From punk rock's rebellious spirit to disco's infectious grooves, the 1970s left an indelible mark on modern music. Join us as we explore how this revolutionary decade continues to shape today's artists, from Harry Styles to Beyoncé, through innovative recording techniques, groundbreaking genres, and timeless musical concepts.
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00:00Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today, we're counting down our picks for the ways that the 1970s live on in your headphones today.
00:19Punk rock attitude.
00:21This hard-charging, counter-cultural, often controversial subgenre is nothing if not a direct product of the 1970s.
00:34Popularized by such revolutionaries as the Ramones, New York Dolls, and most crucially, the Sex Pistols,
00:40punk rock was a defiant middle finger to the establishment, encouraging young people to fight the power and think for themselves.
00:51Although the raw DIY ethos of 70s punk gradually gave way to polished 80s new wave, the genre never truly died.
01:01Instead, it shifted and evolved, and eventually gave rise to pop punk,
01:05which combined sugary sweet melodies and more personal songwriting with punk's classic sound.
01:10The enormously popular new genre, then, ushered in bands we know and love today like Blink-182, Green Day, and Paramore.
01:21But I got it where I want it now.
01:23Glam theatricality.
01:25Now Ziggy played guitar, jamming good with Weaver and Gilly, and the spiders from Mars.
01:34It should go without saying that the LGBTQIA plus community has always played a role in the music industry.
01:39However, that role became significantly more prominent with the advent of quote-unquote glam rock.
01:44Artists like David Bowie and T-Rex's Mark Boland flaunted their androgynous aesthetic,
01:56playing on audience expectations and confirming that rock music could truly be for everyone.
02:02The scene even produced Joe Bryath, the first openly gay rock musician to be signed to a major label.
02:13While glam rock took a significant hit from Mark Boland's 1977 death,
02:17artists like Queen and Elton John would confidently pick up his baton.
02:21Glam rock's flouting of gender conventions would go on to inspire such modern-day pop acts as Harry Styles, Benson Boone, and Monaskin.
02:34As it was, you know it's not the same.
02:40Hip-hop origins.
02:41I said the hip-hop, the hippie, the hippie to the hip, hip-hop,
02:45but you don't stop the rockin' to the band, man,
02:47when you say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie to beat.
02:50Hip-hop music is unique, a truly American invention in the vein of jazz and blues.
02:55The genre started in earnest during the 70s,
02:57the product of Bronx block parties that opened their doors to people of all races and creeds.
03:02Neighborhood emcees would rap spoken word poetry over the percussive breaks in disco, funk, and soul records.
03:08I said the hip-hop, the hippie.
03:10The hippie, the hippie, the hippie.
03:11Why did that occur to you? Why did you use those words?
03:14Because it was new.
03:15Just like people in rock say, let's rock, let's rock and roll.
03:18That's what hip-hop was.
03:19I just said hip-hop.
03:20Yeah.
03:21Fast forward to 1979, and hip-hop was a genuine mainstream sensation.
03:26Artists like the Sugarhill Gang and DJ Kool Herc took the art form from the streets of New York to everywhere else.
03:32We probably don't need to tell you that hip-hop has since become a bona fide global phenomenon,
03:36with seemingly every culture around the world having their own take on it.
03:40Simpsi ma, who got the keys to my blood clot bimaw?
03:44Big time driller, monkey to gorilla.
03:47Recording studio innovations.
03:48Let me try and show you how we get some of these sounds.
03:52First of all, none of them exist as a particular sound as they would on an electronic organ.
03:56There's no magic button marked trumpet or violin or drums.
03:59You have to build every sound.
04:01And to start to build these sounds, you have to start with something pretty simple.
04:04It probably goes without saying that the technology that musicians use to record their tunes has become just a tad more sophisticated in the past half century.
04:12With that having been said, Pitchfork's Mark Hogan once wrote that, quote,
04:15The 1970s marked the dawn of the modern era in music technology, applying and refining the developments of earlier decades while also laying the foundations of the techniques and styles that would follow.
04:26For the movie he was scoring, Emerson also duplicated some very exotic sounds with the Fairlight.
04:31The 70s saw the invention of such groundbreaking bits of tech like the Fairlight CMI, an early sampling machine, along with portable synthesizers, commercial digital recording, and crucially, the Sony Walkman.
04:52Take a cassette out of its case, and most people just see an empty box.
04:57But Sony saw something quite different.
05:06Sony introduces the only cassette player as small as a cassette case, the incredible sounding Super Walkman.
05:15People really wanted their music to go.
05:18Enduring disco grooves.
05:19Nowadays, the sound of disco is so ubiquitous in pop music that you would think it had been beloved and widely accepted since its inception.
05:32In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
05:34Despite the genre's inclusive culture, it was blasted by fans of rock music for its perceived blandness and consumerist leanings.
05:42This culminated in Disco Demolition Night in 1979, an event held at Chicago's Comiskey Park that would blow up a crate of disco records.
05:54Largely attributed to homophobia and racism, disco eventually began to experience a slow revival starting in the 1990s.
06:02In the 2020s, the disco revival is inescapable.
06:05Not that we'd want to.
06:06With artists like Dua Lipa and Jessie Ware putting their own knowing, self-aware take on the genre.
06:20The concept album.
06:22We wouldn't say it'd be accurate to say that the notion of the concept album was invented during the 70s.
06:31The idea of an album that told a complete story through its songs, though, was largely popularized during the decade,
06:38with records like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall setting the standard for generations to come.
06:43The concept album defied genre lines, too, with Marvin Gaye's 1971 classic What's Going On serving as a non-rock example.
06:56Mother, mother, thank you.
07:00There's a minute of you, mama, I love you.
07:04While the concept album threatened to disappear over time,
07:07the rise of digital streaming has encouraged contemporary indie artists like Ethel Kane and Frank Ocean
07:12to let their albums be just that.
07:14Albums, rather than a collection of individual songs.
07:17Check out Preacher's Daughter and Blonde for proof.
07:29Yacht Rock vibes.
07:35You might already be able to tell from the name that Yacht Rock was never exactly considered the coolest genre,
07:41emerging as an antidote to abrasive hard rock.
07:44Soft rock artists like Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Carole King, Steely Dan, and more,
07:50pulled from jazz, R&B, and soul to formulate an instantly recognizable smooth sound.
07:59While the genre was tragically derided by rock purists at the time,
08:03so-called yacht rock has since experienced a cult revival
08:07from people who appreciate its irresistible grooves and tight musicianship.
08:10Modern-day acts like Mac DeMarco, Thundercat, and Clairo have mined that classic yacht rock sound to great effect,
08:17finally giving an underappreciated age of music its due.
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08:41Of course, we couldn't close out our video without mentioning the two genres
08:54arguably most crucial to the development of what would eventually become pop, hip-hop, and R&B.
09:00Although the two genres' histories are so intertwined and deep-rooted
09:03that we couldn't break them all down here,
09:05just know that the 70s were funk's heyday and soul's renaissance period, respectively.
09:09A, B, C, E, F, Y, T, D, R, C, F, L, L, R, N, E
09:16Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Shaka Khan, Parliament Funkadelic,
09:20the list goes on and on and on.
09:23Countless modern-day artists have cited 70s funk and soul as being formative to their sound,
09:27whether directly or indirectly, including such heavy hitters as Adele,
09:31Steve Lacey, and, maybe you've heard of her, Beyoncé.
09:35You're the one I can always call
09:37When I need to make everything stop
09:40Finally, you put my heart on top
09:42What's your favorite musical act from the 70s?
09:44Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
09:47Ha, ha, ha, ha
09:49It's me now
09:50Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha