Non-UK Prog Rock in the late 70s

Something's always been making me scratch my head. In the UK, the late 70s was the period when prog rock was dying, right? But, outside of the UK, it was frigging blooming! Quebec, Poland, Russia, Spain, Romania... so on and so on. All the great albums from those countries were made in the times of the British prog demise. I mean, just take a look at the top-prog-albums finder here on PA. Weird, huh? My theory is that there was some kinda delay in the flow of information. Basically, after the prog rock boom ended in the epicenter, the provinces were just starting to catch on. That's why we have all those fantastic late 70s albums like Hijos del Agobio, Memento Z Banalnym Tryptykiem, Tako, El Profeta, Pollen and stuff.

Edited by Hrychu - May 03 2020 at 04:40

Arguably the prog demise in the UK had much to do with the British music press who wanted to define something else as "cool" at the time and did so by sl*g.ing off prog in particular. Everyone needs a bogeyman. That said, after a few years of bloom chances are some of the greats got a bit tired and the movement was indeed losing steam. Things that were fresh in 1970 inevitably were rather done by copycats in 1977. Chances are you're right with the "flow of information" thing. In Germany you had both things at the same time. The music press was hitting out at Eloy and other prog bands already in 1975/76, Early pioneers Can ceased to exist and Amon Düül II did some rather ill-advised style changes; anyway they decided they have to move away from their earlier selves. On the other hand many bands like Eloy, Anyone's Daughter, Novalis produced their best music in the second half of the 70s; compared to the British they were latecomers but had neither burned out yet nor lost their love for music that is complex, not "cool" just yet. Hardly any innovation from these, though. Kraftwerk, Neu!, La Düsseldorf etc. were still officially cool by the way; Tangerine Dream had a somewhat mixed reception, they did experiment and change within a realm that allowed them to remain themselves, but that wasn't enough for some critics or many of the next generation of listeners. (They sold pretty well at least until the mid 80s, I believe.) There was an audience that hated all things prog, there was a dedicated prog audience still, and there were people in between who would listen to the new stuff, wouldn't like prog bombast if taken all too seriously (as Eloy had a reputation for, not totally undeservedly), but still filled Grobschnitt concerts, which were not only prog but also big fun. 


Edited by Lewian - May 03 2020 at 06:32