There are two ways of considering this. First, on a purely chronological basis, 1971 - 1977 mark the years he appears in the band's regular recorded works, not counting 3SL and the Archive sets. So on that simple basis, that can be said to be the Hackett Era.
Second would be the notion that the term 'era' in this sense defines something more than pure chronology; the substance and, if you like, value/significance of his work as part of the band. My view is that there is significance to his time in Genesis. From early on, especially his Salmacis solo, he had a distinctive sound that contributed to the Genesis overall sound. As has been said, they've never been an overtly 'guitar band' but his work underlined that the instrument was nevertheless an intrinsic part of their soundscape. That his technique was subtle and economical made him well-aligned to the work of a relatively non-guitary band.
After he left, their sound gradually then rapidly changed. We can speculate that might've happened even if he'd stayed, but it's moot. The fact their sound changed after his departure is enough for me to accept his presence was materially significant. I'm not bothering to consider the empirical importance of whether he wrote 'enough' in this context, for me that's a red herring. All the above is sufficient for me to say that yes, there was a Hackett Era.
Ultimately though, enjoyable as it is to discuss this, I find it a largely semantic debate. I could quite happily end my case after my first point - that's when he was in Genesis, so that's his era.
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Tend to agree with this. Too much emphasis is placed on songwriting. Take the Moody Blues as an example, a much more democratic band. Ray Thomas and Graeme Edge both wrote songs, but Ray didn't do chords, (He played Flute) And Graeme had even less experience, so Justin Hayward would come up with chords and arrangements. He apparently, on at least one occasion, ran 2 completely different sets of chords past Ray for the same song, and Ray was equally happy with both. So, in effect Justin was a songwriting contributor, but didn't take credit, both Ray and Graeme have confirmed this "arrangement" arrangement with gratitude. Even earlier, when Justin wrote Nights in White Satin, it was Mike Pinder who came up with the mellotron sequence after the first sung line, yet he got no credit.
My point is, in a band, even though one person may have written the song, the others all end up contributing to the final sound, Firth of Fifth is a classic example. would the flute solo have had as big an impact on the world?
Steve's impact may have not been huge at the start, as Ant was a good guitarist and the comparison would have been less stark, but when he left, the sound changed immensely, ATTWT is a very lame sounding album after the W&W, even Wot Gorilla stands out in comparison, and it's the second worst track on there. Only 4 tracks are adequate on ATTWT, Motherlode, Many Too Many, Lady Lies and FYFM, the rest really needed a guitarist to lift them. Sadly, he'd moved on, and an era had ended.
