Band or singer that best represents the music of the 70s

[PaulBullion]

The 80s thread was fun, but let's go back a decade, shall we?

Before a wave of racism and homophobia convinced people that Disco was the worst thing ever (culminating in Disco Demolition Night, which was basically a nazi style book burning for vinyl records), Disco ruled supreme. It was a fresh, new music, it was hedonistic but could be political at times. It allowed for black, non-binary singers like Sylvester to become super stars.

So for your consideration, I present to you the brain child of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, Chic!



The song features Norma Jean Wright on lead vocals and the legendary Luther Vandross, Diva Gray and Robin Clark on background vocals.

[numberthirty]

Thinking about it, I don't know that I've ever thought "Here is something that is quintessentially 'Seventies'...", the way that I think a tune like "Somebody's Watching Me" is quintessentially "Eighties".

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Non-Disco division: Paul McCartney's solo career took off like a rocket after the break-up of The Beatles with several big hits in the 70's, including the theme song from a James Bond movie:

[worstblogever]

It's a tough call for me. I feel like Donna Summer hits the late 70s to a "t".

But overall, I'd say Led Zeppelin with Robert Plant for the whole decade.

[numberthirty]

It's a tough call for me. I feel like Donna Summer hits the late 70s to a "t".

But overall, I'd say Led Zeppelin with Robert Plant for the whole decade.

That got me to thinking it over.

While I have a tough time narrowing down what would be quintessential/best represent, it feels kind of like the "Live" album is a particularly "Seventies" thing.

Don't even know where you'd start to narrow down all of the "Live" albums from then, but the phenomenon feels really "Seventies" when I think about it.

[WillieMorgan]

I could have a field day with a question like that. The 1970's is easily my favourite decade for music. Rock music was at it's artistic and commercial peak back then. Different world.

I'm firmly of the opinion that The Rolling Stones' greatest music hails from the Seventies. 'Sticky Fingers' and 'Exile On Main Street' alone bear that out for me.

It's got to be Led Zeppelin though. My all time favourite band. Their 1975 masterpiece 'Physical Graffiti' is THE album of the Seventies for me. I listened to the whole thing just the other night. Genius.

[maninthemacintosh1606]

It's a tough call for me. I feel like Donna Summer hits the late 70s to a "t".

But overall, I'd say Led Zeppelin with Robert Plant for the whole decade.

As opposed to Led Zeppelin without Robert Plant?

[Joker]

Before a wave of racism and homophobia convinced people that Disco was the worst thing ever (culminating in Disco Demolition Night, which was basically a nazi style book burning for vinyl records)

Wasn't it just more that disco did, in fact, suck?

Also Nazi style? It was completely voluntary. I think you're projecting a bit here?
(I'm not denying some of that being at play, but... )

And yeah, it was easily Zepplin. !

[PaulBullion]

Wasn't it just more that disco did, in fact, suck?

Also Nazi style? It was completely voluntary. I think you're projecting a bit here?
(I'm not denying some of that being at play, but... )

And yeah, it was easily Zepplin. !

What about Disco sucked? If you listen to music by Chic, Barry White, Donna Summer - what makes it objectively bad for you?

It mostly had great vocalists. Lush productions that combined orchestral arrangement with new electronic sounds. And it wasn't afraid to give the spotlight to people that did not appeal to Nixon voters.

And it wasn't black or queer people who destroyed the records of black and queer musicians during Disco Demolition, so I'll stand by the book burning comparison.#




Yasss Queen!

[Joker]

so I'll stand by the book burning comparison.#

Of course you will, it fits your narrative. Not a single mention of all the Bee Gees records destroyed, though.

[PaulBullion]

[PaulBullion]

From the Guardian newspaper:

Disco Demolition: the night they tried to crush black music

When a DJ called on listeners to destroy disco records in a Chicago stadium, things turned nasty – and 40 years on, the ugly attitudes behind the event ring out loud and clear



...

People weren’t just turning up with disco records, but anything made by a black artist. “I said to my boss: ‘Hey, a lot of these records they’re bringing in aren’t disco – they’re R&B, they’re funk. Should I make them go home and get a real disco record?’ He said no: if they brought a record, take it, they get a ticket.” He laughs. “I want to say maybe the person bringing the record just made a mistake. But given the amount of mistakes I witnessed, why weren’t there any Air Supply or Cheap Trick records in the bins? No Carpenters records – they weren’t rock’n’roll, right? It was just disco records and black records in the dumpster.”

...

Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone suggested that there was something distinctly ugly about the vast crowd of white men publicly destroying music predominantly made by black artists, dominated by female stars and with a core audience that was, at least initially, largely gay. “White males, 18 to 34, are the most likely to see disco as the product of homosexuals, blacks and Latins, and … to respond to appeals to wipe out such threats to their security.”


Nichols says that disco’s dominance was, for some of the haters, inseparable from issues such as busing and affirmative action, initiatives designed to reduce racial segregation in US schools and colleges. Fear of disco, she says, was partly “the fear that American identity was no longer synonymous with whiteness. DJs in Detroit formed a disco vigilante group called the Disco Dux Klan. Originally, their efforts were going to involve wearing white sheets and robes – they got rid of that part of it. And then there were people like Steve Dahl, for whom disco represented a sort of emasculation: you couldn’t wear a scruffy T-shirt and jeans, you had to get dressed up and, worst of all, your girlfriend or wife expected you to humiliate yourself by fucking dancing. Some of the push back against disco also had to do with feminism.”
...

[numberthirty]

From the Guardian newspaper:

Disco Demolition: the night they tried to crush black music

When a DJ called on listeners to destroy disco records in a Chicago stadium, things turned nasty – and 40 years on, the ugly attitudes behind the event ring out loud and clear



...

People weren’t just turning up with disco records, but anything made by a black artist. “I said to my boss: ‘Hey, a lot of these records they’re bringing in aren’t disco – they’re R&B, they’re funk. Should I make them go home and get a real disco record?’ He said no: if they brought a record, take it, they get a ticket.” He laughs. “I want to say maybe the person bringing the record just made a mistake. But given the amount of mistakes I witnessed, why weren’t there any Air Supply or Cheap Trick records in the bins? No Carpenters records – they weren’t rock’n’roll, right? It was just disco records and black records in the dumpster.”

...

Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone suggested that there was something distinctly ugly about the vast crowd of white men publicly destroying music predominantly made by black artists, dominated by female stars and with a core audience that was, at least initially, largely gay. “White males, 18 to 34, are the most likely to see disco as the product of homosexuals, blacks and Latins, and … to respond to appeals to wipe out such threats to their security.”


Nichols says that disco’s dominance was, for some of the haters, inseparable from issues such as busing and affirmative action, initiatives designed to reduce racial segregation in US schools and colleges. Fear of disco, she says, was partly “the fear that American identity was no longer synonymous with whiteness. DJs in Detroit formed a disco vigilante group called the Disco Dux Klan. Originally, their efforts were going to involve wearing white sheets and robes – they got rid of that part of it. And then there were people like Steve Dahl, for whom disco represented a sort of emasculation: you couldn’t wear a scruffy T-shirt and jeans, you had to get dressed up and, worst of all, your girlfriend or wife expected you to humiliate yourself by fucking dancing. Some of the push back against disco also had to do with feminism.”
...

Just to point this out...

If you are even remotely serious when you inquire about why no one showed up with a Cheap Trick record to destroy?

No one should be taking any conclusions you have arrived at seriously.

Never mind that the person seems to actually believe that The Carpenters was a rock band(or that someone would bring one of their records to destroy).

Edit: In addition, someone wondering why no one who was likely from Illinois turned up with a Cheap Trick record to destroy.

The degree to which it has not been thought through is stunning.

[PaulBullion]

Just to point this out...

If you are even remotely serious when you inquire about why no one showed up with a Cheap Trick record to destroy?

No one should be taking any conclusions you have arrived at seriously.

Never mind that the person seems to actually believe that The Carpenters was a rock band(or that someone would bring one of their records to destroy).

Edit: In addition, someone wondering why no one who was likely from Illinois turned up with a Cheap Trick record to destroy.

The degree to which it has not been thought through is stunning.

Or maybe you should not take it so literal. The point is, no white artists were to have their records destroyed, the examples given do not matter, they just describe the range of music being spared because of racism.

[PaulBullion]

Pretty much all the existing African American owned and operated record labels got on the Disco train. Diana Ross had a huge hit with "Love Hangover" on Motown for example. Aretha Franklin flopped with her disco effort on Atlantic, though.
The label that most easily slipped into the disco mode was TSOP though - The Sound of Philadelphia.

Jean Carne came from jazz, had recorded timeless soul masterpieces like "Don't Let It Go To Your Head" and got people on the dance floor with this song about one night affairs: