Did Punk Rock really kill Prog Music?

HackettFan wrote: For myself, I never heard of Neo-Prog as a term until I joined PA. Like some others have said, I don't think the strength of Punk was that great where I lived. It may have been different elsewhere. Rush did fine in the 70s. Zappa did fine in the 70s. Others did too, and, although I do think there was a overall fall from a golden age, I don't like the idea that it played itself out. To me, what changed was that the 68-74 batch of Prog bands were spawned by an underground that was no longer functioning to replenish the vitality of the genre. More arena bookings helped Yes, ELP, Genesis and others. They weren't helping Prog overall as a genre.

I think this is one of the best answers that I've heard in years, believe it or not, a fall or decline from a "golden age". That-a-boy, HF.

All genres go through their natural progression from simple and basic to complex and interesting, as they grow with their audience.

SteveG wrote: ^Prog: Does it prefer Warm Or Cold climates?

Prog Music, The Barbarians and the Fall of the Roman Empire.

I like to relate present day things to past events or institutions. It gives me a reference for modern events. I always seem to be relating Progressive Rock to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 C.E. Not that Prog has or will fall but the feeling or impression seems the same to me.

The golden Era of Rome was well past when the old Empire was split into the latin speaking Western Empire still ruled by an Emperor in Rome and the Greek speaking Eastern Empire ruled by it's own Emperor in Costantinople (modern day Istanbul, Turkey). The Western Roman Empire was at first involved with multiple wars with barbarian Goths to the north and east, Huns to the North West and Vandals that had captured all of the Empire's Northern African colonies.

After a period of slow decline added by civil wars, the Barbarians had come to win victories against the Western Romans and had risen to positions of power within the Western Empire. Right up to the Emperor's court, including high ranking military commanders.

Can you recognise the "Barbarians" that have reached within Progressive Music's court?

Edited by SteveG - September 03 2014 at 19:36

^I'm very much for this broad range approach but find it surprising that so few people put any blame on the record industry itself as if it was an innocent party to all of this.

SteveG wrote: Prog Music, The Barbarians and the Fall of the Roman Empire. I like relate present day things to past events or institutions. It gives me a reference for modern events. I always seem to be relating Progressive Rock to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 C.E. Not that Prog has or will fall but the feeling or impression seems the same to me. The golden Era of Rome was well past when the old Empire was split into the latin speaking Western Empire still ruled by an Emperor in Rome and the Greek speaking Eastern Empire ruled by it's own Emperor in Costantinople (modern day Istanbul, Turkey). The Western Roman Empire was at first involved with multiple wars with barbarian Goths to the north and east, Huns to the North West and Vandals that had captured all of the Empire's Northern African colonies. After a period of slow decline added by civil wars, the Barbarians had come to win victories against the Western Romans and had risen to positions of power within the Western Empire. Right up to the Emperor's court, including high ranking military commanders. Can you recognise the "Barbarians" that have reached within Progressive Music's court?

 Or how about rock becoming prog rock being signified the rise of Julius Caesar and the abolition of the Roman Republic? Or how about rock music, including prog, being the barbarians that ravaged the empire of classical music that, obviously, we should all be extolling? 

SteveG wrote: the fact that King Crimson reformed with a New Wave aesthetic to go along with the band's new idea of prog, along with other factors that would imply an end to Progressive Rock or at least a serious depletion of it's ideals.

Why would KC changing styles imply a depletion of Prog Rock ideals? If anything they were sticking to their ideals of constant reinvention in the 80's, much more so that their later albums. They were in fact still progressing.


Edited by Nogbad_The_Bad - September 02 2014 at 21:26

1910: music started

SteveG wrote: But did Punk Rock really kill off Progressive Rock ... ?

If it really did, we wouldn't be listening to it, right? Otherwise, define "kill".

SteveG wrote: ... did Progressive Rock hit its pinnacle in the mid seventies and was starting to decline anyway?

This makes more sense to me than anything else.

tarkus1980 wrote: Prog died from autoerotic asphyxiation.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - September 03 2014 at 01:04

That's too easy: prog hit its peak in the mid to late '70s, but, no, punk shlock didn't kill off prog (How silly!); it only diverted the attention of youngsters elsewhere who otherwise might have given prog a go. As surely witnessed by this blog site, others took their place.