What did you like about the music of the 70s?

The.Crimson.King wrote: Sean Trane wrote: >> Only a few "prog" bands didn't care about rhythm: Tangerine Dream (until they started with sequencers) and Ash Ra Temple. We're still not connecting on this.  I don't mean "rhythm" in terms of a rock rhythm section which is obviously huge in prog, but styles of music that focus only on rhythm or 'beats'... >> Well I am toying with you a little here  (that's why I used the  smiley) Sean Trane wrote: >> Nope, Funk "ruled" since the very early 70's, with James Brown, Kool & The Gang (first album in 69, and it was rather good), EW&F and Funkadelic. and when I say "ruled", I meant on commercial radios. Well, I always did my best to stay far away from 70's commercial radio  >> As I said, you were probably very lucky to live in Frisco in the 70's.... Sean Trane wrote: >> Geddy didn't care about "getting the chicks".... Wearing a Disco Sucks T-shirt automatically excluded you from the bras and panties of disco-going chicks   I didn't need bras and panties of disco going chicks, my Yes-fan wife bought me my Disco Sucks shirt   >> You're old enough to have been married in the late 70's. Fine!!, but I was busy chasing everything with a skirt back then (well almost )... and the disco chicks were often the best looking and most promiscuous and the best chance to get laid... telling her that the music she loved sucked almost certainly meant that you were not getting sucked on...

Sean Trane wrote: >> Only a few "prog" bands didn't care about rhythm: Tangerine Dream (until they started with sequencers) and Ash Ra Temple.

Mortte wrote: let's just say that prog was semi-experimental music, but popular (in numbers & sales) enough to be encompassed in the "mainstream". But let's face it, most experimental (let's say Avant/RIO) hasn't really progressed much since the mid-80's (when RIO peaked, but also stuff like Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle or Killing Joke, etc....) Only post-rock and Trip Hop were meaningful experimental movements and both came close to be 'mainstream", but no cigar. Disagree. Even in Finland Pekka Airaksinen joined into Sperm collective and they released 1970 really ahead of time, experimental album "Shh, Heinäsirkat". Then there were Velvet Underground, Red Krayola, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band. Lots of bands in German Krautrock-movement were really experimental. Brian Eno started his experimental solo career in 1973 and Pere Ubu is formed in 1975. If you think experimental hadn´t progressed in those I just mentioned, I don´t understand you. I don´t think experimental has ever been very near of mainstream, although for example Sonic Youth become quite popular when starting add more conventional elements into it´s music.

^^ Condor rarely posts in topics he starts beyond the initial post.

Point taken, and I'm just having some fun here, but I assume he means any kind of "mainstream music in particular" that you enjoy. If this topic asked "What did you hate about the music of the 70s?", then I would assume the opposite. He said, "For me, the guitar solos that were ever slightly so cool, and centred around 3/10ths from the base of the neck" which makes me imagine that he likes rock guitar hero types, but it need not be exclusive to that. I expect that that doesn't mean that we have to discuss music that employs guitars.

To each his or her own tastes, of course, but there's quite a bit of Space Disco Electro-Disco and Euro-Disco infused music that I like from the latter half of the 70s into the 80s, and beyond. But I like Giorgio Moroder and "Progressive Electronic" music, and it can help to like certain Krautrock.

I only post the following vid to share with the general public.



A lot of music I like has disco qualities.

As for the question, I find a certain creativity and spirit of adventure from the late 60s through the 70s that I haven't been so aware of in later years. That is not to say that it doesn't exist in later years, merely that it doesn't exist so much in my thoughts. And, yes, I like the sounds. I'm not generally so keen on mainstream 70s music despite there being many mainstream acts that I do enjoy from that time. Is Gary Numan's and the Tubeway Army's (at the tail end of the 70s) Replicas and the Alan Parsons Project considered mainstream? I guess Pink Floyd was no longer considered an underground band having had huge success. Oh, David Bowie rocked the 70s (and beyond, I would say).

I'm going to echo others by saying the production values and the prominence of the kazoo. Thinking more, there's actually lots of mainstream music from the 70s that I know and like, but not nearly so much of the current scenes. I rather perceive that there was more variety back then of the time that would get played on the radio than the variety that we hear on ye typical radio station that plays modern music now. When I go to events, the choice of music today sounds more samey than I recall from when I was a kid in the 70s. I do perceive that there was more experimentation, innovation, genre-bending and fusion in mainstream music then than now. Still, now and then, a lot of music was of the cookie-cutter type, and was more industry, in a sense, than art.

Edited by Logan - January 04 2018 at 00:18

I liked the sound it made.

I agree with Baldfriede: categorizing music via decades does not work. The arbitrary calender division is very artificial--as if musical trends start and stop every ten years. What you think of as that classic 70s sound is likely 67-76 or so. "80s" (I prefer the term New Wave) is really 77-86 (or so) etc. Ditto "50s" music: that sound overlaps into the early 60s.

Finally, remember that 70s music was quite diverse (as in any decade since). Disco (yuck) was in there. So was punk. So were jazz, fusion, folk, fluffy radio pop, reggae, sucky country, prog, etc. So, when you say "70s music," I want to know: WHICH 70s music?

Edited by Peter - January 03 2018 at 22:12

Sean Trane wrote: The.Crimson.King wrote: 1. Bands were able to experiment freely without much record label interference 2. The focus was on melody/harmony rather than rhythm 3. 70's music inherited more from the classical music tradition than the ritual dance music tradition 4. Lyrics were often vague and open to interpretation 5. Instrumental virtuosity was appreciated and encouraged 6. Long compositions and complex music were seen as a worthwhile venture to both create and listen to 7. Concerts often pushed the limits of theater and music 8. Many record labels were still run by music lovers who were willing to take chances on new bands 9. FM Radio still gave many DJ's the freedom to play what they wanted regardless of length or style 10. I looked really good in my Disco Sucks t-shirt you two are a few years older than I, but I'd object to TCK's list

Responding to some of your specific points:

>>1. Labels were still as dirigist with pop bands as before (as opposed to prog or jazz artistes) and have >>been since

1. I wasn't referring to 70's "pop bands", but adventurous rock/prog music I liked.  Pop will always be ruled by what a label believes will bring in the most $$$

>>2. you mean to tell me that the dummers and bassists were ignored in the 70's??

2. Not what I meant at all.  I was referring to the focus on rhythm to the virtual exclusion of harmony and melody that we've experienced since disco laid the groundwork for the later rap/hiphop explosion.  This is also a point Steve Howe made in the Yes video released just after the Union tour about the difference between 70's and 80's Yes.  Basically, he said that 70's Yes compositions focused on harmony where 80's Yes focused on rhythm.  Oh, and I don't know of any drummers who like to be called "dummers", they're a little touchy that way

>>3. Funk & disco ruled in the 70's.

3. Not the whole 70's.  More like the late 70's and I'd hardly say disco "ruled".  It sure became a competing genre to rock in terms of popularity, but there was still plenty of rock to be found on the airwaves I listened to and the concert halls I attended.

>>5. bop music made that possible decades before the one we're speaking about

5. Regardless of when the trend started, it was still true in the 70's.

>>9. the portion of FM radios having freedom was not nearly as big as the legend would have it. Max one or >>two per state or major city... And AM was not concerned

9. Don't know about "legend", only what I heard with my own ears in the 70's.  In the SF bay area we had KOME, KSJO & KSAN not to mention the excellent college stations KFJC & KSJS who all sounded different enough to have their own flavor.  Why?  Because they gave freedom to the DJ sitting in the chair.  By the time my wife got on the radio airwaves in the SF bay area in the 90's it was all about playlists and spinning what you were told.

>>10. didn't need to wear one of them to be cool: just saying so was enough

10.  If it was good enough for Geddy, it was good enough for me






Edited by The.Crimson.King - January 02 2018 at 11:01

Blacksword wrote: The production and the spirit of experimentation instead of regurgitation that has plagued rock and pop music from the 80's to the present day.

I largely agree with this although I think it only pertains to mainstream music. The difference being that the mainstream of the 70s was far more experimental than any other following decade. The amount of quality and experimentalism in music being produced is about the same methinks.

Edited by Guldbamsen - January 02 2018 at 09:31

Sean Trane wrote: It's impossible nowadays to make a revolutioanry disc like Sgt Pepper, mostly because everything's been done in the actual state of music... But remember that this kind of studio time was allowed to The Beatles precisely because it was them... and they opened the door for everyone (well almost) But yeah I could see a label taking a chance on a totally different kind of experimental music;... If Bjork manages to release albums still nowadays (her latest is out of this world), than, it should be possible anything.

Björk is still in the independent label! I haven´t said there comes nothing interesting from independent labels, although I think Björk hasn´t gone forward anywhere after Volta (really love her Vespertine and Medulla).

I like older music too, but only Delta Blues has become some kind of passion to me. I don´t know, can I explain, but I think in 1965-1975 music has much more different colours than any other decades (or course there are lots of albums after that period that sounds same to me). I believe the main reason was recording technology. In older days there were no tracks, so everything have to record from the live take. In 1966 studio technology was so developed, that you can made many backing tracks and for example add Indian flute to the song if you wanted (I think first backing tracks were made already fifties, but musicians just don´t have time to make experiments in the studio that time). Even I like also live playing, to me the most interesting time began, when the bands live sound wasn´t the only thing you can record.