Music of the United Kingdom (1970s)

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This article is about British popular music of the 1970s. For Classical music, see Classical music of the United Kingdom.

1970s in music in the UK
Events

Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1970s built upon the new forms of music developed from

post punk
bands who mixed different forms of music and influences to dominate rock and pop music into the 1980s.

Rock

See also:
British rock § Proto-punk, punk and new wave

Progressive rock

Pink Floyd, 1973.
Main article: Progressive rock

Progressive or 'prog rock' developed out of late 1960s

song structures. The arrangements often incorporated elements drawn from classical, jazz, and world music. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy. Progressive rock bands sometimes used "concept albums that made unified statements, usually telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme."[3] King Crimson have been seen as the band who established the concept of progressive rock". The term was applied to the music of bands and artists such as Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Kate Bush, Soft Machine, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.[3]
It reached its peak of popularity in the mid-1970s, but had mixed critical acclaim and the punk movement can be seen as a reaction against its musicality and perceived pomposity.

British rock mainstream

Cat Stevens is widely considered one of the most prominent soft rock acts of the decade.
Main article: British rock music

Some British rock bands that began their careers in the British Invasion 60s, notably The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks, also developed their own particular styles and expanded their international fan base during 1970s, but would be joined by new acts in new styles and subgenres.[4]

UK mainstream rock was often derived from

mime.[8][9]

Hard rock and Heavy metal

Main articles: Hard rock and Heavy metal music
Led Zeppelin, 1977

The

Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Jeff Beck Group.[11] Adopting a form of boogie rock, Status Quo became one of the UK's leading rock bands throughout the rest of the 1970s.[12]

From the late 1960s the term heavy metal began to be used to describe some hard rock played with even more volume and intensity.

Rainbow helped turn the genre into a form of arena rock; Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence and Motörhead introduced a punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed. Bands in the new wave of British heavy metal, such as Iron Maiden and Saxon, followed in a similar vein. Unlike progressive rock, heavy metal (already a minority sub-culture) was able to survive the rise of punk and electronic music intact. Despite a lack of airplay and very little presence on the singles charts, late-1970s heavy metal built a considerable following, particularly among adolescent working-class males in North America and Europe.[15]

Glam rock

Main article: Glam rock
David Bowie during the Ziggy Stardust Tour

Glam or glitter rock was developed in the UK in the post-

T.Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Mott the Hoople.[1] These, and many other acts straddled the divide between pop and rock music, managing to maintain a level of respectability with rock audiences, while enjoying success in the singles chart, including Queen and Elton John. Other performers aimed much more directly for the popular music market, where they were the dominant groups of their era, including Slade and Sweet.[1] The glitter image was pushed to its limits by Gary Glitter and The Glitter Band. Largely confined to the British, glam rock peaked during the mid-1970s, before it disappeared in the face of punk rock and new wave trends.[1]

British folk rock

Main article: British folk rock
Fairport Convention in a Dutch television show in 1972

British folk rock was developed in Britain during the mid to late 1960s by the bands

Albion Band.[18] It was rapidly adopted and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, where it was pioneered by Alan Stivell and bands like Malicorne; in Ireland by groups such as Horslips; and also in Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man and Cornwall, to produce Celtic rock and its derivatives.[19] It was also influential in those parts of the world with close cultural connections to Britain, such as the US and Canada and gave rise to the subgenre of Medieval folk rock and the fusion genres of folk punk and folk metal.[18] By the end of the 1970s the genre was in steep decline in popularity, as other forms of music, including punk and electronic began to be established.[18]

Pub rock

Main article: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

Elvis Costello & the Attractions and even The Clash.[22]

Punk rock

Main article: Punk rock

Punk rock developed between 1974 and 1976, originally in the United States, where it was rooted in

DIY (do it yourself) ethic, with many bands self-producing their recordings and distributing them through informal channels.[24] 1977 saw punk rock spreading around the world, and it became a major international cultural phenomenon. However, by 1978, the initial impulse had subsided and punk had morphed into the wider and more diverse new wave and post punk movements.[24]

Post punk

Main article:
Post punk
Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees performing in 1980.

During the second half of the 1970s and early 1980s musicians identifying with or inspired by Punk rock also pursued a broad range of other variations, giving rise among others to the post-punk movement. The genre retained its roots in the punk movement but was more introverted, complex and experimental.[25] Post-punk laid the groundwork for alternative rock by broadening the range of punk and underground music, incorporating elements of Krautrock (particularly the use of synthesisers and extensive repetition), Jamaican dub music (specifically in bass guitar), American funk, studio experimentation, and even punk's traditional polar opposite, disco, into the genre.

During 1976–77, in the midst of the original UK punk movement, bands emerged such as Manchester's Joy Division, The Fall, and Magazine, Leeds' Gang of Four, and London's The Raincoats that became central post-punk figures. Some bands classified as post-punk, such as Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, had been active well before the punk scene coalesced;[26] others, such as The Slits and Siouxsie and the Banshees, transitioned from punk rock into post-punk.

New wave

Main article: New wave music
The Police

As the initial punk impulse began to subside, with the major punk bands either disbanding or taking on new influences, the term new wave began to be used to describe particularly British bands that emerged in the later 1970s with mainstream appeal. These included pop bands like

Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and Lene Lovich.[28]

Synth rock

Main article: Electronic rock

Many progressive rock bands had incorporated synthesisers into their sound, including

New Romantics, synthesisers came to dominate the pop and rock music of the early 80s. Albums such as Visage's Visage (1980), John Foxx's Metamatic (1980), Gary Numan's Telekon (1980), Ultravox's Vienna (1980), The Human League's Dare (1981) and Depeche Mode's Speak & Spell (1981), established a sound that influenced most mainstream pop and rock bands, until it began to fall from popularity in the mid-1980s.[32]

Pop

Main article: Pop music
Elton John is considered to be one of the most commercially successful solo pop acts of the 1970s

The early 1970s were probably the decade when British pop music was most dependent on the group format, with pop acts, like rock bands, playing guitars and drums, with occasional additions of keyboard or orchestration. Some of these groups were in some sense "manufactured", but many were competent musicians, playing on their own recordings and writing their own material. In addition to the glam and glitter rock bands who enjoyed considerable success in the early 1970s. Aiming much more for the teen market, partly in response to US pop groups were

New Seekers, Brotherhood of Man, the last of these designed as a British answer to ABBA.[34] Individuals who enjoyed successful pop careers in this period included Gilbert O'Sullivan, David Essex, Leo Sayer, Rod Stewart and Elton John.[28] In addition there were the rock and roll revivalists Mud, Showaddywaddy and Alvin Stardust.[35]
This pattern changed radically in the late 1970s as a result of the impact of punk rock.

Folk music

Main article: British folk revival

Perhaps the finest individual work in the genre was from artists early 1970s artists like

UK Single Charts in 1974, and whose music is clearly folk, but without and much reliance on tradition, virtuosity, or much evidence of attempts at fusion with other genres.[37]

British soul/jazz

Main article: British soul

jazz rock bands like Soft Machine, Nucleus, Colosseum, Henry Cow(avant garde band), National Health and Ginger Baker's Air Force, making it a major influence on progressive rock music.[42]

Industrial music

Main article: Industrial music

Industrial music was an experimental music style, often including electronic music, that drew on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s to describe Industrial Records artists. It blended avant-garde electronics experiments (including tape music, musique concrète, white noise, synthesisers, sequencers) and a punk sensibility.[43] The first industrial artists experimented with noise and controversial topics. Their production was not limited to music, but included mail art, performance art, installation pieces and other art forms.[44] Prominent industrial musicians include the Sheffield based groups Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire.[44] While the term was initially self-applied by a small coterie of groups and individuals associated with Industrial Records, it broadened to include artists influenced by the original movement or using an industrial aesthetic.

Jamaican music

Main article: Music of Jamaica
The Specials performing in 2009.

2 Tone genre with the rise of the (often interracial) bands, such as The Specials, Madness, The Selecter and The Beat.[46] Many of these Jamaican-influenced UK bands (such as UB40) adopted pop styles to appeal to mainstream audiences, but some UK reggae bands (such as Steel Pulse) played songs with more confrontational socio-political lyrics.[47] The 1970s also saw the rise of dub poetry, exemplified by Linton Kwesi Johnson, Sister Netifa and Benjamin Zephaniah. The reggae subgenre lovers rock originated in the UK in the 1970s, and the Louisa Marks song "Caught You in a Lie" helped popularise the genre.[48]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e "Glam Rock Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  2. ^ a b "New Wave Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  3. ^ a b c "Prog-Rock/Art Rock". AllMusic. 2007. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
  4. ^ J. Atkins, The Who on record: a critical history, 1963-1998 (McFarland, 2000), p. 11.
  5. ^ J. M. Curtis, Rock eras: interpretations of music and society, 1954–1984 (Popular Press, 1987), p. 236.
  6. ^ P. Buckley, The Rough Guide to Rock (Rough Guides, 3rd edn., 2003), p. 378.
  7. ISBN 0-88284-473-3
    , pp. 37–38.
  8. ^ Graeme Thomson (13 May 2010). "Kate Bush's only tour: pop concert or disappearing act? The Guardian 13 May 2010". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 29 May 2010.
  9. ^ "Kate Bush | Biography, Albums, Streaming Links". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  10. ^ D., Weinstein, Heavy Metal: The Music and its Culture (Da Capo, 2000). p. 14.
  11. ^ a b "Hard Rock", Allmusic, retrieved 11 November 2009.
  12. ISBN 0-7935-4042-9
    , p. 113.
  13. ISBN 0-8195-6260-2
    , p. 7.
  14. ISBN 0-8195-6260-2
    , p. 10.
  15. ISBN 0-8195-6260-2
    , p. 3.
  16. ^ "Glam Rock". Encarta. Archived from the original on 13 January 2005. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
  17. ^ M. Brocken, The British Folk Revival, 1944–2002 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003).
  18. ^ a b c d B. Sweers, Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
  19. ^ J. S. Sawyers, Celtic Music: A Complete Guide (Cambridge MA: Da Capo Press, 2001), pp. 1–12.
  20. ^ "Pub Rock- Pre Punk music". Punk77.co.uk. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  21. ^ L. D. Smith, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and the Torch Song Tradition (Greenwood, 2004), p. 132.
  22. ^ "Pub Rock Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  23. ^ P. Murphy, "Shine On, The Lights of the Bowery: The Blank Generation Revisited", Hot Press, 12 July 2002; Hoskyns, Barney, "Richard Hell: King Punk Remembers the [ ] Generation", Rock's Backpages, March 2002.
  24. ^ a b c d "British Punk Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  25. Allmusic
    . Retrieved 2 November 2006.
  26. ^ Reynolds (2005), p. xxi.
  27. ^ P. Buckley, The rough guide to rock (London: Rough Guides, 3rd edn., 2003), p. 801.
  28. ^ a b P. Gambaccini, T. Rice and J. Rice, British Hit Singles (6th edn., 1985), pp. 335–7.
  29. ^ E. Macan, Rocking the classics: English progressive rock and the counterculture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 35–6.
  30. ^ "The Man Who Dies Every Day - Ultravox | Song Info | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  31. ^ J. Miller, Stripped: Depeche Mode (Omnibus Press, 2004), p. 21.
  32. ^ "Synth Pop Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  33. ^ B. Longhurst, Popular Music and Society (Wiley-Blackwell, 1995), p. 245.
  34. ^ E. Vincentelli, ABBA Gold (Continuum, 2004), p. 50.
  35. ^ S. Brown, Marketing: the Retro Revolution (SAGE, 2001), p. 131.
  36. ^ P. Buckley, The Rough Guide to Rock: the definitive guide to more than 1200 artists and bands (London: Rough Guides, 2003), pp. 145, 211–12, 643–4.
  37. ^ "Streets Of London, Ralph McTell", BBC Radio 2, Sold on Song, 19 February 2009.
  38. ^ "Biddu: Futuristic Journey & Eastern Man". Dutton Vocalion. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  39. ^ James Ellis. "Biddu". Metro. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  40. ^ W. Kaufman, H. Slettedahl Macpherson, Britain and the Americas: culture, politics, and history (ABC-CLIO, 2005), pp. 504–5.
  41. ^ A. Blake, The land without music: music, culture and society in twentieth-century Britain (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997), p. 149.
  42. ^ E. Macan, Rocking the classics: English progressive rock and the counterculture (Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 1997), p. 132.
  43. ^ "Industrial Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  44. ^ a b V.Vale. Re/Search #6/7: Industrial Culture Handbook, 1983.
  45. ^ P. Childs and M. Storry, Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture (Taylor & Francis, 1999), p. 496.
  46. ^ W. Kaufman and H. S. Macpherson, Britain and the Americas: culture, politics, and history (ABC-CLIO, 2005), p. 818.
  47. ^ K. Walker, Dubwise: Reasoning From the Reggae Underground (Insomniac Press, 2005), p. 205.
  48. ^ A. Donnell, Companion to contemporary Black British culture (London: Taylor & Francis, 2002), p. 185.
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