1970s Music

general sites Super Seventies RockSite 70s Pop Reviews Grammy Awards Year-By-Year Cash Box Top 100 Of The 70s Lost 45s music styles Motown Muzak 70s Glam Rock Punk Rock Progressive Rock behind the music Jeff Wayne's "War Of The Worlds" "American Pie" Interpretation Dark Side Of The Moon Rapper's Delight "Jesus Christ Superstar" Concept Album online audio Seventies Dance Music Take A Musical Trip To The 70s Designer Lady Rare Pop Songs radio AM stations dominated the airwaves in the early 1970s. For rock and country stations, the Top 40 format reigned supreme. Smooth-talking DJs promoted concerts, gave away T-shirts and did personal appearances. They chose songs from a very tightly-controlled playlist consisting of the latest hits. Their wacky on-air antics made some of them famous in their own right. FM stations catered to a smaller audience of audiophiles by playing jazz, classical music and progressive album-oriented rock. For the old folks, there were "beautiful music" stations playing generic elevator music. The FM industry was still considered quite avant-garde and "underground." In the mid 1970s, this began to change. The AM industry fell behind when mainstream stations started moving to FM. Everything came full circle in 1978, when FM listenership surpassed that of AM for the first time. Wolfman Jack WLS: The Rock Of Chicago Casey Kasem Rick Dees Casey Kasem's "American Top 40" Frankie Crocker WCFL In Chicago WLS Music Radio Surveys	-----	compilation albums In the 1970s, the multi-artist compilation album became quite popular. Many of these albums highlighted music of the past (The Fabulous Fifties), but most featured current chart hits. Several companies made compilation albums, including Ronco and K-tel. They were sold on TV and in stores, and had names like Sound Express, Disco Nights and Get It On! Each album contained the slogan "Original Hits! Original Artists!" to distinguish it from the cheap sound-alike albums that were also sold in the 1970s. The K-tel Company K-tel Album Covers the different, odd & unusual When it came to music, you could find just about anything on a record in the 1970s....organists, polka bands, elevator music and the vocal stylings of various sitcom stars. Pictured at right is a Bobby Sherman record cut from the back of a cereal box. Admit it, you had one of these, didn't you? Frank's Vinyl Museum Flexi~Cardboard~Oddity Records music news Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash theater concept albums In the 1970s, many future Broadway blockbusters started out as concept albums. On these records, a story was told through a series of original songs. Basically, it was musical theater without the theater. If the record was successful, it was expanded, modified and eventually produced on stage. Concept albums that led to stage triumphs included Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1969), Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), Evita (1976) and Les Miserables (1980). Wolfman Jack

============================================================================
============================================================================
============================================================================
============================================================================
============================================================================
============================================================================

1970s Music Videos

In the 1970s, pop musicians used music videos to promote themselves and their albums. They were also used by record companies to advertise their artists, and were often shown on TV when a band wasn't able to appear on a particular show in person. Because they were just promotional tools, the lip-synched performances were simple, the scenery was sparse and the choreography was minimal. Music videos were slow to catch on in America, but they were used by British and European bands quite often. European radio stations played less rock music than American stations, which made television a prime source for hearing new music. It was also easier to gain exposure in America by sending over a video clip than it was to send over an entire band. The entertainment value of music videos became apparent in 1975, when the elaborate video for Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" caused a sensation. Videos became more creative by telling stories and using special effects. Ex-Monkee Mike Nesmith was one of the first artists to see the potential of music videos. After producing his first video in 1976, he realized that the new VCR and laserdisc technologies could make music videos very popular. In 1978 and 1979, his attempts to market a music video series called Popclips inspired Warner Cable and American Express to create an all-video cable channel. The result was Music Television (MTV), which made its debut in 1981.	-----	Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody, 1975 ABBA: Take A Chance On Me, 1978
Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive 1979 M: Pop Musik, 1979		During this time, several TV shows and cable channels were launched that specialized in showing music videos. These included: *Nightclubbing (Manhattan cable, 1975) *Album Tracks (NBC, 1977-1978) *The Kenny Everett Video Show (England, 1978-1981) *Video Concert Hall (Atlanta cable channel, 1979) *Countdown (Australia) Artists who experimented with music videos during this time included ABBA, Michael Jackson, Rod Stewart, Devo, Todd Rundgren, David Bowie, Blondie, Genesis, Cher and Dire Straits. My YouTube Playlists Music Clips 1970-1974 Music Clips 1975-1979

continue to page 2:
The Dance & Disco Scene

---

return to the 1970s main page