Did the Punks killed Prog Rock?

Jimbo wrote: With albums like Tales From Topographic Oceans, A Passion Play, Brain Salad Surgery etc. it's no wonder that Punk had to come. No matter how orgasmic they may have sounded to Joe the prog fan, it should be fairly easy to grasp why the big audience (along with the critics) slowly turned their back to progressive rock.

Edited by darqdean - July 24 2007 at 19:11

Politician wrote: Punk most assuredly did not "kill" prog - prog was already in decline, and that is why punk had to happen. The first generation of prog bands (1969-73) were genuine innovators, who threw together disparate musical styles and influences to see what would happen. The second generation of prog bands grew up listening to progressive rock, and their main objective was to emulate their idols. On the contrary, punk revitalised many aspects of the music scene and led to some very interesting music. To take just one example, Poisongirls' 1982 album "Where's The Pleasure?" - which explores elements of post-punk, mutant funk, folk, nursery rhyme-like chants, barroom rock and traditional church music before ending with a Henry Cow-like jazzy prog blowout - is more genuinely progressive than anything that Marillion et al have ever produced.

rileydog22 wrote: Proletariat wrote: Thank god for punk, punk weeded out all the prog rock bands that had gone past their prime and releasing second rate albums. Punk also spawned the DIY attitude that has allowed prog to survive without the support of the major record labels. Actually, Kraut and Avant had been quite DIY in the mid-seventies, several years before punk rolled around.  Can survived in their own studio, Inner Space, releasing records on their own label, Spoon Records (founded 1974).  Also, Rock-In-Opposition was famously self-sufficient, especially with the formation of Recommended Records in 1978.  Hell, RIO had more punk attitude than punk did.

Politician wrote: Punk most assuredly did not "kill" prog - prog was already in decline.

I tend to agree. By 1977 most of the classic prog bands had burnt themselves out. You shouldn't see punk in too negative a light. The so-called punk revolution spawned a lot of great music. There was tremendous energy in the air. Hundreds of thousands of young people suddenly realised you didn't need to sing harmony like the Eagles, or play guitar like Clapton; you could just grab some instruments, learn a few chords and HAVE FUN. In the Low Countries, for example, a whole new rock scene was born. Progressive bands had always been a minority taste there (apart from Focus, perhaps) but now, for the first time, there were dozens of entertaining new-wave bands appearing on the radio and touring the country. I guess similar things happened all over Europe.

On the other hand, by 1977 the official music industry had become thoroughly commercialised, but it wasn't dominated by punk, it was dominated by disco. As we all know, the industry encouraged those prog bands that still survived (in one way or another) to record over-glossy music that was a very pale reflection of what they had done in the early seventies (e.g. Yes and Genesis).

It's a shame, though, that the "Do it yourself" spirit and the dire commercial rules of the late seventies also doomed the handful of adventurous new prog bands that were just then emerging, e.g. National Health!