The answer is in 70s mainstream pop

[PeterG]

If you look at the early to mid-70s pop albums of Bowie, Leo Sayer , Elton John, John Miles, to name just a few you can hear how the mood of the day truly was prog rock and how it influenced the mainstream pop artists of the day in a way that it never did again after the 70s.

And how among the album collections of mainstream music listeners, who made no distinction between prog and non prog (my wife's collection for example, when I met her in 84) could be found Floyd, oldfield, Supertramp and genesis albums alongside Blondie, Dire Straits, Santana, Beatles, Roxy Music, Madness, Fleetwood Mac, Abba, Talking Heads, Bob Marley, to name just a few.
My point is this, that a lot of the albums that you consider prog albums in the mid-70s were viewed by the general public simply as pop or rock albums

[PeterG]

I forgot to say, that it was thanks to my wife's music collection that I first encountered an album by the Alan Parsons Project.

[Zonefish]

Part of the reason is the labels gave artists a few albums to develop a sound...whereas nowadays it has to clone some marketable brand and make an immediate splash else it moves onto the next creation. In the 60's and 70s, after a few successful records, artists were given greater flexibility and control. Consider Elton John's 4th album Madman Across the Water...recognizable as his "sound" but completely out of the box from his previous recordings. Also consider that the only mass outlet to hear popular music was the radio...on AM you had Barry Manilow,Bay City Rollers and the BeeGees, while FM was more free-form. Since most teens were converting to the FM band, they were exposed to a much wider variety of styles--and therefore Yes can be considered in the same bucket as The Allman Brothers.

[PeterG]

What you say about FM is spot on! Back then there was a greater range of music being played on public radio stations. Long before sponsors started to force commercial stations to only play a fixed list of about 100 songs on any given day. And long before pop stations became genre specific.
A simple look at the UK TV prog The Old Grey Whistle Test in the 70s illustrates my point, in that on any given programme, there would be a great diversity of styles.

[Progbear]

Counter-argument:

[bob_32_116]

I would agree with the OP, though I think you could say the same about the late 60's as well.

Speaking from an Australian perspective, the 80's was when things seemed to start getting pigeon-holed and you had to be terribly clear about whether you were talking about rock, prog, pop, country, New Age or whatever.

Amusing fact: a couple of years ago I visited a physical record store in the city and walked out with two CD's, which just so happened to have been stacked next to each other in the rack. One was by Opeth. The other: Roy Orbison.

[Svetonio]

If you look at the early to mid-70s pop albums of Bowie, Leo Sayer , Elton John, John Miles, to name just a few you can hear how the mood of the day truly was prog rock and how it influenced the mainstream pop artists of the day in a way that it never did again after the 70s.

And how among the album collections of mainstream music listeners, who made no distinction between prog and non prog (my wife's collection for example, when I met her in 84) could be found Floyd, oldfield, Supertramp and genesis albums alongside Blondie, Dire Straits, Santana, Beatles, Roxy Music, Madness, Fleetwood Mac, Abba, Talking Heads, Bob Marley, to name just a few.
My point is this, that a lot of the albums that you consider prog albums in the mid-70s were viewed by the general public simply as pop or rock albums

I would agree that back in the day that (almost) everyone bought and listens to (almost) everything, as the genres weren't "ghettoized" as it is today; I mean, today those who listen to mainstream, rarely will listen to prog too, or vica versa.
So I think that big record sales of some prog bands at the time, actually appeared mainly as collateral because they were "bundled" with the mainstream pop / rock LPs, although prog per se never was a mainstream really.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

There was plenty of Prog Pop (being short for "popular") back in the 70s. All the "big 3/5/7" Symph bands were Pop. Sure, the vast majority of Prog music artists never had a radio hit and/or never had any of their music played on big mainstream radio. But there were a handful of Pop Prog bands who were regularly on big mainstream radio. They were the biggest sellers, the most Pop(ular). But that was the 70s... now, even the most saccharin Neo Symph band cant payola their way on to mainstream radio.

Then there's the little accepted fact that from 1969-1975 when many artists of all colors and musical backgrounds were breaking new ground, doing Progressive things with Rock music, many of us fans just accepted all artists who played Progressive Rock music and didn't try to segregate artists... i.e.
Symphonic white guys are in the club; culturally mixed Fusion guys cant play Rock, they can only be Jazz; urban Afro and Latino Progressives are some kind of R&B; etc, etc. No, we didn't play that stupid game back then.

It was all one big beautiful scene to many of those who were there.

[Zeuhlmate]

I would agree with the OP, though I think you could say the same about the late 60's as well.

Yes - even more.

70ties
Italian 'Area' called them selves: "International POPular Group "

[flowerking]

Not only were record companies giving artists a few albums to establish themselves, they also were not so intimately involved that they were insisting on certain songs be included and others omitted. Once corporate greed took over the music business, record producers were far more involved in the process. So any form of experimentation or stretching into other genres or styles was pretty much removed from the equation certainly by the early 80s, maybe even earlier. Frankly, we are lucky that any of the record companies were willing to produce neo-prog to keep prog going into the 90s when the Internet and indie labels allows bands to take back some control.

[PeterG]

I would agree with the OP, though I think you could say the same about the late 60's as well.

Speaking from an Australian perspective, the 80's was when things seemed to start getting pigeon-holed and you had to be terribly clear about whether you were talking about rock, prog, pop, country, New Age or whatever.

Amusing fact: a couple of years ago I visited a physical record store in the city and walked out with two CD's, which just so happened to have been stacked next to each other in the rack. One was by Opeth. The other: Roy Orbison.

Totally agree with that Bob. There was an all-inclusiveness in music in the late 60s. The reason I started with the early 70s is of course because of the establishment of the prog rock bridgehead.

[PeterG]

Flowerking, I'm very much in agreement with you there, after mid-70s punk, then New Wave, and Synth, and No Wave, and post-punk and post-rock, all that energy and experimentation stagnated about 1982. It only took off again in about 1990 with indie, grunge, techno but this time round it was all genre specific, pigeon-holed, and even the so-called indie labels were calling the shots about the type of music they wanted from their bands.
If we go back to let's say 79 and look at the Stiff Records roster, we've got everything from old 60s rock n rollers like Alvin Stardust to blues boogie masters Dr Feelgood to the soul and funk of Ian Dury to the screaming mad woman antics of synth-queen Lene Lovich to the angst-ridden stories of Jona Lewie and Wreckless Eric to the London-Irish pop of The Pogues to the happy skanking Nutty ska-pop of Madness to name just a few of the Stiff stable. Jake Rivera's view and my point being that interesting pop music that people want to buy and hear has no genre allegiance, but unfortunately, and to borrow from S.E. Hinton , "That Was Then, This Is Now"

[Svetonio]

Yes - even more.

70ties
Italian 'Area' called them selves: "International POPular Group "

What about that heavy progressive rock band Pop Mašina (Pop Machine), with their odd time signatures and a smooth mix of heavy psych and jazz, in the middle of 70s?





Nothing "Pop" in their music; but, the Progressive rock (or music) is a subgenre of Popular music in general and something opposite to Classical music, so back in the day the prog bands often called their music "popular music" in the interviews.

[TheH]

Yes - even more.

70ties
Italian 'Area' called them selves: "International POPular Group "

Which is not very peculiar.

In the seventies Pop just ment popular music and wasn't specific on any kind of music as it is now.
So all kinds of Rock where Popular Music aka Pop in the 70s.

And in Italy Progressive Rock was the Pop Music for some years, and every former Beat band made
a Prog Album at least. Progressive Rock played a much bigger role in Italy than anywhere else.

Italian Progressive Rock was also often refered to as "Pop Italiano".

[Firth]

The question is: What category is "Follow You, Follow Me" in?

[bob_32_116]

The question is: What category is "Follow You, Follow Me" in?

It's pop. But really, really good pop.

[Svetonio]

(...)

In the seventies Pop just ment popular music and wasn't specific on any kind of music as it is now.
(...)

Aside of Popular music in general, that abbreviation "Pop" was also an abbreviation for "Pop-Rock" the tag that was very often used in the seventies for the acts like Elton John, David Bowie and a lot of other acts that enjoying some success in the hit-singles charts.

[Svetonio]

The question is: What category is "Follow You, Follow Me" in?

A drastically commercialized Symphonic rock, but not exactly Pop like the songs that Genesis recorded latter.

[Zeuhlmate]

Have we defined pop yet?

[moecurlythanu]

"and ever was there an answer?,.."
-David Gilmour

[No Pride]

Have we defined pop yet?

Depending on where you're from, it's a carbonated beverage, also known as "soda."

As a definable musical genre... it's not.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

Have we defined pop yet?

anything accepted by the masses
any Prog with regular mainstream radio play in the 70s was Pop Prog

[spacefreak]

I forgot to say, that it was thanks to my wife's music collection that I first encountered an album by the Alan Parsons Project.

Myself as well! She had the Tales... and Turn of a Friendly Card ones.

[Zonefish]

anything accepted by the masses
any Prog with regular mainstream radio play in the 70s was Pop Prog

Does that include Roundabout, Karn Evil #9, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Aqualung, etc... they have been FM radio staples since the 70s

[JJ88]

Yes, many a 'pop' act of the period have an experimental track on their albums somewhere. The Bee Gees' 'Sweet Sound Of Summer' (quite some time after their 'psych' 60s albums), David Gates' 'Suite:Clouds/Rain' and the Carpenters' 'Another Song' are a few such examples I'd recommend to anyone here.

The aforementioned Roy Orbison even had his own 'Macarthur Park' moment with 'Southbound Jericho Parkway'.