why was the music so much better in the 70s?

[Rewddawg1]

Yeah I remember a label called Atlantic Records taking a chance on a little known band. It was AC/DC in the mid 70's. Look where they are now!

[Shnate McDuanus]

Rory Gallagher did a later live album which I recommend called "Stage Struck" it had more of a hard rock edge to it but was tastefully done. Another fav. of mine. I have so many fav.'s that my cd stacks about 5ft. x 5ft. never bothered to count them.

Rewd.

 

 

Yep' date=' I remember [i']Stage Struck[/i]. That's a great album. Very rockin' and energetic.

[zigzag]

Not everything was great back then; you hear only the hits on classic rock radio and plenty of it was by "one hit wonders."

 

There is a lot of really good stuff from the 60s and 70s that doesn't find its way on radio (eg King Crimson, Captain Beefheart, Commander Cody, Frank Zappa, etc., etc.). Plus, Punk grew up with disco in the late 70s- real Punk! And Metal was created in the 70s. Much of the really good stuff didn't even make to radio, even back then. Plus, the 70s saw a popularization of more types of music, and artists drew from many styles to shape their own. People didn't care if it was country, bluegrass, jazz or fusion, as long as it was good! I'm not saying that doesn't happen today, just seemed to happen all at once in the 60s and 70s.

 

FirstMeasure makes a very good point also. You don't have Simon Whatshisname shaping the music scene with his formulated crap.

[Rewddawg1]

zigzag you hit it on the head. There were so many new artists in the 70's I couldn't even try to name them all. it would take all day to write them down. For example I thought Aerosmith really rocked in the 70's til the Draw the Line album. You can keep the rest I think they made a decision to sell out to commercialism.

[pippy]

XDemonknight I have that recording on vinyl and cd and it is most definately one of my favorites.

Rewd.

 

XDemonknight; like Rewddawg1 I' date=' too, have been a fan of RG since I got 'Irish Tour 74' in the late '70s. It ranks as one of the finest live albums ever released IMHO. Not one duff track on 4 sides.

 

There are a few other live tracks out there that are well worth checking out; his version of 'Blind Boy' Fuller's 'Pistol Slapper Blues' on acoustic is sublime.

 

Sorely missed.

 

Uh' date=' nostalgia.[/quote']

 

LOL! As the saying goes; 'Nostalgia; ain't what it used to be!'.

[yoda]

I also like it well recorded and produced' date=' but not over-produced,

or a lot of fancy recording tricks. Just...Good, honest, and soulful, without "too many notes!" LOL!

 

CB[/quote']

 

 

Right on!

 

Most stuff today seems over produced. Older recordings seem more "organic" somehow.

[pippy]

Yep' date=' I remember [i']Stage Struck[/i]. That's a great album. Very rockin' and energetic.

 

Although I agree that RG was a better 'live' guy his 'Photofinish' studio album has a lot of great stuff.

[Rewddawg1]

Although I agree that RG was a better 'live' guy his 'Photofinish' studio album has a lot of great stuff.

I believe some of the Photofinish stuff was on Stage Struck please correct me if I'm wrong.

Rewd.

[pippy]

I believe some of the Photofinish stuff was on Stage Struck please correct me if I'm wrong.

Rewd.

 

You are probably right. I don't know the 'Stage Struck' album so I suspect you know more than me.

 

If it's any help;

 

A-side)

Shin Kicker.

Brute Force and Ignorance.

Cruise On Out.

Cloak and Dagger.

Overnight Bag.

 

B-side)

Shadow Play.

The Mississippi Sheiks.

The Last of the Independents.

Fuel to the Fire.

 

(I was playing it {on vinyl} the other day so knew where to find it).

[mcmurray]

where along the line did all the talented and creative musicians stop getting paid and all the pissed off scrubs dominating the radio like the do today?

 

MTV, 1981.

[Murph]

Most musicians in the '70s had to be good. Talent was important.

 

Mediocre musicians wouldn't get signed.

 

They are now the norm.

[zigzag]

One thing we haven't mentioned that didn't necessarily affect the quality of the music was that, not only the quality of recording improved, but the quality of audio equipment improved, and true, commercial free, FM stereo radio was born in the late 60s and early 70s.

 

Of course, then came the CD and all of a sudden all of my thousands of albums were obsolete.

[daveinspain]

Here is the answer to your question... In the 70's musicians were musicians, whether it be schooled or self taught there had to be a degree of musicianship to make it. Now kids with a computer pump out what is unfortunately the future of music to come. They use loops, samples, sound clips, lots of cut and paste and think they are making music... Some of it is creative and not half bad but many of these producer types don't even play an instrument. Another thing is the flood of material that hits the market. Because music is so easy and so cheap to produce in home studios there is just too much stuff out there... Even the good stuff gets lost in the avalanche of material.

[Rewddawg1]

daveinspain another good point.

[Look! Im guitarest!]

I like how in the 70's, the popular artists could write unique songs... and play solos...

[freak show]

seriously' date=' it seems like every tune I hear sounds good, was well written and produced, well performed, [b']what was so different back then[/b]????

 

Nothing. You're just leaving out all of the bad music from back then.

 

Yes, the 70's were the era of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Black Sabbath, the Ramones, etc., etc., but that was also the time of the Bee Gees, the Village People, Neil Diamond, Abba, the Carpenters, the Captain and Tenneal, Barry Manilow, the Osmond Family, and a zillion other things not worth hearing. There has always been crappy Pop Music, and for some reason the majority always likes it.

[myspace.com/jessenoah]

I disagree, even the bad pop music from the 70s was still better then the pop music from now-a-days

 

Id take rod stewart, chicago,and three dog night over nickleback any day!

 

NOTE (I happen to like chicago, rod sewart, and three dog night, but I anticipate that they would be the pop music to compare modern pop music to)

[Izzy]

Dude, you were born in the wrong decade is all.

Your taste is for 70s music...that's why it sounds better to YOU.

You gotta be willing to explore and experiment to find new music that rocks.

Every decade has its Jimmy Page.

 

Heck, I love swing and Elvis.

Mom raised me on classical.

Every century, one could say, had something awesome ^^V

[cookieman15061]

Fact is if you were alive in the 70s people were complaining why the music wasn't as good as the 60s had been. So it's all relative.

 

We now look back fondly at Led Zep, ACDC, Boston, Van Halen etc. but most of that stuff was torn apart by the critics.

 

The only 2 artist that were the critics darlings were Springsteen and Elvis Costello.

[saturn]

Nothing. You're just leaving out all of the bad music from back then.

 

Yes' date=' the 70's were the era of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Black Sabbath, the Ramones, etc., etc., but that was also the time of the Bee Gees, the Village People, Neil Diamond, Abba, the Carpenters, the Captain and Tenneal, Barry Manilow, the Osmond Family, and a zillion other things not worth hearing. There has always been crappy Pop Music, and for some reason the majority always likes it.

 

 

[/quote']

 

Hey, I like Barry Manilow

[Rocky4]

MTV was the death of good music. Before MTV, you had to be good. Now, you only have to look good.

[badbluesplayer]

One reason that studio music was better back then was that there was a lot more money being made in the record business. Bands were able to spend lots of time in the studio because of all the money.

[milod]

I think that...

 

Badbluesplayer...

 

nailed it here...

 

... The question now is whether some of the music is what the musicians wanted or what the producers wanted. I have no answer to that. I had a friend who recorded in the early 1980s, and I think that the "production" effort is obvious, at least to me. Great mix, good backgrounds that you have to really think about to figure what's being played...

 

In the really older days, much of what we hear was a band playing with a batch of mikes. Straight through. How many takes? It depended on balance, "gee I don't like that intro," How about bringing up the vocal a little more... etc. It was very costly and time consuming. Doing a "vid" was even more so, and they've done those from the '30s.

 

Once multi-track recording came in, I think a different world arose.

 

It seems to me that in ways we're about halfway back to the olden days.

 

Regardless, I think today's musicians regardless of style don't get the degree of production they did 40 some years ago because there just ain't the cash to support it. No vinyl, CDs ain't selling that well... lotza people get their music either free from the web or for a buck here or there for a specific song...

 

It's a different world. I dunno where the music "business" is going. Wish I did.

 

m

[grampa]

It does have to do with money. In the 50's and early 60's, "teen music" wasn't a huge market but then the boomer population came along and the sales of music aimed at them skyrocketed. The music "business" did not miss this fact and as soon as money took over, the music became almost secondary. I always think of Sonny Bono. He was not a rocker and barely a musician, he was a promoter and he tapped into what "the kids" were into and made a fortune at it with the help of a barely adequate singer with a stage presence he could sell. The image was more important than the music.

[milod]

Gee, "Grampa..."

 

You're younger than I am and grouchier. <chortle>

 

No, I think you pretty well hit it, although I liked Cher's voice. And stuff.

 

Problem today is I don't think even a promoter like Sonny B. could do what was done in those days. There simply isn't the venue nor the revenue stream anybody's figured out yet other than perhaps big live shows.

 

I wonder sometimes if we're kinda popping back into the 20s and 30s era of lots of folks making variations of a working wage at music and almost nobody being "big."

 

BTW, BMI just shut down another couple of places that had music in this area. Jazz guitar lost two venues all in the name of "protecting" musicians.

 

m