Yes, and save for the odd good group (10cc, Blondie, Strawbs) it was embarrassing.
Bay City Rollers? Do me a favour.
Nowadays it's vocal trance that hits the mark, the interest probably started with 12" singles/ dance trax meaning artistes/DJ's had longer to experiment, paving the way for today's trance DJ's to mix tracks into various lengths - even up to 12 minutes - which IMO is what vocal trance is all about.
That's the only strand of music I go for now, most *mainstream* music is urban (c)rap and unlistenable to - but fortunately with the web I can listen 24/7. Unthinkable when all you had was Radio Bloody One and Radio Luxembourg!
So I suppose the answer's yes and no! But the internet radio kills off any longings for 1975.
I was born in 1970 so a lot of the 70's music I love now is what I either heard from my mum or what I've gotten into afterwards. However., I love music from all different eras though my taste very much follows a theme.
70's wise, I love a lot of Philly, funk and quality disco (not the cheesy stuff)
80's - It was the weekender anthems, leading into the house tracks of the late 80's early 90's
There is a lot of brilliant new music out there now though but you have to seek it out. I listen to several soul/dance online radio stations and go to a lot of all dayers/weekender on the soul circuit.
In the last couple of months, I have discovered fantastic new albums by bands such as Lack Of Afro and Smoove and Turrell, which will never trouble the charts but make me very happy indeed
No, I lived through the 70s and the pop culture of that era was vastly superior to the pop culture of today.
The development of existing genres and the emergence of new musical genres (glam, prog, metal, punk, disco, electronic, funk, reggae, soul...) remains unprecedented. Add to that an oppositional, independent youth movement in music which (when was the last time there was one of those in pop culture?).
It's not that there isn't good music around but this is a different era, very retro and without any real movements.
No, I lived through the 70s and the pop culture of that era was vastly superior to the pop culture of today.
The development of existing genres and the emergence of new musical genres (glam, prog, metal, punk, disco, electronic, funk, reggae, soul...) remains unprecedented. Add to that an oppositional, independent youth movement in music which (when was the last time there was one of those in pop culture?).
It's not that there isn't good music around but this is a different era, very retro and without any real movements.
whilst i agree with this, my answer would still be ... i prefer the 60's overall, mid 60's especially.
i lived through the 70's, i didnt like most of the music produced until punk/new wave reinvented to 60's sounds and the 60's fashions became fashionable again. i hated glam, philly, prog, disco, which didnt leave much else... as for original 70's rock, i prefer recent rock. qotsa, hives, white stripes,kol, .
i also rate more recent (whats referred to as) indie. razorlight, kaisers, hard fi, killers, wombats, although not original have produced far superior group/pop to what was around in the 70's.... ok slade,sweet and t rex were ok, but the rest were bloody awful. i even prefer 'recent guitar groups' overall to many punk and new wave acts.... but not all.
and now theres trance.... i love trance, second only to my beloved 60's . theres still some great trance being produced now although not as original as 15 odd years ago. i also like ukg, and several recent hits like disclosure 'you and me' have a heavy ukg sound.
many people my age are heavily into nostalgia, and theyll like the music they first grew up with. im guilty of that as much as anyone, but my era was the 60's, not the 70's, throughout the first half of the 70's when i was a teenager i collected 60's music as i loved that era. but the 70's dont hold me, glam was a joke, clown pop wasnt for me and i didnt like the sounds of these failed 60's acts. philly was utter shite... after 60's motown and stax /atlantic soul philly just was sleazy, soul-less tripe. prog was overindulgent popmpous nonsense - i couldnt relate to that at all.
todays music might well be 95% recycled, manufactured, unoriginal crap.... but give me a plan b, rudemental, chase n status, disclosure, anyday over slade, sweet, or t rex.
whilst i agree with this, my answer would still be ... i prefer the 60's overall, mid 60's especially.
i lived through the 70's, i didnt like most of the music produced until punk/new wave reinvented to 60's sounds and the 60's fashions became fashionable again. i hated glam, philly, prog, disco, which didnt leave much else... as for original 70's rock, i prefer recent rock. qotsa, hives, white stripes,kol, .
i also rate more recent (whats referred to as) indie. razorlight, kaisers, hard fi, killers, wombats, although not original have produced far superior group/pop to what was around in the 70's.... ok slade,sweet and t rex were ok, but the rest were bloody awful. i even prefer 'recent guitar groups' overall to many punk and new wave acts.... but not all.
and now theres trance.... i love trance, second only to my beloved 60's . theres still some great trance being produced now although not as original as 15 odd years ago. i also like ukg, and several recent hits like disclosure 'you and me' have a heavy ukg sound.
many people my age are heavily into nostalgia, and theyll like the music they first grew up with. im guilty of that as much as anyone, but my era was the 60's, not the 70's, throughout the first half of the 70's when i was a teenager i collected 60's music as i loved that era. but the 70's dont hold me, glam was a joke, clown pop wasnt for me and i didnt like the sounds of these failed 60's acts. philly was utter shite... after 60's motown and stax /atlantic soul philly just was sleazy, soul-less tripe. prog was overindulgent popmpous nonsense - i couldnt relate to that at all.
todays music might well be 95% recycled, manufactured, unoriginal crap.... but give me a plan b, rudemental, chase n status, disclosure, anyday over slade, sweet, or t rex.
I'm not really into nostalgia that much, I like to try and appreciate the development of pop music and culture. And I listen to much current music.
I wouldn't try and suggest that the 70s is more than significant than the 60s in the history of pop music. Rather I was comparing the 70s to the modern era and I think the 70s were better (so far).
You mention Philly as bring a shite version of soul but the early 70s gave us Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going on' and Stevie Wonder's 'Innervisions'. These albums are representative of a fundamental shift in soul music's social and political sensibilities which ultimately gave us Rap, Public Enemy etc.
The 70s gave us Disco, a primary building block along with Euro Electronic music from Germany (Kraftwerk, 70s) which gave us much modern dance music. You mention punk and new wave, nearly all modern indie music has some of its origins and best examples UK (The Pistols, The Clash, Siouxsie) or US punk (The Ramones, Television) from the 70s. Pop was ABBA, Kate Bush, Blondie...consider how valued these artists are now. And they could all write and play their own stuff. I know people see Glam as trivial ( I don't) but glam was Roxy, Bowie and T.Rex as well as Sweet and Mud. Prog was indulgent at times but it was also complex and experimental, it opened the possibility of long, evolving pieces as you get in modern electronic music. It goes on and on.
Yes, I would accept that some of the production values are higher now and whilst much of the music is retro it is good retro but there is little as edgy and innovatory as back then. And it's at least partly to do with the spirit of the age.
Yes, and save for the odd good group (10cc, Blondie, Strawbs) it was embarrassing.
Oh dear, you are embarrassing yourself. Successful in the 70's, in no special order, were acts such as -
Kate Bush
ABBA
Bruce Springsteen
The Bee Gees
The Sex Pistols
The Temptations
King Crimson
Led Zeppelin
.... and a few dozen others whose work changed or heavily influenced rock music, and in some cases still does.
Today, for the first time in a long time, there are many decent quality acts performing a variety of styles of music, and I love that. But so far, it can't compete with the best of the 70's.
I'm not really into nostalgia that much, I like to try and appreciate the development of pop music and culture. And I listen to much current music.
I wouldn't try and suggest that the 70s is more than significant than the 60s in the history of pop music. Rather I was comparing the 70s to the modern era and I think the 70s were better (so far).
You mention Philly as bring a shite version of soul but the early 70s gave us Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going on' and Stevie Wonder's 'Innervisions'. These albums are representative of a fundamental shift in soul music's social and political sensibilities which ultimately gave us Rap, Public Enemy etc.
The 70s gave us Disco, a primary building block along with Euro Electronic music from Germany (Kraftwerk, 70s) which gave us much modern dance music. You mention punk and new wave, nearly all modern indie music has some of its origins and best examples UK (The Pistols, The Clash, Siouxsie) or US punk (The Ramones, Television) from the 70s. Pop was ABBA, Kate Bush, Blondie...consider how valued these artists are now. And they could all write and play their own stuff. I know people see Glam as trivial ( I don't) but glam was Roxy, Bowie and T.Rex as well as Sweet and Mud. Prog was indulgent at times but it was also complex and experimental, it opened the possibility of long, evolving pieces as you get in modern electronic music. It goes on and on.
Yes, I would accept that some of the production values are higher now and whilst much of the music is retro it is good retro but there is little as edgy and innovatory as back then. And it's at least partly to do with the spirit of the age.
Soul is my music and I am definitely of the opinion that soul really grew and came into it's own in the 70's. I do like Motown and much of the 60's soul output but find some of it a bit lite for my taste and thing the 70's was when soul really grew up.
For me, Philly and the like is definitely a more mature sound with more depth than much of the Motown output but then that could be just down to personal taste.
Certainly, as someone who has been attending weekenders and all dayers for longer than I care to remember, you're far more likely to hear a Philly or other 70's track being played to fill the dance floor than a Motown or other 60's one, outside of one of the specialist hours
Soul is my music and I am definitely of the opinion that soul really grew and came into it's own in the 70's. I do like Motown and much of the 60's soul output but find some of it a bit lite for my taste and thing the 70's was when soul really grew up.
For me, Philly and the like is definitely a more mature sound with more depth than much of the Motown output but then that could be just down to personal taste.
Certainly, as someone who has been attending weekenders and all dayers for longer than I care to remember, you're far more likely to hear a Philly or other 70's track being played to fill the dance floor than a Motown or other 60's one, outside of one of the specialist hours
needless to say im in complete disagreement with this.
whilst wonder and gay and green might have matured, they werent philly. i dont regard philly as superior in any way to motown and motown does fill the dance floor. apart from the vulgar barry white there arent many philly tracks known or played nowdays.
like i said, i agree with your appraisal of the seventies, i just didnt like the material. it hasnt aged well even the stuff i did like. just a personal thing.
There was some crap for sure in the 70's, but much of what passed as crap then would surely pass as genius if released now . I much prefer that era to the majority of stuff played on the radio nowadays .
needless to say im in complete disagreement with this.
whilst wonder and gay and green might have matured, they werent philly. i dont regard philly as superior in any way to motown and motown does fill the dance floor. apart from the vulgar barry white there arent many philly tracks known or played nowdays.
I didn't say either Gaye or Green were philly
Harold Melvin, The Jones Girls, Lou Rawls, The O'Jays, Billy Paul, Jean Carn, Dexter Wansel - all artists played constantly on the soul scene and all guaranteed to fill the dance floor. While Motown may be played in more mainstream clubs, it's rare to hear much of it on the soul circuit, which I have been a part of for 25 years.
Though I can understand how someone who isn't heavily involved in the soul scene may see things differently, this is my world that I live and breathe
For me the 70s were great. My music collection is mostly from the period of the late 60s through to the early 80s. Everything from the Canterbury scene through Glam, Punk, Reggae and Ska.
like i said, i agree with your appraisal of the seventies, i just didnt like the material. it hasnt aged well even the stuff i did like. just a personal thing.
I was rambling a bit.
I'm surprised you think it hasn't aged well.
I was just watching Rudimental at Glastonbury and it is good but they don't set the world on fire the way Funkadelic or Chic did.
Harold Melvin, The Jones Girls, Lou Rawls, The O'Jays, Billy Paul, Jean Carn, Dexter Wansel - all artists played constantly on the soul scene and all guaranteed to fill the dance floor. While Motown may be played in more mainstream clubs, it's rare to hear much of it on the soul circuit, which I have been a part of for 25 years.
Though I can understand how someone who isn't heavily involved in the soul scene may see things differently, this is my world that I live and breathe
And btw, Barry White isn't Philly either.
i know you didnt, my criticism was aimed at philly not sould although for me i didnt like 70's soul either in comparison to sixties soul. which was better is all down to personal taste, and i loved sixties soul and motown. i didnt like seventies soul much and i hated philly and sweet soul.
well im not surprised that i appear to be pretty much on my own here, lol, whilst i accept there was far more original diversity cutting new ground in the seventies, on the whole its my least favourite decade. give me 2002_2005 anyday over any seventies year.
I was rambling a bit.
I'm surprised you think it hasn't aged well.
I was just watching Rudimental at Glastonbury and it is good but they don't set the world on fire the way Funkadelic or Chic did.
true, but when funkedelic and chic did, they were cutting new ground. theres no doubting that the seventies was a hotbed of innovation and new styles, it was exciting unlike today.
but im bored of seventies music, it means very little to me, i have little emotional attatchment to it as imho better music has been prduced since. and no music has appealled to me as much as trance, save for the mid sixties rnb groups.
tbh i didnt expect anyone who grew up in the seventies to prefer music from other eras. dontwe all favour the musical era we were teens in?or like in my case prefer the music we listened too when we were teens?
tbh i didnt expect anyone who grew up in the seventies to prefer music from other eras. dontwe all favour the musical era we were teens in?or like in my case prefer the music we listened too when we were teens?
I was a teenager in the seventies and I'm not a big fan of that era.
On the one hand, the sixties seem like a more liberated time. People suddenly realised they could write songs about whatever they liked and mix genres to create something new. On the other hand, there were really talented, hard-grafting songwriters at labels like Motown, writing hit after hit after hit and almost every song was a classic. By the early seventies, the two best aspects of sixties music, left-field originality and faultless pop songwriting, had dwindled and we were left with the stodge that eventually became 80s music. And punk, I suppose.
I do love a lot of current music. Thanks to the internet it's so much easier to find music you like and avoid stuff you don't. In the seventies, the only way to hear new music was off-peak Radio 1 - Bob Harris, Peel, Anne Nightingale etc. On a good day you'd hear the latest from Blodwyn Pig and Henry Cow. You can imagine what a bad day sounded like.
tbh i didnt expect anyone who grew up in the seventies to prefer music from other eras. dontwe all favour the musical era we were teens in?or like in my case prefer the music we listened too when we were teens?
I love music from all eras, apart from the 60's really which I've never really got but maybe it was because I wasn't there.
I think there is some brilliant new music out there by some fantastic artists but it isn't the music that crosses into the mainstream.
Tbh though, I haven't listened to mainstream commercial radio for about 5 or 6 years mostly because I have several friends who are DJ's for online specialist stations who recommend new stuff to look out for.
on the whole its my least favourite decade. give me 2002_2005 anyday over any seventies year.
I find it astonishing that someone who was a teenager in the 70s can prefer todays music. If that's the way you feel then that's the way you feel. Each to their own.
To me 70s music has got far more memorable tunes that almost anything today.
I was a teenager in the late 80s/early 90s and I loved the 80s but as we got into the 90s I got so bored with music. It was then that I started discovering all this music that I wasn't quite old enough to remember like The Specials, The Jam, Skids, all the disco and I remember thinking 'This is so much better than all the crap around now'. That was about '91. To me most music from the 90s onwards hasn't been that great.
Even the novelty records from the 70s like Toast by the Streetband or the Pushbike Song by the Mixtures were fun to listen to. I've always felt that people who slag off novelty records take music a bit too seriously. The artists the made them know full well they're not supposed to be cutting edge music. They're supposed to be just a bit of fun and nothing more.
i know you didnt, my criticism was aimed at philly not sould although for me i didnt like 70's soul either in comparison to sixties soul. which was better is all down to personal taste, and i loved sixties soul and motown. i didnt like seventies soul much and i hated philly and sweet soul.
well im not surprised that i appear to be pretty much on my own here, lol, whilst i accept there was far more original diversity cutting new ground in the seventies, on the whole its my least favourite decade. give me 2002_2005 anyday over any seventies year.
Got to be honest, I've never heard of 'sweet soul'. Do you have any examples?
I was a teenager in the seventies and I'm not a big fan of that era.
On the one hand, the sixties seem like a more liberated time. People suddenly realised they could write songs about whatever they liked and mix genres to create something new. On the other hand, there were really talented, hard-grafting songwriters at labels like Motown, writing hit after hit after hit and almost every song was a classic. By the early seventies, the two best aspects of sixties music, left-field originality and faultless pop songwriting, had dwindled and we were left with the stodge that eventually became 80s music. And punk, I suppose.
I do love a lot of current music. Thanks to the internet it's so much easier to find music you like and avoid stuff you don't. In the seventies, the only way to hear new music was off-peak Radio 1 - Bob Harris, Peel, Anne Nightingale etc. On a good day you'd hear the latest from Blodwyn Pig and Henry Cow. You can imagine what a bad day sounded like.
The 60s probably were a more liberated and liberating time but much of that experiment continued into the 70s. For example, the left-field innovation and classic songwriting was combined in much of the new soul of the 70s. The electronic music of the late 60s (E.g. Wendy Carlos) was transformed in the 70s by Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. Bob Marley ( a master song writer) and reggae music was huge in the 70s. Jazz fusion with Weather Report etc etc.
You also give the impression that the great music innovators of the 60s went off in the 70s where the opposite is the case. Floyd did 'Dark Side of the Moon', The Who did 'Who's Next', Stevie Wonder did 'Songs in the Key of Life', Dylan did 'Blood on the Tracks' plus punk/new wave opened a whole dam-burst of new music. Joy Division were real 'stodge' !!
The new thing in music is the new way to consume and yes, people can find music they like more easily. However, there is some evidence to support the idea that that has actually led people to avoid what they don't like and are less likely to experiment.
Comments
Bay City Rollers? Do me a favour.
Nowadays it's vocal trance that hits the mark, the interest probably started with 12" singles/ dance trax meaning artistes/DJ's had longer to experiment, paving the way for today's trance DJ's to mix tracks into various lengths - even up to 12 minutes - which IMO is what vocal trance is all about.
That's the only strand of music I go for now, most *mainstream* music is urban (c)rap and unlistenable to - but fortunately with the web I can listen 24/7. Unthinkable when all you had was Radio Bloody One and Radio Luxembourg!
So I suppose the answer's yes and no! But the internet radio kills off any longings for 1975.
70's wise, I love a lot of Philly, funk and quality disco (not the cheesy stuff)
80's - It was the weekender anthems, leading into the house tracks of the late 80's early 90's
There is a lot of brilliant new music out there now though but you have to seek it out. I listen to several soul/dance online radio stations and go to a lot of all dayers/weekender on the soul circuit.
In the last couple of months, I have discovered fantastic new albums by bands such as Lack Of Afro and Smoove and Turrell, which will never trouble the charts but make me very happy indeed
The development of existing genres and the emergence of new musical genres (glam, prog, metal, punk, disco, electronic, funk, reggae, soul...) remains unprecedented. Add to that an oppositional, independent youth movement in music which (when was the last time there was one of those in pop culture?).
It's not that there isn't good music around but this is a different era, very retro and without any real movements.
whilst i agree with this, my answer would still be ... i prefer the 60's overall, mid 60's especially.
i lived through the 70's, i didnt like most of the music produced until punk/new wave reinvented to 60's sounds and the 60's fashions became fashionable again. i hated glam, philly, prog, disco, which didnt leave much else... as for original 70's rock, i prefer recent rock. qotsa, hives, white stripes,kol, .
i also rate more recent (whats referred to as) indie. razorlight, kaisers, hard fi, killers, wombats, although not original have produced far superior group/pop to what was around in the 70's.... ok slade,sweet and t rex were ok, but the rest were bloody awful. i even prefer 'recent guitar groups' overall to many punk and new wave acts.... but not all.
and now theres trance.... i love trance, second only to my beloved 60's . theres still some great trance being produced now although not as original as 15 odd years ago. i also like ukg, and several recent hits like disclosure 'you and me' have a heavy ukg sound.
many people my age are heavily into nostalgia, and theyll like the music they first grew up with. im guilty of that as much as anyone, but my era was the 60's, not the 70's, throughout the first half of the 70's when i was a teenager i collected 60's music as i loved that era. but the 70's dont hold me, glam was a joke, clown pop wasnt for me and i didnt like the sounds of these failed 60's acts. philly was utter shite... after 60's motown and stax /atlantic soul philly just was sleazy, soul-less tripe. prog was overindulgent popmpous nonsense - i couldnt relate to that at all.
todays music might well be 95% recycled, manufactured, unoriginal crap.... but give me a plan b, rudemental, chase n status, disclosure, anyday over slade, sweet, or t rex.
I'm not really into nostalgia that much, I like to try and appreciate the development of pop music and culture. And I listen to much current music.
I wouldn't try and suggest that the 70s is more than significant than the 60s in the history of pop music. Rather I was comparing the 70s to the modern era and I think the 70s were better (so far).
You mention Philly as bring a shite version of soul but the early 70s gave us Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going on' and Stevie Wonder's 'Innervisions'. These albums are representative of a fundamental shift in soul music's social and political sensibilities which ultimately gave us Rap, Public Enemy etc.
The 70s gave us Disco, a primary building block along with Euro Electronic music from Germany (Kraftwerk, 70s) which gave us much modern dance music. You mention punk and new wave, nearly all modern indie music has some of its origins and best examples UK (The Pistols, The Clash, Siouxsie) or US punk (The Ramones, Television) from the 70s. Pop was ABBA, Kate Bush, Blondie...consider how valued these artists are now. And they could all write and play their own stuff. I know people see Glam as trivial ( I don't) but glam was Roxy, Bowie and T.Rex as well as Sweet and Mud. Prog was indulgent at times but it was also complex and experimental, it opened the possibility of long, evolving pieces as you get in modern electronic music. It goes on and on.
Yes, I would accept that some of the production values are higher now and whilst much of the music is retro it is good retro but there is little as edgy and innovatory as back then. And it's at least partly to do with the spirit of the age.
Oh dear, you are embarrassing yourself. Successful in the 70's, in no special order, were acts such as -
Kate Bush
ABBA
Bruce Springsteen
The Bee Gees
The Sex Pistols
The Temptations
King Crimson
Led Zeppelin
.... and a few dozen others whose work changed or heavily influenced rock music, and in some cases still does.
Today, for the first time in a long time, there are many decent quality acts performing a variety of styles of music, and I love that. But so far, it can't compete with the best of the 70's.
Soul is my music and I am definitely of the opinion that soul really grew and came into it's own in the 70's. I do like Motown and much of the 60's soul output but find some of it a bit lite for my taste and thing the 70's was when soul really grew up.
For me, Philly and the like is definitely a more mature sound with more depth than much of the Motown output but then that could be just down to personal taste.
Certainly, as someone who has been attending weekenders and all dayers for longer than I care to remember, you're far more likely to hear a Philly or other 70's track being played to fill the dance floor than a Motown or other 60's one, outside of one of the specialist hours
So for me the period from the late 60's to the mid 90's was full of great music.
However since the mid 90's there has been a marked reduction in good quality (and inventive) Rock Music (Muse & Rammstein excepted).
However it might be that I am a lot older now and am out of touch with new music.
needless to say im in complete disagreement with this.
whilst wonder and gay and green might have matured, they werent philly. i dont regard philly as superior in any way to motown and motown does fill the dance floor. apart from the vulgar barry white there arent many philly tracks known or played nowdays.
on tablet cant seem to quote big posts.
like i said, i agree with your appraisal of the seventies, i just didnt like the material. it hasnt aged well even the stuff i did like. just a personal thing.
I didn't say either Gaye or Green were philly
Harold Melvin, The Jones Girls, Lou Rawls, The O'Jays, Billy Paul, Jean Carn, Dexter Wansel - all artists played constantly on the soul scene and all guaranteed to fill the dance floor. While Motown may be played in more mainstream clubs, it's rare to hear much of it on the soul circuit, which I have been a part of for 25 years.
Though I can understand how someone who isn't heavily involved in the soul scene may see things differently, this is my world that I live and breathe
And btw, Barry White isn't Philly either.
Today better? Not a chance.
I was rambling a bit.
I'm surprised you think it hasn't aged well.
I was just watching Rudimental at Glastonbury and it is good but they don't set the world on fire the way Funkadelic or Chic did.
i know you didnt, my criticism was aimed at philly not sould although for me i didnt like 70's soul either in comparison to sixties soul. which was better is all down to personal taste, and i loved sixties soul and motown. i didnt like seventies soul much and i hated philly and sweet soul.
well im not surprised that i appear to be pretty much on my own here, lol, whilst i accept there was far more original diversity cutting new ground in the seventies, on the whole its my least favourite decade. give me 2002_2005 anyday over any seventies year.
true, but when funkedelic and chic did, they were cutting new ground. theres no doubting that the seventies was a hotbed of innovation and new styles, it was exciting unlike today.
but im bored of seventies music, it means very little to me, i have little emotional attatchment to it as imho better music has been prduced since. and no music has appealled to me as much as trance, save for the mid sixties rnb groups.
I was a teenager in the seventies and I'm not a big fan of that era.
On the one hand, the sixties seem like a more liberated time. People suddenly realised they could write songs about whatever they liked and mix genres to create something new. On the other hand, there were really talented, hard-grafting songwriters at labels like Motown, writing hit after hit after hit and almost every song was a classic. By the early seventies, the two best aspects of sixties music, left-field originality and faultless pop songwriting, had dwindled and we were left with the stodge that eventually became 80s music. And punk, I suppose.
I do love a lot of current music. Thanks to the internet it's so much easier to find music you like and avoid stuff you don't. In the seventies, the only way to hear new music was off-peak Radio 1 - Bob Harris, Peel, Anne Nightingale etc. On a good day you'd hear the latest from Blodwyn Pig and Henry Cow. You can imagine what a bad day sounded like.
I love music from all eras, apart from the 60's really which I've never really got but maybe it was because I wasn't there.
I think there is some brilliant new music out there by some fantastic artists but it isn't the music that crosses into the mainstream.
Tbh though, I haven't listened to mainstream commercial radio for about 5 or 6 years mostly because I have several friends who are DJ's for online specialist stations who recommend new stuff to look out for.
To me 70s music has got far more memorable tunes that almost anything today.
I was a teenager in the late 80s/early 90s and I loved the 80s but as we got into the 90s I got so bored with music. It was then that I started discovering all this music that I wasn't quite old enough to remember like The Specials, The Jam, Skids, all the disco and I remember thinking 'This is so much better than all the crap around now'. That was about '91. To me most music from the 90s onwards hasn't been that great.
Even the novelty records from the 70s like Toast by the Streetband or the Pushbike Song by the Mixtures were fun to listen to. I've always felt that people who slag off novelty records take music a bit too seriously. The artists the made them know full well they're not supposed to be cutting edge music. They're supposed to be just a bit of fun and nothing more.
Got to be honest, I've never heard of 'sweet soul'. Do you have any examples?
The 60s probably were a more liberated and liberating time but much of that experiment continued into the 70s. For example, the left-field innovation and classic songwriting was combined in much of the new soul of the 70s. The electronic music of the late 60s (E.g. Wendy Carlos) was transformed in the 70s by Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. Bob Marley ( a master song writer) and reggae music was huge in the 70s. Jazz fusion with Weather Report etc etc.
You also give the impression that the great music innovators of the 60s went off in the 70s where the opposite is the case. Floyd did 'Dark Side of the Moon', The Who did 'Who's Next', Stevie Wonder did 'Songs in the Key of Life', Dylan did 'Blood on the Tracks' plus punk/new wave opened a whole dam-burst of new music. Joy Division were real 'stodge' !!
The new thing in music is the new way to consume and yes, people can find music they like more easily. However, there is some evidence to support the idea that that has actually led people to avoid what they don't like and are less likely to experiment.