How is it misleading when there are prog elements throughout a lot of their albums, and not just including the fact that the members have prog backgrounds? Surely they could be considered a prog band. And I added in classic because they were creating music that some could consider classic rock.

Just because the members have prog backgrounds doesn't make the band prog, the whole idea of Asia was for the band to try something much simpler than what the band members were used to playing. Even famous prog bands such as Yes, Rush, Camel and Jethro Tull made albums in the 1980s that weren't prog at all.

The albums themselves have prog elements. Though I agree that the band as a whole doesn't sound like prog to the extent that a prog band would. But i'm only making a note of that because it can be confusing (to people like me) that the band is or isn't prog based on what they're listening to. I'm not saying I disagree with you at all. I just recently got into this band anyway, but I grew to love them a lot.

The only prog element of those early Asia albums were the album covers and the personnel in the band. If you're referring to clever instrumental sections on the albums that give the general feel to most of the songs, Toto, Styx and Boston had been doing the same thing several years before Asia jumped on the idea.

That's just what I noticed anyway. And yes, that was what I was referring to. Again, just keep in mind that this band is still fairly new to me, so your information is actually a lot more help than you would think. In all honesty, the main reason I stuck to listening to this band was because of Steve Howe. That may have brought upon a lot of bias to think this band was prog. But I can definitely understand why they aren't.

uh, no

cheesy keyboards, simple chords, emptiness of any classical structure, no song cycles, no overall concept, no lengthy passages

Asia is closer to a band like Europe than Yes

as US has pointed out, prog bands have done AOR (it was a pretty popular thing for old prog bands to put out AOR albums in the early 90s), these include:-

Yes - Talk
Procol Harum - The Prodigal Stranger
Jethro Tull - Crest of a Knave
Genesis - Invisible Touch

Yes, yes. I've got that now. If you've read the rest of the comments in the thread you'd realize that i've been informed of this already. But thanks.

I would like to chip in my penny worth and say Asia are a 'stadium band' not AOR or Prog.

Most AOR acts in the 1980s were stadium rock anyway.

Still Stadium Rocking after all these years, here's something from the Omega album. You either like it or don't, but I have to admit that at least calling it Asia is still more marketable (at least in Italy) than Wetton, Howe, Downes, and Palmer. At least it's not as bad as Side One of ELPs Love Beach (The album that sold it's own Jogging Shorts!) - Not great, mind, but just saying...