Genre's of the 1970's

The increase in new media promoted changes in the form of genre to the history of music. Music of the 1970s saw the rise of experimental classical music and minimalist music by classical composers. Funk, disco, art rock, progressive rock, hard rock, glam rock, and punk music were also popular. Emerging genres included jazz-rock fusion, 'chamber jazz', reggae and hip hop. See here for further information.

Funk: To some funk “is the soul of all Black music, past, present and future.” An authority on funk said that “funk is probably the most positive expression that we have had in a long time, not only about our music…but ourselves as a people. Funk epitomizes the successful end to the civil rights struggles of the 1960’s and signaled the dawning of a new beginning for Black folks in the 1970’s.” The upbeat and rich sounds of funk produced a feeling of positive strength, power and humanity in the black community.

Disco: Disco music is a blend of soul music and funk, set to 4/4 time syncopated rhythm, making it easily danceable. Early disco of the 1970's didn't have the synthesizers that 80's disco is renowned for. Whenever 70's disco is mentioned you will usually find the Bee Gees name included in the definition.

Art Rock & Progressive Rock: Art rock and progressive rock are closely related. Both forms are known for their technicality and composition characteristics that vary from the traditional structures of rock. Art rock and Prog Rock peaked in popularity around the mid 70's with the ability to create full albums.

Glam Rock: The genre of Glam Rock is characterized by male performers wearing outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots. One of my favourite artists from this genre and the 1970's is Alice Cooper.

Punk: Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. They created fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY (do it yourself) ethic, with many bands self-producing their recordings and distributing them through informal channels.

Although the debate about "which is the best genre" will forever be a hot topic, its interesting to refer the the writing of White, Daniel, Music and Art Aesthetics: Is there such a thing as perfect taste in music? Skytopia Website, 2002 who argues that Most 'Styles/Genre's' (if done well) can contain the all important aspects of what makes music good - melody and structure. Obviously, some 'styles' are biased against melody/harmony and other styles are biased against rhythmic variety, so those styles aren't so good (....the best music combines both).

Music is only pigeonholed into genres in the first place because of reasons such as:
a: The cultural habit to imitate what already has been done.
b: The limitations and advantages of certain instruments (e.g. orchestral) and techniques.
c: The biases of different music creation software to make music in a certain way (which obviously isn't necessarily the best)
d: Simple luck that a particular set of instruments ended up with a bias towards certain chord or rhythmic progressions in the initial stage. This piece or set of pieces might then be stylistically imitated by other people (see a)