The 80s..the worst era for prog.

HackettFan wrote: No one is convincing me that the 80s were not the worst decade for Prog. I am convinced that the 80s were not completely worthless (better than the fifties). The several examples people have given do not make the decade shine. I do not think that KC Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair are great examples to use, and are simply a case in point of what I'm talking about. These were very commercial albums by Crimson standards. Fripp himself talked about trading three years for one really good year (Discipline). The whole problem was not the musicians themselves, but the corporate environment that they had to deal with, which was altogether different from the Prog period (Check out Prog Brittania on You Tube for some historical perspective on the open-mindedness of the music labels of that period, or at least a tendency toward non-interference in the music). I acknowledge that you can find some pretty outlandish things in the 80s. Henry Kaiser's stuff comes to mind. I don't know about anyone else, though, but I did not find any Henry Kaiser stuff anywhere in any record store. I got that and other stuff like it through a rather obscure mail order company.

If prog simply means symph prog or its 80s cousin neo prog, then yes, 80s was probably the worst decade for prog.  I would not venture to compare ALL prog in the 80s to 90s and 00s prog simply because I haven't and can never get around to hearing all the albums.   Basically, all you are doing is deriving a generalized perception from the sample of albums that you are familiar with (and in that case, enumerating some great artists or albums from the 80s seems to be a valid response).  What about Art Zoyd, Diamanda Galas, Pat Metheny, Holdsworth, Talk Talk just to name a few artists/bands who were productive in the 80s?  And if we are talking about 'progressive' music from the 80s (since you cite a purported lack of open mindedness in that era), there are still many more artists and bands who would have to be reckoned with.  Not all such adventurous artists had a rough time in the 80s.  Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, Metallica, Talking Heads enjoyed commercial success at different junctures in that decade and they all brought something that was new to rock and pop music.   Even Bobby McFerrin managed to chart.  

Argonaught wrote: richardh wrote: U2 was one of the things about the 80's I really hated.  I am glad I am not alone. I have 48-minute long compilation of U2, mostly plucked out of Achtung Baby and All That You Can't Leave Behind. A good dozen of excellent songs. But, I find the remainder of their music irritating. They kind of went from "primitive" to "pompous/pretentious" too fast.

I tried Joshua Tree and its one of the few occasions I couldn't get through a whole record

The 80's may have been a bad decade for the retro prog rock with that iconic 70's sound, but in the terms of progressive music, the 80's were great.


Edited by kole - August 01 2012 at 12:30

Argonaught wrote: richardh wrote: U2 was one of the things about the 80's I really hated.  I am glad I am not alone. I have 48-minute long compilation of U2, mostly plucked out of Achtung Baby and All That You Can't Leave Behind. A good dozen of excellent songs. But, I find the remainder of their music irritating. They kind of went from "primitive" to "pompous/pretentious" too fast.

richardh wrote: tamijo wrote: richardh wrote: U2 was one of the things about the 80's I really hated.   Im crazy about the way ENO works, walking around on the dump, finding interesting pieces amongst the waste, and turning it into new forms of art. I can only assume that either that is a deliberately enigmatic (baffling) post or someone has hacked your account

Argonaught wrote: richardh wrote: U2 was one of the things about the 80's I really hated.  I am glad I am not alone. I have 48-minute long compilation of U2, mostly plucked out of Achtung Baby and All That You Can't Leave Behind. A good dozen of excellent songs. But, I find the remainder of their music irritating. They kind of went from "primitive" to "pompous/pretentious" too fast.

Er... Discipline? Beat? It was a great period for KC that's for sure.

While the mainstream face of the 80s has been thrashed in this thread, it was arguably some of the best of the pop epoch.   Michael Jackson, Prince, Police, INXS to name just a few is not a platter I could really complain about.  In the 80s, the rock sound was fully embraced by pop music and while this made for some very boring bands trying to be rock and still wanting a bite of the commercial pie, it also made for some very lively pop music.  Jackson in the 80s was to a good extent liberated from disco/dance influences and so was Prince.  So I guess I don't really understand what exactly is anti-80s all about, barring the production (which I cannot defend ).  Even AC DC released one of their most popular albums in the 80s - Back in Black.

Sure, you could highlight the really bad bands and albums or those of your 70s favourites that fared badly in the 80s to make out how terrible the 80s was, but you could do that for just about every era.   Music as an entertainment medium peaked in the 80s, or at least the album sales say so.  

Edited by rogerthat - August 11 2012 at 05:36