I’ll see your bid and raise you disco.
No matter what good music came out of the 70s the utter stench of disco overcomes it.
If the rock/ pop music of the early 70s is a luscious cake, disco is a frosting of pure shit that destroys it.
The worst decade for popular music was the 1950’s – or if you want to stipulate that the decade had to come after rock and roll, then 1955-1965. Yes, there was Elvis. There was also Pat Boone and Brenda Lee.
Sisters of Mercy, Pink Floyd, George Thorogood, Bob Dylan, Blondie, Eric Clapton, ZZ Top, BB King, Steve Earle, Elton John, Sex Pistols, Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac, the Clash, the Doors, Taj Mahal, 10 CC, the Police, Dire Straights, Bob Marley, Lynyrd Skynard…
All these and any more became HUGE in the 1970s. So, no. I do not agree with the OP’s premise at all. Most of these musicians are still going strong today (or at least their music is) which is way more than can be said for current popular music.
The worst is the last 10 years. At least bands in the 50’s actually played instruments and…no autotune.
Everyone loves to make fun of disco but how bad was it really? I was just a young child when it hits its peak but I knew even then it wasn’t so much about the music but just background noise to a swinging lifestyle fueled by glitter, polyester, drugs and sex. Even so, some disco music is good. I have never completely understood what qualifies as true disco music but I know Donna Summer does and she had some good songs. So did the Bee Gee’s and the Village People. Granted, disco culture is something that I think shouldn’t ever be repeated but it was an interesting experiment for a bizarre time and some of the music stands up even today.
Thinking about it some more, the 70s, for me, anyway, was the best decade for seeing live shows. There were so many classic live acts out on the road in the 1970s, and they shared the bill with a whole slew of soon-to-be-famous opening bands. Plus, tickets were relatively cheap and you didn’t have to deal with online ticket scalpers.
That is my position as well. I try to listen to the stuff my daughters listen to and I am not offended, moved or get anything out of it. It is the opposite reaction to emotions parents felt in the past. It is just so monotonous and boring…
The studios found the recipe that sells and that almost is all they do now and it all sounds the same. It is purely business driven and completely uninteresting. Why can’t my kids have something like Cop Killer by NWA, Shout at the Devil by Motely Crue or Me So Horny by 2 Live Crew? Those were on radio stations when I was growing up but the best thing you will find now is endless diatribes about a breakup that went slightly wrong as interpreted by a guitar and bland vocals. Concerned parents want to know.
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.
Are you kidding? Khosrovidukht was AWESOME! And a chick. 
I’m cheating. That song is no earlier than 737.
Disco was great. Yes, there are some shitty tracks, but there were some jams too.
And R&B was jamming back in those days. Stevie Wonder. The Jackson Five. The Staples Singers (listening to “I’ll Take You There” right now). Earth Wind and Fire. The OJs. The Chi-Lites. Curtis Mayfield. Isaac Hayes. Barry White.
The Soul Train was awesome back in the 70s because of the music. It wasn’t as good in the 80s.
Dropzone, you are so wrong I feel a little embarrassed for you.
I get that you’ve got your hands on some collection that gathered the most mawkish songs of the 70s, but you can make one of those for every decade. The type of awful will be different from decade to decade, but the awful remains.
The 70s were an explosion of stylistic trends that have never been equalled until the current spate of DIY, niche audience digital age we currently enjoy. As plenty people have already mentioned, the 70s gave us diverse stylistic excellence from Led Zeppelin to David Bowie to Bruce Springsteen to Talking Heads to the Sex Pistols.
the sixties as good rock went into the 70s.
the 70s sucky music started to develop maybe 74 or 75 for the most part.
And just to show it’s not me being an old fogey…I actually like Lady Gaga, Miley doesn’t offend me, I liked her SNL appearance. I’ve even stopped hating Kesha since I’ve decided the whole thing was a self-made mad scientist plan she did to make herself rich.
If you can handle the disco, bad (as opposed to the good ones) country crossovers (“Elvira”) and easy listening of 75-78…the greatest period for pop music IMHO is about 1971-1985 and ended when bands like the Police, Cars, and Genesis ate themselves.
I generally think of the 90s as being quite bad, but that’s partly because I don’t really like music much anyway, and partly because that’s when I started to feel old and out of touch with whatever the young people were into. It seemed overwhelmingly grunge and hip hop. No thank you.
For the record, I was in my 20s during the 90s, possibly of an age where I should’ve really been into music in a big way. But, in some respects, I was old before my time.
I agree with everything monstro said. Except maybe Earth Wind and Fire; never much liked them. I have discovered a Friday night disco program on some Chicago station that doesn’t play anything I’ve heard before, spun by a proper DJ who slides one track seamlessly after the last. It’s fun when I drive. And the '70s had the best soul, by far. I need to put together a new mix.
So I guess I’m complaining about White People Music on the Radio. There were lots of great bands and albums, but most of that never got airplay. Fortunately Chicago had WXRT and Elgin had The Fox or I would never have heard Elvis Costello, The Clash, or any of a lot of the people mentioned in this thread. Even the other “alternative” stations ignored them and started playing the same Classic Rock Hits they play 40 years later. When it was new, “Bohemian Rhapsody” was kinda cool (not very cool–Queen was never very cool–but driving and singing it with your friends was fun; Wayne’s World got that right) but I can hear it at least once a day without any great effort. So it bores me and I ignore it.
I didn’t like the 90’s when I was in it because college radio and grunge more or less killed off new wave…but afterwards I came to respect it and feel nostalgic for it.
As for the 70’s, let me put it this way:
It began with The Beatles and ended with Goddamn Split Enz and Wall of Voodoo. And in between there was disco, punk, new wave, country crossovers, novelty songs, and tv theme songs. Even the crap like “Billy Don’t be a Hero”, “Rings”, “Coconut” (a good song actually) etc…are at least unique and very different sounding from each other.
Lady Gaga is not bad. Her music is way too overproduced but it is original and memorable. She may be the only Pop act whose music is played 15 let alone 30 years from now. Miley didn’t offend me in the least because I have seen that planned tactic way too many times before. Otherwise, she has just turned herself into another synthesized set of vocals set to sex images. Madonna and Olivia Newton John did that better a long time ago and it isn’t original or very interesting at this point.
Correction - I made a mistake in the artist for Cop Killer. That one belongs to Ice-T. I was thinking more of ‘Fuck the Police’ by NWA. Both are great songs although the real soft spot in my heart goes to Boyz in Da Hood by NWA and Easy-E (died way too soon my man).
Kids just don’t have catchy tunes like that today. It is all about poorly thought out relationships and a bunch of other stuff nobody cares about. Where are the Satanic messages, complete societal dysfunction and advocacy for anarchy? Speaking as a child of the 80’s, it is really sad.
But there was also Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, The Everly Brothers, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran, Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound”, early Motown, and early James Brown (just to name a few).