I had a roommate from Boston in the early 80s. One day he & I were talking while I had a tape playing of various songs. Out of the Blue came on and he immediately recognized it. That is one of their greatest songs. Roxy Music had universal appeal.

roxy were true artists of their time in that they served up genuinely unique a-contextual art rock that was fully designed with the intention that it be mainstream pop dance music. they presaged a lot of what bowie would do leapfrogging off the decidedly tall shoulders of marc bolan, and yes, they did indeed integrate a lot of the "prog" influences that had already been well set in motion by everyone from their buddies king crimson to the rest of the usual suspects of that mafia. what you have to understand about a lot of the musicians of, say, 1969-1973 is that they were all attending the same british art schools and playing in the same nightclubs, studying one another's moves. i think roxy stands out from the crowd as being the least imitative of their peers, and yet still keeping their music in a framework that people could recognize as rock music.