The 70s

The 70s weren't all about disco. While disco craze was at it's peak during the last two years of that decade, there was certainly more to the 70s than just disco and classic rock.

I notice a strange thing among people who were in their 20s or who were born in the 70s, they almost totally dismiss the music of that era. People may not want to recall the negative side of the 60s, which is all over the music of that era, but turn around and recall nothing but the bad about the 70s when it's music was mostly escapist.

What do you all think?

 

Hi Grant,

Nice thread

-Jeffrey

 

The vast majority of my favorite pop/rock music was recorded between 1968 and 1977. That's mostly the 70's.


Have a nice day

 

Grant,

Interesting theory! As you know, I love Top 40 music from the 70's. For some reason many people see Top 40 music from the 70's as irrelevant. In the mind of some, you may have answered your own contention, to them, in that much of the music was "escapist" in nature...a nice feeling at the moment but not of lasting value artistically. I disagree with that contention. If we believe that music does, in fact, reflect the times, in that sense, Top 40 music of the 70's is no different than music of the 60's or any other decade. Music from any year is like a "snapshot" in time. I was 18 at the start of the 70's and 28 when the decade ended. I purchased Top 40 music from the decade with the same fervor as I did in the 60's. When I think of 70's music I think of having fun, trying new things, tremendous variety, wonderful albums, great sounding recordings (it was a dry and dynamic decade for the most part), partying, sex (before HIV), watching friends try and use Cocaine (described as a designer drug in the 70's), recessions, the Arab oil embargo, Nixon getting his just due, and yes, Discos (of course, I am a Dance music fan).

It would be interested in your analysis of 70's music much like I did for the 60's.

Bob

 

Me too, Scott!

It will be interesting to see how much passion this thread generates. People seem to be more passionate about the 60s and the 80s. Could it be that there was no real political movement during that time? Could it be that more conservatives can't feel nostalgic about the 70s? Many have said the social revolutions of the 60s actually happened in the 70s.

Here, we're mostly concerned with the music. We had bubblegum, folk, hard rock, lite rock, disco, funk, soul, country crossovers, novelty songs, punk. I suggest that a wider variety of music became popular and it was all on the radio together.

 

Bob,

I was eight years old at the start of the 70s, which means I am exactly ten years younger than you are.

1971 was a time when I started taking direct control over what I liked to listen to, when I could decide what I liked. There was so much to choose from, so many genres and styles.

On another side, many would say that music became fragmented in the 70s. I suggest that it was always fragmented. It's just that the other styles (country, soul) became more assertive and soul music artists stopped trying so hard to "water-down" the music to make it palatable to the majority tastes.

Music became less of a political motivator and more of a vehicle for individual and social expression.

 

Grant,

All good points. Radio changed over the course of the decade as well. AM was king at the beginning of the decade while FM was king by the end of the decade. Album rock stations became commercially viable and began playing an Album Rock tracks Top 40. The regular Top 40 format on FM mirrored that of it's AM predecessor. However, as compared to today, Top 40 Radio in the 70's was much like that of the 60's, playing a wide variety of music. Fragmented, maybe, but all the popular music was still played on one Top 40 Radio format and because of that we all enjoyed it. I still miss such a "one-stop" format.

I have many fond memories of the 70's and music provided the landscape, the fabric and the anthems for everything we did and enjoyed. I gave some "real" stories from the 70's. In many ways, I miss the fun times and find the seriousness of today to be drudgery in comparsion.

Bob

 

The bulk of my music collection is from the 1973-1983 period. The great thing about the 70's is that the music economy was in full swing, there was a lot of money in the industry and practically any band got signed and released an album once a year mimimum. And record stores could afford to stock every release and radio was playing all of those too. And MTV did not exist as an excuse to deflect attention from a lack of talent to an erotic video. And the best thing of all...



VINYL WAS KING O' THE HEAP!!

 

Sadly, Bob, I think you and I are going to be about the only ones on this thread.

Radio, I wish someone, somewhere would bite the bullet and program music from ALL genres on one top 40 station. I'll bet it would get a large listening audience, unless the audience has now been so trained to only listen to their little style of music.

Beagle, the 8-track was king in the 70s! So there!

 

Guys,

Please--no vinyl v. 8-track debate!...

Grant,

How about some more comments on the actual music of the decade...your observations and insights?

Bob

 

Sorry Bob, the first stone has been cast!

8-Track was never king of anything except lousy sound, wow and flutter, hiss and Part1/Part 2 songs. People who bought those bought 'em for the car, bus trips or drunken/drug filled parties/orgys where they were too out of it to find their way to the "stereo" to change the music. Every human I knew bought LP's. I began working in a stereo store in the late 70's and about 5% of sales were 8-tracks. The cassette began outselling LP's in the early 80's because of DOLBY SYSTEM and the ushering in of laziness, microwaves, MTV, excruciatingly bright recordings and disposable everything.

 

The greatest musical movement of the 70s was neither classic rock nor disco, but that awesome soul wave of the first half: Marvin Gaye, Parliament, Al Green, Spinners, Earth Wind & Fire, Ohio Players, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, The O'Jays, Curtis Mayfield, Sly & the Family Stone, War, Stylistics, Chi-Lites, etc. etc.

However, disco was THE great singles format of the second half. If you simply can't stand the disco, you'll never experience the rush I get when listening to a great compilation like "Disco Years Vol. 1" or "Dance Floor Divas." I'm always making multi-artist compilations for my friends, centering on a specific musical movement (disco, new wave, Motown, etc.). Besides Motown, the only one that never disappoints those with open minds and ears is...DISCO!

That said, the greatest artist of the 70s--the one who made the most great albums on a consistent basis, framing the beginning, middle and end of the decade with his three greatest works--is Neil Young. He was to the 70s what The Beatles were to the 60s and Prince to the 80s.

Just one 70s lover's opinion!

 

Actually, disco music, as we have become to know, was bubbling under all through the 70s. I even hate to admit it, but the O'Jays "Love Train" from 1972 is straight up disco. Remove the vocal tracks and what do you get? Disco music!

The same reason I initially couldn't stand Metallica! I was forced to listen to it while stocking groceries at night in a rathole of a grocery store. The guys would play the "Kill Them All" CD on a crappy, tinny boom box. at full volume over and over. My ears would almost bleed! I quit that place after just three weeks.

I like the Allman Brothers because it was closer to the blues, and Charlie Daniels was really all over the map. Marshall Tucker? Love 'em! The only Wet Willie stuff I like is "Keep Smilin'" and "Soul Jones", which I thought was a black funk singer!

 

Soul music (for want of a better term) surely came of age in the 70's. The "voice" that Berry Gordy and the Stax and Atlantic crews gave to black artists a decade earlier was realized by Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, George Clinton et al. The popular side "morphed" into disco which also helped shape the decade.

I think country music became a much larger national force in the 70's - breaking out of it's Southern/South Western stronghold and crossing over to the pop and rock charts.

The singer-songwriter era was upon us.... Billy Joel, Carol King, James Taylor, that little chubby British guy with the glasses....

The decade really rocked though, didn't it. Heavy Metal became a "genre". So did progressive. The early decade gave birth to glam rock - the first defiant slap at 60's culture, and ended with punk rock, which slapped the glam, progressive and the 60's all in one shot. Rock n' roll concerts became arena sized affairs, with multiple major tours from Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Wings. Springsteen started the decade playing in clubs.. and ended at Madison Square Garden.

Even THEN we thought the Rolling Stones would never die, more lives than a cat.....

 

This is a fun topic becuase my life and my love of music was developed in the seventies. I vividly remember I first got into the folky stuff. Simon and Garfunkle, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce and the like. Yes I still love that stuff. It's a part of me. But then in 9th grade this new friend of ours ("ours" being my even older friends with whom I listened to all the folky stuff) introduced us to Dark Side of the Moon. Can you say change of life experience? Then a few months later at the Baronet theater here in the San Frnando Valley I saw Yessongs. Yes became my religion.

 

I think you discount the popularity of the 8-track! Sure, they sucked bigtime, but as I recall it, many "serious" listeners bought them. They had players with Dolby and Quadraphonic capability. And, the 8-track actually gained popularity in the mid 60s as a perfect solution for the car. Cassettes didn't gain wide popularity until the late 70s.

Even I made the mistake of trying to jump on the 8-track bandwagon in 1976. I went back to cassettes two years later, but it was always the LP first and foremost until 1985. I bought my last LP new 1986, except for that one Jimi Hendrix 180 gram pressing of "Axis: Bold As Love" in 1995.

 

I agree! Too many people, even today, still forget or overlook many of these excellent artists, especially the Ohio Players and the Average White Band.

Other memerable points of the 70s were novelty hits, Southern California rock, and the early 70s bubblegum, which most rockers loath. But, who can deny Edison Lighthouse's "Love Grows Where my Rosemary Goes" and "Which Way You Goin' Billy" by the Poppy Family? How about "Gimmie Dat Ding" by the Pipkins? "Little Willy" by The Sweet? Great double entendre!
The Archies even charted on the top ten in the 70s!

 

I think that was the last year I also purchased new vinyl. I think it was Peter Gabriels "So" and Paul Simons "Graceland"..

 

ahh...I long for the days when I could buy my favorite 45s for less than $1.50. Why didn't I stock up on a few of those Beast of Burden PS covers?

(see my corresponding post in the 60s thread)

 

Who? No, wait a minute, I recognize Sweet! But the rest passed undetected under my radar.

Oh yes, thanks for reminding me about AWB. Pick Up The Pieces is one of the most stunning singles of the decade.

 

All you have to do is collect the "Super Hits of the 70s" and "Soul Hits of the 70s" series' by Rhino records!

 

Grant,

I want Have A Nice Day Vols. 25-28 or is it 29?

Bob

 

On a related (artistic) note, what about 70s movies? Hands down THE greatest decade for films, even greater than the 40s!

Just a side note. Don't want to throw the thread off course!