70's Music and Style

1970s Music The 1970s created a perfect musical bridge from the rebelliousness of the 1960s and the happy songs of the 1980s. Following the counterculture of the 60s, the 70’s 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 came the Disco movement. Of course, there was still the bands and artists that continued to speak of the ills of society, typically characterized by the punk music of the era. But it seemed to be a much happier era than the 60s proved to be.

If ever a musical style defined a decade, Disco was the definition of the 1970s. Although its popularity was short, it created a great deal of songs and artists that people are still dancing to today. Van McCoy’s The Hustle has often been said to be 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. Their blockbuster Stayin’ Alive is often the essence of the disco musical era. The Village People’s YMCA and Macho Man also helped to add to the popularity of this popular style. 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.

The entire makeup of R&B music has done a complete 180-degree shift from the 1970s to the present. In the 70s, R&B music was all about setting a personal identity, both musically and vocally; it was about defining your own sound. Bands never sounded the same. Even the artists that shared the same sub-genres that are found within 70s R&B (Philly soul, the Ohio sound, the Motown