Music of the 70s
The 70’s what a great decade for music and for music lovers too. Music of the 70’s has had a lot of influence on the music we listen to today and of course there are some of us who still have some of our favorite 70’s records and listen to them still. Some of the genres that really came into their own in the 1970’s are Classic Rock, Disco, Southern Rock, Punk Rock, and the birth of Heavy Metal although it was originally known as Hard Rock as well. No matter if you were born into a younger generation there is more than likely a 70’s song or album that you listen to so lets look at some great albums of the 70’s.
More than likely, regarding the music of the 70’s the music genre most closely related to that American decade is Disco, which really came on strong in the mainstream after the film “Saturday Night Fever”. The soundtrack from that movie went on to become one of the greatest selling albums of all time too. Rolling Stone magazine in 2003 placed the album on their 500 greatest albums of all times list, and in the same year, VH1 called it the 57th greatest album of all time. With songs like “Staying Alive”, “Night Fever”, “If I Can’t Have You”, and “Boogie Shoes” it is no surprise that this album soared to the top.
Another genre that really increased in popularity during the 1970’s is Southern Rock. There were a whole slew of Southern Rock bands in the 70’s that really exploded on to that music scene too. Bands like the Allman Brothers, The Outlaws, and Molly Hatchet made some great music, but the ones who set the standard of Southern Rock music of the 70’s is none other than Lynyrd Skynyrd. Lynyrd Skynyrd had four platinum albums in the 70’s, three of which went double platinum. Street Survivors however, showcased the 3-guitar attack of Gaines, Collins, and Rossington behind Ronnie van Zant that other bands try to copy today making Street Survivor their most important album in the 70’s.
The genre of Progressive Rock is another style of music that while born of Psychedelic Rock in the 60’s, really made its bones on the back of earlier artists in the 70’s. Bands like ELO, Utopia, Kansas, and Rush moved into the forefront of the genre maintaining the core of their listeners, while making Prog Rock Top 40 friendly as well. Of all the bands mentioned Rush really is the standard by which all other Prog Rock bands are measured by. Perhaps their most significant contribution in vinyl to music of the 70’s is the bands album “2112”, and the boss track on that album “Passage to Bangkok”
The last of the genres we are going to talk about is of course Heavy Metal, which assaulted Rock and Roll and went mainstream in the 70’s Motorhead, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden found a home within the genre making fantastic music, but the band that made it all possible is of course Black Sabbath. The album “Black Sabbath” is the undisputed father of Heavy Metal music of the 70s as well as Heavy Metal 70’s records. The three tracks that everyone mentions when discussing this musical masterpiece are “N.I.B.”, “Black Sabbath”, and “Warning” and all agree that this album is the greatest ever of the 1970’s Metal scene.
