# 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:** 9
**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 17, 2021, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/162 "2021-06-17T08:31:51Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > I’ll defend asahi and his love for Chris Cross. Now picturing asahi [wearing his pants backwards](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=010KyIQjkTk)… ---
**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 17, 2021, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/163 "2021-06-17T08:49:38Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Hey, did you hear about that study by real scientists!? Yes, I did. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/164 "2021-06-17T10:17:17Z")
Nothing makes me feel more young than reading a straight dope thread on music 😃 I love a lot of pre-80s music, and I do sometimes criticize new stuff, but I’m fortunate enough to have broad tastes. So I can love of many forms of music, many of which simply didn’t exist pre-80s. I’m sorry for the OP if he only considers “music” to be rock or guitar-based pop (and even then, we can list off thousands of incredible songs in those genres post-1979). Also, another thing people forget is that a playlist of “Best of the 70s” playlist is very obviously cherry picked. There was a hell of a lot of dross in-between those classic hits. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/165 "2021-06-17T11:53:08Z")
One of the things music streaming services have done is turn me into a music hipster. I’m not crazily invested in it in a “Oh, you don’t listen to Mongolian Throat Singing? I guess you just _wouldn’t get it_ then” way, but my playlist has everything from classical music to Creedence Clearwater Revival to dubstep to trance to ska to Duran Duran to Taylor Swift and Ninja Sex Party. I am the algorithm’s worst nightmare, in other words. I also firmly believe most of the “Music was better back in the day” stuff is really just people remembering/only being reminded of the good stuff from a particular era, especially when it’s become a staple of movies/TV/video games (case in point: [Fortunate Son for anything Vietnam War related](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98k2DlQ9PMY)). There’s a _lot_ more music out there than what you hear on the radio and between YouTube and Spotify alone there’s going to be stuff for everyone that’s been made since _Star Trek: The Motion Picture_ first premiered. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/166 "2021-06-17T13:28:25Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > Sounds like my mom in the 80s, when she was in her late 40s/early 50s. Everything I listened to fell into two categories, “that’s just yelling” or in the case of rap “it’s just talking” (disapprove) or “they sound like the Beatles” (approve). In one of those “kids react to the Beatles” videos on YouTube, I was amused by some of the comments from older (dare I say “Boomer?”) commenters. Things like, “Now this was real music! Why don’t kids today appreciate great music like this, with real melodies, instead of that junk they listen to? Seriously, how can anyone like new music? It’s just noise!” Pretty much exactly what their own parents probably said about the Beatles, back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/167 "2021-06-17T14:28:05Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Now this was real music! Why don’t kids today appreciate great music like this, with real melodies, instead of that junk they listen to? Seriously, how can anyone like new music? It’s just noise!” Hey Jude featured about three minutes of “la la la la la hey Jude”. It’s interesting how people can have such Rose tinted views of what they grew up with, and close their ears to anything else. I love the Beatles, but I’m happy to say I also like a lot of what’s come since. I’m still somewhat dubious that the op was entirely serious. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/168 "2021-06-17T14:30:35Z")
Other posters in this thread have addressed the get-off-my-lawn-ism of the OP, so I won’t join that chorus (save to add that I’m also a child of 1968, but if I limited my listening to only the music of my adolescence, I’d have missed out on Ani DiFranco, Billie Eilish, Delta Rae, Adele, Of Monsters and Men, Veela, Midnight Oil…) Instead, I’ll address the unspoken assumption in this thread that only good music is worth listening to. Yes, it’s satisfying to engage with Ani DiFranco’s lyrics, or Adele’s soaring mezzo-soprano, or Delta Rae’s harmonies. But it’s also okay to chill out to a simple song with nice vocals or a catchy hook, or that just makes you smile. Colbie Calliat comes up often on my playlist. I don’t think she’s a great musician, but she has a good voice and I enjoy her songs. I don’t always need to be deeply moved by every song I hear - sometimes, I just want something to sing along with. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/169 "2021-06-17T14:40:39Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > But it’s also okay to chill out to a simple song with nice vocals or a catchy hook, or that just makes you smile. Very much yes. It’s great when artists do innovative shit that moves the genre, etc. It’s also perfectly fine by me when artists put out a song that’s fun to sing in the car. As a shower thought, it occurred to me that we’ve been making rock/pop for something like 65 years now and at an ever increasing rate. Maybe there just isn’t that much “new” left without firmly leaving the boundaries of what we consider rock/pop music. In which case, blaming today’s artists for not being as innovative as [early group] is like blaming a modern explorer for not finding any new trade routes like that Marco Polo fellow used to do. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/170 "2021-06-17T14:41:22Z")
While there was a lot of good music in the 1970s, it was also a time when soft rock, disco and other horrors were widely prevalent. I think of the middle to late '70s as a time when things went to hell, at least for awhile. It may have been the Hues Corporation that inspired my sabbatical from popular music. _So I’d like to know where, you got the notion_ _Said I’d like to know where, you got the notion_ _To rock the boat, don’t rock the boat baby_ _Don’t tip the boat over_ _Rock the boat, don’t rock the boat baby_ _Rock the boat_ (repeat ad nauseum) Everybody wants to think of “their” time as a golden age of popular music, ignoring the vast tide of crap that overwhelmed the charts and airwaves. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/171 "2021-06-17T15:00:48Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > In one of those “kids react to the Beatles” videos on YouTube, I was amused by some of the comments from older (dare I say “Boomer?”) commenters. Now I think about it, saying that the Beatles were fine but everything afterwards is “just noise” is particularly weird, given how experimental and pioneering the Beatles were at times. e.g. to me, _Tomorrow Never Knows_ sounds reminiscent of a drum and bass track. So, why is it OK when the Beatles do that, but noise when anyone else does? Or are there boomers who would say the music died in, say, 1964, so even some of the Beatles catalogue doesn’t apply? > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Instead, I’ll address the unspoken assumption in this thread that only good music is worth listening to. Yes, it’s satisfying to engage with Ani DiFranco’s lyrics, or Adele’s soaring mezzo-soprano, or Delta Rae’s harmonies. But it’s also okay to chill out to a simple song with nice vocals or a catchy hook, or that just makes you smile. Or indeed to dance to. I enjoy dancing – proper dancing, not just bopping up and down. It’s funny that when people get snobbish about music, that “real” music is always the stuff that is slow and rhythmically simple. When I want to dance _that_ isn’t real music. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/172 "2021-06-17T15:01:50Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Everybody wants to think of “their” time as a golden age of popular music, ignoring the vast tide of crap that overwhelmed the charts and airwaves. If you asked 100 people today, with a reasonable knoweldge of music history, “who was the most important musical act of the 60s” I’m sure most would say the Beatles, even if they weren’t Beatles fans. I sure would. Had you asked a person around 1967-1968 that question, the most common answer you would have gotten would have been… … Frank Sinatra. I sincerely doubt a single one of your 100 people in 2021 would say Sinatra, but it would have been a very common response, at least up to Summer of Love. Sinatra was HUGE, equivalent then to Taylor Swift today. Until 1967 he rivalled the Beatles in album sales, his songs were immensely popular, he had won the Grammy for Album of the Year three times (!!!) and many, many, many people considered him serious music and rock a fad. Now, I’m cheating a bit by making my cutoff 1967-1968; within a few years the Beatles had dominated the scene so overwhelmingly, and rock and R&B were so totally owning the airwaves, that it would have been apparent to most folks Sinatra was passe. But you get the idea. I don’t have a personal problem with Frank Sinatra or his music, but the only person I’ve ever heard who gave a shit about his music anymore is a talking dog on a FOX cartoon show. For that matter I don’t think anyone anymore gives a shit about Barbra Streisand’s music, or lots of other acts that were huge then. I am totally unconvinced we even know what music today will last to 40 years from now. Some will, for sure, but it’s hard to say what. I think people will genuinely be puzzled by the popularity of Adele, but I’m just guessing. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/173 "2021-06-17T15:18:57Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > hey most certainly do hold water. You’re just an exception to them, that’s all. You have a curious concept of watertight. Dripping is leaking is not holding water. I wasn’t talking about myself. I was talking about a sample of people besides me who do not fit your characterization, just from my closest social circle. Adding is effortless: my 11-yo son’s favorite band is AC/DC, of c. 1978 - 1990 ilk. So, there are countless millions of people who do not fit your characterization. That’s eons away from watertight. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/174 "2021-06-17T15:33:38Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > I was born in the mid-70’s. As a music-loving teenager, I delved into Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, early Genesis, ELO, Kansas, the Beatles, Sparks etc. Born in 1973. I was also doing the classic rock thing at age 16. There’s not a single song in 1989’s Top 20 that I’d want to listen to, much less own, and probably less than three in the entire Top 100 chart. At the same time, while I still appreciate the stuff I _was_ listening to at 16, I really don’t play much Pink Floyd, Kansas, Zeppelin, etc these days. Good music but it’s sort of played out for me. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/175 "2021-06-17T15:48:51Z")
I’ve also moved on for the most part, but every once in a long while it makes me happy inside to revisit the classics. Also, the late 80’s was the low point of popular music, save for GnR and a few others. Maybe it was a factor in both our choice of music then. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/176 "2021-06-17T18:27:04Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > So, there are countless millions of people who do not fit your characterization. No there aren’t. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/177 "2021-06-17T22:55:08Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Things like, “Now this was real music! Why don’t kids today appreciate great music like this, with real melodies, instead of that junk they listen to? Seriously, how can anyone like new music? It’s just noise!” The thing is, I think kids today are far more likely to appreciate “old” music than my generation was. Their minds are far more open than mine was at their age. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/178 "2021-06-17T23:06:13Z")
When I go to street festivals in the summer pretty much all of the cover bands play 80’s music. Maybe a little 70’s and 90’s but predominantly 80’s. Most of the crowd is 20s - 30s (of course there is a mix). This has not changed for decades. Not sure what to make of it. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/179 "2021-06-17T23:33:06Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > I think kids today are far more likely to appreciate “old” music than my generation was. I credit video games for this. At least partially. You have a bunch of games with soundtracks (or in-game radio stations) that include older songs. Not to even touch on the band/dance/rhythm games that are full of classic hits. Now that I say that, I’m thinking there’s probably a lot of media from the last couple decades made by people still hung up on music from the 60s-80s and manage to insert it in popular TV and movies where it’s consumed by today’s youth. When I was 16, I probably wasn’t watching a movie with much music from the 40s or 50s in it unless it was a retro-piece but now you see something like Guardians of the Galaxy and get treated to 120min of hits of the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/180 "2021-06-17T23:47:36Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > The thing is, I think kids today are far more likely to appreciate “old” music than my generation was. Their minds are far more open than mine was at their age. I know that I’ve shared this story on the board before, but it seems appropriate: About five years ago, I was eating dinner at a Culvers restaurant near my house. There was a group of teenagers (they seemed like there were around 15 years old) who were sitting near me. Two of the group were clearly a couple; the boy was wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, and the girl was wearing a Bob Marley t-shirt. The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw that was, “That’s cool, they’re into old-school music.” And, then, I thought about it a bit; both of those artists had been at their creative peak at least 35 years earlier (Zeppelin broke up after John Bonham’s death in 1980; Marley died in 1981). I thought about myself, at age 15, in 1980, and if, at that time, I’d been into music that was 35+ years old, I would have been listening to Benny Goodman or Les Paul or something. Not only was I only vaguely aware of artists from that time frame when I was a kid, that sort of music felt like it was from the distant past, and I couldn’t picture any of my friends or classmates listening to them, either. (For the record, I now do listen to both Benny Goodman and Les Paul. 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2021, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199/181 "2021-06-18T00:14:45Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I don’t have a personal problem with Frank Sinatra or his music, but the only person I’ve ever heard who gave a shit about his music anymore is a talking dog on a FOX cartoon show. There was a brief re-discovery of his music (and that of similar-style contemporaries, particularly Dean Martin) following the release of _[Fallout: New Vegas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas)_ in 2010 but yeah, I think we can agree that Sinatra’s music is generally considered to be “Your grandparent’s music” by most people under about 40. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-music-died-in-the-1970s/944199.md?page=10)