The Seventies

After the tumultuous cultural upheaval of the Sixties, rock in the 1970's was spread out into so many areas it almost ceased to exist as a cultural barometer... we simply weren't tied together by one music any more. But the revolution it spawned was still expanding outward, and while the AM band got more mellow, the rock got harder.

* 70s Pop and Soul
The pop and soul top 40 classics of the 70s, and the classic artists who brought them to us!
"Disco"
Examples:
1. "Stayin' Alive," The Bee Gees
2. "Disco Inferno," The Trammps
3. "Get Down Tonight," KC and the Sunshine Band
4. "I Will Survive," Gloria Gaynor
5. "Good Times," Chic
6. "Last Dance," Donna Summer
7. "Last Dance," Donna Summer
8. "The Hustle," Van McCoy
9. "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)," Sylvester
10. "Don't Leave Me This Way," Thelma Houston
Definition: Growing out of the late-Sixties funk scene, but also heavily influenced by the soaring, orchestral pop of "Philly Soul," disco often split the difference between the two, packing New York dance clubs, then known as "discotheques," with a relentless, pounding beat. Disco reduced funk to a hard 2/4 stomp, with the bass drum prominent above all else and a syncopated hi-hat pulling the beat back to it on every other beat. In between, rhythmic funk guitars and a walking, almost bouncing bass line kept the groove moving, while the romantic pop of early-Seventies soul riding over the top.

While disco had already come and gone as a movement by 1977, the pulse remained to inspire pop, and the sleeper 1978 film Saturday Night Fever ignited a resurgence that took the glitzy glam of disco to the heartland of America. What had been a phenomenon limited to the gay, black, and Hispanic urban centers of the country became ubiquitous among bored whites desperately looking for a cultural movement in late-Seventies America. Disco's popularity exploded to insane lengths from January 1978 through October 1979, dominating pop culture to such a degree that it threatened to kill off rock and r&b completely -- or, at the very least, remove it from Top 40 radio.

The resulting disco backlash was also partially motivated by the fact that disco was a music heavily favored and influenced by the margins of society -- blacks, gays, Hispanics, and women. The explosion of New Wave in the summer of 1979 helped kill the phenomenon off, but disco's immense popularity was truly the source of its own demise. The style, however, essentially laid the foundations of what we today consider "dance music" and "electronica," and the earliest hip-hop clubs and artists began forming in the late Seventies as a direct reaction and homage to the simple, powerful disco beat.
Carpenters
The Carpenters were soft-rock's greatest duo, led by the magnificent voice of Karen Carpenter on sunshiny yet moving classics like "Top Of The World," "Close To You," and "We've Only Just Begun."
The Spinners
The Spinners, while from Detroit, were nevertheless one of the most critically and commercially successful of the "Philly Soul" groups, scoring with "The Rubberband Man," "(One Of A Kind) Love Affair," and "It's A Shame."
Gladys Knight and the Pips
Gladys Knight and the Pips, Motown's unfortunate "second stringers" who graduated to the most popular soul act of the Seventies with hits like "Midnight Train to Georgia."
Elton John
Elton John, the biggest pop superstar of the Seventies, a legendarily flamboyant performer, and a mainstay on radio for four decades thanks to classic hits like "Crocodile Rock," "Your Song," and "Candle In The Wind."
Barry White
Barry White, R&B's greatest seducer who was a major presence in the Seventies with hits like "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe" and "Never Never Gonna Give You Up."
The Jackson 5 / Jacksons
The Jackson 5, the legendary Motown quintet who scored the Number One classics "I Want You Back," "ABC," and "I'll Be There," among others, and who introduced the phenomenon of Michael Jackson to the world.
ABBA
ABBA, the Swedish powerhouse that made the world safe for Europop with big hits like "Dancing Queen," "Take A Chance On Me," and "Fernando."

* Classic Rock

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