Why weren't Genesis big in the 70's ?

[Firth]

Only Genesis (or at least three members) turned out to be an embarrassment to the Prog genre! Those others you mentioned continued to fly the 'prog' flag!!!

When I read this in a quote I wondered if the 3 were being compared to the other members of the G men. Ironically the money making capacity of the G men actually highly correlates with visual aspect of performance they had. Gabriel continued color and theatrical effects which were key aspects of psychedelic performances in the 60's. The G men were responsible for the development of the varilite which made concerts amazing displays of intense color. In the 80s, the G men captured the music market which driven by videos, and they created some incredible videos. PG sat and watched this success via video, and then blew the video market away with the most innovative videos on MTV. Video killed the radio stars, and they wanted their MTV. The G men were still prog in the 80s, but only in a visual sense.

[Digital_Man]

Only Genesis (or at least three members) turned out to be an embarrassment to the Prog genre! Those others you mentioned continued to fly the 'prog' flag!!!

That's actually not true. Gentle Giant turned into a pop/pop rock band briefly then broke up.I'm sure many prog fans were embarrassed by some of their later albums and songs. However, they had the wits about them to break up instead of continuing down the pop road which they probably saw as a no win situation for them(their poppier stuff being less successful for example).

To address the earlier response though. I think to some degree some of these "not quite major prog bands" such as Renaissance, GG, Focus, VDGG, Camel etc) and others maybe did not have a hit single or get lots of radio play. Sure some of them found their way onto late night fm prog specials or got some scattered air time but I think other than PF, JT, Yes, ELP and maybe a few others most did not find themselves on the radio much and that is usually a pretty critical factor for being big or mainstream. Also, it's relative, at least to some degree, because there are bands who I consider to be huge in prog circles(Gentle Giant, VDGG or PFM for example or even Magma and Caravan) who are practically unheard of by most everyone else.