This article: The Persistence of Prog Rock
The genre’s primary appeal, though, was not spiritual but technical. The musicians presented themselves as virtuosos, which made it easy for fans to feel like connoisseurs; this was avant-garde music that anyone could appreciate.
…there is something inspiring about the indigestibility of prog, which still hasn’t quite been absorbed into the canon of critically beloved rock and roll, and which therefore retains some of its outsider appeal.
Unfortunately the article passingly dismisses Rush as “a Yes-obsessed trio of Canadians who received even worse reviews than their British forebears.” I think Rush, especially in the way they filled arenas in the last decade, is a testament to the power of a band creating music they love and believe in.
This cover of Creep:
This song: