Was Genesis really that influential?

Toaster Mantis wrote: Have people here perhaps looked at the contemporary charts and seen how Genesis' now-classic LPs stack up against those by ELP, Jethro Tull, The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Yes etc.? Would be the easiest way to answer the question if you ask me.

richardh wrote: Toaster Mantis wrote: Have people here perhaps looked at the contemporary charts and seen how Genesis' now-classic LPs stack up against those by ELP, Jethro Tull, The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Yes etc.? Would be the easiest way to answer the question if you ask me. not sure I fully understand this. Genesis sold shed loads in the late seventies and eighties when they moved away from 'full on' prog. The earlier albums were not massive sellers. They clearly influenced a lot of eighties neo prog bands and that was partly because they remained visible at a time when many seventies bands just disappeared. Also they were easier to copy than ELP and Yes who tended to push boundaries on the musical/instrumental/technical side more. The appeal in Genesis music is that its more rounded and accessible. Even Lamb has many good tunes that wouldn't be out of place on the radio. Genesis represented the commercial template for prog rock. Thats how I see it anyway.

 
Seconded. Finally someone here clearly sinthesizes this whole thread about Genesis, and also clearly explains why there is a just a million threads about this band in the forum, many of them annoyingly repetitive.


Edited by Rick Robson - June 06 2014 at 07:14

richardh wrote: SteveG wrote: ^Early Rush always sounded to me like they were mainly influenced by Zep, Yes and Larks era Crimson. Subdivisions and other 80's keyboard heavy songs seem to owe more to the then contemporary Collins led Genesis. What are your thoughts? Always considered Rush to be a 'hybrid' of Heavy Rock and Prog Rock. They cleverly kept a foot in either camp until maybe Signals saw them completely develop their own style which I struggle to compare to anyone. As an ELP fan I always felt that Rush were the band that I wanted ELP to be . Power WIndows is so drenched in keyboards and orchestra it could almost be a version of ELP in a parallel universe (ignoring the vocals of course). Rush never sounded much like Genesis at any time to me although they had similar aims of making their sound and style more sleeker and contemporary in the eighties.

Great points about ELP and Rush, looking back at ELP the grandious playing seemed to be a LOVE IT or HATE IT scenario. I agree Rush never "sounded" like Genesis but the writing, playing style could be faintly similar and yes until Rush found their house sound after Hemispheres....Clearly why you have two Rush camps, just like Genesis. It seems more people cringe at the post Gabriel era than the post Hemispheres/MP era or even post Signals Rush era.

For me and Genesis I have always been very vocal that start to finish, assuming Genesis is done now, all Genesis is amazing....I mean come on its Genesis    

Catcher10 wrote: richardh wrote: SteveG wrote: ^Early Rush always sounded to me like they were mainly influenced by Zep, Yes and Larks era Crimson. Subdivisions and other 80's keyboard heavy songs seem to owe more to the then contemporary Collins led Genesis. What are your thoughts? Always considered Rush to be a 'hybrid' of Heavy Rock and Prog Rock. They cleverly kept a foot in either camp until maybe Signals saw them completely develop their own style which I struggle to compare to anyone. As an ELP fan I always felt that Rush were the band that I wanted ELP to be . Power WIndows is so drenched in keyboards and orchestra it could almost be a version of ELP in a parallel universe (ignoring the vocals of course). Rush never sounded much like Genesis at any time to me although they had similar aims of making their sound and style more sleeker and contemporary in the eighties. Great points about ELP and Rush, looking back at ELP the grandious playing seemed to be a LOVE IT or HATE IT scenario. I agree Rush never "sounded" like Genesis but the writing, playing style could be faintly similar and yes until Rush found their house sound after Hemispheres....Clearly why you have two Rush camps, just like Genesis. It seems more people cringe at the post Gabriel era than the post Hemispheres/MP era or even post Signals Rush era. For me and Genesis I have always been very vocal that start to finish, assuming Genesis is done now, all Genesis is amazing....I mean come on its Genesis

I would still take Rush from start to finish (whenever that is) over Genesis from start to finish. Genesis has been good, but Rush has been unbelievable.

Mirror Image wrote: Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote: The majority of the world probably remembers them as that `Phil Collins pop group'... And that's rather unfortunate as people who only know their 'pop' music will probably never experience this group when it was on the cutting edge of art music and creating music that blurred boundaries. Such a shame.

HemispheresOfXanadu wrote: HemispheresOfXanadu wrote: Ask Eddie Van Halen.  Logged out too early last night to explain. Referring to Hackett influencing Eddie to tap.

Prog_Traveller wrote: Genesis are arguably the most influential prog band. For one thing nearly the entire neo movement was built upon their sound in particular but with a somewhat edgier element to it. Genesis weren't really all that huge as a prog band at least not in the US and at least not compared to some of their contemporaries but their influence has nonetheless been very substantial. They are usually one of the first three or four bands that most newbies discover.

I agree totally that Genesis were an influence on the later neo-prog bands, DT and the like but not to Metallica, Saxon and other thrashers.

Edited by SteveG - June 12 2014 at 15:37

They already are.  

Here's the thing. Genesis' influence in the prog community is sort of an after the fact kind of thing. What I mean by that is even though Genesis were around in the seventies and were pretty big in some countries they weren't as big as the biggest prog bands of the day(at least not in the US). So when we look at their influence it's not fair to look at how popular they were during their prog days just like you wouldn't judge Gentle Giant that way. Their influence came later after musicians and many fans were introduced to them by and large in the eighties. I remember when I saw Genesis in 2007 their audience was very mixed. Yeah there were some people there who probably were into the band in the seventies but there were just as many who were my age and younger and probably many of them aren't even into prog let alone know what it is.

Edited by Prog_Traveller - June 22 2014 at 12:19

[I think Genesis definitely influenced Italian Prog]

I agree but I'm going to be bold and say the opposite is also true. I feel that Italian prog influenced Genesis. I've never heard anyone say this before but it's my speculation and I don't think it's unreasonable considering how much time Genesis spent in Italy in the early seventies. If you listen to the synthesizer on SEBTP and then listen to say PFM and Banco(but especially PFM)you can hear where Genesis may have gotten some of their synth solo ideas from(as far as adding them in a way that PFM was doing and with the mellotron in the background). I remember when I first heard "Per un amico" it hit me that it probably had some influence on SEBTP.