Sales isn’t the only factor: obviously. But if you think that “best” is some weirdo indie band that no one’s heard of, versus all the huge top-sellers who receive major airplay then you’re delusional.
I don’t really like Led Zeppelin, never have, but if they win this poll I’d have no issues with that.
Black Sabbath
Pink Floyd
Judas Priest
Rainbow
Fairport Convention
Steeleye Span
Gram Parsons
Emmylou Harris
David Allan Coe
Richard and Linda Thompson
Townes Van Zandt
Planxty
Christy Moore
The Dubliners
Suicide
The Clash
Kraftwerk
Bruce Springsteen
Tom Waits
Deep Purple
Joy Division
That should be enough to be going on with.
Thank you!
God, it’s like every 70s proto-hipster came out of the woodwork. There’s some real stinkers listed here.
Completely agree with this. Innervisions, Talking Book, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, Songs in the Key of Life… an artist is lucky to have one album on this level in their career. Stevie had four in one decade!
His collaboration with Margouleff and Cecil was years ahead of its time. Electronic music as popular music started with these guys. I love the videos of those guys running around TONTO with Stevie seemingly oblivious to them yanking cables and pulling plugs.
I would wager everyone reading this thread knows multiple songs by Stevie Wonder from this period. And if we factor in Hotter Than July into the mix (released in late 1980) he’s probably the only artist more or less responsible for establishing a national holiday.
Commercially I think Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Bee Gees, and ABBA are in the running. But I’d wager a good deal of R&B, funk, and electronic music has roots in Wonder’s work. The only artist that approaches his level of innovation and talent would probably be Prince, who should be in the running as well (I think his first album was 1977).
I’m embarrassed that I missed Stevie Wonder and I thank drastic_quench for bringing him up. He definitely belongs on the list. I liked several of the other suggestions but feel the strongest about Stevie’s place in this list.
I’ll nominate Al Green as well. He had five strong albums from 1971 to 1973.
David Bowie pretty much has to be the winner. Check out the 70s section of his discography.
Second place goes to Big Star, with all 3 of their legendary albums released in the 70s.
Pink Floyd
Richard and Linda Thompson
The Clash
to round out the top 5.
Elton John would probably argue that Bowie is the runaway winner.
I never knew he was such a Bowie fan.
Another vote for Stevie Wonder
I think Gordon Lightfoot deservess a nomination too.
Fleetwood Mac anyone?.I’d also toss in Clapton and Frampton. Bob Marley and the Wailers as we’ll as Parliament. Funkadelic…Supertramp…
I am surprised there is no mention of
Black Sabbath
The Who - generally though of as a late '60’s band but their 70’s stuff is notable - especially the album Who’s Next.
Rolling Stones also made some notable stuff throughout the '70’s
Sex Pistols - you might not like them, but they pretty much shook up the music world all the same.
Jackson Browne - as much for material he wrote for others as the stuff he did himself.
No mention of Meat Loaf?
Bobby Womack - with the album Poet and Poet II - and also the material he wrote for others.
CSN&Y - still gets a lot of airtime on country FM
The Police - they sort of crossed over between the '70’s and '80’s
Lindisfarne - I don’t know how much note the US took of them, but they were pretty big over here.
Some bands may be thought of as being '60’s bands, and like the Stones, or Simon and Garfunkle, but had a good deal of significant work in the 70’s, others are more '80’s bands, however they also were 70’s bands - such as Rush.
How about the Jackson 5, then the Jacksons - its easy to think of the Jackson dynasty being an '80s thing, until you look at the discography.
The other mains ones have already been named, I have also noted quite a few names that might be notable to me, but they are not exactly what you’d call world shaking acts.
As am I 
Still, at least they now have the two votes needed.
Seconded. The same goes for those who Googled “1970’s music” and plucked out 30+ artists they recognized, then posted with little or no comment. I don’t think this is consistent with the spirit of the OP.
With that said…
Talking Heads - I still get goose-bumpy listening to them.
Lou Reed - (along with Velvet Underground) had a tremendous early effect on the direction my musical tastes went.
**Neil Young **(he was mentioned, but I’m unclear if he was mentioned)
Elton John - Love his early work.
Joe Jackson - His first two albums - Look Sharp! and I’m the Man - were pretty big hits, but no one seems to talk about them any more. Underappreciated.
mmm
I have no defensible basis for this assertion, but I look at bands like **Van Halen **and **The Police **as more 80’s bands - they put out their first stuff in the 70’s, but were pointing forward.
Carry on.
Well, in the case of Van Halen, The Police (and for that matter, Dire Straits, Talking Heads and XTC) I know the first albums were released in the 1970s, but I would also say that all of those bands hit the peak of their fame and their greatest artistic accomplishments later on.
It’s an interesting period because of the diversity of aesthetics. If we were talking about the 1960s, it would be very difficult to argue against The Beatles as the best act. One would have a strong argument based on their popularity; Elvis would be the only other artist to have a claim to ‘most popular’. Artistically, though, they have such a depth of talent that it seems to me they blow everyone else out of the water.
In the seventies, we start having acts that want to make drippy pop music just to become popular at the same time as we have outstanding musicians who want to go beyond the enforced simplicity of the 2:30 three-chord pop. I’m also finding it interesting that Disco was hugely popular, but is represented in this thread only if you consider Parliament/Funkadelic a disco group rather than a funk group. Barry Manilow has not been mentioned, either - it seems to me he sold a few albums and rocked a few elevators in his day.
I have a skewed view of how ubiquitous bands may or may not have been. I grew up in a small town in Manitoba - the local radio stations played pop crap (Does anyone else remember the band ‘Major Hoople’s Boarding House’? I can still sing the chorus from ‘I’m coming after you’ from sheer repetition…) or muzak. If the weather was just right, we sometimes got CITI FM from Winnipeg, which played decent AOR. But the fundamental lesson I learned was - if you like a band, it will take some significant effort to be able to hear them. As a result, we all learned to listen closely to each other’s albums when we visited each other, we memorized band line-ups as often as possible, and we took long lists of albums to look for when we visited larger cities.
As a result, I figure that if I could track them down from Brandon, Manitoba with no internet, indeed, nothing more powerful than word of mouth between fellow fans, they can’t be that obscure.
Plenty of great bands mentioned but David Bowie is in a different league IMHO. That’s from a UK perspective, where Bowie’s subsequent influence on pop music is seen as enormous - dominant even. I’m aware he’s not held in quite so much awe in the US. Also one of those artists who’s prime nicely conincided with the start and end of a decade. He is the soundtrack of the 70s for a lot of people - wouldn’t make the top 100 artists active in the 80s.
Stevie Wonder is obv a once in a decade kind of artist, but does he command the same sort of influence as Bowie?
Stevie Wonder influenced a generation of musicians. Bowie influenced a generation of cross-dressers.
Is Sniff ‘n’ the Tears too obscure? Are one-hit wonders automatically out of the running?
He is in my house.
Other than the Beatles in the 60s, I can’t think of any other artist that dominates a decade like Bowie in the 70s.
This is Cafe Society, not the Pit. Keep it civil, please.
twickster, Cafe Society moderator