Thank you, Charlatan, for a bit of insight. Let's clear some stuff up here.
Genesis started as a prog-rock outfit, and gradually became a pop group. The blame surely cannot be placed on Phil Collins. Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks were equal parts of Genesis during this transition - Phil tends to get all the focus because he was the lead singer.
While I appreciate your technical term "pussifie," I think one would say it's a matter of opinion. I appreciate post 1980-Genesis for what it is, and I don't compare it to their earlier output. They went on to something different.
As for "selling out," I HATE it when people use that term. What does it mean, exactly? They went in a different direction and it happened to catch. So how did they sell out? Unless you can prove to me that they purposely went in that direction because a) their record company wanted them to, or b) they did it purely so they could sell more records.
And Ratbastid...I'm surprised at your lack of research. Peter Cetera was a founding member of Chicago back in 1967 AND sang lead on a lot of their earlier, more rocking songs like "25 or 6 to 4." Also, Chicago was doing more light-hearted fare since the mid-70s, like "Baby What A Big Surprise," "Saturday In The Park" and "If You Leave Me Now." Again, they went in a different direction in the 1980s...but that has more to do with a few members of the band either dying or leaving, and adding David Foster as contributing writer and producer. And some of Chicago's biggest "pop" hits ("Look Away," "What Kind of Man Would I Be") were recorded after Cetera left the band.
I'm just saying.
