who?
The suckitude of the BGs negates whatever those nobodies did.
In the early 70’s, my high school/college years, the only music that was regularly played at dances, on the radio and in clubs was disco. If you liked to go out, it was disco or nothing. So yes, the early 70’s was the worst half decade for music since the beginning of time, but the next half decade sort of made up for it.
ABBA has been mentioned, but the 1970’s brought Jesus Christ Superstar to the stage.
ETA: When you live through a decade, you see the best and worst of it. I’m sure there were people in Shakespeare and Mozart’s time that were producing “hits” that would make us barf.
…early Heart, Madness, The Specials, Janis Ian, Gil-Scott Heron…
The 90s was a thought for me, too. Just for fun, here are the US Top 100 for the years
I’m really hard-pressed to single out one of those years. 1975 might win out at worst just for having a Captain & Tenille song as #1, and “Rhinestone Cowboy” at #2. I actually didn’t realize how much slow-to-mid-tempo R&B was popular in 1995. It’s just a fairly bland year on the Top 40. I think 1985 actually fares best of the three, but there’s so much crap on all three lists, I really can’t decide.
And, once again, this depends on what you are defining as “popular music.” I’m taking it to mean Top 40 type stuff that you’d hear everywhere you go, not niche genres and underground or college stuff. If you include all popular music forms (rock, R&B, blues, rap, jazz, etc.) without regard to how mainstream popular they were, then the 70s would probably be my favorite decade.
That. Case settled.
First, it’s “Bee Gees.” I’m not a fan, but I know their body of work is far greater than the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
Nile Rodgers a “nobody?”
Chic’s “Good Times” was Number 1 right in the middle of the Disco Sucks backlash.
Here’s a list of artists that Rodgers produced in the 1980s:
Diana Ross, David Bowie (Let’s Dance), INXS, Duran Duran, Madonna (Like A Virgin), Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, and B-52’s (Cosmic Thing). Easily some of the biggest albums of the decade.
The Chic band played on all of Robert Palmer’s 80s albums, and were half of The Power Station (the other half being the Taylors in Duran Duran sans Roger).
And if you have heard Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky…” the guitarist is Nile Rodgers.
Man, go sit down somewhere and learn. 
Yeah, that’s exactly it. There are always going to be amazing artists in certain niches. I am a huge fan of early 90s hip hop, but most of it wasn’t on the radio. You would have heard MC Hammer or Redhead Kingpin or Vanilla Ice. If you look at the 1985 Top 100, so many of those bands are iconic or still around. 1995… it’s evident that the staying power isn’t there for that decade. (Wow, Boyz II Men were massive… I was a fan of their first album but sort of lost them as the decade progressed. TLC was huge that year as well.)
Nope.
It’s universally accepted that the worst decade in pop music history was the 00s.
It’s not even open for debate.
I know. I didn’t feel like spelling it out.
80s, not 70s as per the OP. Besides, who becomes more famous, the artist or the producer?
I have to be interested in doing so first. The disco sound does not interest me.
Yeah, I’m aghast that someone that’s old enough doesn’t know who Nile Rodgers or Chic is. What? And disco was the bomb.
Knowed Out, it’s not so much that you don’t like disco… I don’t like most of it either. It’s that you called out the Bee Gees (who, again, had much stronger periods of their work) and you’re in a music thread… and called some of the most influential musicians/producers of the last 30-40 years “nobodies.” If you listened to popular music for the past 40 years you no doubt have heard Bernard Edwards’ bass, Nile Rodgers’ guitar, and Tony Thompson’s drumming. (Did you know he was supposed to take the place of John Bonham for a 80s Led Zeppelin reunion?)
Their sound is so distinctive, once you know who they are you will hear them everywhere. Especially Tony Thompson. “I’'m Coming Out,” “Let’s Dance,” “Get It On,” “Addicted To Love,” “Like A Virgin…” all classic TT drumming tracks.
If you want to discuss shitty disco let me submit: “Disco Duck.”
Technically, it’s “Brothers Gibb,” which is what they were initially called, but people were shortening it to “B Gs,” and so the brothers decided to call themselves “Bee Gees” on their albums.
Somewhere, there’s a review that says “The Brothers Gibb is band lousy,” I just know it.
See, I thought the Aughts were pretty great. I suppose it depends what you like, but even though post-punk is my sweet spot for music, I like the dance music on the charts that decade: Outkast, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Usher, Jay-Z, Ludacris, Gnarls Barkley, etc. I’d submit that the 00s are probably my favorite decade for Top 40 pop, and, as I said before, the 70s for just general music of popular music genres, just not necessarily Top 40.
I enjoyed the early part with The Killers, The Darkness, etc…then it all went to shit.
Bruce Springstein, lots of Bob Dylan’s music, Linda Ronstadt, lots of Rolling Stones, lots of Neil Young, lots of Elton John, Joe Jackson. lots of Stevie Wonder, The White Stripes, plus hundreds of other great artists.
The 70s produced some of the greatest music of all time.
Oddly enough, that’s the stuff I don’t like.
Hippy Hollow, I believe you when you say those producers were immensely talented, but it sounds like disco was just a minor part of their careers. So, I’m not going to hold them accountable for the abomination known as disco. I may hate the genre, but I have no reason to hate those responsible. They found a money-making formula, so they achieved success. Good for them.
At the same time, I’m not always going to look for the driving genius behind the music. Take in point, the Black Keys. I saw them a long time ago before they got mainstream-level famous, and they were basically a delta blues-style band. Recently, they’ve been getting mainstream airplay (good for them!) because they have a new producer. I don’t remember the producer’s name. Whoever he is, he contributed immensely to their current success, but it’s not a pressing issue for me. I’m just going to remember the band name, and so I think, will most of the listening audience.
Nope. They were named the BGs, after Barry Gibb, and two of their early promoters, Brian Goode and Bill Gates (no relation). Never were they called the Brothers Gibb.
Pish, tush. The 1880’s have the worst popular songs, including the whole genre of “coon songs”. Disco pales in comparison.