Music history of the United States in the 1970s

Last updated

Popular music of the United States in the 1970s saw various forms of pop music dominating the charts. Often characterized as being shallow, 1970s pop took many forms and could be seen as a reaction against the high-energy and activist pop of the previous decade. It began with singer-songwriters like Carole King and Carly Simon topping the charts, while New York City saw a period of great innovation; hip hop, punk rock and salsa were invented in 1970s New York, which was also a center for electronic music, techno.

Contents

By the middle of the decade, various trends were vying for popular success. Sly & the Family Stone's pop-funk had spawned singers like Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, alongside George Clinton's [1] spacy P Funk extravaganzas, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band led a wave of country rock bands. Pop progressive-hard rock bands like Boston, Kansas, Journey, and Styx had long-running popularity. Bruce Springsteen garnered critical acclaim during much of the decade, finally breaking through in a big way very late in the 1970s. Disco, especially The Bee Gees and Donna Summer, were dominating the charts the last few years of the decade, while punk rock and other genres were developing underground.

Rock

Hard rock, arena rock and heavy metal

Aerosmith performing at Arnhem, Netherlands in 2010 Aerosmith 4.jpg
Aerosmith performing at Arnhem, Netherlands in 2010

The 1970s saw the emergence of hard rock as one of the most prominent subgenres of rock music. Bands like Alice Cooper and Deep Purple were highly popular by 1972. The guitar sounds became heavier and the riffs faster. By the second half of the decade, several bands had achieved star status, namely, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aerosmith and Kiss. Arena rock grew in popularity through progressive bands like Styx ("Come Sail Away"), and hard rock bands like Boston ("More Than a Feeling").

Heavy metal music (though not recognized as a separate genre from hard rock at the time) gained a cult following in the 1970s, led by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, with their styles later influencing other bands like Judas Priest and Motörhead, which eventually started the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the 1980s.

Psychedelic rock declined in popularity after the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison and the breakup of The Beatles.

Soft rock and singer-songwriter

Billy Joel performing at Perth Western Australia in 2006 Billy Joel - Perth 7 November 2006.jpg
Billy Joel performing at Perth Western Australia in 2006

Soft rock was prominently featured on many Top 40 and contemporary hit radio stations throughout the 1970s. Soft rock often used acoustic instruments and placed emphasis on melody and harmonies. Major soft rock artists of the 1970s included Carole King, James Taylor, Billy Joel, Chicago, America and Fleetwood Mac, whose Rumours (1977) was the best selling album of the decade. [2] [3] [4] (See the country music section of this article for more about country music that crossed over onto the pop charts.) Bob Dylan's 1975–1976 Rolling Thunder Revue reunited him with a number of folk-rock acts from his early days of performing, most notably Joan Baez.

A large number of country-pop and soft rock songs fit into the singer-songwriter classification – that is, songs written and recorded by the same person. Some of the most successful singer-songwriter artists were Jackson Browne, Eric Carmen, Jim Croce, John Denver, Steve Goodman, Arlo Guthrie, Joel, Dave Mason, Don McLean, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Taylor and Neil Young. Some artists – including King, Kris Kristofferson and Gordon Lightfoot — had previously been primarily songwriters but began releasing albums and songs of their own. King's album Tapestry became one of the top-selling albums of the decade, and the song "It's Too Late" became one of the 1970s biggest songs. McLean's 1971 song "American Pie," inspired by the death of Buddy Holly, became one of popular music's most-recognized songs of the 20th century, thanks to its abstract and vivid storytelling, which center around "The Day the Music Died" and popular music of the rock era.

The early 1970s marked the departure of Diana Ross from The Supremes and the breakup of Simon & Garfunkel. Ross, Simon and Art Garfunkel all continued hugely successful recording careers throughout the decade and beyond. Several of their songs are listed among the biggest hits of the 1970s: Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," Simon's solo hit "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," and Ross' "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." [5]

Country rock and Southern rock

The Eagles Eagles.jpg
The Eagles

Country rock, formed from the fusion of rock music with country music, gained its greatest commercial success in the 1970s, beginning with non-country artists such as Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons and The Byrds. By the mid-1970s, Linda Ronstadt, along with other newer artists such as Emmylou Harris and The Eagles, were enjoying mainstream success and popularity that continues to this day. The Eagles themselves emerged as one of the most successful rock acts of all time, producing albums that included Hotel California (1976). [6]

During the 1970s, a similar style of country rock called Southern rock (fusing rock, country and blues music, and focusing on electric guitars and vocals) was enjoying popularity with country audiences, thanks to such non-country acts as Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band, Atlanta Rhythm Section and The Marshall Tucker Band.

Progressive rock

Styx Styx.JPG
Styx

The American brand of prog rock varied from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Pavlov's Dog [7] [8] to more pop arena rock bands like Boston, Kansas, Journey, TOTO and Styx. [9] These, beside British bands Jethro Tull, Supertramp and Electric Light Orchestra, all demonstrated a prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, issuing in the era of pomp or arena rock , which would last until the costs of complex shows (often with theatrical staging and special effects), would be replaced by more economical rock festivals as major live venues in the 1990s.

New Wave

Many American bands in the late seventies began experimenting with synthesizers, forming the new wave style. The original American bands included Talking Heads, The Cars, and Devo. In the eighties, Britain would respond with the synthpop style, which broadened the definition of "new wave".

Power pop

Combining elements of punk rock and pop music, bands such as The Romantics, The Knack, and Cheap Trick created the "power pop" sound. Also seeing mild success is Loverboy.

Blues rock

Blues rock remains popular, with Johnnie Winter, ZZ Top, and George Thorogood and Eric Clapton(UK), seeing the greatest success.

Disco

Donna Summer at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2009 Nobel Peace Price Concert 2009 Donna Summer2.jpg
Donna Summer at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2009

For many people, disco is the genre of music most readily associated with the 1970s. First appearing in dance clubs by the middle of the decade, (with such hits as "The Hustle" by Van McCoy), artist like Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor popularized the genre and were described in subsequent decades as the "disco divas." The movie Saturday Night Fever was released in December 1977, starring John Travolta and featuring the music of the Bee Gees and several other artists. It had the effect of setting off disco mania in the United States. the Bee Gees' soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever became the one best selling album of all time. The Bee Gees and Donna Summer became the genres mega stars. The Bee Gees had 9 number 1 singles, and 12 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Donna Summer had 4 number 1 singles, and 8 top 5 hits, 9 top 10s during the second half of the decade. Summer would be the first female artist of the modern era, to have the number one single and number album, simultaneously on the pop charts. She would accomplish this 3 times in 8 months. She was the first female artist to have 3 number one singles, and 5 top 10, and or; 5 top 5 singles in a calendar year (1979). The other prominent acts of the genre were KC and the Sunshine Band who scored 4 number one singles, The Village People, and Chic. KC and the Sunshine Band would enter the first week of the new decade (1980s) with their fifth number one single, and Donna Summer would enter the new decade with her third number one double album.

The genre started to become increasingly commercialized, and the large number of disco songs flooding the radio airwaves in 1978–1979 resulted in a growing backlash against it, as epitomized by the "Disco Demolition Night" stunt by a Chicago disc jockey at a July 1979 baseball game at Comiskey Park. The popularity of the genre waned, and 1980s, declared dead by the rock deejays of the nation, "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc was one of the last disco hits. Along with the demise of disco came the end of the orchestrations and musical instruments (such as strings) which had become associated with disco, in part because of the high cost of producing such music. Electronic and synthesized music quickly replaced the lush orchestral sounds of the 1970s and rock music resurged in popularity with new wave bands such as Blondie ("Heart of Glass"), The Knack ("My Sharona") and Devo ("Whip It"), all who formed their bands in the 1970s. Many artists such as The Bee Gees, who came to be associated with disco, found it difficult to get airplay on the radio.

R&B and urban

Stevie Wonder became one of the most popular R&B artists during the 1970s. Stevie Wonder at the Obama inauguration 2009.jpg
Stevie Wonder became one of the most popular R&B artists during the 1970s.

Along with disco, funk was one of the most popular genres of music in the 1970s. Primarily an African-American genre, it was characterized by the heavy use of bass and "wah-wah" pedals. Rhythm was emphasized over melody. Artists such as James Brown, The Meters, Parliament-Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone pioneered the genre. It then spawned artists such as Stevie Wonder, The Brothers Johnson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Bootsy's Rubber Band, King Floyd, Tower of Power, Ohio Players, The Commodores, War, Kool & the Gang, Confunkshun, Slave, Cameo, the Bar-Kays, Zapp, and many more.

The Jackson 5 became one of the biggest pop-music phenomena of the 1970s, [10] playing from a repertoire of rhythm and blues, soul, pop and later disco. The Jacksons include Jermaine and Michael, the first act in recording history to have their first four major label singles: "I Want You Back", "ABC", "The Love You Save", and "I'll Be There" reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The band served as the launching pad for the solo careers of their lead singers Jermaine and Michael, and while Jermaine had some success, it was Michael who would transform his early fame into greater success as an adult artist, with songs such as "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock with You."

First album of The Commodores were funk song only, but later, they played pop songs. Lionel Richie changed his sound and got success as a solo singer. His group's era he had big hits, including "Easy," "Three Times a Lady" and "Still."

Pop

Some of the notable pop groups during the 1970s were the Carpenters, the Jackson 5, Chicago, ABBA, the Bee Gees, Electric Light Orchestra, the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac.

Male soloists who characterized the pop music of the era included Barry Manilow, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Stevie Wonder and Rod Stewart. Female soloists who epitomized the 1970s included Roberta Flack, Carly Simon, Donna Summer, Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton-John, Diana Ross, and Helen Reddy. [11]

Country

Willie Nelson became one of the most popular country music artists during the 1970s. WillieNelson.jpg
Willie Nelson became one of the most popular country music artists during the 1970s.

A number of styles defined country music during the 1970s decade. At the beginning of the decade, the countrypolitan — an offshoot of the earlier "Nashville Sound" of the late 1950s and early 1960s – and the honky-tonk fused Bakersfield Sound were some of the more popular styles.

The countrypolitan sound – a polished, streamlined sound featuring string sections, background vocals and crooning lead vocalists – was popularized by artists including Lynn Anderson, Glen Campbell, Anne Murray, Dottie West, Tammy Wynette and others, achieving their successes through such songs as "(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden", "Snowbird" and others. The Bakersfield sound, first popularized in the early 1960s, continued its peak in popularity through artists such as Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.

But other styles began to emerge during the 1970s. One of the more successful styles was "outlaw country", a type of music blending the traditional and honky tonk sounds of country music with rock and blues music, and mixed with the anger of an alienated subculture of the nation during the period. The leaders of the movement were Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, although others associated with the movement were David Allan Coe, Jessi Colter, Tompall Glaser, Gary Stewart and Billy Joe Shaver. The efforts of Jennings, Nelson Colter and Glaser were encapsulated in the 1976 album Wanted! The Outlaws .

The country pop sound was a successor to the countrypolitan sound of the early 1970s. In addition to artists such as Murray and Campbell, several artists who were not initially marketed as country were enjoying crossover success with country audiences through radio airplay and sales. The most successful of these artists included The Bellamy Brothers, Charlie Rich, John Denver, Olivia Newton-John, Marie Osmond, Starland Vocal Band, B. J. Thomas and Kenny Rogers. Newton-John, an Australian pop singer, was named Female Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Association, sparking a debate that continues to this day – what is country music? A group of traditional-minded artists, troubled by this trend, formed the short-lived Association of Country Entertainers, in an attempt to bring back traditional honky-tonk sounds to the forefront. The debate continued into 1975, a year where six songs reached No. 1 on both the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Billboard Hot 100 charts. Things came to a head when, at that year's CMA Awards, Rich – the reigning Entertainer of the Year, and himself a crossover artist – presented the award to his successor, "my good friend, Mr. John Denver." His statement, taken as sarcasm, and his setting fire to the envelope (containing Denver's name) with a cigarette lighter were taken as a protest against the increasing pop style in country music.

By the later half of the 1970s, Dolly Parton, a highly successful traditional-minded country artist since the late 1960s, mounted a high-profile campaign to crossover to pop music, culminating in her 1977 hit "Here You Come Again," which peaked at No. 1 country and No. 3 pop. Rogers, the former lead singer of The First Edition, followed up a successful career in pop, rock and folk music by switching to country music. Like Parton, he enjoyed a long series of successful songs that charted on both the Hot Country Singles and Billboard Hot 100 charts; the first of the lot was "Lucille," a No. 1 country and No. 5 pop hit. Crystal Gayle, Ronnie Milsap, Eddie Rabbitt and Linda Ronstadt were some of the other artists who also found success on both the country and pop charts with their records as well.

The 1970s continued a trend toward a proliferation of No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. In 1970, there were 23 songs that reached the top spot on the chart, but by the mid-1970s, more than 40 titles rotated in and out of the top spot for the first time in history. The trend temporarily reversed itself by the late 1970s, when about 30 to 35 songs reached the pinnacle position of the chart annually.

Other developments

In the second half of the decade, a 1950s nostalgia movement prompted the Rockabilly Revival fad. The Stray Cats led the revival into the early 1980s. Billy Joel provided "Piano Man" and "Only The Good Die Young". Also symbolizing this trend was the hit movie Grease in 1978, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

Tying in with the nostalgia craze, several stars of the late 1950s and early 1960s successfully revived their careers during the early- to mid-1970s after several years of inactivity. The most successful of these were Ricky Nelson ("Garden Party", 1972), Neil Sedaka ("Laughter in the Rain" and "Bad Blood", both 1975), and Frankie Valli as both a solo artist (1975's "My Eyes Adored You") and with The Four Seasons (1976's "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)"). In addition, Perry Como—one of the most successful pre-rock era artists—enjoyed continued success, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale (as most of his fans were adults who grew up during the 1940s and early 1950s, and not the rock record-buying youth); his most successful hits of the decade were "It's Impossible" (1970) and the Don McLean song "And I Love Her So" (1973). Two of popular music's most successful artists died within six weeks of each other in 1977: Elvis Presley (on August 16) and Bing Crosby (on October 14). Presley—whose top 1970s hit was "Burning Love" in 1972— ranked among the top artists of the rock era, while Crosby was among the most successful pre-rock era artists.

The early seventies also marked the deaths of rock legends Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix as well as the plane crash in 1977 in which three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed.

See also

Related Research Articles

Country is a genre of popular music that originated with blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, old-time, and American folk music forms including Appalachian, Cajun, Creole, and the cowboy Western music styles of New Mexico, Red Dirt, Tejano, and Texas country. Its popularized roots originate in the Southern and Southwestern United States of the early 1920s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disco</span> Music genre

Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bee Gees</span> Music group formed in 1958

The Bee Gees were a music group formed in 1958, featuring brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful as a popular music act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers of the disco music era in the mid- to late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies; Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid- to late 1970s and 1980s. The Bee Gees wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists and have been regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain's First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music history of the United States in the 1980s</span>

Popular music of the United States in the 1980s saw heavy metal, country music, Top40 hits, hip hop, MTV, CMJ, and new wave as mainstream. Punk rock and hardcore punk was popular on CMJ. With the demise of punk rock, a new generation of punk-influenced genres arose, including Gothic rock, post-punk, alternative rock, emo and thrash metal. Hip hop underwent its first diversification, with Miami bass, Chicago hip house, Washington, D.C. go-go, Detroit ghettotech, Los Angeles G-funk and the "golden age of old school hip hop" in New York City. House music developed in Chicago, techno music developed in Detroit which also saw the flowering of the Detroit Sound in gospel. This helped inspire the greatest crossover success of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM), as well as the Miami Sound of Cuban pop.

Popular music in the 1990s saw the continuation of teen pop and dance-pop trends which had emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. Furthermore, hip hop grew and continued to be highly successful in the decade, with the continuation of the genre's golden age. Aside from rap, reggae, contemporary R&B, and urban music in general remained extremely popular throughout the decade; urban music in the late-1980s and 1990s often blended with styles such as soul, funk, and jazz, resulting in fusion genres such as new jack swing, neo-soul, hip hop soul, and g-funk which were popular.

This article is an overview of the major events and trends in popular music in the 2000s.

Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1980s built on the post-punk and new wave movements, incorporating different sources of inspiration from subgenres and what is now classed as world music in the shape of Jamaican and Indian music. It also explored the consequences of new technology and social change in the electronic music of synthpop. In the early years of the decade, while subgenres like heavy metal music continued to develop separately, there was a considerable crossover between rock and more commercial popular music, with a large number of more "serious" bands, like The Police and UB40, enjoying considerable single chart success. The advent of MTV and cable video helped spur what has been seen as a Second British Invasion in the early years of the decade, with British bands enjoying more success in America than they had since the height of the Beatles' popularity in the 1960s. However, by the end of the decade a fragmentation has been observed, with many new forms of music and sub-cultures, including hip hop and house music, while the single charts were once again dominated by pop artists, now often associated with the Hi-NRG hit factory of Stock Aitken Waterman. The rise of the indie rock scene was partly a response to this, and marked a shift away from the major music labels and towards the importance of local scenes like Madchester and subgenres, like gothic rock.

Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a combination of dance and pop with influences of disco, post-disco and synth-pop, it is generally characterised by strong beats with easy, uncomplicated song structures which are generally more similar to pop music than the more free-form dance genre, with an emphasis on melody as well as catchy tunes. The genre, on the whole, tends to be producer-driven, despite some notable exceptions.

Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers who appeal to different types of audience. This can be seen, for example, when a song appears on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical styles or genres. If the second chart combines genres, such as a "Hot 100" list, the work is not a crossover.

Italo disco is a music genre which originated in Italy in the late 1970s and was mainly produced in the early 1980s. Italo disco evolved from the then-current underground dance, pop, and electronic music, both domestic and foreign and developed into a diverse genre. The genre employs electronic drums, drum machines, synthesizers, and occasionally vocoders. It is usually sung in English, and to a lesser extent in Italian and Spanish.

Country pop is a fusion genre of country music and pop music that was developed by members of the country genre out of a desire to reach a larger, mainstream audience. Country pop music blends genres like rock, pop, and country, continuing similar efforts that began in the late 1950s, known originally as the Nashville sound and later on as Countrypolitan. By the mid-1970s, many country artists were transitioning to the pop-country sound, which led to some records' charting high on mainstream top 40 as well as the Billboard country chart. In-turn, many pop and easy listening artists crossed over to country charts during this time. After declining in popularity during the neotraditional movement of the 1980s, country pop had a comeback in the 1990s with a sound that drew more heavily on pop rock and adult contemporary.

Eurodisco is the variety of European forms of electronic dance music that evolved from disco in the late 1970s, incorporating elements of pop and rock into a disco-like continuous dance atmosphere. Many Eurodisco compositions feature lyrics sung in English, although the singers often share a different mother tongue.

Nu-disco is a 21st-century dance music genre associated with a renewed interest in the late 1970s US disco, synthesizer-heavy 1980s European dance music styles, and early 1990s electronic dance music. The genre was especially popular in the first half of the 2000s, and experienced another mild resurgence throughout the 2010s.

This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in popular music in the 1970s.

This article includes an overview of the famous events and trends in popular music in the 1980s.

British soul, Brit soul, or the British soul invasion, is soul music performed by British artists. Soul has been a major influence on British popular music since the 1960s, and American soul was extremely popular among some youth subcultures, such as mods, skinheads, and the Northern soul movement. In the 1970s, soul gained more mainstream popularity in the UK during the disco era.

British pop music is popular music, produced commercially in the United Kingdom. It emerged in the mid-to late 1950s as a softer alternative to American rock 'n' roll. Like American pop music it has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, as well as that of the Singles Chart usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs. While these basic elements of the genre have remained fairly constant, pop music has absorbed influences from most other forms of popular music, particularly borrowing from the development of rock music, and utilising key technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. From the British Invasion of rock bands in the 1960s, led by The Beatles, British pop music has alternated between acts and genres with national appeal and those with international success that have had a considerable impact on the development of the wider genre and on popular music in general

This article includes an overview of the events and trends in popular music in the 1960s.

This article describes trends in popular music in the 2010s. See also 2010s in the music industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music history of the United States in the 1960s</span>

Popular music of the United States in the 1960s became innately tied up into causes, opposing certain ideas, influenced by the sexual revolution, feminism, Black Power and environmentalism. This trend took place in a tumultuous period of massive public, unrest in the United States which consisted of the Cold War, Vietnam War, and Civil Rights Movement.

References

  1. "George Clinton Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More". AllMusic .
  2. P. Buckley, The Rough Guide to Rock (London: Rough Guides, 3rd edn., 2003), ISBN   1-84353-105-4, p. 378.
  3. J. M. Curtis, Rock eras: interpretations of music and society, 1954–1984 (Popular Press, 1987), p. 236.
  4. P. Buckley, The Rough Guide to Rock (Rough Guides, 3rd edn., 2003), p. 378.
  5. "Top Fifty Hits of the 1970s," American Top 40, Watermark Inc. Aired January 5, 1980. Cue sheet Retrieved January 31, 2010.
  6. N. E. Tawa, Supremely American: Popular Song in the 20th Century: Styles and Singers and What They Said About America (Lanham, MA: Scarecrow Press, 2005), ISBN   0-8108-5295-0, pp. 227–8.
  7. "Pavlov's Dog".
  8. N. E. Tawa, Supremely American: Popular Song in the 20th Century: Styles and Singers and What They Said About America (Lanham, MA: Scarecrow Press, 2005), ISBN   0-8108-5295-0, pp. 249–50.
  9. V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, All Music Guide to Rock: the Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), ISBN   0-87930-653-X, pp. 1330–1.
  10. Huey, Steve. "The Jackson 5". Macrovision Corp. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
  11. "Who ruled the 70's: The 100 biggest acts of the decade in the USA - RYM/Sonemic".