A Golden Era

There are a variety of different sounds and genres associated with any given point in history, but the seventies will always have a remarkable place in music’s timeline. Today, the seventies are heavily romanticized; we generally envision the decade as comprised of the culture presented in Dazed and Confused and That ‘70s Show. This lifestyle portrayed in the media can be summed up with a few clichés: “dad rock,” music festivals, bell bottoms, and 8-tracks. Consequently, it’s definitely a banality to glorify the seventies for being the golden age of rock music—but it did bring us iconic albums such as Pink Moon and Hunky Dory, and gave drunks the infamous “Free Bird” to scream at concerts.

‘70s music in particular was impacted by an array of events and drastic culture shifts. The counterculture movement of the late sixties, a result of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War protests, induced a booming popularity of new ideologies that influenced everyday life and redefined many aspects of traditional culture. Psychedelic rock and pop saw prosperity throughout the sixties until they faded out in the early 1970s—after the Beatles disbandment and the loss of many prominent musicians of the decade to the 27 Club including Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix.

How did psychedelia and the hippie movement transform into the decade that saw the culmination of the likes of Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, and Joni Mitchell? The hippie movement wasn’t just a drum circle of Deadheads who advocated for “peace and love”; the movement aimed to deconstruct social roles, eradicate hierarchy, and find common ground between all people.

These new ideologies overflowed from the Summer of Love into the seventies, where its significance manifested itself into music. Sub genres like art rock, progressive rock, punk, reggae—the list goes on and on—dominated the music scene as collective. David Bowie showcased his sexuality through the glam-rock character of Ziggy Stardust, and Patti Smith and Joni Mitchell took a stab at the male-dominated rock scene. Lyricism took a turn from overdone love scenes to a more personal, diary-like style, with many artists addressing political issues. The newfound diversity in music was a parallel to the social structure in the sense that it gave people something other than four white dudes with which to associate rock music.

The accomplishments of diversifying the music scene during the seventies is substantiated by music now—almost fifty years later. It resonates with us today to see the music industry saturated with people of different races and genders making music of all genres about a variety of topics. The seventies were more than just a golden era for rock music—it was the determining predecessor of all the great music that came after it.

THE SONGS THAT SHAPED THE CULTURE

“Walk on the Wild Side” - Lou Reed (1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG6fayQBm9w

Throughout this song, themes of gender and sex appear within short anecdotes about multiple Warhol superstars. One of them is Holly Woodlawn, who was a transgender actress, and another is Jackie Curtis, who was a drag queen. Lou Reed soothingly mumbles “Take a walk on the wild side” in the chorus in reference to the widespread glamour, sexuality, and erotica represented in the art created by Warhol and the Warhol superstars.

“22nd Century” - Nina Simone (1971)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYcgCiWAv8c

Nina Simone presents hope and predicts a world full of change through equality of men and women, and a revolution of progressive art in the 22nd century.

“New Feeling” - Talking Heads (1977)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHfVi5elXpI

Talking Heads: 77 introduced the synth-art pop for which the band is so famously celebrated. Although David Byrne has explained that lyrics from the band are arbitrary rather than meaningful, the band brought influences of funk, African music, and punk into their work, inaugurating a more unique sound into the late ‘70s.

“What’s Going On” - Marvin Gaye (1970)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-kA3UtBj4M

Marvin Gaye was inspired to write this song after witnessing an act of police brutality during an anti-war protest, wanting to promote positive change. The song addresses the Vietnam War from a pacifist standpoint in the eyes of millions who waved their loved ones off to war: “You see, war is not the answer / For only love can conquer hate / You know we’ve got to find a way / to bring some lovin here today.”

“Rebel Rebel” - David Bowie (1974)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U16Xg_rQZkA

David Bowie annihilated all boundaries of sexuality throughout his career, and “Rebel Rebel” addresses the free love that Bowie made so prevalent in the ‘70s: “You’ve got your mother in a whirl / She’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl / Hey babe, your hair’s alright / Hey babe, let’s go out tonight / You like me and I like it all.”

“Everyday People” - Sly and the Family Stone (1971) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JvkaUvB-ec

“Everyday People” carries the timeless message that everyone should set aside their differences and live together instead of categorizing people: “I am no better and neither are you / You love me, you hate me, you know me and then / You can’t figure out the bag I’m in / I am everyday people.”

“Blue” - Joni Mitchell (1971)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5782PQO5is

Joni Mitchell illustrates her melancholy in “Blue” with motifs of the ‘70s—namely “acid, booze, and ass, needles, guns, and grass.” She labels these trivial pastimes as the source of her sadness and questions why she struggles to find a deeper meaning in them. She then gives a reminder that the counterculture movement advocates for respect of differences in religion: “Everybody’s saying that Hell’s the hippest way to go / Well I don’t think so / But I’m gonna take a look around it, though.”

“Chelsea Hotel #2” - Leonard Cohen (1974)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pekuZglq-Sg

Similar to Joni Mitchell’s “Blue,” Leonard Cohen discusses the misconceptions about the counterculture movement through a story of his brief affair with Janis Joplin. “Running for the money and the flesh” was what many artists did during the aftermath of the counterculture movement, and Cohen compares his short-lived relationship with Joplin to the shallowness of those who perceived counterculture as simply another trend.

“Imagine” - John Lennon (1971)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6svOHFSAH8

Easily one of the most famous and acclaimed songs of the ‘70s, John Lennon eradicates every idea of religion, country, and capital to bring everyone together in “Imagine.”

MUSICAL BANDS, STYLES AND ARTISTS

The 1970s created a perfect musical bridge from the rebelliousness of the 1960s and the happy songs that are characteristic of the 1980s. Following the counterculture of the 60s, the and the 70s created a trend of relaxing music as well as dance music. People may have grown tired of the fighting that happened the previous decade and many of them sought a refuge in dance clubs and other places to enjoy a good time. Out of this idea emerged the Disco movement. Of course, there were still the bands and artists that continued to speak of the ills of society, typically characterized by the punk music in the latter part of the decade. Although the rebellious idea had died down shortly following Woodstock in 1969, there were still many people that disagreed with the establishment and the way the country was being run. Most people, though, were just looking for another way to vent their frustrations, which helped to give rise to the fun that disco music provided. The 1970's was not a unique decade in terms of creating innovations in musical styles and genres, but it was unique in that it was a musical bridge connecting the hippie lifestyle of the 1960s with the characteristic yuppie lifestyle that was about to occur in the 1980s.

COUNTRY ROCK

Country rock is a sub genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

People didn’t really know what it was, for many years country rock was just an outlier on the music scene. It was not until the early seventies that the genre really began to take flight with groups such as The Byrds and The Eagles. Chris Hillman from the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers credits the start of country rock to Elvis Presley in his original recordings at Sun Records before he went off to the army. Other artists, like Rick Roberts, claim that rockabilly. and country rock are basically one in the same, so to really understand one, we need to understand the other. The distinction between genres was even less clear in states like Texas where the popular music was country music, but was just called music because that’s all they knew.

Key artists in the origins of country rock, such as Gram Parsons and Bob Dylan, set the stage outlining what most people think of and expect when they see a reference to the particular sub-genre. Dylan was one of the first rock artists to move toward a more country sound, starting in 1967 with the release of John Wesley Harding and subsequent Nashville Skyline, with Gram Parsons following close behind in ’69 with his work with the Byrds on the release of Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Parsons, although his fame was short-lived because of his early death in 1975, is regarded as one of the most pivotal figures in early country rock. Following in his footsteps, other artists, such as Emmylou Harris, took what he had done and use it in collaboration with other influences to further develop the genre.

Linda Ronstadt formed the Eagles around the time that Parsons was rising to fame, really becoming popular for her ability to connect to audiences in a way that Parsons was never able to do. After Ronstadt’s initial climb in the country rock sector, she quickly drifted away from the country sound and continued with more of a pop music style. Although it took a few generations for country music and rock and roll to come together, this fusion, of two genres that are both very widely loved, has become a huge influence for modern artists that are looking to add an older touch to their newer country rock music.

Recommended listening:

Sweetheart of the Rodeo by The Byrds

Pieces of the Sky by Emmylou Harris

Hotel California by The Eagles

DISCO AND DANCE MUSIC

If ever a musical style defined a decade, Disco was the definition of the 1970s. Although its popularity was relatively short-lived, the genre hosted a great deal of songs and artists that people are still dancing to today and had a large influence on the fashions of the decade, too. Van McCoy's "The Hustle" has often been referred to as the definitive disco track and many people say it was the first disco song created. Gloria Gaynor also enjoyed disco popularity with her anthem "I Will Survive." The Bee Gees also helped to define the disco genre with their hit "Jive Talkin'" and their blockbuster "Stayin' Alive" is often synonymous with the disco musical era. The Village People’s "YMCA" and "Macho Man" also helped to add to the popularity of this style of music. This style of music became so popular that well respected artists like Rod Stewart and Diana Ross jumped on the bandwagon by adding Disco elements to their new music or creating their own disco albums. Unfortunately, it did not take long for the public to see disco's silliness and commercialization - something that they had just rebelled against a few years earlier. Its lack of attention to musical significance helped add to its downfall after only a short time of popularity. When disco fell from grace, it fell fast, and many radio stations held public events dedicated to ridding the world of disco music with symbolic album burnings. Youths rebelled against the genre as well and it was not uncommon to see a few music fans sporting "Disco Sucks" T-shirts.

The Bee Gees, Stayin' Alive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vj092UgKwQ

ABBA, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ21CLUQf0E&list=PLdhc0LH9NzYKJNvxcmYKRQ31Mftv3us9l

CHIC, Le Freak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXgSHL7efKg

PROGRESSIVE ROCK

Progressive rock was another popular genre during the 1970s. This type of music was typically characterized by rock music combined with another genre, such as classical or opera, to create a hybrid genre. Songs from this genre were often longer and bands tended to be more spontaneous and experimental while they were playing live. Many progressive rock albums were also concept albums, meaning that they followed a theme throughout the entire album or series of albums. The band Pink Floyd were known for their concept albums and were considered some of the best in the genre. Their concept album – The Wall – was a psychedelic album that explored the loneliness that one feels due to the metaphorical walls that they build up around them. This 1979 album used philosophical lyrics and a variety of musical styles throughout the songs to exhibit the message that they were trying to get across to the listeners. Jethro Tull was another British rock band that also created concept albums for their audience. They had a unique vocal style combined with the dreamlike sound of a flute to help the listener immerse themselves into the songs that are being played. Their "Thick as a Brick" album was composed of essentially one track on two side of the album. This track consisted of repeating themes and movements that helped to mesmerize the listener. They also used a variety of genres to create their one-of-a-kind sound, including blues, jazz, rock, and classical music. Other bands that became popular in the progressive rock genre included Rush, Queen, Grand Funk Railroad, Kansas, and Electric Light Orchestra.

Pink Floyd, Interstellar Overdrive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ2xIGTbtwE

Rush, The Trees:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC88xBPkkc

Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Jerusalem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9TbiIEpZJ8

Queen, London 1973:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE34XrFFj0U

Grand Funk Railroad, Into the Sun (1970):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dzlT1ihN6o

PUNK ROCK AND NEW WAVE

The punk rock genre also emerged in the 1970s. This was a style that continued on the legacy of the 1960s but with a more upbeat and harder style. Heavy guitar riffs and more decibels helped to motivate those who were still upset about the status quo in the country. The Ramones are often referred to as the original punk band. This band consisted of a group of family members that based their image on The Beatles but their music was much harder. On the lists that rate the greatest rock bands of all-time, The Ramones are often listed as #2, behind only The Beatles at #1. Their song "I Wanna Be Sedated" became a generational anthem depicting the feeling that society is so screwed up that the only way to get through life with your sanity is to be sedated for the entire experience. The Sex Pistols also enjoyed a short-lived success as a punk rock band of the 1970s. Band members heavily used drugs and alcohol which eventually led to their dissolution shortly after forming, but not before releasing two hit albums, "God Save the Queen" and "Never Mind the Bullocks", that created a wave of rebellion throughout the United States and the UK.

New Wave, similar to punk music but more radio friendly and with an electronic flair, also emerged in the late seventies and went on to become a predominant genre in the next decade. Bands like The Cars and Blondie straddled the line between punk rock and new wave music and started producing hits in the late 1970s. Some popular punk and new wave bands from the seventies included the New York Dolls, The Clash, Generation X, Talking Heads, David Bowie, and Patti Smith.

New York Dolls, Personality Crisis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctg5FCS1wCM

The Ramones, CBGB, NYC (1974):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwsVWZ-c8Eo

Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the UK 1976 (live):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94DNV6oM8HU

The Cars, My Best Friend's Girl:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkSmLh2Hbi0&list=PLgYLCPY8S8EneFQlgKBgdjREWH2-AdA_B

The Talking Heads, Psycho Killer (1977):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmmvtX0IUHU

David Bowie, Was too weird for '70s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t86bxiFncI4

FUNK AND SOUL MUSIC

Funk music came out of the R&B, Jazz and Soul music of the late 1960s after artists added more beats and psychedelic tones to their songs. This genre saw the height of its popularity encompass the 1970s with artists like James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone and Kool and the Gang dominating the music charts. Funk was known for its danceable beats, strange costumes, outrageous personalities and often socially conscious lyrics. James Brown, "the hardest working man in show business", is often thought of as the creator of funk music and his 1967 album Cold Sweat is thought to feature some of the first main stream funk songs. Brown developed the funk sound into the 1970s and paved the way for many of the other popular funk groups like Sly and the Family Stone to make it big in the decade. Funk music was known to have no boundaries with psychedelic sounds coming from the likes of George Clinton and his ragtag gang of freaky musicians in Parliament to a more soulful and smooth yet funky sound coming from Rufus and Chaka Khan. In the middle of the seventies many artists, including James Brown and the group Earth, Wind and Fire, added some elements of the popular disco genre to their funk albums and saw even greater mass appeal.

It is important to note that these were not the only popular genres during the decade. For example, Singers and Songwriters were quite popular in the 1970s as well, with artists like Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, Elton John, Carole King and Billy Joel, sharing time in the spotlight too. Their music reflected deep themes with simpler musical arrangements and many of these artists had been prominent in the songwriting scene but relatively unknown as they were not often the face of their own music. The seventies more than any other decade gave them a chance to go solo and gain recognition.

Rufus and Chaka Khan, Tell me something good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm_cFzVAoo8

Kool & the Gang, Celebration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GwjfUFyY6M

The Commodores, Brick House:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrBx6mAWYPU

James Brown, Italy (1971):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pvIarW3xHg

HEAVY METAL

Where does metal music come from and how did it get its name?

Heavy metal was born in 1839. It’s a chemistry term describing a loosely connected set of metals defined as frequently being toxic to humans – these include lead, iron, mercury and lithium. Over a century later the term Heavy Metal found its way into literature when it appeared in William S. Burroughs 1961 novel, The Soft Machine, in reference to one of its characters, Uranian Willy: The Heavy Metal Kid. Burroughs told The Paris Review: “I felt that heavy metal was sort of the ultimate expression of addiction, that there’s something actually metallic in addiction, that the final stage reached is not so much vegetable as mineral.”

Six years later it crossed-over into music, through one a classic rock song. Steppenwolf's ‘Born to be Wild’, recorded in 1967 and released in 1968 on their first long-playing record, Steppenwolf, containing the famous lyric “I like smoke and lightnin’, heavy metal thunder”.

It was in later 1970 that the first use of “Heavy metal” appeared when describing music, it occurred in a review of Humble Pie's ‘As Safe As Yesterday Is’ in Rolling Stone magazine by ‘Metal Mike Saunders.’

EARLY ORIGINS

Like many other musical styles, heavy metal evolved not only in one place at one time, but in many places at once. From California and New York, across the Atlantic to England, especially in Birmingham in the country’s industrial heartland. The sound evolved in many ways, most noticeably through bands like Cream, Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly and Deep Purple.

It was in 1966 that Cream released their first album Fresh Cream. A mix of blues, rock and pop – the newly formed ‘supergroup’ was very definitely finding its ‘sound’. The track ‘Sweet Wine’, with it’s rolling toms, rocking instrumental section, and heavy stabs in the chorus lending itself more to the future sound of heavy metal than the rest of the pop/blues rock of the album. It is their rendition of a Muddy Waters tune ‘Rollin’ and Tumblin’ that hints at the metal sound that was to come. Early Cream was to prove a major influence in the harder rock sound of the late 60s and all through the 70s.

By 1968 the gears of metal music were truly in motion. The heavy rock sound was being created all over the world from LA to The UK and the term ‘Heavy Metal’ was thrust into wider public consciousness by Steppenwolf. Bands from all across the globe started making noises that would open a path leading to what we now understand as heavy metal. Blue Cheer, from San Francisco, is an often-overlooked architect of heavy metal.

‘Born To Be Wild’ captured the essence of rock ‘n’ roll at the time, lyrically and sonically. It also captured the expanding idea of the free human being, the peaceful movements against the Vietnam War, an increasing frustration with the government and ‘The Man’. ‘Born To Be Wild’ was, in fact, not even written by Steppenwolf but by Mars Bonfire, aka Dennis Edmonton, Steppenwolf’s drummer’s brother. Mars said in an interview with Merrel Frankhouser in 1992 that he wrote this song as a folk ballad inspired by his new car and the feeling of freedom it gave him, combined with a shop front display on Hollywood Boulevard of a motorcycle erupting from a volcano captioned ‘Born To Ride’. Why he used the term heavy metal? It’s hard to know. But thanks to Mars, the term Heavy Metal was born.

The new sound was codified in the 1970s by Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and BLack Sabbath with the release of Led Zeppelin II, Deep Purple in Rock, and Paranoid, respectively, which featured heavy riffs, distorted “power chords,” mystical lyrics, guitar and drum solos, and vocal styles that ranged from the wails of Zeppelin’s Robert Plant to the whines of Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne. By developing increasingly elaborate stage shows and touring incessantly throughout the 1970s to make up for their lack of radio airplay, bands such as Kiss, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Judas Priest, and Alice Cooper established an international fan base.

Heavy metal’s popularity slumped during the disco years at the end of the 1970s, but it became more successful than ever in the 1980s as Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, and Saxon headed the “new wave of British heavy metal” that, along with the impact of EddieVan Halen's astonishing guitar virtuosity, revived the genre. A wave of “glam” metal, featuring gender-bending bands such as Mötley Crüe and Ratt, emanated from Los Angeles beginning about 1983; Poison, Guns N' Roses, and hundreds of other bands then moved to Los Angeles in hopes of getting record deals. But heavy metal had become a worldwide phenomenon in both fandom and production with the success of Germany’s Scorpions and other bands from Japan to Scandinavia.

Judas Priest, Dissident Agressor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_mpt8xyZVI&list=PLT6M_VtfQFR8m2Ec0B2iginanscyQ4Xw5&index=3&t=0s

Iron Maiden (1978):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgnGNpWGOvI&list=PLT6M_VtfQFR8m2Ec0B2iginanscyQ4Xw5&index=6&t=0s

KISS, Parasite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9LWFnUtlEQ&list=PLT6M_VtfQFR8m2Ec0B2iginanscyQ4Xw5&index=12&t=0s

Deep Purple, Fireball:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIbYeEDO1sQ&list=PLT6M_VtfQFR8m2Ec0B2iginanscyQ4Xw5&index=27&t=0s

Motorhead, Overkill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc9aEltiOBM&list=PLT6M_VtfQFR8m2Ec0B2iginanscyQ4Xw5&index=55&t=0s

Black Sabbath, Paranoid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qanF-91aJo