly magazine (after several name changes). In the eighties there was litte talk about Italian bands, Canterbury etc. and the magazine was often filled with AOR bands, because even the writers of the magazine didn't seem very much aware of the rich heritage of prog from the seventies. Neo prog was being covered, but apart from that...

It was hard to find good prog in the eighties. Now that's all changed. There is a flood of prog releases nowadays, and enormous attention to the heritage of prog from the seventies. CD and internet helped out enormously, I'm sure.

Prog never died, but prog and its audience seemed to drift apart for some time, for some part.

lazland wrote: Hmmm. I remember Wakeman stating that the first ABWH album shifted a million copies with barely any media mention at all.

I find that an absolutely horrifying piece of knowledge that I sure didn't want to know.

Ok, so punk did not kill progressive rock. If prog rock killed itself then what was the single event that triggered it? Jon Anderson not returning to Yes (IMHO). Zeppelin and Floyd notwithstanding Yes were very much THE band that prog rock hinged. As they did not achieve Dramatic success in 1980 then that was the single event that ensured industry takeover and the demotion of art rock to roots rock. Cut 'em down to size etc.

Nothing wrong with roots rock by the way, but it's the (media prompted) resentment of progressive or the art form of rock that prompts a certain elitist attitude. Prog elitists versus punk elitists. Quite funny really.

I think one reason the media hates prog rock so much is that it makes their job so hard. Imagine reviewing and understanding Tales and Lamb. Much easier to champion the easy to understand and easy to review, go with a fashion get your copy in by deadline time and off to the pubs for a view from the bar. Sells more copies to those who prefer to have the tabloids do their thinking for them.

Oh, yes, ask the punks (they are still around) that if punk was so great then why was the industry so thankful  for Floyd and Zep? (Both of whom saved it's bacon in 79 and 80.)

But if Jon's Yes had gone supernova in 1980 then thigs may have been very different.

Kashmir75 wrote: [  Very well said. Punk failed to kill prog. But it did harm the media's perception of it. A stupid trend that lasts to this very day. The mainstream music mags still rave about punk like it was the second coming, pretend nothing existed before 1977, and rave about the latest trendy emo bands. Prog is still disparaged in most of the so-called 'guardians of music taste' mags.

^That Melody Maker story is disgraceful. Can't believe they got away with such a thing. 

Will the cycle ever completely turn back, though? Back in the early 70s, prog was all the rage. It would be great for that to happen again. As long as the media continues to champion punk (will they ever get over that?), most of today's prog bands won't get the mainstream exposure they deserve.

Ok, I think we get the message that it is a rather tired and glib attitude to say that 'punk killed prog' but when I was growing up Scotland during the late 70's, such was the Maoist fervour of 'year zero' punk converts both from my own peer group and those in music journalism whose views I hitherto respected , that 'Prog' was roped off as a crime scene for anyone between the ages of say, 16 to 25. It's equally glib and disingenuous to pretend that such pressures exerted on vulnerable (working) adolescents with money in their pockets is not going to have a significant impact on any marketplace. Prog certainly didn't disappear after 1977 but should you wish to see the collateral damage report inflicted by the 'phantasm' and 'media lies' of history you might wanna check out Tormato, And Then There Were Three, Love Beach, Giant For a Day, Passpartu, A (Tull), I Can See Your House From Here etc as betraying evidence of a patient whose vital signs you have diagnosed as healthy while the relatives and loved ones scour their wardrobes for black apparel.

For all its faults Punk gave the music industry the huge kick in its loon patchouli pants it had long deserved i.e. it scattered the output of complacent hippies to the underground margins where their brand of smug cosmology could only be enjoyed from the privacy of their own pampered fantasy worlds.

Punk too in a very short time degenerated into another dissolute train-wreck fuelled by speed instead of weed where Tales From Topographic Oceans was supplanted by the equally obese Sandinista. However for a few fleeting months (probably similar to the musical climate of halycon 1969) there was a genuine mood in the air that popular culture just might actually manage for once to mirror the thoughts and feelings of its audience.

We keep gettin' fooled again and again

chopper wrote: Snow Dog wrote: chopper wrote: npjnpj wrote: I don't quite see how Punk had anything to do with the slump of Prog music. Somehow Prog just seemed to have ground to a halt.     I clearly remember a number of people at school around the time of Punk completely renounced all other types of music practically overnight and "went Punk". After that every other sort of music was rubbish, according to them.   This is true.....Punk was anti music "establishment" and they hated Led Zep and all stadium acts. And disco. They were all "boring old farts". I was a punk too. Kind of.    Thanks for telling me I was a BOF at the age of 14.