Do you think pop music got more focused in the mid-late 70's?

Back in the 60's and 70's AM radio, you would hear a mix of rock and pop on the same station. Although I listened to it and liked some of the pop, I never bought their music. I bought albums of Grand Funk, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Steppenwolf, Led Zeppelin, Foghat, Montrose, Rush, Hendrix, Humble Pie, Traffic, and many more. I never bought a Bob Denver, Neil Diamond, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, etc. album or 45 even though I sometimes liked some of their tunes that played on AM radio. Or maybe it was because the girls I was with liked those tunes and put them in the right mood. I also never bought a disco album. The only good thing about disco clubs was, it was where a lot of girls who were easy to pick up for quick sex would go hang out. As one person stated above, pop does not equal rock no matter what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame says.
 
I am pleased to say i like pop, disco, metal, country, blues,psychedelic, jam bands, motown, rock, jazz ect. My dad grew up in the city & thanks forever for the music he listened to...funky stuff & R&B

So glad grew up on radio even young from tail end of 60's in through the 70's..the radio...the top 40 was such a great mix of all kinds of musical tastes... not this defined "you must be in this lane"

It has paid off majorly in my life as a player on bass. To have the R&B-- motown--swing ability is so much more fun to play
 
BFT Gibson said:
I am pleased to say i like pop, disco, metal, country, blues,psychedelic, jam bands, motown, rock, jazz ect. My dad grew up in the city & thanks forever for the music he listened to...funky stuff & R&B

So glad grew up on radio even young from tail end of 60's in through the 70's..the radio...the top 40 was such a great mix of all kinds of musical tastes... not this defined "you must be in this lane"

It has paid off majorly in my life as a player on bass. To have the R&B-- motown--swing ability is so much more fun to play
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Bass is fun to play for all types of music. I've gigged a bass with bands before, but guitar is my main instrument. I must say that I had to gig plenty of songs I didn't like back in the 70's. You had to play some Top 40 songs from all genres to get a gig around Atlanta back then but after the third set when the alcohol had been pouring for a while, we could play what we wanted. I've also played guitar in other types of bands over the years such as country and country rock. Southern rock is fun to play and love the blues too. I live in a tourist area now and people want to hear old favorites from all genres. We might play anything from Van Morrison, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Steppenwolf, Ozzy Osbourne to Johnny Cash and anything in between.
 
dirocyn said:
Pop is short for popular. Popular music is the kind that lots of people like. If it appears in Billboard's popularity charts, it's pop music. Every musician who's ever had any significant commercial success was making Popular music.

But pop is also a musical genre. Genres are categories created by and for music distributors like radio. Radio decided that Hank Williams Sr. was country, and that Buddy Holly was rock n roll. They were contemporaries, both made recordings in the Decca quonset hut studio in Nashville. They likely shared instrumentalists. Their respective sounds are more similar than to what rock and country later became. The point being, these categories are artificial and subjective. And sometimes overlap. Is this song disco, or would it be better categorized as soul, house, funk, r&b, pop, rock....? When the Rolling Stones attempt to play country or disco, it still only played on rock radio.

And I look over into the abyss of metal genres, and I don't really understand the difference between metalcore and grindcore and death metal and Swedish death metal and the other 70-odd metal genres.
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That is accurate. To many sub genres.
Rock was rock , metal is rock but somewhere someone drew a line in the sand.

Death metal as in relation to the physcosis that killed andhatred to well you know the story, I can get in to that here because there is a restriction and we try to police ourselves and not post well you know. Moving on.
 
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Keysdweller said:
Bass is fun to play for all types of music. I've gigged a bass with bands before, but guitar is my main instrument. I must say that I had to gig plenty of songs I didn't like back in the 70's. You had to play some Top 40 songs from all genres to get a gig around Atlanta back then but after the third set when the alcohol had been pouring for a while, we could play what we wanted. I've also played guitar in other types of bands over the years such as country and country rock. Southern rock is fun to play and love the blues too. I live in a tourist area now and people want to hear old favorites from all genres. We might play anything from Van Morrison, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Steppenwolf, Ozzy Osbourne to Johnny Cash and anything in between.
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Right Sapient, it's good to not draw to many lines.
As a youngster growing up I drew a very hard line and never strayed outside of the music I loved what is basically the so called "New Wave of British heavy iron"

I started to realize recently how much I restricted music listening back then.
One turning point was recently when the Beatles Doc Get Back came out.
I have heard many people say about certain bands "it's before my time"
What that means is , growing up you didn't listen. Why , because it wasn't popular in your circle. Just my 2 cents. Not judging anyone.
 
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As to the actual original question, pop (the genre) became incredibly focused on disco, in the mid-late 70s. Even major rock acts like The Stones and Bowie were trying to ride that wave. It got so big they were making movies about it, and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack produced some of the biggest hit singles of the decade. And then there was a backlash. Disco is dead, and all that.
 
ibmorjamn said:
Right Sapient, it's good to not draw to many lines.
As a youngster growing up I drew a very hard line and never strayed outside of the music I loved what is basically the so called "New Wave of British heavy iron"
I started to realize recently how much I restricted music back then.
One turning was recently when the Beatles Doc came out.
I have heard many people say about certain bands "it's before my time"
What that means is , growing up you didn't listen. Why , because wasn't popular in your circle. Just my 2 cents. Nit judging anyone.
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Bingo!!!

Being a teenager in the 70's we were Led Zeppelin, Rush, UFO and such so showing up at a gathering of 'sharing produce' if someone said "hey did you hear the new single from The Carpenters?" it would be instant banishment1719095163746.gif

Just innocence and naivety of youth.
 
Geez.

Buddy recorded with Owen Bradley. Two years after Hank Williams died. Buddy hated Bradley and his cookie-cutter Nashville formula and GTFO. A couple of singles were released from the Bradley sessions, but no one cared.

Hooked up with Norman Petty and that was it.

True Love Ways is Pop. So is Maybe Baby. So is It Doesn't Matter Anymore and Every Day. Pop songs.
 
Sam The Lion said:
1910 Fruitgum Company is Bubblegum.
So are Andy Kim's Archies tunes.

Labels are for libraries. For cataloging.

To quote Ellington: "There's good music...and the other kind."

I like a good song that makes me want to listen to it more than once.

40 years from now, they'll still be playing Chic. Iron Maiden...not so much.

There are great songs and performances in the Disco era. Timeless songs. Then there's the other kind. :)
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I just listened to Andy Kim yesterday.
 
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I am a certified old guy. I actually would say that Magic Carpet Ride is a definitely a pop song, pop rock to be specific. Born To Be Wild is rock. Many bands do/did both. And I loved both. Loved Beatles, Sabbath, Grand Funk, Zep, The Guess Who, especially Mountain. And loved bubblegum stuff in the 60's too. Monkees baby! Get off my lawn.
 
jtees4 said:
I am a certified old guy. I actually would say that Magic Carpet Ride is a definitely a pop song, pop rock to be specific. Born To Be Wild is rock. Many bands do/did both. And I loved both. Loved Beatles, Sabbath, Grand Funk, Zep, The Guess Who, especially Mountain. And loved bubblegum stuff in the 60's too. Monkees baby! Get off my lawn.
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Both Born to be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride were bad bad bad when they’d come on the radio while us idiot males were cruising our little rural community. Usually involved foot going to floor on the loud pedal.
 
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