Happy follow-versary to my awesome followers. Thanks for all your support! Geoff Diedericks
Happy follow-versary to my awesome followers. Thanks for all your support! Geoff Diedericks
We're doing an outside gig this Sunday, and will be broadcasting from Windfarm. I thought it would be cool, to keep it South African.
If you're in the area, pop by the OB Van and say hello to the Curator of the Classics, from 9am to 12....
What made the 70s so great?
In the three iterations of Rolling Stone’s ‘Top 500 Albums of All Time’, the 1970s have consistently been the decade with the highest number of albums featured on the list, never dropping below 150.
Of course, there is far more to musical quality than an ‘objective’ album ranking, but there is no denying the prestige that the 1970s have in the industry. But what makes this decade better for music than the decades that have come before or after?
First and foremost, the musicians of the 1970s were able to build on the countercultural revolutionary experimentation and sacrifice of those of the 1960s. The boundaries of musical genres had been pushed and definitions blurred beyond recognition, making the 70s fertile territory for those that would have been called radical in the previous decade. In other words, the wacky and wonderful innovations of the 1960s became the musical norm of the 70s.
One of the most prominent of these was David Robert Jones, who would eventually be known by a much more famous name, David Bowie. Bowie, who was catapulted to fame with the release of Space Oddity (1969), recognised that the time was ripe to make experimentation mainstream and achieved this with the critically acclaimed albums Hunky Dory (1971) and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972).
Both embodied the experiments of the 60s, with Hunky Dory paying homage to 60s musical icons Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground’s Lou Reed, and Ziggy Stardust building on The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) to flesh out and popularise the idea of a concept album.
The grounds for bigger and bolder musical innovation were catalysed by the introduction of new technologies that affected music consumption and production. Cassette players began using Dolby’s Noise Reduction System in 1970, making albums easier to buy, store, and transport. This resulted in an increase in money flowing into the indus
The 1980s saw the emergence of electronic dance music and new wave, also known as Modern Rock. As disco fell out of fashion in the decade's early years, genres such as post-disco, Italo disco, Euro disco, and dance-pop became more popular.
Rock music continued to enjoy a wide audience. Soft rock, glam metal, thrash metal, shred guitar characterized by heavy distortion, pinch harmonics, and whammy bar abuse became very popular.
Adult contemporary, quiet storm, and smooth jazz gained popularity. In the late 1980s, glam metal became the largest, most commercially successful brand of music worldwide
The 1980s are commonly remembered for a great increase in the use of digital recording, associated with the usage of synthesizers, with synth-pop music and other electronic genres featuring non-traditional instruments increasing in popularity.
Also during this decade, several major electronic genres were developed, including electro, techno, house, freestyle, and Eurodance, rising in prominence during the 1990s and beyond. Throughout the decade, R&B, hip hop, and urban genres were becoming commonplace, particularly in the inner-city areas of large, metropolitan cities; rap was especially successful in the latter part of the decade, with the advent of the golden age of hip hop. These urban genres—particularly rap and hip hop—would continue their rise in popularity through the 1990s and 2000s.
So it was the era of genre diversity, and this makes for an interesting show. Join the Curator of the Classics on Jukebox Gems - Luister FM, and let's get this party started.....
9am,
Dont be late....
Lekker om terug in die baai te wees... Looking forward to my first broadcast of 2024, see you at 9am, with Jukebox Gems, www.luisterfm.co.za (89.6 / 90.6 FM)