Your thoughts?
Why was prog rock less successful than other styles/subgenres of rock music?
Why was prog rock less successful than other styles/subgenres of rock music?
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Why did prog rock never have mass popularity?
- Thread starter MidnightRunner
- Start date
Actually, it was very successful in the 1970s. Bands like Yes, Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, Kansas, Roxy Music, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Queen, Styx, Rush, ELP, ELO, even King Crimson filled arenas. Rick Wakeman was such a huge star at one point that, against all sanity, did a "King Arthur On Ice" with a full orchestra and a full choir in a space for around 10,000 people. All 3 nights sold out. Most prog rock bands had big-selling albums that were still getting radio play on classic rock stations into the late 80s.
And that's just the first generation. Big bands like Tool, Sigur Ros, Mars Volta, even Radiohead can be considered prog rock.
Prog has grown some very long roots and branches indeed. One might reasonably make the claim the Jinjer is "Prog Metal". They certaiinly take the Prog mindset and openness into a genre that is sometimes a bit, well, "stuffy" to my tastes. Jinjer mixes it up with all sorts of stylistic influences, which is a Prog characteristic too.
I don't have any idea what "prog rock" even means... is "prog" short for "progressive?"
Because the women can't dance to it.
Because you have to listen to it more than once to get into it.
I think record companies were afraid of it. Hardly any promotion because as Mike57 said, “the women can’t dance to it”.
Listened to a largely ignored prog band earlier today. Check out Quartermass. Cool Storm Thorgerson album cover. Never heard of them before today. Good stuff!
Listened to a largely ignored prog band earlier today. Check out Quartermass. Cool Storm Thorgerson album cover. Never heard of them before today. Good stuff!
Also, most people don't want to have to "think" to enjoy music. A lot of prog rock lyrics are fairly abstract, and the song structures aren't as predictable. The complex rhythms, odd meters, and (like others have mentioned) - "lack of danceability" and familiarity is hard to get into without a little effort from the listener.
Right! It takes work, time and patience to be intellectual. Cerebral music demands attention.
Most people want the lyrics to be cut and dry. I think ambiguity in Prog lyrics makes for a much more interesting listening experience. It can mean anything the listener wants it to mean.
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Generally its a lack of cheesy love songs imo. That being said, plenty of famous bands in the “prog” category
Progressive rock was very popular in the early 70s (Pink Floyd [prog or not prog???], Yes, ELP, etc. were all doing very well) and you could hear the prog influence in non-prog groups also with extended instrumental intros (I think of Boston's "Foreplay" as a tip of the hat to prog, or the entire structure of "Stairway to Heaven" or "Bohemian Rhapsody" for instance). So it enjoyed popularity and was an even greater influence on general pop music.
Prog did not remain popular in the 70s due to the rise of disco (I remember, I was there with elephant bells and platforms), yacht rock, punk and changes within prog itself. Girls could not dance to it, FM radio began shortening their format to run more commericals, leaving 12 minute long prog pieces for the "after midnight in my parent's basement" demographic. Remember, the guys in prog bands generally weren't lookers (which meant there was a lot of frustrated practicing going on during those difficult teenage years to make them approach prog to begin with), the songs weren't about girls, but about the solstice and, in its most shameless moments, wizards, swords and spells. Not exactly "Cause we're living in a world of fools / breaking us down/ when we all..." yeah you get the point. And as Waylon Jennings pointed out, rock n roll was really about one thing, and prog was sometimes too busy looking for that 12 sided die to be bothered with that - and besides girls liked Zep.
I think prog sensed its own bloat in the later 70s, and either folded or did a quick change. ELP never came back from Works Vol 1 (financially they couldn't), Yes convulsed and reworked itself into the enormously successful, colorful, Yes 2.0 with Trevor Rabin and bandanas for everyone.
Genesis was subsumed by the growing influence of Phil Collins who almost singlehandedly RULED the 80s AOR, a little-ahead-of-the-curve King Crimson became the "Discipline" era and not the Wetton era, and speaking of Wetton, Asia the "supergroup" spawned at this time, born when UK got ran over by an accounting firm, and soon all the really, really bad prog bands went back to the shire and found day jobs, or, sadly, did a pet-shop hairdo, an inch of foundation and took up pseudo-European synth rock. (Rush, well, let's just say I have theories about what happened to Rush after MP, but that's another pile of drivel about a hypothetical bus accident on Dec 31 1980 that could explain everything.)
By 1980, prog became pop-ish, tighter, and more processed - or it faded out, looking rather silly, and self-absorbed (not like us!). "Owner of a Lonely Heart," "Tom Sawyer," "Abacab," "Heat of the Moment," "Neal and Jack and Me" (not a hit), became the sound of prog. Some of it danceable, some of it sorta about girls, some of it under 4 minutes, and catchy. So prog was still there, but it wasn't your father's prog, it wasn't extended organ solos, a section of Hymalayan bells and rare prayer cymbals with accompanying Tibetan chants, or the usual multi-layered guitar solo anthems, jarring time changes or the fun of adding an extra eighth note the 3rd time through for the hell of it - but it was prog, sorta.
There were always bands putting out classical prog material but it wasn't until the rise of metal bands that prog joined with metal to make prog metal and bands like Dream Theater were born, and soon prog metal was (IMHO) the most visible form of prog for years.
Today there are a lot pf prog bands and some are successful (well, not your father's royalty payments, either, but successful). You have a lot of prog type artists and some fantastic new artists, some great artists from back in the day - and of course, some harmless, lovely cringe.
Prog? It's always been there, baby, it hasn't always looked good, but it's still here.
Back to "Siberian Khatru."
Prog did not remain popular in the 70s due to the rise of disco (I remember, I was there with elephant bells and platforms), yacht rock, punk and changes within prog itself. Girls could not dance to it, FM radio began shortening their format to run more commericals, leaving 12 minute long prog pieces for the "after midnight in my parent's basement" demographic. Remember, the guys in prog bands generally weren't lookers (which meant there was a lot of frustrated practicing going on during those difficult teenage years to make them approach prog to begin with), the songs weren't about girls, but about the solstice and, in its most shameless moments, wizards, swords and spells. Not exactly "Cause we're living in a world of fools / breaking us down/ when we all..." yeah you get the point. And as Waylon Jennings pointed out, rock n roll was really about one thing, and prog was sometimes too busy looking for that 12 sided die to be bothered with that - and besides girls liked Zep.
I think prog sensed its own bloat in the later 70s, and either folded or did a quick change. ELP never came back from Works Vol 1 (financially they couldn't), Yes convulsed and reworked itself into the enormously successful, colorful, Yes 2.0 with Trevor Rabin and bandanas for everyone.
Genesis was subsumed by the growing influence of Phil Collins who almost singlehandedly RULED the 80s AOR, a little-ahead-of-the-curve King Crimson became the "Discipline" era and not the Wetton era, and speaking of Wetton, Asia the "supergroup" spawned at this time, born when UK got ran over by an accounting firm, and soon all the really, really bad prog bands went back to the shire and found day jobs, or, sadly, did a pet-shop hairdo, an inch of foundation and took up pseudo-European synth rock. (Rush, well, let's just say I have theories about what happened to Rush after MP, but that's another pile of drivel about a hypothetical bus accident on Dec 31 1980 that could explain everything.)
By 1980, prog became pop-ish, tighter, and more processed - or it faded out, looking rather silly, and self-absorbed (not like us!). "Owner of a Lonely Heart," "Tom Sawyer," "Abacab," "Heat of the Moment," "Neal and Jack and Me" (not a hit), became the sound of prog. Some of it danceable, some of it sorta about girls, some of it under 4 minutes, and catchy. So prog was still there, but it wasn't your father's prog, it wasn't extended organ solos, a section of Hymalayan bells and rare prayer cymbals with accompanying Tibetan chants, or the usual multi-layered guitar solo anthems, jarring time changes or the fun of adding an extra eighth note the 3rd time through for the hell of it - but it was prog, sorta.
There were always bands putting out classical prog material but it wasn't until the rise of metal bands that prog joined with metal to make prog metal and bands like Dream Theater were born, and soon prog metal was (IMHO) the most visible form of prog for years.
Today there are a lot pf prog bands and some are successful (well, not your father's royalty payments, either, but successful). You have a lot of prog type artists and some fantastic new artists, some great artists from back in the day - and of course, some harmless, lovely cringe.
Prog? It's always been there, baby, it hasn't always looked good, but it's still here.
Back to "Siberian Khatru."
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LOL!
Not to hijack the thread, but to keep it brief - I think that on Dec 31 1980 Rush, Queen, Yes, Genesis, Heart and Renaissance (yeah dark horse there) were at the same airport somewhere in North America, and there was a blizzard. Rather than sleep at the airport, they all rented a bus to drive to a hotel when the bus wrecked, killing all aboard. The record companies were desperate, so they hired a bunch of people that looked like these bands, sounded, like these bands, sort of, but did not have the talent to write anything as good as these bands - they couldn't fake that. Think about it and the sudden, inexplicable drop in album quality with these artists between 1980 and 1981 - this hypothesis explains a lot. (PS it's rumored Zappa may have been on the bus as well, but that depends on who you ask).
Dark Side of the Moon is the fourth best selling album of all time, so I’m not sure I can buy into the premise that prog has no popularity.
Completely depends on what specific genre of Prog or type (I know, I swear I'm not that much of a nerd.) Odd, avant-garde type Italian prog rock? Just not everyone's jam and that's not what those artist were going for, they wanted to create something. Yes, Rush, Jethro Tull (all awesome bands) I would say from my POV are pretty popular to me and anyone I know. I mean yeah some of them aren't the tops of classic rock bands but I still think most people know who they are, Rush is always on the radio, and I listen to indie/pop type of stations a lot and they are always on spotify recommendations on nearly every rock playlist. Also what defines Prog-Rock is hard. Tool is pretty much Prog-Rock/Prog-Metal but the band themselves Prog-Rock,they said they do consider themselves Prog-Psych. (Yeah I know) So if you mean lesser know prog-rock maybe it was too complex for most music listeners, it's not for everyone's thing at first glance etc. Modern prog acts or classic ones did something that attracted audiences I guess.
I think once any band goes on a second sold out stadium tour you’re clear to call them successful. Do you not?
I think once a band sells out 150 arenas a year for 30 years it’s “edgy” to say they’re never gonna be popular.
I think once a band sells out 150 arenas a year for 30 years it’s “edgy” to say they’re never gonna be popular.
