Music

**FLASH 4: //The music of the seventies//** = = Step into the world of music, lights and disco balls !

The early 1970s saw the rise of popular [|soft rock] music, with such legendary recording artists as [|The Carpenters], [|Elton John], [|James Taylor], [|John Denver], [|The Eagles], [|America], [|Chicago], [|The][|Doobie Brothers], [|Bread] and [|Steely Dan] as well as the further rise of such popular, influential [|rhythm and blues] (R&B) artists as multi-instrumentalist [|Stevie Wonder] and the popular quintet [|The Jackson 5]. The mid-1970s besides the ever present [|Grateful Dead], also saw the rise of [|disco] music, which dominated popular music during the last half of the decade with bands like [|ABBA] (which later became the second most successful band of all time), [|Boney M] etc. In response to this, rock music became increasingly hard edged with artists such as [|Led Zeppelin] and [|Black Sabbath]. [|Minimalism] also emerged, lead by composers such as [|Philip Glass], [|Steve Reich] and [|Michael Nyman]. This was a break from the intellectual serial music of the tradition of [|Schoenberg] which lasted from the early 1900s to 1960s. Experimental classical music influenced both [|art rock] and [|progressive rock] as well as the [|punk rock] and [|New Wave] genres. [|Hard rock] and [|Heavy metal] also emerged among British bands [|The Who], [|Black Sabbath], [|Deep Purple], [|Uriah Heep], [|Led Zeppelin] and [|Judas Priest]. Australian band [|AC/DC] also found its hard rock origins in the early 1970s. In Europe, there was a surge of popularity in the early decade for [|glam rock]. The mid-seventies saw the rise of [|punk music] from its [|protopunk]/[|garage band] roots in the 1960s and early 1970s. Major acts include the [|Ramones], [|Blondie], [|Patti Smith], the [|Sex Pistols], and [|The Clash]. The highest-selling album was Pink Floyd's [|Dark Side of The Moon] (1973). It remained on the [|Billboard Top 200] Albums Chart for 741 weeks. The rise of [|Disco] music occurred in the late 1970s; however, the first half of the 1970s saw many jazz musicians from the [|Miles Davis] school achieve cross-over success through [|jazz-rock fusion]. In Germany, [|Manfred Eicher] started the [|ECM] label, which quickly made a name for 'chamber jazz'. Towards the end of the decade, [|Jamaican] reggae music, already popular in the [|Caribbean] and Africa since the early 1970s, became very popular in the U.S. and in Europe, mostly because of reggae superstar and legend [|Bob Marley]. The late '70s also saw the beginning of hip hop music with the song "Rapper's Delight" by [|Sugarhill Gang]. [|Country music] remained very popular in the U.S. In 1977, it became more mainstream after [|Kenny Rogers] became a solo singer and scored many hits on both the country and pop charts.