Popular Music of the 70's

Leading the counter revolution charge, at least initially, was the rise to prominence of hard rock - a sound never really heard before the 70's. It saw the likes of Deep Purple and Alice Cooper reach stardom very early on - followed by many bands that are still popular to this day.

Bands such as

1. Aerosmith
2. AC/DC
3. Journey

Still sell huge numbers of records, but first rose in the latter half the 70's. They combined real musical talent with being able to tap into the anger and ideas of the younger generation - neatly capturing the feeling of so many record buying individuals.

The style that many people think of when they look back at the 70's is that of disco. To this day the classic disco songs are played on radios and in nightclubs - and there are plenty immortalised in West End and Broadway shows.

They provided a fun, upbeat tune that people could dance to - as new style dancing and nightclubs became every more popular.

The most noteworthy disco artists of the 70's that are still being listened to include

1. Gloria Gaynor
2. The Bee Gees (including the best selling soundtrack to the film 'Saturday Night Fever')
3. Blondie

Even with the drastic change in style of music in the 60's a lot of the backing was still the same. Orchestras, traditional instruments and backing singers. Even hard rock used guitars and drums. But new wave changed all that.

It brought in an electro-pop, synthesised sound that had never been heard before. The progression of technology meant that new tricks, new sounds could be made - and the new wave movement was born.

Artists were to try all sorts of clever sound trickery to create some truly memorable songs and tracks. Amongst the foremost new wave artists were

1. The Cars
2. Blondie
3. Talking Heads

Artists we still know and listen to this day

New wave wasn't the only sound giving music a makeover in the 70's music era. The traditional country music sound was to be revitalised as well, as artists took the sounds associated with 'pure' country and western music and turned them into something fresh and exciting.

The country pop sound was to take country music main stream and had a string of hits by artists that were to become household names the world over. With a combination of upbeat pop and old school western country pop was a hit with a wide range of people.

Artists that managed to take country pop mainstream include household names such as

1. Dolly Parton
2. Linda Ronstadt
3. Glenn Campbell
4. Tammy Wynette

Hard rock may have been leading the counter revolution but the 70's gave rise to a huge number of different rock styles that was to make household names for a wide range of artists.

People started experimenting with the limits of what they could do with the rock genre. This gave rise to such sounds as

1. Country Rock (mixing country sounds with rock - as seen in the music of Bob Dylan and The Eagles.).
2. Blues Rock (combining the music of mainstream rock with the more laid back sounds of R&B music brought us the likes of Eric Clapton)
3. Power Rock - The Romantics were the leading band of this style, mixing together Punk music with that of more traditional rock.