The Music of the 70s Blog

Genres, songs, artists, year-by-year retrospectives and trivia from the greatest decade in music.

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Genres

Rock, disco, soul, funk, prog and every sound the decade produced.

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Songs

Deep dives into the singles that defined the 70s, one track at a time.

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Artists

The bands and performers behind the decade's greatest records.

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📅

Years

Year-by-year retrospectives from 1970 through 1979.

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Trivia

Fun facts, forgotten stories and trivia from the decade in music.

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Latest Posts

Jim Croce holding a cigar in a 1972 ABC Records publicity portrait
Artists

Jim Croce: The Song He Released the Day After He Died

Jim Croce died September 20, 1973. His next single shipped one day later. The real timeline of his final year, verified against Billboard's own chart data.

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Carole King seated at a piano in a black and white Ode Records publicity photo from 1971
Artists

Carole King: The Same Chart, Three Different Names

Carole King topped the 1971 year-end chart as a performer, and showed up twice more as the writer behind two other artists' hits that same year.

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Willie Nelson in a black and white Atlantic Records publicity photo from the early 1970s, wearing a straw cowboy hat and singing into a microphone
Artists

Willie Nelson: The Songwriter Who Became the Star

Willie Nelson spent a decade writing hits for other singers. See how a Nashville house fire and one stripped-down album turned him into a star himself.

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Dolly Parton in a publicity photo from 1977, wearing a denim shirt with her hair styled in her signature big blonde curls
Artists

Dolly Parton: The Split, the Songs, and the Lawsuit

Dolly Parton split from Porter Wagoner in 1974, wrote two career songs in one summer, then got sued for it. Here's the real 70s story.

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Stevie Wonder in a recording studio in 1975, wearing headphones and sunglasses
Artists

Stevie Wonder: The Deal That Built His Classic Period

Stevie Wonder let his Motown contract expire at 21, then came back with full creative control. Here's the 1971 deal that built his classic period.

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Freddie Mercury performing live in November 1977, the year Queen released We Will Rock You
Songs

We Will Rock You: How Queen Built a Stadium Chant

The real story behind We Will Rock You: the crowd that inspired it, the drum-riser recording trick, and how Queen built rock's biggest stadium chant.

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Brian May of Queen playing his homemade Red Special guitar live in November 1977
Artists

Brian May and Queen: The Guitar Built From a Fireplace

Brian May and Queen built a signature sound from a homemade guitar, a coin for a pick, and an amp made from junk. Here's how it actually worked.

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Iggy Pop performing shirtless in 1977 on the Lust for Life tour, drummer Hunt Sales' bass drum visible behind him
Artists

Iggy Pop: The 1970s Collapse and Berlin Resurrection

Iggy Pop's own band fell apart on a Detroit stage in 1974. See how David Bowie and Berlin turned that collapse into Lust for Life three years later.

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Queen in 1975, the year their first Hot 100 hit arrived the same decade ABBA broke through in the ABBA vs Queen chart comparison
Trivia

ABBA vs Queen: Who Won the US Charts in the 70s?

ABBA vs Queen: real US Hot 100 data from the 1970s reveals who actually won the charts, not just global album sales totals.

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Showing the 9 most recent posts, out of 54 total across every category. Cards rotate automatically as new posts are added, oldest off, newest on.

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