Why Did Genesis Abandon Prog Rock for Pop in the 1980s?

Here's why Genesis abandoned prog rock for pop in the 1980s!

Progressive rock was huge throughout the1970s, but as the music industry and the pubic gradually leaned into synth-pop, art pop and new wave during the dawn of the 1980s, so too did many genre foreberers.

Undoubtedly, Genesis had the most radical – yet arguably most popular – reinvention.

Just compare 1971’s “The Return of the Giant Hogweed” and 1991’s “I Can’t Dance” to hear how different the group became between phases!

The departures of singer/flutist Peter Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett in 1975 and 1977, respectively, certainly had something to do with it, as did drummer Phil Collins also becoming Genesis’ frontman when he, keyboardist Tony Banks and bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford kept the group going as a trio.

Obviously, there’s more to the story than that, which is why we’re examining the reasons for – and reactions to – Genesis abandoning prog rock for pop in the 1980s!

When Did Genesis Go Pop?

Although Genesis’ creative “metamorphosis” (as Collins once called it) truly ignited in the early ‘80s, they’d been incorporating pop into their work since the beginning. In fact, their 1969 debut LP – From Genesis to Revelation – tapped into orchestral/psychedelic pop more than it did prog rock (“The Serpent,” “In Limbo”). Over the next decade, they continued weaving accessible pop hooks and instrumentation into the majorly challenging LPs of the Gabriel era (“Dusk,” “Harlequin,” “Counting Out Time”).

Collins had been singing since he joined around 1971 as well (“For Absent Friends,” “More Fool Me”), and during their time as a quartet, tunes such as “Robbery, Assault and Battery,” “A Trick of the Tail,” “Your Own Special Way” and “Afterglow” more overtly foreshadowed Genesis' significant and controversial stylistic revision.

Naturally, their first LP as a threesome – 1979’s appropriately titled ...And Then There Were Three... – hinted at their creative conversion, too, as you can hear below.

Genesis, “Scenes From a Night’s Dream”

Genesis, “Follow You Follow Me”

Clearly, Genesis had always favored pop to some degree and their shifts in lineup weren’t solely responsible for how they’d sound in the 1980s.

Why Did Genesis Go Pop?

As Classic Rock Magazine noted in 2021, “Follow You, Follow Me” became Genesis’ "first U.K. Top 10 hit” and “their breakthrough into regular singles radio play."

As Collins clarified in the same feature, “It was always on the band’s to-do list to have hit singles, to be played on the radio,” and now they legitimately had the formula and potential to do it.

That success – coupled with the fact that synth-pop was taking over the airwaves – makes it clear why Genesis further explored inviting pop territories on 1980’s Duke (“Turn It On Again,” “Misunderstanding”). Of course, they still upheld some prog rock traits on it (especially with connected closing duo “Duke’s Travels” and “Duke’s End”), just as they did on 1981’s even simpler and poppier Abacab (“Dodo/Lurker”).

READ MORE: 10 Prog Rock Bands That Went Pop

Another factor was Collins’ first solo album — Face Value — which arrived between Duke and Abacab.

Thanks in large part to hit single “In the Air Tonight,” the pop-rock/R&B/blue-eyed soul sequence made Collins’ an overnight sensation. Understandably, his sudden (and massive) solo success — alongside Banks and Rutherford’s fruitful experiences working on their debut LPs, A Curious Feeling and Smallcreep's Day, respectively — was the final confirmation the trio needed to continue pursuing their multifaceted pop path.

“This change [in style] was coming," Rutherford reflected in a 2007 interview with Mike Kaufman (qtd. in Genesis: 1975 to 2021 – The Phil Collins Years by Mario Giammetii). He added that “the transition from The Lamb was the start of the end of an era and . . . it was actually inevitable if [Genesis] were to survive.”

Save for a few instances (namely, “Land of Confusion”), Genesis indeed abandoned prog rock for pop across the subsequent 10 years.

You can check out some of the biggest and most overt instances of that below:

Genesis, “Illegal Alien”

Genesis, “Invisible Touch”

Genesis, “Jesus He Knows Me”

That’s All: How Have Fans Felt About Genesis’ Pop Period Over the Years?

As demonstrated by their placements on the Billboard 200, every 1980s Genesis album did better commercially than all of the 1970s LPs in the United States. In general, audiences who weren’t into their prog rock period largely loved their pop stuff (and vice versa), with music critics being split accordingly.

Today, prog rock fans tend to tolerate — if not enjoy — Genesis’ latter material more than they used to (whereas the opposite situation is much less prevalent). Nevertheless, and cumulatively, the trio’s ‘80s output routinely falls below their ‘70s stuff when you look at professional and casual Genesis album rankings.

In Ultimate Classic Rock’s 2017 grading, for instance, they put We Can’t Dance near the bottom, calling it “obnoxious, overproduced pop pap.”

They’re not wrong.