Was 1975 the peak year of the classic prog era?

Gerinski wrote: Nowadays we are bombarded with so much new music, much of it very good, that it's hard for recent albums to ever become true classics as the 70's best albums are. I mean, a few years ago lots of PA members were discussing all the hype about albums like, say, Phideaux's Snowtorch, Beardfish's Sleeping in Traffic(s), Discipline's To Shatter All Accord, Haken's Aquarius, Birds and Buildings' Bantam to Behemoth, Diagonal's selftitled or Moon Safari's Blomljud. People talked about them as the new masterpieces of Prog, but how often are we still talking about those albums when we talk about Prog Classics?

Not many great tunes these days. Occasionally there’s a fine one though

It is very interesting the way this thread has developed. Most of the discussion has been around which year in the first half of the 1970s was the best year for prog. But the key point about the initial post was what the PA stats across the years are telling us.

So, applying the same default parameters for the number of reviews and the minimum rating criteria across the decades, the 2000s and 2010s have twice the number of entries in the PA Top 250 (when you add up the entries for each year in each decade) than we had in the 1970s decade which included the great prog era. I find that quite surprising.

I was 19 when Genesis released Selling England By The Pound (which remains my all-time favourite prog album). In 1973 I was just getting into prog and grew to love Yes, King Crimson, Genesis and Pink Floyd (and others). Like many at the time, my interest waned towards the end of the 1970s.

But I seem to be in a completely different camp to most of the contributors to this discussion in that most of the albums in my top prog album charts come from the modern era. That doesn’t mean I don’t value the classic prog era – I loved it and still do. It means I have a way of measuring it against the modern era and can state this as a fact.

I started listening heavily to prog again around 12 years ago. And because of the sheer volume of prog out there (and technology and the accessibility of music which meant I could), I listened to a lot more (and could afford to buy a lot more) than I could in my teens and twenties. And best of all, the technology also keeps track of what you listen to.

I devised a way of working out which albums I listened to the most – not the simple number of tracks played per album but on average how many times I listened to each track on an album. All I had to do then was estimate (the subjective bit) the equivalent numbers for my favourite albums from the past and I could make a comparison. Call me a bit nerdy but that chart now has nearly 2000 albums in it. If I look at the top 50 around 20% are from the classic era and the rest are contemporary prog albums. And this does reflect the mix of prog music that I listen to - I listen much more to contemporary prog than I do to the classic era. But I guess I am the only PA Forum contributor who thinks this positively about contemporary prog and that is a shame.

CJG wrote: It is very interesting the way this thread has developed. Most of the discussion has been around which year in the first half of the 1970s was the best year for prog. But the key point about the initial post was what the PA stats across the years are telling us. So, applying the same default parameters for the number of reviews and the minimum rating criteria across the decades, the 2000s and 2010s have twice the number of entries in the PA Top 250 (when you add up the entries for each year in each decade) than we had in the 1970s decade which included the great prog era. I find that quite surprising. I was 19 when Genesis released Selling England By The Pound (which remains my all-time favourite prog album). In 1973 I was just getting into prog and grew to love Yes, King Crimson, Genesis and Pink Floyd (and others). Like many at the time, my interest waned towards the end of the 1970s. But I seem to be in a completely different camp to most of the contributors to this discussion in that most of the albums in my top prog album charts come from the modern era. That doesn’t mean I don’t value the classic prog era – I loved it and still do. It means I have a way of measuring it against the modern era and can state this as a fact. I started listening heavily to prog again around 12 years ago. And because of the sheer volume of prog out there (and technology and the accessibility of music which meant I could), I listened to a lot more (and could afford to buy a lot more) than I could in my teens and twenties. And best of all, the technology also keeps track of what you listen to. I devised a way of working out which albums I listened to the most – not the simple number of tracks played per album but on average how many times I listened to each track on an album. All I had to do then was estimate (the subjective bit) the equivalent numbers for my favourite albums from the past and I could make a comparison. Call me a bit nerdy but that chart now has nearly 2000 albums in it. If I look at the top 50 around 20% are from the classic era and the rest are contemporary prog albums. And this does reflect the mix of prog music that I listen to - I listen much more to contemporary prog than I do to the classic era. But I guess I am the only PA Forum contributor who thinks this positively about contemporary prog and that is a shame.

I think in my case at least it would be incorrect to judge the overall quality of the music by checking how much I listen to whatever from this or that decade.

Well we have at the moment the thread "Your top 10 prog LPs, all times, all styles"

AZF wrote: I too feel the earlier seventies were the peak of Prog. It's massively unfair (Not that anyone here says this) the perception of Punk killing Prog. That's just a lazy get out clause for journalists to establish narratives. Punk was a strong turn in fashion and direction but even if it never occurred the glory days of Prog were on the wane by 1975. King Crimson had split. ELP seemed dormant. Gabriel had left Genesis. Even Daevid Allen had fled Gong! The remaining groups made strong efforts, and some acts kept it going through the decade, but it seemed to have reached its glory days. Maybe more Prog music is being made by new bands today but there just doesn't seem to be the public imagination to show any interest outside of the faithful.