# Can we agree that the worst decade for popular music was the 1970s? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 16, 2014, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944 "2014-06-16T23:43:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/41 "2014-06-17T03:53:41Z")
But you are concentrating on the GOOD stuff! For every Chuck Berry there were a dozen Pat Boones or Patti Pages who got more airplay. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/42 "2014-06-17T04:00:26Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > No, we cannot!!! > > Any decade that gave us Talking Heads, The Ramones, ELO, James Taylor, The Doobies, Steely Dan, and the vast majority of Classic Rock Anthems that we all know and love can’t be all bad!! Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Frank Zappa, Little Feat, Van Morrison, AC/DC and ZZ Top all produced great stuff in the 70s. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/43 "2014-06-17T04:01:10Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > But you are concentrating on the GOOD stuff! For every Chuck Berry there were a dozen Pat Boones or Patti Pages who got more airplay. That’s true every decade. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/44 "2014-06-17T04:05:03Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Frank Zappa, Little Feat, Van Morrison, AC/DC and ZZ Top all produced great stuff in the 70s. The Cars, Oingo Boingo, George Frickin Harrison, Leon Russell, The Damned… ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/45 "2014-06-17T04:23:59Z")
None of you musical Cretins have mentioned Rush yet. _2112_ redeems any decade (not that the 70’s need it). Music is so subjective and a decade so broad that one can’t possibly pick one decade as the worst (or best). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/46 "2014-06-17T04:40:28Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Any decade that included _Born to Run, The Dark Side of the Moon, Exile on Main St, Hotel California, Led Zeppelin IV, London Calling, My Aim Is True, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Rumours_, and _Who’s Next_ has nothing to apologize about. Wish You Were Here, Houses of the Holy, The Wall, Sticky Fingers, Some Girls, Layla, Slowhand, on and on and on. The 60s set the table for the 70s. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/47 "2014-06-17T05:08:49Z")
And then there’s the greatest song ever written, The Edgar Winters Group’s “Frankenstein”. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/48 "2014-06-17T05:12:54Z")
The 70s gave us Alice. What’s not to like? ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/49 "2014-06-17T05:25:40Z")
See, Elton John is good. The Who is good. _Dr Martens_ are good. But put them in the blender of the 70s and [this is what you get](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DthtDjhqVOU&feature=player_detailpage#t=49). ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/50 "2014-06-17T05:29:20Z")
The 70s also gave us Billy Joel. Two of the best albums of the decade, _The Stranger_ and _52nd Street_. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/51 "2014-06-17T05:32:13Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Queen was never _very_ cool Burn him! ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/52 "2014-06-17T05:50:18Z")
I feel like one contender for the worst period in music is about (really fuzzy boundaries here) 1998-2008. I really do like late '90s dancepop, but I won’t argue it’s exceptionally good. That period just had a lot of WTF moments. Buttrock like Nickelback getting big in the post-grunge craze, the advent and brief pan-flash of Nu Metal. Still, whatever, we like to make fun of it but not a HUGE deal. Then came that 2003-2006 period which was just… [really](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGL2rytTraA) [fucking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gOHvDP_vCs&feature=kp)[weird](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEe_eraFWWs&feature=kp). And, I mean, you always have your awkward top charting novelty songs (Disco Duck, Monster Mash) and such from any decade, but when I think of what I was hearing regularly around then and what my peers liked it was that sort of sound and lyrical composition. Say what you will about Kesha, Katy Perry, or Lady Gaga, but it’s not… quite as surreal as that. I guess Pitbull may qualify, but I feel current music took at least a few steps up from the odd, surreal, repetitive Black Eyed Peas songs that were absolutely everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/53 "2014-06-17T06:52:38Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Then came that 2003-2006 period which was just… [really](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGL2rytTraA) [fucking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gOHvDP_vCs&feature=kp)[weird](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEe_eraFWWs&feature=kp). I’ll give you “My Humps,” but the other two are, IMHO, pretty damned good songs. I don’t hear “Milkshake” that much anymore (but I love the beat and the vocals), but “Sexy Back” still gets pretty regular play. I don’t find any of these “weird,” though. At any rate, they’re not something that struck my ears as oddball. I don’t know what decade I would nominate. In terms of Top 40 songs, the 70s is as good a candidate as any other. It’s probably the one I’d vote for (and I actually enjoy disco), along with the 80s, although both those decades are in the sweet spot when it comes to my favorite music (which tends to be centered around the late 70s, early 80s.) ---
**Author:** ![orangeapples](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@orangeapples](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orangeapples)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/54 "2014-06-17T07:10:44Z")
Although it’s been said a few times already in this thread, it bears repeating: The Seventies just plain rocked, thus we cannot agree. Though I am willing to agree that we are suffering through our third straight decade of terrible music, if there are any takers. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/55 "2014-06-17T07:50:20Z")
Yeah, I can’t get with the sentiment that the 70s sucked. The MOR pablum was indeed horrible (Captain and Tenille, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Brotherhood of Man, Bay City Rollers, I’m looking at you), but you had Bowie, Roxy Music, Joy Division, Pretenders, Buzzcocks… And if you trot out “disco sucks” you are a musical illiterate. Disco gave us Giorgio Moroder and Chic. Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards, and Tony Thompson were on everything in the 80s. Though I never want to hear “Disco Inferno” again. Soul and R&B were at the pinnacle. The best Motown, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Rufus & Chaka Khan, and Philly Soul - I can get a house party moving with just 70s soul and funk. And of course the samples of hip hop for the 80s and 90s come from this decade. Bob Marley. SOS Band. Rose Royce. Devo. ABBA. 1970s!!! No, the answer you’re looking for is 1990s-2000s. I spent that decade re-discovering the previous two decades. The mega-acts were essentially already huge in the 80s (Michael and Janet, U2, R.E.M., Madonna, George Michael) or harkening back to earlier periods (Nirvana, STP, Pearl Jam). The new shit from this era? The tail of hair metal, Hootie & The Blowfish, Spin Doctors, crappy Eurotrash disco (all the songs that had Marsha Walsh singing but a model lip-syncing), rave culture (EMF, anyone?) with pricks wearing dayglo… Wait. I’m not finished. LIMP FUCKING BIZKIT. Please remember this is the decade that made Fred Durst popular. And about a million nu metal/rap bands that were utter shit. I’m pretty sure that BEP first started in this era too. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/56 "2014-06-17T10:31:16Z")
Ramones, JoniMitchell, Led Zeppelin. The 70s rocked! ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/57 "2014-06-17T10:46:40Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Burn him! Don’t worry. Beelzebub has a devil put aside for him. For him! _For hiiiiiiiiiimmmmmm!_ ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/58 "2014-06-17T10:59:05Z")
And great “weird” stuff came from that era, like The Residents, Zappa, and Beefheart. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/59 "2014-06-17T12:34:50Z")
The sixties were great because you could hear a good variety of music on Top 40 radio. The British invasion, Motown (& more gritty soul, here in Houston) & US garage bands. (13th Floor Elevators–well, you had to buy LP’s to hear the full insanity of the [International Artists](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Artists) stable.) There was crap, too–Lou Christie, anyone? The seventies started out with earlier hitmakers still doing well. But some groups broke up, some got overblown (blame cocaine) & then the scourge of Disco hit. Later in the decade, Punk & New Wave were breaths of fresh air. However, in those days I was not dependent on AM radio. There were cool commercial FM stations that played obscure LP tracks & the weirdos at [KPFT](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPFT)did their part; having the transmitter blown up–twice–was a minor bump in the road. Mostly, I was hearing a lot of live music. There were the Texas singer-songwriters, Austin’s Cosmic Cowboys & the Wheel’s Western Swing (with real ex-Playboys sitting in). Lightnin’ Hopkins ruled Houston, Clifton Chenier lived here then & Mance Lipscomb came down from Navasota occasionally–and other old blues masters were still touring. My favorite touring band that never got the success they deserved was Little Feat–with Lowell George alive & well. Then there was the skinny New Jersey boy who brought his band down by train–Bruce Springsteen _was_ a success… I can’t judge the decade by a list of hit singles found online. There’s still good stuff nowadays, when I get off my ass to go find it… ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944/60 "2014-06-17T12:47:06Z")
Tom Freakin’ Waits, still a major force with the younger set Leo Kottke Tubes Todd Rundgren David Bromberg 10cc Dan Hicks and his Hot Locks And the hits just keep on comin… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-agree-that-the-worst-decade-for-popular-music-was-the-1970s/690944.md?page=4)