This poll is for those who came of age in the disco era, mid to late 70s. It was brought about by curiosity after seeing several media references that claim “I Will Survive” was the supposed “Anthem” of the 70s and/or the Disco Era.
NONE of my peer group from my home town considered that song more than “okay” let alone an anthem of any type.
What do you other teens from the 70s think?
1.) If you came of age in the 70s (were a teen old enough to go to discos, or a young 20 something), and at least tolerated disco. Did you in fact consider this song the “Anthem” of disco?
2.) Where did you live at that time?
3.) If you did not consider that song the “Anthem” what song(s) DID you consider to be representative of the Disco or 70s era?
I turned 18 in 1975. I never liked disco very much, though I did see “Saturday Night Fever” and “Staying Alive”. Most disco sounded (and still sounds) very much alike to me…mostly a dance beat with some fluffy lyrics. I don’t dance and don’t like places that cause permanent hearing damage…so I stayed out of discos. I’d say “I Will Survive” might very well be a disco anthem, but it’s NOT THE 70s anthem, if you see my point.
I lived in Fort Worth, Texas, Springfield, Missouri, and Torrejon, Spain (very close to Madrid) during this time period.
I’m not sure that I’d consider any song the anthem of the 70s. I think that the 70s music scene was much too fragmented for any song to be THE anthem. There was glitter rock, country rock, disco, etc.
I turned 18 in 1978. I hated disco, but I knew the songs. How could you avoid them? I think if I had to pick a disco anthem it would be either Disco Inferno (The Trampps?) or Stayin’ Alive by the BeeGees. But the 70s were much bigger than disco, and no disco song could possibly be the 70s anthem in my mind. For 70s anthem I would nominate either Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” (played pretty much continuously throughout the 70s) or Pink Floyd’s “Money.” Considering the way the popular culture revolves around the green stuff, I’d say "Money " was nearly prophecy.
I lived in NJ during the 70s. I knew motorhead kids and heshers, but I was neither.
Sex, drugs, rock and roll
Disco sucks, and so does soul
Disco suchs, country’s gay
Rock and roll is here to stay!
Such was the mantra uttered by Buffalo’s many groders and heshers in the 1970s and 1980s.
I lived in Western New York during the 1970s. I graduated from high school in 1984, but Buffalo was a city that was culturally far behind the times; the movie “Dazed and Confused,” which took place in the Austin, Texas of 1976, could just have well been Buffalo in 1985 with regards to fashion, culture and music.
In late-70s Buffalo, disco was never very popular. There were a few large discoteques, but hard rock – what we call “classic rock” today – dominated the music scene, even at the height of disco’s popularity. In 1978, if I recall correctly, there were four hard rock radio stations on the FM dial in Buffalo (WGRQ/97 Rock, WBEN/Rock 102, 103.3 WPHD, and 98.5 WZRD), and two lighter rockers on the AM side (WKBW, WGR). There was only one disco station, Foxy 93.
Turned 18 in 1976. Hated disco, but danced to it in college anyway. “I Will Survive” was hardly an anthem, it was just gratingly overplayed.
The 70’s had AOR, disco, punk, prog, fusion, a lot of inane pop, etc… I don’t know how any one song could be an anthem either. But if each genre had an anthem, I would agree with the nomination of Stayin’ Alive for disco and Stairway to heaven for AOR, plus Roundabout for prog, and Birdland for fusion. I didn’t get into punk enough to have a nominee, and certainly this board has had plenty of “worst song of all time” threads in which 70’s pop would be really well represented. :rolleyes:
I was born in 1961. There is just no reasonable way to call “I Will Survive” the anthem from the 1970s. The problem was disco music was never that big. Sure, it enjoyed a lot of popularity. However, nothing even remotely close to, say, the British invasion of the 1960s. And where I lived, a suburb of Detroit, if you listened to the AOR stations you’d have barely been aware of disco. Thus, at best any disco song could just be the anthem of those who were heavy into disco music, and not the decade as a whole. As for the anthem of disco music, I’d vote for “Staying Alive”. “Saturday Night Fever” was the thing that brought disco out of obscurity and into the mainstream. The Bee Gees were for disco what the Beatles were for Rock and Roll: the quintessential group of the genre.
As for the anthem of the decade, I’ll nominate “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”. “Money” is a close second. The problem with “Stairway to Heaven” is that song doesn’t qualify as an anthem. It’s just a song about some woman, with very cryptic lyrics. “School’s Out” also seems notable.
I turned 18 in 1979. The music I thought was a Big Deal back then is largely forgotten now (Kansas, Styx, Yes, progressive art rock; I had really crappy musical taste and the folks in my dorm in college went to a lot of trouble to set me straight). Big Star, an influential band that’s now regarded as 70s Power Pop in its purest form, was totally under my radar; I wasn’t even aware of them until Counting Crows sang a song about them circa 1994. Nothing about Bruce Springsteen hinted he’d have a durable, respectable career. Nothing about Debbie Harry suggested that she wouldn’t. And I sure never thought Kiss would still be (a) active and (b) coasting on the popularity of Destroyer almost thirty years later.
Hey, who knows about the current crop of musicians? Justin Timberlake has the same stink about him now that Paul McCartney had prior to Sgt. Pepper. Maybe he has a decent album in him somewhere down the road that will make him worthy of note to adults, men, people-who-aren’t-teenaged-girls in general. It’s just impossible to say what tomorrow holds.
FREE BIRD!
Turned 13 in 1976. While not old enough to be part of the True Disco Craze, we were always dancing at parties or at teen clubs or school events. My group of friends had a lot more P-Funk than that soul less Disco. (La da la dee la da ladee la da da) Plus, the beginnings of Tejano music (my introduction to it, anyways).
No way would Gloria Gayner mean anyhting to us other than that crap that the older white people danced to. Yeah, I’m mostly white, but we still made fun of those guys.
Turned 18 in 1975; spent my college years in Baltimore. Loved disco (hell, it got people dressing up and going dancing again!), but none of us thought it had an “anthem.” The one song that rings a constant bell is “Last Dance,” which they played at 1:58, before the lights came up and the place had to close. To this day, when I hear that song I get the urge to write my phone number on a cocktail napkin.
I was 16 in '79, living in Nashville. I hated disco, so I don’t know what the disco anthem was, but as far as the anthem for the '70’s, the first thing that comes to mind is Free Bird.
I was in my 20s when disco hit. I remember “I Will Survive” as being a pretty good song to dance to, but no anthem. Maybe Last Dance or Staying Alive came close.
Actually, if you define an anthem as something everybody sings along with, I’d probably nominate “More More More” or “Fly Robin Fly.” At least the lyrics were easy to remember.
I was old enough to go to discos in the late 70’s but I don’t think I ever did. I lived at home with my parents on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
I would agree that if there was a disco anthem it was something by the BeeGees or Donna Summer. I remember “I Will Survive” but I don’t think it was any more popular back then than any of the other famous disco songs. I think it’s popularity grew when it made a come back after the 70’s.
I will agree on “Stairway to Heaven” as a possible anthem of the 70’s.
Born in 1960 and raised in Northridge, CA. Most if not all of us were in the Disco Sucks crowd.
Aerosmith, Zeppelin, Floyd, Skynyrd, Tull, Eagles, Frampton, Foreigner, REO, Journey all come to mind. Any of their songs could be our anthem is suppose.
Class of '78, didn’t disco, never saw Saturday Night fever, suffered through a great deal of disco music. Did not suffer while listening to a great deal of Led Zeppelin, Yes, Deep Purple, Frampton, Van Halen, and Spike Jones.
I’d add Smoke on the Water to the list of great 70’s songs.