# Real music died in the 1970s **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [June 13, 2021, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199 "2021-06-13T23:41:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![tavaritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@tavaritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavaritz)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/121 "2021-06-15T07:05:46Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Generally your musical taste is formed in a relatively short period of time. Things also change in your life that make finding new music harder to do. However, if you do go and look for it, you’ll find plenty of good music still being made. I agree. I’m 60 years old and my music collection goes from early 17-centcury to 2021. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/122 "2021-06-15T07:19:20Z")
> [@digs](#): > > How do you know “nobody cares”? Nobody replied to the post, for one thing. But that wasn’t my actual point. It was more about how these posts are happening even if the two posters I was replying to don’t see them. > [@digs](#): > > As someone who’s _never_ had one of their friends say “Hey, love that obscure musician you mentioned!” Are they _really_ your friends, then? 🙂 I kid, but I made more than half my IRL friends through music-centred subcultures, so discussing music is integral to many of my friendships. > [@digs](#): > > I say toughen up. I’m not all broke up about a single post going unnoticed, believe me. Like I said, I wasn’t complaining, I was observing what the most _vocal_ music culture here is. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/123 "2021-06-15T09:20:35Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > What the hell happened after 1979? Considering that this is what happened in 1979, I wouldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to know what came next. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/oJRAbBjdKjw/maxresdefault.jpg "Top Songs of 1979") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJRAbBjdKjw) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/124 "2021-06-15T10:32:10Z")
[quote=“AHunter3, post:59, topic:944199”] I didn’t discover Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin, Styx or Kansas, Yes or Alan Parsons Project from the radio. Each one was introduced to me by someone who wanted to turn me on to their album. Radio music sucked. My friend down the block exposed me to Kraftwerk’s Autobahn. [/quote]I heard most of these bands for the first time on the radio, including that Kraftwerk song. Kansas and Styx were all over the radio in the late 1970s. I first heard Zep when I heard the Immigrant Song on the radio ca. 1970. (Hell, I first heard Zappa when AM station WLMD played his “Montana” sometime in the late 1970s. WLMD (Laurel, MD) at the time was mostly standard album rock with occasional random bits tossed in. This was one of them.) I’m not dissing the notion that the best way to hear good new music back then (or probably now, for that matter) was for other people to turn you on to it. But the radio wasn’t a total disaster then, nor is it now. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/125 "2021-06-15T13:49:12Z")
> [@DeadTreasSecretaries](#): > > I’ll pile on. > > Did you ever hear female singers like Alicia Keys, Fiona Apple or Erikah Badu? Or even Shakira? Of course, which is why I used modifiers to try not to make it an “everyone sucks” post. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/126 "2021-06-15T14:42:50Z")
Elton John’s Greatest Hits was what I frequently played on my 8-track while cruising around with my friends. I was interested in Holly and she like Boston. Their first album is my all time favorite album. Touch Me When We’re Dancing was the song Debbie sang to me at a dance. Hearts, by Marty Balin described the feelings when we broke up. The movie Arthur was a great date with Debbie - a different one (I must have had a thing for Debbies). The theme song is one of my favorite songs. Later in the 80s I got a normal job, got married, had kids, bought a house in the suburbs. And music stopped being good. Yes, I liked a lot of silly love songs. What’s wrong with that? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/127 "2021-06-15T14:43:05Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’m not dissing the notion that the best way to hear good new music back then (or probably now, for that matter) was for other people to turn you on to it. But the radio wasn’t a total disaster then, nor is it now. _nods_ But in northern New Mexico in that time frame it was probably closer to a total disaster than the selection you may be recalling. Another factor was that as teenagers many of us drove old cars that only had AM radio. When we had money to invest in auto audio equipment, the priorities were a tape deck (I went cassette; lots of kids opted for 8 track because there was 10 times the amt of commercial 8 track music than there was for cassette, but unlike them I could record my vinyl albums at home then play them in my car; and the sound quality was better) and of course good speakers. FM radio reception required a substantially more expensive tape player/tuner combo device and I seem to recall it required replacing the antenna, although since I didn’t do it I’m not sure about that. The stations I remember that broadcast anything worth listening to were KRST -Albuquerque and KOMA -Oklahoma City. Their formats today are different but, if I’m recalling correctly, they did pop-rock back up until around 1976, then disco pushed in. The local station, KRSN, played less rock-centric pop with a lot of ads and chatter, but you could pick it up during the day at least, whereas the distant stations were fuzzy until they boosted the signal in the evening. You could get introduced to Hall & Oates or the latest Elton John but you weren’t going to hear the latest from the Alan Parsons Project or Tangerine Dream. And you were going to hear a lot of Neil Sedaka and Donna Summer and Olivia Newton-John along the way, not to mention K-tel and Ronco. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/128 "2021-06-15T16:57:08Z")
I saw this today. It reminded me of this conversation. It gives several reasons why older people don’t like the new music. > **[Why do old people hate new music?](https://theconversation.com/why-do-old-people-hate-new-music-123834)** > > Music doesn’t get objectively worse over time. So why do older generations scoff at each new top 40 hit? ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/129 "2021-06-15T17:16:41Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Okay, fine, Pearl Jam. Yeah, good. But there’s so much shit out there. There’s just as much shit from the 70s and before, you’ve just blocked it out and reduced an entire decade to a few bands. ---
**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 15, 2021, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/130 "2021-06-15T18:15:37Z")
I’ll defend asahi and his love for Chris Cross. People should be able to love whatever music they want and if they want to limit themselves to \< 1980’s music then bully for them. I just take strong issue with any statement that says one form (or era) of music is obviously better than another. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/131 "2021-06-15T18:43:02Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Which is why it’s funny to see people comparing what’s on the radio now when I assume most radio formatting these days is “safe” and unchallenging tunes geared towards older people or workplace/business listening. We had a station that advertised itself as “Workplace Friendly”, and (intoned by a sappy female announcer) “The station _every_one can _agree on_ at work!” (We always mimicked her voice: “The station with nothing anyone really likes, but nothing anyone could actively hate.”) . > [@Gatopescado](#): > > I could read this shit all day long! Of course, I’ve got some good music in the background… No, no, no! There IS no background music! If there’s music playing quietly in the other room, I’m listening to every note, every word. That’s why I loath those corporate types who run a restaurant or an office and dictate “Just play some soft inoffensive music while people sip/nibble/work/whatever.” NO, we the public CARE about music, even though you clearly don’t! ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/132 "2021-06-15T19:40:42Z")
I’ve been thinking about how I find out about new music I like. There are several methods, but one has been especially fruitful: I follow a bunch of music journalists and critics I respect, mostly on Twitter. When one of them suggests a song is worth checking out — I do. Most of the time it doesn’t really appeal, but I’ve discovered some amazing current artists. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/133 "2021-06-15T20:14:03Z")
Frankly, I blame streaming. Back in the days when people were limited to listening to what terrestrial radio played they were forced to occasionally listen to stuff they hadn’t heard a thousand times already. Now, it’s all internet and satellite streaming and the world is full of stick up their ass purists who are stuck on classic vinyl. Sad really, but there are people who won’t eat food that their mothers didn’t pack for their lunches when they were in the third grade. ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/134 "2021-06-15T20:33:02Z")
It depends somewhat on the genre.My feeling is that rock has produced some great works after 1979, but also a lot of formulaic “sounds a lot like something you heard before.” Pop does seem to have become more formulaic in recent years, it seems to be identikit female singers against a background of various electronic funny noises and with an all-purpose melody. Someone did some research and claimed that modern pop music is much less original. than it used to be. That said, you may just be suffering from a severe case of nostalgia. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/135 "2021-06-15T20:33:58Z")
The upside of streaming is that they have new artist releases and while you have to wade through some of it I’ve discovered bands I enjoy that I likely may never have heard unless/until they hit Top 10; which would never happen to a lot of them. Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Shaky Graves, Whitehorse, Highwomen, Arch enemy, Nightwish, Greta Van Fleet, Olivia Rodrigo, and on… ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/136 "2021-06-15T20:53:28Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Don’t believe them. Commercial and critical success mattered to almost all of them. At least the Beatles were honest about that. I don’t know if Iggy Pop actually said this but it’s been attributed to him after someone supposedly called him a sellout: “I don’t know any artist who gets up on stage in the hopes that nobody listens to him.” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/137 "2021-06-15T21:02:39Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Okay, fine, Pearl Jam. Yeah, good. But there’s so much shit out there. Here are, by Billboard rankings, the biggest singles of 1974: 1. “The Way We Were,” Barbra Streisand 2. “Seasons in the Sun,” Terry Jacks 3. “Love’s Theme,” Love’s Unlimited Orchestra (who??) 4. “Come and Get Your Love,” Redbone 5. “Dancing Machine,” The Jackson 5 6. “Loco-Motion,” Grand Funk Railroad 7. “Sound of Philadelphia,” MFSB 8. “The Streak,” Ray Stevens 9. “Bennie and the Jets,” Elton John 10. “One Hell Of A Woman,” Mac Davis I see one genuinely great song, a few fun ones, and mostly forgettable garbage. Who I DON’T see are David Bowie, Zeppelin, Queen, Supertramp, Stevie Wonder, King Crimson, or anyone else save Elton John who was actually making the best music of 1974. That music lasted… but the airwaves were full of forgettable McDonald’s music. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/138 "2021-06-15T21:09:49Z")
Here’s some shite music from 1978 for your listening pleasure: Dan Hill - Sometimes when we touch. Bob Welch - Sentimental Lady Sean Cassidy - Hey Deanie Debbie Boone - You light up my life Exile - Kiss you all over Player - Baby come back Travolta and John - Summer nights I sentence you to these songs on reply for 24 hours. ETA: Adding Terry Jacks - Seasons in the sun. How did I miss this one? You get to hear this twice. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/139 "2021-06-15T21:27:37Z")
> [@digs](#): > > There IS no background music! Well, I do play my ‘background’ music at about 120 db. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/140 "2021-06-15T21:43:46Z")
> [@Keith1](#): > > Interesting that merchandising is actually more important than the music now. Now?? You just summed up KISS, and they’ve been around almost 50 years. > [@asahi](#): > > Okay, fine, Pearl Jam. Heh. The first time I listened to _Ten_, I thought “the only reason these guys are considered grunge is they’re from Seattle. This is just 70s arena rock decked out in flannel”. I see I’m not the only one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199.md?page=8)