The early Eighties were an interesting time for prog rock. Bands like Rush, Genesis and Yes were shortening their songs, writing poppier tunes and actually landing huge hits on the radio. Punk had tried to kill prog, but all it did was convince the bands it was time for a change. Rush had been moving away from their grand epics for a couple of years before they cut Moving Pictures, partially influenced by bands like the Police. Fueled by the hits "Tom Sawyer" and "Limelight," Moving Pictures was a massive smash for Rush. Five of the seven songs are under five minutes, though "The Camera Eye" clocks in at a whopping 11:01. In many ways, this LP represented a commercial peak for the band. MTV hit a few months after it came out, and the group didn't exactly have Duran Duran looks. Making crappy videos didn't help matters, either. Rush revived Moving Pictures on their last tour by playing the disc straight through. 

Prog bands are notorious for shuffling their lineups more often Major League Baseball teams, and King Crimson are no exception. The prog pioneers had only been around for five years by the time they cut Red in 1974, but most of the original lineup was long gone. Only leader Robert Fripp remained; by this point he had recruited former Yes drummer Bill Bruford and future ASIA lead singer John Wetton. (Side note: Bruford has the unique distinction of being the only man to serve time in the holy prog trinity of Yes, King Crimson and Genesis.) The group cut Red knowing it would be their final album before they split up, and they really gave it their all. Many fans point to it as their best work, and even non-prog junkies like the late Kurt Cobain have offered it effusive praise. Good lucking finding it on iTunes or Spofity, though. The group has some beef with the business model of online music. 

In many ways, Hemispheres was the final album in a major chapter of Rush's career. It was their last release of the Seventies, and their last LP that's unambiguously prog. Amazingly brilliant and complex works like "La Villa Strangiato" showed they had really mastered their craft, and they felt it was time to move on. The band made a big stylistic shift on their next LP, 1980's Permanent Waves, which made them many new fans, but there's a certain contingent who see Hemispheres as Rush at their absolute peak. Still, the fact that the subtitle of "La Villa Strangiato" is "an exercise in self-indulgence" shows that Rush had grown a bit weary of the formula by this point and was ready for something new. 

Peter Gabriel-era Genesis was a really, really British band. It's hard to hear any hint of American musical influences anywhere in their work, and they even called their 1973 disc Selling England By the Pound. To put a capper on it, Gabriel dressed up like a British knight named Britannia during the shows, complete with a British flag shield. None of this is to say they were anything but an amazing band. The music they produced with Peter Gabriel is, without a doubt, some of the finest prog rock ever recorded. Selling England By the Pound was Gabriel's second-to-last work with the group, and it was the last time they really worked together as a full creative unit. There's hardly a stinker on the whole thing, but if you just hear one song, put on "Firth of Fifth." Steve Hackett's guitar solo is out of this world. 

It's impossible to definitively say what the first true prog album was, but nobody disputes that King Crimson's 1969 debut LP, In the Court of the Crimson King, was a monumental step forward for the genre. It's hard to imagine how groups like Yes and Genesis would have evolved without this album as an influence. The lineup didn't last beyond this one LP, but songs like "In the Court of the Crimson King" and "21st Century Schizoid Man" remain the group's most famous works. The latter was even sampled by Kanye West on his last solo album. Both songs are sung by Greg Lake, who formed Emerson, Lake and Palmer a year after this album hit shelves. Robert Fripp has lost interest in King Crimson and the group is on hiatus, but it would a very fitting end if the original lineup would get together for one final concert. Sadly, this is extremely unlikely. 

By the time Genesis recorded The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, it had become clear that Peter Gabriel could no longer function in a democratic band. He had an extremely clear vision for the story of a New York Puerto Rican guy named Rael who gets sucked into another universe, and he wrote almost all the lyrics by himself. During a Cleveland stop on the supporting tour, Gabriel told the band he was quitting. Thankfully, the group managed to execute Gabriel's vision and complete this double LP before he left. The story may be hard to follow, but Genesis have never sounded quite as powerful as they do on "In the Cage," "Back in New York City" or other stand-out tracks on the album. The group hasn't performed with Gabriel since a one-off show in 1982, though they did meet in 2005 to discuss a possible Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour. Gabriel ultimately decided against it. (Last year, I interrogated him on the topic.)

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is one of the few prog albums loved by rock fans outside of the prog community. Songs like "Time" and "Money" stand on their own as more traditional rock songs, though they're really part of a longer opus about greed, death and insanity. The album continues to speak to teenagers all across the world, pretty much making sure that David Gilmour's great-great-great-great grandchildren won't have to work a day in their lives. Note: no matter what you heard on the playground in the seventh grade, the band didn't record the album to line up with scenes from The Wizard of Oz. The few scenes that do line up are just a coincidence, and proof that if you look hard enough for something, you tend to find it. 

The songs on Yes' 1972 LP are so long they only managed to squeeze three of them onto the thing. Thankfully, they are three of the very best Yes songs. The title track is an 18:43 album-length song divided into four parts. "And You and I" clocks in at a mere 10:08, while the closer, "Siberian Khatru," is one of the proggiest songs ever, both in name and musical content. This masterpiece marked the end of Bill Bruford's initial tenure in Yes, and despite the great work that followed, they never quite recaptured the magic of this period. The band is now going through a pretty bad period, changing lead singers and keyboardists with alarming regularity. 

It may not seem like it now, but Rush's 1976 LP 2112 was an extremely brave move for the band. Two years earlier the group got the attention of Mercury Records with their Led Zeppelin-esque song "Working Man," but once they got signed they shifted gears with new drummer Neil Peart into proggier territory. The resulting albums, Fly By Night and Caress of Steel, didn't exactly set the world on fire, and the label wanted more commercial material for their next disc. The band took things in a different direction, risking it all on a grandiose concept record about a dystopian future in the year 2112. Radio didn't touch it, but the album found a rabid fan base that's never let go of the music. Some of the big rock groups of the day now play county fairs, while Rush are still packing arenas worldwide.