Music at Home: 10 Great Eighties Pop Songs by Seventies Prog Artists - Rolling Stone

Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Rush, and more all reinvented themselves for a new decade and scored some of the biggest hits of the MTV age.

The dawn of the Eighties was supposed to make prog bands like Genesis, Yes, and Rush die out like the dinosaurs, now that we were in the age of MTV and New Wave.

Rush took prog to its limits on Seventies albums like 2112 and Hemispheres, so in 1980 they reinvented themselves with this song lamenting the horrid state of mainstream radio.

Peter Gabriel, “In Your Eyes”

Genesis was still an art rock band with a cult audience when Peter Gabriel quit in 1975 to pursue a solo career, but he didn’t step out of their shadow until the release of SO 11 years later

Phil Collins, “In The Air Tonight”

After Gabriel’s departure, drummer Phil Collins took over as Genesis’ lead singer

Collins says that Genesis rejected it; they swear they never heard it

Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford didn’t want to be the one member of the band not enjoying solo success, so in 1985 he recruited singers Paul Carrack and Paul Young to form Mike and the Mechanics

The guys behind “Tuesday Afternoon” didn’t seem like a natural fit in the era of Ronald Reagan and Mr

Prog rock purists may feel that ELO weren’t quite the genuine artifact in the Seventies thanks to all their radio hits, and this song from the 1980 Olivia Newton John flop Xanadu didn’t exactly bolster their prog credibility

Eighties, Genesis, Music at Home, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, playlist, Rush, Yes