Why so few American bands in 70's prog? |
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Jzrk
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If you focus on the symphonic prog rock the US was not anywhere near the UK most likely because there just weren’t a lot of bands of that quality.
The window for the genres popularity was short due to the emergence in disco and punk by the late 70’s in the US Also and mentioned the more high quality musicians were into jazz and blues based music and that’s where bands and artists were stronger. Had the genre been able to maintain popularity longer perhaps more young bands would have popped up and some me better bands emerged |
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Mortte
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Prog just wasn´t even near as big in US as in UK in the seventies. It was more fusion thing there.
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deafmoon
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There was a ton of prog going on in the clubs here back in the 70's. I can attest to this personally as I saw some of the best. Falgaris, Karizma, Harpy, Starcastle, Mithrandir...plenty of bands. The calibre of musicianship was incredible here in the states. The issue of why the world never heard of them is solely because of the record companies and their interest in feeding what they believed was an insatiable appetite for anything and everything coming solely from across the pond. When the US bands did get record company notice, the focus here was always for radio airplay. Cut the song down, cut it down even more, cut it down again! So, that forced many bands to either bail or find another way. Just look at Journey and Ambrosia. They were never pop, soft ballad artists in their early days. But, by the late 70's here in the US, musicians all moved into punk or dance music or adopted playing hard rock with an occasional nod to prog by one of the giant English bands. Dream Theater was a classic example of this, but eventually broke through. And as good as they are, it was solely luck of the draw. Because there are still mind-blowing musicians out there that never got that break. That's life!
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Deafmoon
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noni
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I have quite a few albums from the 70s era.. Only just picked these up during 5 ago... Though probably couldn't compete with the big boys as record companies were big business back then.
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dr wu23
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_progressive_rock_groups
My personal favorite is Happy The Man when it comes to creative ability .
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verslibre
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GREAT POST. I missed this one before. I agree wholeheartedly! Buck is criminally underrated when it comes to lead guitarists.
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verslibre
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Brand X and Soft Machine over there, we had everyone else. Literally. Even Bruford said he had to come get Jeff Berlin because they didn't have guys of his caliber over there.
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verslibre
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P.S. Before Jean & Friede come spank me, let me add Passport to the mix. Cross-Collateral and Infinity Machine are classic albums.
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moshkito
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Hi,
Weird. Never really thought that America did not have enough "progressive" groups ... and they did, with the problem that America is like 5 or 6 countries, and the tastes vary from east to west like sugar and salt on your food. Like everyone else, there were different things, and to me, Chicago 1 and Chicago 2, are excellent examples of something that is "progressive", but it not given the credit for it, because it does not have the heavy set keyboards all over it to announce that ... this is progressive! It didn't need to! To me, these 2 albums are as important, formative and valuable as ITCOTCK, and its lyrics and work is very much about the time and place, and many other things. I simply think that in this age of the "song", that very few people can even consider listening to those albums in full, and appreciate the great music in it. But to say that Genesis or ELP are progressive because of the heavy handed keyboards, is like saying that music can not be progressive without those keyboards, and that is a great fault with the definition of the term in the first place, and it was a media thing that honored a handful of bands, and ignored the rest of the world, when in fact, many of them were copy-kat'ing each other in the first place. Gotta have those keyboards! Gotta have that big sound! Goodness sakes ... you realize that the church itself, wanted the loud organs, because they were so intimidating to the folks in the building. Something like that! I wish that folks could see the parallels a lot better. The Midwest was full of expressive bands in the 70's and some of them even had a hit on the radio or so, but the albums are very different. One of those I really like, is the band "Ides of March", whose first album include their hit "Vehicle", but is quite an excellent album all around, and very progressive, except that the definition of "progressive" hates horns, and says that horns are not allowed. This even means that ALQUIN can not be considered either, I guess! Progressive was, and is, EVERYWHERE. All you have to do is open up the ears a bit, and use a Q-Tip now and then to clear some of the old wax!
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The Dark Elf
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The answer is quite simple: America has a jazz tradition, whereas as Britain and Europe has a classical tradition -- so the common definition of "prog" with its nod to classicism would not be one American musicians would necessarily gravitate to. One could ask the same thing about the lack of jazz greats on your side of the pond. Many Brits and Europeans, like John McLaughlin, Jan Hammer and Joe Zahwinul (Weather Report), had to come to the States to really become accomplished in the jazz tradition.
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moshkito
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Agreed! However. this makes for stuff that is different when it comes to long cuts and experience, and things like the Grateful Dead, had them, and they were not quite classic in their design, and then you had things like Iron butterfly, although they are only known for one long thing. But there were others. A bit later, Hot Tuna was known to extend things, and this is just the West Coast, as I left the Midwest in 1971 summer. I rather think that RADIO had a lot of say in America, and when FM radio became just another corporate thing, just like AM radio was (later in the 70's), it helped kill the longer cuts on radio, which influenced the record business. Already you could not find many bands with long cuts and experimental things, other than the above mentioned jazz folks, all of which, really hammered the whole thing home, and did so in style and ability. Europe had a classical tradition going back hundreds of years, and it is no surprise that a lot of its music tends to follow a lot of details that music history has shown.
Edited by moshkito - June 03 2018 at 22:46 |
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HackettFan
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Some of it is labeling. What makes Lindisfarne progressive and Shawn Phillips not?
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cstack3
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We Yanks gave the world disco.
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ProgMetaller2112
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You should be dancing. Yeahhh!
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Mascodagama
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Edited by Mascodagama - June 04 2018 at 01:40 |
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Mortte
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MortSahlFan
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I only saw the first page, but as mentioned - Steely Dan, but also early Ambrosia stuff is good... Compared to a big country like the US, England produced the best/most per capita. Speaking of America, check out the song "Hat Trick" - it's over 8 minutes (so it HAS to be prog, LOL).. Seriously, great song, with changes, etc.. If you don't like the start, stick around, it gets better! Before 2016, I thought of them only as acoustic folk-rock, but they have some funk, disco, etc.. |
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SteveG
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Something that's never said is that the Brits recycle music such as blues and R&R while the Yanks invented it. The same could be true of prog if you look at early British prog as recycling classical music and it's themes. Not a popular opinion, I'm sure, but there it is.
Edited by SteveG - June 04 2018 at 04:32 |
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Cristi
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I know I'm looking for trouble with this post, but does the term "yanks" include the black bluesmen that invented the genres mentioned above? At least the Brits worshiped the blues, they never meant no disrespect. Do you know the case of Sister Rosetta Tharpe who barely got any work as a musician once Elvis and other r'n'r artist became big? It was a British jazz musician that saved her career asking her to come play & sing in the UK and Europe.
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SteveG
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