Popular music in the 70s was dire

[Skeptisk]

Currently watching TOTPs 1978 Christmas special on BBC 4. Oh dear. Brings back bad memories of the really bad music in the 70s. Maybe it was wasn’t all of the 70s as I can’t remember the start…but listening to hits on TOTP for 1978 it was dreadful. Shawdywady, Bonny M, The Brotherhood of Man.

I know that where was good music in the 70s but I don’t remember hearing it as it didn’t seem to make it onto TV.

[Super Sonic]

Pop music has always been a bit rubbish. There are some good ooo tunes though, they just had Abba, but bony M? meh.

[Wacky Racer]

The 70's was easily the best era for pop music, in fact all music.

Closely followed by the 60's,

Of course there was a fair bit of st too to be fair.

[Lotobear]

You didn't watch TOTP for the music

[Chauffard]

HURTY WORDS WARNING


Fans of real music didn't really watch TOTP, even in the 70s, that show was for teenagers and mums and dads who bought singles.

[onomatopoeia]

Skeptisk said:

Currently watching TOTPs 1978 Christmas special on BBC 4. Oh dear. Brings back bad memories of the really bad music in the 70s. Maybe it was wasn’t all of the 70s as I can’t remember the start…but listening to hits on TOTP for 1978 it was dreadful. Shawdywady, Bonny M, The Brotherhood of Man.

1978 = Kate Bush, Wuthering Heights. Everything else released that year doesn't matter.

[RGG]

70's and 60's was so diverse (in a good way).

My school teacher said that it would never last.

How wrong he was.

The dross and there was an enormous amount only made the quality bands and music stand out even more.

70's and 60's will never be repeated.

And will never die.

[Jimjimhim]

Wacky Racer said:

The 70's was easily the best era for pop music, in fact all music.

Closely followed by the 60's,

Of course there was a fair bit of st too to be fair.

I'm guessing you're around 70 years old? Everyone thinks that the best music was from a time when they were fairly young.

[wildwesthero]

The 70's, what's not to like?

The start of British Rock. Deep Purple, Motorhead, Black Sabbath et al.
Glam Rock, Bowie, T Rex
Punk Rock, Sex Pistols, The Clash etc.

But there was Disco and the Bee Gees. We can't have everything.

[NDA]

The 70's had some great bands - Steely Dan, The Eagles, The Doors, The Doobie Brothers, Zappa... there's a long list. It was the Whistle Test rather than TOTP where the better music was found.

[cherryowen]

NDA said:

The 70's had some great bands - Steely Dan, The Eagles, The Doors, The Doobie Brothers, Zappa... there's a long list. It was the Whistle Test rather than TOTP where the better music was found.

This 100%

I was a teenager in the 1980's, and at the time it was all dross for me apart from Gary Numan / Tubeway Army and Marillion. Of course, with hindsight, some of the songwriting and musicianship in that time was actually very good indeed.

John Taylor running through his bassline for "Rio":-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtcLKAGN-II

NDA above mentions some great bands with legendary back catalogues. However, to offer a rebuttal to the OP, I give you this released as track #2 on their debut album in 1978:-





Honourable mentions also for The Carpenters and Chic and The Clash and Bread.

[ninepoint2]

NDA said:

The 70's had some great bands - Steely Dan, The Eagles, The Doors, The Doobie Brothers, Zappa... there's a long list. It was the Whistle Test rather than TOTP where the better music was found.

This all day long TOTP and "popular" music has always been crap, OGWT and DJs such as Johhnie Walker and Bob Harris always played the quality stuff

[Simes205]

The 70’s was where musical genres were still relatively pure before cross pollinating.
Also recorded on tape, no computers, little or no click track and no auto tune.

I love the 70’s and I’m not 70!

Edited by Simes205 on Tuesday 17th December 23:00

[essayer]

Late 90’s, the 70’s felt like so far away, I never listened to anything from that era, maybe Queen but that was it. I don’t recall Radio 1 ever playing music from that decade

Do kids today think the same about music from the 2000’s? Radio 1 regularly plays early 2000s music and there’s a Sunday ‘naughties’ show.

Confused. Or old. Possibly both.

[NordicCrankShaft]

I'm am 80's baby and the 70's was by far the best decade for music.

Boney M, Dire Straits, The Stranglers, Sabbath, Dr Feel good a small portion of some of my favourites.

[NDA]

essayer said:

Do kids today think the same about music from the 2000’s? .

I unwittingly exposed my children to my musical tastes on long car journeys through France or simply playing music at home. My son, who is in his early 20's, does not listen to music from the 2000's at all.... he's a massive fan of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pink Floyd, The Doors, John Lee Hooker, Dire Straits etc

The 1970's was not universally excellent, far from it, but so much of the music from that era seems to endure.

[marcosgt]

Chauffard said:

HURTY WORDS WARNING


Fans of real music didn't really watch TOTP, even in the 70s, that show was for teenagers and mums and dads who bought singles.

True, and even the teenagers mainly watched it to moan afterwards about how rubbish it was because their favourite act wasn't on.

There was some truly dire stuff in the 70s.

Of course, some of what some people think was great (Pink Floyd, Prog Rock, Punk, etc) is what other people think of as dire, you can't please all the people.

That said, there were some great and really influential '70s acts (Bowie, The Clash, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, etc, etc), so to say it was ALL Bay City Rollers, Showadwaddy and Boney M is to take the most popular acts (who'd bother to appear on TOTP) for one year and assume that's all there was.

If you take any Christmas (especially) TOTP, you'd say ANY era was dire, even your favourite.

Old Grey Whistle Test? Well, for a long time it was for weirdos and hippies, 15 minute prog rock keyboard solos, etc, but it did change over time. There's a great boxed set of OGWTS DVDs (available cheap on eBay or similar) which demonstrates the development well, some of the acts are truly excrutiating, but you won't find many TOTP bands on there.

There's even good music around today if you make an effort to look for it, but as with the SAW late '80s stuff, the dross tends to dominate in any period, it just appeals to the middle of the road mainstream.

What baffles me is where all the talented black performers have gone - Talking over other people's music about your ho and your UZI and your bling isn't talent, it's the 21st century equivalent of Boney M, where has reggae gone, where are today's Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, etc?

M

Edited by marcosgt on Wednesday 18th December 08:53

[king arthur]

onomatopoeia said:

1978 = Kate Bush, Wuthering Heights. Everything else released that year doesn't matter.

Oh I think it does.

Sultans of Swing.
Roxanne.

Many other classics that year too of course, like Cars - Just what I needed, but those two stand out as debut classics as well as Wuthering Heights.

Edited by king arthur on Wednesday 18th December 10:15

[toasty]

I'm of the opinion that there's good and bad in all genres, even those I thought were utter crap when I was younger.

I'm really enjoying reading webpages full of 'best of' lists covering decades and genres, and then listening on Tidal.

70's glam rock was one I mostly missed at the time but am not catching up on and enjoying. I recently went to a gig by Brian Connolly Jr (son of The Sweet's singer) covering lots of glam rock songs from various artists. Most fun gig I've been to in ages and not one that'd have been on my radar without a bit of exploration.

[BritishBlitz87]

NordicCrankShaft said:

I'm am 80's baby and the 70's was by far the best decade for music.

Boney M, Dire Straits, The Stranglers, Sabbath, Dr Feel good a small portion of some of my favourites.

Exactly. A good list of some of the best music of the 70s and not one pop band in the lot! A lot like today most of the good music was in alternative genres.

The 1970s was a decade of great diversity and innovation in music, lots of it hasn't aged well at all to my young ears but the talent was objectively there. Funk, disco, rock, ska, punk, the beginnings of metal. Great times for music.

But pop music? Nah, pop was in a bit of a stagnant dead zone in the 70s. Most of it was just a declining, baroque shadow of 60s sounds with few classics and even less lasting influence. Think of the 70s and no one thinks pop, do they?

The 80s was where pop made a monster of a comeback, arguably the best decade of pop in the 20th century.

In my opinion:
Golden age of pop: 1955-1965

Silver age - 1981-1991

Bronze age - 2012-2022