Was prog actually popular in the 70s??

No.
And in the 80's, there was no Hair Metal.
In the seventies, There was no Hard Rock.
In the sixties, there was no Rock N' Roll.
In the fifties, there was no Jazz.
In the fourties, there was no Swing (or was that fifties?)
In the 30s, whatever there was then, that was even slightly rockin', it didn't happen.
DON'T YOU GET IT?!
THE ONLY MUSIC THAT EVER EXISTED WAS DAVID AND THE HARP!!
EVER!!

My other drastic opinion would be that no music existed before 1980, considering the large quantity of lame hard rock bands in the 70s, and the lack thereof of any music of the "Heavy" nature before 1970, however, that opinion is one that gets you the WRONG PLACES in a forum, especially a Prog Forum, so that was not the opinion I elected to joking state, mostly because it's surprisingly accurate, and just may get mistaken for my actual attitude.

These two would be my drastic opinions.
My actual opinion?
Well, lets just say before 1980, it gets pretty sparse in the territory of me liking it.
However, that, of course, does not mean music created before 1980 is not "Real", but it does mean that it is UNBEARABLE and probably should be eradicated from the earth. At least, to me

In retrospect: Close to the Edge would be the sole exception that comes to mind for my "1980" rule of thumb, coming in at a measly 1972!
I mean, it is Prog and all, but that doesn't mean it can't still be good!
However, lets face it, in all honestly, even Judas Priest's 1978 Hell Bent For Leather was, at times, pretty lame.
I mean, sure, maybe it's actually pretty good, if you ignore the fact that "Delivering The Goods" is the best track, and that it seems like a early, lamer version of "Breaking the Law", with an annoying sexual theme, but lets face it, anything that came out before 1980 just didn't really have the quality standards that things did by at least 1984.

Consider the quantities of awesome things coming out by 1985!
Stryper's "Soldiers Under Command" (1985), Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force's "Marching Out" (1985), even Tony Carey's "Some Tough City" (1984), even if it was a little on the softer side.
Try to think of that many awesome albums before 1980.
For me, it's impossible.
As much as I want to say they aren't there, I'm sure there are some ultra-awesome Prog masterpieces, at least in some opinions, that came out before 1980.

But I guess what I'm saying is, for me, right now, thinking of anything all that great before 1980 (before 1981, really), is impossible.

Feel free to slam me with a bucketload of Prog albums that go over my head.

StaaVi



Edited by StaaViinsZ - March 05 2014 at 18:59

In the early 70's..a massive amount of teenagers on the American east coast who were skilled musicians were forming Prog cover bands. Hundreds of musicians all over the road were playing Prog. Philadelphia, P.A., N.Y., N.J., Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, come to mind..but it was very huge in the South. It was totally insane to witness that amount of musicians playing prog. They were performing covers of Prog and writing their own music to work their way into the circuit for original acts. That was the basic method of accomplishment. It was possible to make over 500 hundred dollars a week and eventually a thousand. You could invest in your career along the way and still land a record contract and promotion. It was a vast Prog scene that inspired skilled musicians on the east coast to endlessly thrive on mastering all aspects of it. This went on for years until the industry dropped the Prog bands a level down to theatre bookings. Eventually by the early 80's..most Prog had the popularity of Univers Zero and everything remained underground from that point on with the exception of what is attributed to the Prog fests assembled in recent years. However..I find Prog bands performing at picnics to be unjust. Why not gamble and at least attempt to support Prog making life easier for people to digest it. Thousands were dropped into Prog years ago and the idea presents itself today as being farce and the past has no value because of that alone. No one with money at hand will gamble on a re-birth of it. Maybe a wealthy society will.

Edited by TODDLER - March 05 2014 at 11:33

bhikkhu wrote: ^^Must be something about Michigan. WLAV in Grand Rapids regularly played Gabriel era Genesis, Tull, Rush, Yes ELP, etc. into the '80s

 

Has the original question been satisfactorily answered yet?

dr wu23 wrote: The Dark Elf wrote: dr wu23 wrote: cstack3 wrote: dr wu23 wrote: Someone mentioned above if prog was popular these days and CStack said , a few posts down, that..... "Prog was extremely popular in Chicago, and still is. "    I think some prog  (the more mainstream bands) was certainly popular back then in many areas of the US ....but extremely?.. I'm not so sure about that. The masses at large listened to radio pop/rock more than prog imo. Well....what this forum calls "prog" WAS radio pop/rock in the1970's!   Notable examples included Yes' "Roundabout," Flash's "Small Beginnings," and Focus's "Hocus Pocus."   All those songs, and more, were in constant rotation on AM radio.   I guess you actually had to live through those times to appreciate it.  I'm really glad that I did. And I agree that some prog that crossed over into the mainstream was popular (usually singles culled from the LP's) but for the most part prog was not what most people listened to. And I did live through those times. Then you didn't live in the Chicago or Detroit areas. Were you living in Indiana at the time? Were you listening to John Cougar Mellencamp or something? I saw Tull, Yes, Genesis and Floyd while still in high school in the mid-70s. My friends went to see them. Their friends went to see them. The shows were sold out. They were events, not just concerts. People talked about the shows for months. When you say "prog was not what most people listened to", I believe that is a very subjective statement. I also saw Deep Purple, Sabbath, Robin Trower, David Bowie and Alice Cooper, and "most people" didn't listen to them either in the strictest sense of Fleetwood Mac or The Carpenters or Elton John or KISS or whatever pop band sold the most albums. Yet each of the bands I referred to had gold or platinum albums in that period and each received extensive airplay.  And you'd get your ass kicked playing a Carpenter's Album where I lived. Lived just south of Chicago and still live in the same general area in northwest Indiana  Saw Mellencamp at IU for a $2.00 cover charge  when he was still Cougar and was just a local bar act. Never was a big fan  when he became somebody. Saw the same bands you did and a few more...and they were generally sold out but that leaves a lot of people who didn't attend those shows. A lot of 'stoners' and long hairs (myself included) listened to prog in the old days but the straights usually did not and many of the people I knew did not listen to what we consider prog today but preferred classic rock and pop rock, etc. Never said some 'prog bands' weren't popular with a certain crowd but they weren't as popular as the mainstream bands.

I lived through that 70's era and a lot of the more proggy bands were extremely popular.
Even bands you may not say pure prog but we're progressive in many ways such as Santana,Deep Purple,The Who at times also.There were a lot of bands that we're never that popular also like Gental Giant,Captain Beyond,Hawkwind to name a few.But overall I think progressive music existed and was selling records up till the late 70s an then it crumbled pretty fast.Even Jazz rock fusion had its hay day in he same time period.There was a lot of music all over the fm radio.So it was never hard to find.

In 67'..Brian Wilson had to deal with the record company's on going complaints that Smile was taking too long to produce, that he shouldn't be writing this kind of music, that he was a Beach Boy and could endanger the high society cash level of Beach Boys audiences and I can imagine the rest. This was in 1967, prior to the term Progressive Rock existing and he must have had his plate full with negative reactions from the people around him. Wilson was one of the first musicians/writers to take it upon himself to change his music and change the way people wrote music (during that time), and although Smile was never properly released in the 60's, Pet Sounds contributed to that role instead. This would influence The Beatles as well. On the original recording of Smile by The Beach Boys...there are traces of J.S.Bach, Avant-Garde, Folk, and Jazz. The elements combined create a film sequence or theatrical presentation. The phased vocal harmonies are in India's traditional style of hypnotic trance tone. Everything about this album represents what eventually developed within Prog as tools. The idea/concept to apply these elements as tools and form concept albums and all styles aforesaid was possibly and originally focused upon by Brian Wilson.

Edited by TODDLER - February 20 2014 at 11:30

dr wu23 wrote: The Dark Elf wrote: Then you didn't live in the Chicago or Detroit areas. Were you living in Indiana at the time? Were you listening to John Cougar Mellencamp or something? I saw Tull, Yes, Genesis and Floyd while still in high school in the mid-70s. My friends went to see them. Their friends went to see them. The shows were sold out. They were events, not just concerts. People talked about the shows for months. When you say "prog was not what most people listened to", I believe that is a very subjective statement. I also saw Deep Purple, Sabbath, Robin Trower, David Bowie and Alice Cooper, and "most people" didn't listen to them either in the strictest sense of Fleetwood Mac or The Carpenters or Elton John or KISS or whatever pop band sold the most albums. Yet each of the bands I referred to had gold or platinum albums in that period and each received extensive airplay.  And you'd get your ass kicked playing a Carpenter's Album where I lived. Lived just south of Chicago and still live in the same general area in northwest Indiana  Saw Mellencamp at IU for a $2.00 cover charge  when he was still Cougar and was just a local bar act. Never was a big fan  when he became somebody. Saw the same bands you did and a few more...and they were generally sold out but that leaves a lot of people who didn't attend those shows. A lot of 'stoners' and long hairs (myself included) listened to prog in the old days but the straights usually did not and many of the people I knew did not listen to what we consider prog today but preferred classic rock and pop rock, etc. Never said some 'prog bands' weren't popular with a certain crowd but they weren't as popular as the mainstream bands.

We only listen to WDR 3. They play very little prog though occasionally happens, but mostly they play classical music and then some jazz. We do not listen to it because of the music alone; we are also after the cultural features and political and social comments, whch are all excellent.

We hardly watch any TV at all, by the way, only the occasional concert, cultural feature or nature documentary. And sometimes a movie, but there are hardly any good movies on TV these days. It was very different some 30 years ago, and my brother who is ten years older than I am says that in the 60s and 70s there were lots of interesting TV-series and movies on TV. He says the quality drastically dwindled when private TV channels came up.

These days you have more than 20 channels to choose from,  and unless you go for pay-TV and create your own program it is nothing but crap. Of course there is the odd exception, like the Ijon Tychy series that ran about two years ago, but those are rare birds.

Oh, and my brother says prog was quite popular in the 70s. But you have to take that with a grain of salt. The rock music scene was much smaller back then; you could go to Saturn (a record shop in Cologne who in the 70s had ANY rock recording in store (with the exception of limited editions, that is), and if an album happened to be out of stock because someone bought their last copy of it they would quickly fill the gap. The enormous collection of rock records my brother had (which he passed on to me after he decided to listen to classical music and jazz only) stems from that time. My brother had the habit of browsing through all the albums and buying everything that had an interesting cover or an interesting line-up. He discovered many artists that were unknown in his circle of friends that way. And since there were not that  many bands in the first place (compared to today) the percentage of prog was much higher than today.


Edited by BaldFriede - February 19 2014 at 18:15

dr wu23 wrote: cstack3 wrote: dr wu23 wrote: Someone mentioned above if prog was popular these days and CStack said , a few posts down, that..... "Prog was extremely popular in Chicago, and still is. "    I think some prog  (the more mainstream bands) was certainly popular back then in many areas of the US ....but extremely?.. I'm not so sure about that. The masses at large listened to radio pop/rock more than prog imo. Well....what this forum calls "prog" WAS radio pop/rock in the1970's!   Notable examples included Yes' "Roundabout," Flash's "Small Beginnings," and Focus's "Hocus Pocus."   All those songs, and more, were in constant rotation on AM radio.   I guess you actually had to live through those times to appreciate it.  I'm really glad that I did. And I agree that some prog that crossed over into the mainstream was popular (usually singles culled from the LP's) but for the most part prog was not what most people listened to. And I did live through those times.