1970s Fashion

1970s Part two

The 1970s

Michael Jackson, possibly more than any other pop artist of the 20th Century, managed to bridge the gap in musical tastes between African American audiences and European American audiences. During his time at Motown, he internalized the goal, taught to all Motown artists by Berry Gordy, of crossing over and appealing to European American audiences. Motown artists helped popularize R&B music among white listeners. However, none achieved the same level of crossover success as Jackson. This paper looks at the popular music conventions that Jackson drew from to appeal to diverse groups expressing a variety of musical tastes. In so doing, he was able to communicate something essential and authentic that resonated among the many different people who came to appreciate and love his music. Michael Jackson certainly had a great influence on MTV videos. Before Thriller, videos were for promotion of an album or single, or were video tapings of live performances; Thriller turned videos into an entertainment medium like movies with the soundtrack provided by the song. However, the music became an accompaniment to the images, not unlike in opera and film. MTV provides a post-modern function in the way it reinforces or imposes narrative on the music. Although, the lyrics may suggest a narrative structure, the images in the video provide concrete images thereby interpreting the lyrics for the viewer; for example, the video for “Beat It” reinforces images of conflict and resolution even though the lyrics are about defeat and courage. In this case the images impose an interpretation on the song. Disco is a style of pop music that was popular in the mid-1970s. Disco music has a strong beat that people can dance to. People usually dance to disco music at bars called disco clubs. The word "disco" is also used to refer to the style of dancing that people do to disco music, or to the style of clothes that people wear to go disco dancing. Disco was at its most popular in the United States and Europe in the 1970s and early 1980s. Disco was brought into the mainstream by the hit movie Saturday Night Fever, which was released in 1977. This movie, which starred John Travolta, showed people doing disco dancing. Many radio stations played disco in the late 1970s. THE TOP 100 OF 1970   1  RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN' ON MY HEAD - B.J. Thomas (Scepter)   2  I'LL BE THERE - The Jackson 5 (Motown)   3  I THINK I LOVE YOU - The Partridge Family (Bell)   4  BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER - Simon & Garfunkel (Columbia)   5  (They Long To Be) CLOSE TO YOU - Carpenters (A&M)   6  I WANT YOU BACK - The Jackson 5 (Motown)   7  LET IT BE - The Beatles (Apple)   8  THE TEARS OF A CLOWN - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (Tamla)   9  SOMEDAY WE'LL BE TOGETHER - Diana Ross & The Supremes (Motown)  10  VENUS - The Shocking Blue (Colossus)  11  ABC - The Jackson 5 (Motown)  12  WAR - Edwin Starr (Gordy)  13  SPIRIT IN THE SKY - Norman Greenbaum (Reprise)  14  WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN - Carpenters (A&M)  15  AMERICAN WOMAN - The Guess Who (RCA Victor)  16  MAKE IT WITH YOU - Bread (Elektra)  17  MAMA TOLD ME (Not To Come) - Three Dog Night (Dunhill)  18  BAND OF GOLD - Freda Payne (Invictus)  19  AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH - Diana Ross (Motown)  20  THE LOVE YOU SAVE - The Jackson 5 (Motown)  21  GET READY - Rare Earth (Rare Earth)  22  BALL OF CONFUSION (That's What The World Is Today) - The Temptations (Gordy)  23  CRACKLIN' ROSIE - Neil Diamond (Uni)  24  INSTANT KARMA (We All Shine On) - John Ono Lennon (Apple)  25  SPILL THE WINE - Eric Burdon & War (MGM)  26  WHOLE LOTTA LOVE - Led Zeppelin (Atlantic)  27  FIRE AND RAIN - James Taylor (Warner Bros.)  28  CANDIDA - Dawn (Bell)  29  SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED I'M YOURS - Stevie Wonder (Tamla)  30  WHICH WAY YOU GOIN' BILLY? - The Poppy Family (London)  31  ALL RIGHT NOW - Free (A&M)  32  GYPSY WOMAN - Brian Hyland (Uni)  33  THANK YOU (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) - Sly & The Family Stone (Epic)  34  INDIANA WANTS ME - R. Dean Taylor (Rare Earth)  35  EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL - Ray Stevens (Barnaby)  36  LOOKIN' OUT MY BACK DOOR - Creedence Clearwater Revival (Fantasy)  37  HITCHIN' A RIDE - Vanity Fare (Page One)  38  LAY DOWN (Candles In The Rain) - Melanie with The Edwin Hawkins Singers (Buddah)  39  HEY THERE LONELY GIRL - Eddie Holman (ABC)  40  PATCHES - Clarence Carter (Atlantic)  41  GREEN-EYED LADY - Sugarloaf (Liberty)  42  LOVE GROWS (Where My Rosemary Goes) - The Edison Lighthouse (Bell)  43  RIDE CAPTAIN RIDE - The Blues Image (Atco)  44  IN THE SUMMERTIME - Mungo Jerry (Janus)  45  JULIE, DO YA LOVE ME - Bobby Sherman (Metromedia)  46  RAINY NIGHT IN GEORGIA - Brook Benton (Cotillion)  47  THE RAPPER - The Jaggerz (Kama Sutra)  48  THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD - The Beatles (Apple)  49  TURN BACK THE HANDS OF TIME - Tyrone Davis (Dakar)  50  UP AROUND THE BEND - Creedence Clearwater Revival (Fantasy)  51  CECILIA - Simon & Garfunkel (Columbia)  52  LOVE ON A TWO-WAY STREET - The Moments (Stang)  53  DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS? - Chicago (Columbia)  54  NO TIME - The Guess Who (RCA Victor)  55  25 OR 6 TO 4 - Chicago (Columbia)  56  DON'T CRY DADDY - Elvis Presley (RCA Victor)  57  O-O-H CHILD - The Five Stairsteps (Buddah)  58  TIGHTER, TIGHTER - Alive And Kicking (Roulette)  59  REFLECTIONS OF MY LIFE - The Marmalade (London)  60  COME AND GET IT - Badfinger (Apple)  61  HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN - Frijid Pink (Parrot)  62  JAM UP JELLY TIGHT - Tommy Roe (ABC)  63  VEHICLE - The Ides Of March (Warner Bros.)  64  SOMETHING'S BURNING - Kenny Rogers & The First Edition (Reprise)  65  (I Know) I'M LOSING YOU - Rare Earth (Rare Earth)  66  LOVE OR LET ME BE LONELY - The Friends Of Distinction (RCA Victor)  67  SOMEBODY'S BEEN SLEEPING - 100 Proof Aged In Soul (Hot Wax)  68  WITHOUT LOVE (There Is Nothing) - Tom Jones (Parrot)  69  THE LETTER - Joe Cocker (A&M)  70  HE AIN'T HEAVY, HE'S MY BROTHER - The Hollies (Epic)  71  SNOWBIRD - Anne Murray (Capitol)  72  PSYCHEDELIC SHACK - The Temptations (Gordy)  73  MA BELLE AMIE - The Tee Set (Colossus)  74  EASY COME, EASY GO - Bobby Sherman (Metromedia)  75  GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME - The Chairmen Of The Board (Invictus)  76  I'LL NEVER FALL IN LOVE AGAIN - Dionne Warwick (Scepter)  77  JINGLE JANGLE - The Archies (Kirshner)  78  TRAVELIN' BAND - Creedence Clearwater Revival (Fantasy)  79  FOR THE GOOD TIMES - Ray Price (Columbia)  80  ARIZONA - Mark Lindsay (Columbia)  81  LOLA - The Kinks (Reprise)  82  MIDNIGHT COWBOY - Ferrante & Teicher (United Artists)  83  EVIL WAYS - Santana (Columbia)  84  THE WONDER OF YOU - Elvis Presley (RCA Victor)  85  MONTEGO BAY - Bobby Bloom (MGM/L&R)  86  MAKE ME SMILE - Chicago (Columbia)  87  (If You Let Me Make Love To You Then) WHY CAN'T I TOUCH YOU? - Ronnie Dyson (Columbia)  88  FOR THE LOVE OF HIM - Bobbi Martin (United Artists)  89  MY BABY LOVES LOVIN' - White Plains (Deram)  90  5-10-15-20 (25-30 Years Of Love) - The Presidents (Sussex)  91  EARLY IN THE MORNING - Vanity Fare (Page One)  92  NO MATTER WHAT - Badfinger (Apple)  93  LA LA LA (If I Had You) - Bobby Sherman (Metromedia)  94  GIMME DAT DING - The Pipkins (Capitol)  95  I JUST CAN'T HELP BELIEVING - B.J. Thomas (Scepter)  96  IT'S ONLY MAKE BELIEVE - Glen Campbell (Capitol)  97  DIDN'T I (Blow Your Mind This Time) - The Delfonics (Philly Groove)  98  GROOVY SITUATION - Gene Chandler (Mercury)  99  UP THE LADDER TO THE ROOF - The Supremes (Motown) 100  UNITED WE STAND - The Brotherhood Of Man (Deram) Funk music was the soundtrack of the mid 1970s, embraced by combos such as: Ronald Bell's Kool And The Gang, the most faithful to Sly Stone's model, from Funky Stuff (1973) to Celebration (1980); the vocal trio Labelle, featuring Patti LaBelle (Holt) and Nona Hendryx, who blended rhythm'n'blues and rock'n'roll and adopted a glam image for Bob Crewe's and Kenny Nolan's Lady Marmalade (1974); the Commodores, led by tenor saxophonist Lionel Ritchie, with the electronic instrumental Machine Gun (1974); drummer Maurice White's jazzsoul- rock fusion concept Earth Wind And Fire, with Shining Star (1975) and Serpentine Fire (1977), Philip Bailey's effeminate falsetto, Larry Dunn's sleek keyboards, and a Stax-like horn section; the percussive Ohio Players, with Fire (1974) and Love Rollercoaster (1975); Harry Wayne Casey's and Richard Finch's exuberant K.C. And The Sunshine Band, from That's The Way I Like It (1975) to Baby Give It Up (1983), that coined the quintessential "Miami sound"; Larry Graham's Graham Central Station, with The Jam (1976), the sound of funk music to come; Larry Blackmon's Cameo, the only veterans to dominate in two decades, from Funk Funk (1977) to Word Up (1986); and, in Britain, the Average White Band, with the instrumental Pick Up The Pieces (1974). Ex- Labelle vocalist Nona Hendryx fused funk, soul and hard-rock on her Nona Hendryx (? 1977 - ? 1977). Tina Turner, Ike's wife, who had been the sexy pillar of their revue, capitalized on a tiger-like vocal style with the solid funkboogie groove of Nutbush City Limits (1973). Betty Davis (Miles' wife), was sexually aggressive and vocally gruff on Betty Davis (? 1973 - summer 1973), featuring Sly Stone's rhythm section and the Pointer Sisters, and pioneered a look that bridged the psychedelic era and the disco era. Rock music in Detroit in the 1960s was a different commodity than the established Motown sound. Although both musical styles shared a relation with African-American inspired rhythms and a great association with the youth culture, Motown was polished and professional, and the new rock music was rough and raw. Detroit rock artists, although different from Motown, were still able to maintain the success streak to both the radio audiences and the music industry due to Motown’s success. The years 1965 to 1972 represented the era when Detroit rock music became a widespread success. These years have also been called the “season of rebellion,” which refers to one of the most pivotal shifts of American consumer musical tastes.3 This shift of tastes, from Motown’s polished demeanor to the untamed cries of the young rock bands, directly influenced the music that was heard on radio and throughout the venues in Detroit. It was in this time period that the diversification toward rock and roll music occurred and, within Detroit, it was this time period that brought rock and roll, and its related political messages, into a national spotlight. These years provided more than just the proliferation of a new style of music, rock and roll; these years were also the proving ground for the music industry to stay current and, ultimately, ahead of the quickly changing consumer music trends. These new rock musicians represented a new evolving form of music that the record labels had not dealt with in the past. Many of the Detroit rock bands did not have the social graces that were expected of the Motown acts. These new Detroit artists with long hair and rowdy behaviour were not as easy to direct and influence. Rock music of the 1960s represented a product that the record labels were not versed in, but the success of these early rock artists proved a lucrative musical commodity. Elvis’s professional life was spent touring the United States and performing in Las Vegas. After 1972 his performances became increasingly erratic, perhaps because he was divorced by his wife, Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, after five years of marriage. Elvis’s health deteriorated, in part because he gained a great deal of weight. It was his abuse of prescription drugs, however, that led to his death in Memphis on 16 August 1977. Oddly enough, Elvis’s death revived his fame. Today he remains a hero to millions of people around the world. As a performer Elvis was most innovative at the beginning (between 1954-1958) and toward the end (1967-1972) of his career. He made his reputation mostly as a recording artist, but he was even more exciting in live performance; on stage, his famous smile, snarl, and gyrations, together with the unusual clothes he wore and his teasing  personality, transformed demure young women as well as their middle-aged mothers into screaming hysterics. Elvis’s career as a movie star mostly damaged his reputation as a musician. Although a few of his earliest films, including Jailhouse Rock, featured him as a successful actor or actor-singer, his later films were less successful and some were musical and financial disasters. Ironically, Elvis actually improved as a singer throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. “Burning Love”, one of his few post-1960s hits, demonstrates his ever-increasing vocal skill as well as his lifelong dramatic ability to ‘put a song across’. After establishing himself in Las Vegas, Elvis employed larger and larger groups of instrumentalists and vocalists as accompanists. His successes during the early 1970s—based in part on his live performances with these ensembles, in part on his increasingly outrageous costumes— contributed to the rise of glam rock as a musical movement. Glam rock emerged out of the English psychedelic and art rock scenes of the late 1960s and can be seen as both an extension of, and reaction against, those trends. Musically it was very diverse, varying between the simple rock and roll revivalism of figures like Alvin Stardust to the complex art rock of Roxy Music, and can be seen as much as a fashion as a musical sub-genre. Visually it was a mesh of various styles, ranging from 1930s Hollywood glamor, through 1950s pin-up sex appeal, pre-war Cabaret theatrics, Victorian literary and symbolist styles, science fiction, to ancient and occult mysticism and mythology; manifesting itself in outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots. Glam is most noted for its sexual and gender ambiguity and representations of androgyny, beside extensive use of theatrics. It was prefigured by the showmanship and gender identity manipulation of American acts such as The Cockettes and Alice Cooper. The origins of glam rock are associated with Marc Bolan, who had renamed his folk duo to T. Rex and taken up electric instruments by the end of the 1960s. Often cited as the moment of inception is his appearance on the UK TV programme Top of the Pops in March 1971 wearing glitter and satins, to perform what would be his second Top 10 hit and first #1 single "Hot Love". From late 1971, already a minor star, David Bowie developed his Ziggy Stardust persona, incorporating elements of professional make up, mime and performance into his act. These performers were soon followed in the style by acts including Roxy Music, Sweet, Slade, Mott the Hoople, Mud and Alvin Stardust. While highly successful in the single charts in the UK, very few of these musicians were able to make a serious impact in the United States; Bowie was the major exception becoming an international superstar and prompting the adoption of glam styles among acts like Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, New York Dolls and Jobriath, often known as "glitter rock" and with a darker lyrical content than their British counterparts. In the UK the term glitter rock was most often used to refer to the extreme version of glam pursued by Gary Glitter and his support musicians the Glitter Band, who between them achieved eighteen top ten singles in the UK between 1972 and 1976. A second wave of glam rock acts, including Suzi Quatro, Roy Wood's Wizzard and Sparks, dominated the British single charts from about 1974 to 1976. Quatro directly inspired the pioneering Los Angeles based all-girl group The Runaways. Existing acts, some not usually considered central to the genre, also adopted glam styles, including Rod Stewart, Elton John, Queen and, for a time, even the Rolling Stones. Punk rock, often seen as a reaction to the artifice of glam rock, but using some elements of the genre including makeup and involving covers versions of glam rock records,  helped end the fashion for glam from about 1976.  Slade are from the Black Country area of the West Midlands: Drummer Don Powell and bass guitarist Jim Lea were both born and raised around Wolverhampton, whilst lead guitarist Dave Hill was born in Devon but moved to Wolverhampton as a child. Lead singer Noddy Holder was born and raised in the nearby town of Walsall. In writings by and about Slade, the Trumpet public house in Bilston is mentioned frequently as a band meeting place, especially in their early days. The group dominated the UK charts during the early 1970s. During the height of their success, Slade out-performed their chart rivals, such as Wizzard, Sweet, T. Rex, Suzi Quatro, Mud, Smokie, Gary Glitter, Roxy Music and David Bowie. In the UK, they achieved twelve Top 5 hit singles from 1971 to 1974, six of which topped the chart. In total, Slade had seventeen Top 20 hits between 1971 and 1976 including six #1s, three #2s and two #3s. No other UK act of the period enjoyed such consistency in the UK Top 40 and Slade actually came the closest to matching The Beatles' twenty two Top 10 records in a single decade (1960s). Three of their singles entered the charts at #1 and they sold more singles in the UK than any other group of the 1970s. By 1973 alone, "Merry Xmas Everybody" had sold over one million copies globally, and gained gold disc status. They toured Europe in 1973 and the US in 1974. Slade have released over thirty albums, three of which reached #1 on the UK Albums Chart. While Slade's attempts at cracking the United States market were largely unsuccessful, they left their mark on several US bands who cite Slade as an influence. Kiss bassist Gene Simmons admitted that his band's early songwriting ethos and stage performance style was influenced by Slade. In his book, Kiss and Make-Up, Simmons wrote on page 85, "the one we kept returning to was Slade," and "we liked the way they connected with the crowd, and the way they wrote anthems... we wanted that same energy, that same irresistible simplicity. but we wanted it American-style". Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick said on their From Tokyo to you DVD that his band went to see Slade perform, and that they used "every cheap trick in the book", thus inadvertently coining his group's name. Cheap Trick covered the song "When the Lights are Out" (the original appeared on Old New Borrowed and Blue) on their 2009 release, The Latest. Quiet Riot had US hits with their covers of "Cum On Feel the Noize" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now". The origins of Slade's influence on Quiet Riot dated back to the early 1970s, when Kevin DuBrow photographed Slade during their first Los Angeles appearances at the Whisky a Go Go. The 1970s saw the advent of two subgenres of rock - glam rock and punk rock. Both had their roots firmly in rock music but they were very different form each other. Punk rock was about rebellion and anarchy with bands like the Sex Pistols at the fore front of the movement. Glam rock was more experimental and saw the like of David Bowie lead the way. Make up, glitter and platforms were the style of choice. By the 1980s rock had evolved even further. One of the main forms of rock in the 1980s was soft rock. Power ballads were en vogue and big hair was the order of the day. Bands like Chicago and Mr Mister were setting the tone. There was also a darker, more aggressive rock on the scene with bands like Black Sabbath gaining coverage. Towards the end of the decade we saw more American rock bands - particularly shoe-gaze rock bands - come into the scene. The term shoe-gaze was coined from the way the lead singer of such bands would perform on stage, usually staring at his feet! ABBA was a Swedish pop music group formed in Stockholm in 1972, consisting of Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog. They became one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1972 to 1983. ABBA sold over 375 million records worldwide, making them the fourth best-selling popular music artists in the history of recorded music. They still sell two to three million records a year. ABBA was the first pop group from a non-English-speaking country to enjoy consistent success in the charts of English-speaking countries, including the UK, the US, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. As well as reaching the top of the charts in different countries like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru among others, the band also released a compilation of their hit songs translated into Spanish. During the band's existence, Fältskog and Ulvaeus were a married couple, as were Lyngstad and Andersson - although both couples later divorced. At the height of their popularity, both relationships began suffering strain that led ultimately to the collapse of first the Ulvaeus-Fältskog marriage (in 1979) and then of the Andersson-Lyngstad marriage in 1981. In the late 1970s and early 1980s these relationship changes began manifesting in the group's music, as they produced more introspective lyrics with different compositions. During the 1960s, popular music underwent a qualitative change, through the work of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and their successors. This new and ambitious music was closely associated with the various youth and "counter-cultural" movements of the decade which with varying degrees of clarity opposed aspects of advanced capitalist society.1 But, by 1970, very little remained of this "rock revolution". According to the former Beatle John Lennon, the dream was over. For all the advocacy of alternative life-styles and Utopian idealism, the power structure remained intact. One of the few marxist accounts of this decline suggested that it was the success of the music and the "cultural revolt of proletarian youth" which explained the impasse in which it found itself. On the sexual and cultural front, in opposition to the authoritarianism of the family and school, the battle had largely been won. But the "latent general rejection of a complete life-situation" (which the writer considered to be concealed within the cultural revolt) could "only be released into consciousness by the passage to politics proper. Nothing guarantees that British pop music will make this transition. Its eclipse will perhaps already be visible tomorrow." The first half of the 1970s seemed to justify this pessimism. Most of the dominant trends in pop music showed a regression from the achievements of the 1960s. At one pole was the exploitative "teenybopper" music, purveyed by well-drilled "idols" for pubescent children. At the other, the experimental musicians of the 1960s adopted a pretentious and apolitical stance of 'artistic quality" which usually meant the use of electronic instruments and poetic verses about elves or spaceships. In between were the empty bombast of "heavy rock" and what came to be called "glamrock". This genre was a curious mixture of apocalyptic imagery and a kind of "Orwellian" social criticism, epitomised in the erratic career of David Bowie and his fascination with the paradoxes of stardom. Punk groups, however, have produced songs about unemployment (Career Opportunities, Right To Work), the Notting Hill carnival (White Riot), the monarchy (God Save The Queen) and general expressions of an apocalyptic rebellion (Anarchy In The UK, London's Burning). Since many of these songs have not been broadcast as a result of formal or covert censorship, it is worth dealing in some detail with the most prominent of them. God Save The Queen was released as a recording by the Sex Pistols at the height of last year's Jubilee euphoria. In a harsh, staccato style, the song expressed a cynical and critical view of the monarchy. The words veered from overstatement calculated to outrage ("God save the Queen/And her fascist regime/Made you a moron/A potential H-bomb") to succinct irony ("God save the Queen/ Cos tourists are money . . ."). The song ends on the repeated line "No future in England's dreaming", an accurate diagnosis of the surfeit of regressive nostalgia involved in the whole Jubilee process. The phrase "N.F.—No Future" was later taken up in anti-fascist propaganda, while a National Front publication described Sex Pistols' singer Johnny Rotten as a "gormless ethno-masochist". Rotten, whose real name is John Lydon, was born in London of Irish parents. Despite radio censorship, and the refusal of multiple retailers such as Boots and W. H. Smith to stock it, the record sold over 200,000 copies and featured in the hit parade. The abnormal, "underground" conditions which surrounded it must have added to the attention with which the record was heard by those who managed to acquire a copy. The whole episode was probably the most effective political intervention by a song since the "protest" era. It's worth noting also that the choice of the same title as the national anthem was an especially effective blow against ruling class propaganda. The Bee Gees, the veteran Australian brothers led by songwriter Barry Gibb, who had been stars of the Sixties (A Message To You, 1968), converted to keyboards-oriented funk music with Jive Talking (1975) and You Should Be Dancing (1976), and then scored the soundtrack for the film Saturday Night Fever (? 1975/? 1977 - nov 1977), that, thanks to Staying Alive and Night Fever, launched a world-wide fad for disco-music. The Trammps were among the first soul groups to benefit from the new fad, thanks to Disco Inferno (1977), written by veteran Philadelphia keyboardist Ron Kersey. Chic (a quintet led by black virtuoso bassist Bernard Edwards and guitarist Nile Rodgers) promoted the most abused stereotype: minimalist funk rhythm propelled by machine-like drumming (Tony Thompson) and embellished with strings and female singers. Their classic formulation of the dogma can be found in Dance Dance Dance (1977), Le Freak (1978) and Good Times (1979), three anthems of the sociopolitical decadence of the era. Rodgers went on to become one of the most distinctive producers of dance music. The female aspect was much more relevant in disco-music than it had ever been in rock music. Several of the early disco singles were sung by women, establishing a primacy that would endure through the years. The female gay iconography owed a lot to Jamaican model Grace Jones, whose glacial, androgynous, futuristic, panther-like looks and monotonous vocals redefined the concept of elegance for the disco masses. I Need A Man (1977) was the hit that created the cult. She represented the terminal point of a disease that had spread from the Lulu of the expressionists to Marlene Dietrich to decadence-rock. The prototypical "disco divas" were Gloria Gaynor, who pioneered the extended mix with the Isaac Hayes cover Never Can Say Goodbye. The sampling styles, electric keyboards, and sound systems that House music, techno, electro, and hip hop musicians use owe their existence to the pioneers of analogue and sample based keyboards like the Moog and Mellotron that enabled a wizardry of sounds to exist, all available at the touch of a button or key. Since the new millenium however,"house music" is known to most people as Hardcore. Although most people perceive house music to have originated from Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", fully formed electronic music tracks actually came before house. Early American Sci-Fi films and the BBC Soundtrack to popular television series Doctor Who stirred a whole generation of techno music lovers like the space rock generation during the 1970s, influenced by the psychedelic music sound of the late 1960s and bands such as Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, Amon Duul, Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and the so-called Krautrock early electronic scene (Tangerine Dream and Klause Schulze). Shunned by many as a "gimmick" or "children's music", it was a genre similar and parallel to the Kosmische Rock scene in Germany. Space rock is characterized by the use of spatial and floating backgrounds, mantra loops, electronic sequences, and futuristic effects over Rock structures. Some of the most representative artists were Steve Hillage's Gong and Hawkwind. Kraftwerk's 1970 classic "Ruckzuck" mixed live instruments with electric that culminated in a monotonous epic of bass, wild drums and strange sound effects. Pink Floyd's 1971 album, Dark Side of the Moon, was highly influential on acid house with steady beats and Moog flurries. The mid-1970s saw a spattering of techno- inspired music usually through ambitious producers wishing to experiment with Moog and Mellotron type keys on more conventional rock bands such as the Steve Miller Band's 1975 track "Fly like an Eagle" which was later heavily sampled by Nightmares on Wax in 1990. The late-1970s saw disco utilise the (by then) much developed electronic sound and a limited genre emerged, appealing mainly to a gay and/or black audience, it crossed-over into mainstream American culture following the hit 1977 film Saturday Night Fever. As disco clubs filled there was a move to larger venues. "Paradise Garage" opened in New York in January 1978, featuring the DJ talents of Larry Levan (1954 - 1992). Studio 54, another New York disco club, was extremely popular. The clubs played the tunes of groups like The Supremes, Anita Ward, Donna Summer and Larry Levan's own hit "I Got My Mind Made Up". Drugs including LSD, poppers and quaaludes boosted the stamina of the clubbers. The disco boom was short-lived. There was a backlash from Middle America, epitomised in Chicago radio DJ Steve Dahl's "Disco Demolition Night" in 1979. Disco returned to the smaller clubs like the Warehouse in Chicago. Opened in 1977 the Warehouse in Chicago was a key venue in the development of House music. The main DJ was Frankie Knuckles. The club staples were still the old disco tunes but the limited number of records meant that the DJ had to be a creative force, introducing more deck work to revitalise old tunes. The new mixing skills also had local airplay with the Hot Mix 5 at WBMX. The chief source of this kind of records in Chicago was the record-store "Imports Etc." where the term House was introduced as a shortening of Warehouse (as in these records are played at the Warehouse). Despite the new skills the music was still essentially disco until the early 1980s when the first drum machines were introduced. Disco tracks could now be given an edge with the use of a mixer and drum machine. This was an added boost to the prestige of the individual DJs. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show. The film is a parody of science fiction and B-movie horror films. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the screenplay with Richard O'Brien, who wrote both the book and lyrics for the stage. The film introduces Tim Curry and features Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick along with cast members from the original Kings Road production presented at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 1973. In its day it was a highly provocative, though comedic, portrayal of gay, transgender culture, a symbol of LGBT themes, as well as for underground sexual quirks. Still in limited release 35 years after its premiere, it has the longest-running theatrical release in film history. It gained notoriety as a midnight movie in 1977 when audiences began participating with the film in theatres. Rocky Horror is the first film from a major Hollywood studio to be in the midnight movie market. The motion picture has a large international following and is one of the most well known and financially successful midnight movies of all time. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Gary Glitter (born Paul Francis Gadd on 8 May 1944) was an English former glam rock singer-songwriter and musician. Glitter first came to prominence in the glam rock era of the early 1970s. He had a long solo UK chart run during the 1970s, with several hits including "Rock and Roll parts 1 & 2", "I Love You Love Me Love", "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)" and "Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again". Between 1972 and 1995 Glitter charted twenty-six hit singles which spent a total of 180 weeks in the UK Top 100.  He continued to record in the 1980s and 1990s, with his 1984 song "Another Rock N' Roll Christmas" being one of the Top 30 Christmas hits of all time.  He released seven studio albums, and at least 15 greatest hits collections or live albums. In 1998, his recording of "Rock and Roll" was listed as one of the "Top 1001 songs in music history."  The mostly instrumental "Rock and Roll, Part 2" has been played as a popular cheering song at American sporting events for several decades. In the late 1990s Glitter returned to public attention due to his conviction for possession of child pornography in the United Kingdom, and subsequent conviction in Vietnam for committing obscene acts with minors. In 1976, Glitter faced drug addiction and declining record sales. He took a two year long exile, living in France and Australia, before returning to the UK, and beginning his comeback. Glitter's career took a downturn towards the end of the 1970s, leading to his first bankruptcy (he went bankrupt a second time over unpaid tax bills in the 1990s). He was said to have begun drinking heavily, even admitting later that he pondered suicide. Under financial pressure, not even a pair of Top 40 hit singles ("It Takes All Night" and "A Little Boogie Woogie in the Back of My Mind") could lift him all the way back. It took the post-punk audience, and some of its artists who still respected Glitter's work, to do that; he had been an influence on post-punk, new wave, britpop and hair metal, as well as early punk rock itself. Around this time, Glitter settled into being a performer with a cult following that continued until his child pornography conviction in the late 1990s. This helped provide the opportunity for Glitter to cut a dance medley of his greatest hits, All That Glitters, which charted in 1981. Within three years, he was playing eighty shows a year at colleges and clubs, and had chart hits "Dance Me Up" (UK No.25) and "Another Rock N' Roll Christmas" (#7). Glitter's comeback was boosted in the 1980s by various guest spots and collaborations, leading to his becoming a cult figure with students. In 1982 he appeared on the British Electric Foundation album Music of Quality and Distinction Volume One (UK #25) along with fellow pop/rock luminaries Sandie Shaw and Tina Turner. In 1988, the Timelords' "Doctoring the Tardis," a Doctor Who tribute that sampled "Rock and Roll (Part Two)", reached the number one spot. In due course, Glitter re-cut "Rock and Roll" with producer Trevor Horn and also "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)" with Girlschool. In the late 1980s his hit singles were used to compile the Telstar-released C'mon, C'mon ... It's the Gary Glitter Party Album. In 1989, Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers put a large sample of "Another Rock and Roll Christmas" on their Number 1 UK hit "Let's Party". In 1991 Glitter opened a restaurant in the West End of London. Glitter's Snack Bar was promoted under the slogan "Leader of the Snack". It was successful at first, but business eventually slowed and the restaurant closed in the late 1990s. Brian Eno (b. 1948) is a contemporary British musician and artist whose public creative career began in 1972 with his synthesizer playing for the rock group Roxy Music. Through securing a niche in the music industry and by building up an audience for his progressive rock music, Eno has been able to diversify his creative efforts considerably. He is a prime example of a new type of composer who has drawn freely on the resources of many types of music and ideas about music. These include a variety of popular genres such as rhythm and blues and rock’n’roll, progressive rock, punk, and new wave, as well as African, Middle Eastern, and oriental styles. Also notable among his influences are minimalism, experimental new music, post-Cage avant-garde ideas, and electronic music. Eno has combined music with visual art in the form of video and sculptural installations, has lectured on musical subjects extensively, and is the author or co-author of a number of written materials. Although he has performed live, his primary arena of operation is the recording studio, which he has called his “real instrument.” In addition to the knobs and switches of the mixing board and multi-track tape recorder, Eno plays keyboards (primarily synthesizer), guitar (primarily electric), electric bass, and a variety of percussion instruments, he is also a singer. The scope of Eno’s musical activity is impressive.  Between 1972 and 1988 he released eleven solo albums that range stylistically from progressive rock to what he has called “ambient” music – a gentle music of low dynamics, blurred edges, and washes of sound color, produced primarily through electonic means. As a songwriter he developed a technique of lyric writing based in part on the procedures of phonetic poetry. It is on his solo albums that we may observe the unfolding of Eno’s musical personality in its purest form, in the role of composer he has been keenly interested in working with the traditionally neglected or at least downplayed realms of timbre (tone colour) and texture, and in the process of pursuing that interest has been of seminal importance in the development of the “new age” or “space music” genre. Timbre is a term that refers to the color of sound itself: it is what makes the same note played on a violin, a trumpet, or a xylophone sound different. This aspect of musical sound can be thought of as “vertical,” since it depends to a large extent on the harmonics, or barely audible frequencies, that are stacked up “vertically” on top of the primary heard note itself. The vertical harmonic spectrum determines the color of the sound, and the way our ears and mind interpret the harmonic spectrum determines whether we hear the characteristic sound of a guitar or a flute, or whether we hear the vocal syllable “ooh” or “aah,” for example.

HOME