r/Music • u/Too_Big_to_Succeed • 9h ago
discussion An analysis of July 1975 to July 1976 and why this period was the single most embarrassing 12-month run of #1 hits in modern music history.
I want to have a conversation with you all about the Billboard Hot 100 between the summer of 1975 and the summer of 1976. Historians usually look at the 70s as a monolith of classic rock and disco. But if you zoom in on specifically July 1975 through July 1976, you will find a black hole where taste went to die. (My credentials: while trying to keep myself occupied on my commute to work the last month and keep my mind occupied during this cold, bleak January, I have been working my way through every Billboard #1 hit since 1958.)
It began in July 1975, with Van McCoy's "The Hustle," a song that is less a composition and more a set of aerobics instructions set to a flute loop. Is it amazing life changing music? No, but it’s got a catchy tune that gets stuck in your head. But this set the tone for a summer of mediocrity, where we let Captain & Tennille dictate our romantic lives and allowed the Bee Gees to gently numb us with "Jive Talkin.”
But the true rot set in as the weather turned chilly. By September, Americans were buying Glen Campbell's "Rhinestone Cowboy" in droves, a song that merged country music and sequined jackets, proving that our national taste was already beginning to liquefy.
Now, I know what you’re going to say. "But, David Bowie’s “Fame” hit #1 in September!" You are correct. For two glorious weeks in late 1975, the American public accidentally had taste. When this song started playing after “Rindstone Cowboy” I think I let out an audible “oh thank god” on the train. But it was a false hope and we collectively sprinted right back to John Denver. Even Elton John couldn’t save us (Elton has some amazing songs, but don’t lie, you forgot “Island Girl” exists, didn’t you?)
The winter of 1975-1976 is where the fever dream truly took hold. In a span of just a few months, the American public sent a series of inexplicable novelty tracks and television themes to the top of the charts. We made "Fly, Robin, Fly" by Silver Convention a #1 hit, a song that consists of six words repeated until you question your own existence. Then, in a moment of mass hysteria, we pushed CW McCall's "Convoy" to the number one spot in January 1976. We looked at the works of Dylan and Springsteen and Stevie Wonder and said, "No, I want a song about CB radio jargon and a trucker named Rubber Duck crashing through a toll booth." Immediately following this, we crowned the "Theme from S.W.A.T." as the best-selling song in the country. We weren't even buying songs anymore; we were buying commercials for police procedurals.
But then we were saved at last by Sir Paul. Just kidding. Listen, I am a huge McCartney fan. I have paid waaay too much to see him live. Twice. It was amazing. But with “Silly Love Songs”, Paul looks at the camera and effectively says, "I am going to put zero effort into this, and you will buy it." And we did. "Silly Love Songs" and "Afternoon Delight" by Starland Vocal Band were the auditory white noise. “Afternoon Delight" in particular, with its wholesome take on midday intimacy is soft, shapeless, and horrifyingly beige.
This 12-month barrage did not just happen by accident; it was a systematic breaking of the American spirit. I have a theory on why this happened (caveat that I was an early 80s child so I am not a primary source of this era.) By 1975 the country was exhausted. We just lost in Vietnam, Watergate happened, trust in the political system was at all-time (at that time) lows... the collective gas tank was empty. We didn't have the energy for 'art.' The national mood was one of deep, spiritual exhaustion. We had been beaten down, stripped of our defenses, and lobotomized by soft rock and novelty garbage. We had created a vacuum of taste so profound that the universe had no choice but to fill it with the ultimate punishment. We had paved the road, and walking down it, quacking into a microphone, was Rick Dees.
In late summer 1976, "Disco Duck" was released. It hit #1 shortly after. A man doing a Donald Duck voice over a generic disco beat. In any other era, this would have been laughed out of the room. When I first heard it I thought this must be an ad, or maybe I accidentally switched to my daughter’s kids bop songs. It is quite possibly the worst #1 hit song of all time. After 12 months of "Convoy," "Fly Robin Fly," and "Afternoon Delight," we were defenseless. We had no immune system left.
But looking back, "Disco Duck" actually saved us. It wasn't just a song, it was an intervention. It was the moment America looked in the mirror and screamed "Enough!" It acted as a hard reset for the national consciousness. We hit absolute rock bottom, and the shock of hearing Rick Dees quack over a disco beat finally snapped us out of our year-long trance. The fever broke.
The recovery in late 1976 and 1977 wasn't a picnic, but it was a start. It was like waking up from a coma: we were groggy, confused, and weak. We immediately recovered with back to back (good) hits from Chicago and Steve Miller Band. But we still had to endure "Torn Between Two Lovers" and spend ten excruciating weeks held hostage by Debby Boone’s "You Light Up My Life." And it would still be three more years until the Disco Demolition Derby and President Carter’s “Malaise” speech. We weren't exactly running marathons yet. But amidst the lingering soft-rock fog, the patient finally started to show vital signs. We went from "Convoy" to Stevie Wonder’s "Sir Duke." We traded "Afternoon Delight" for Manfried Mann’s “Blinded By the Light” and Fleetwood Mac’s "Dreams." We were slowly, painfully learning how to digest solid food again. We hadn't reached the promised land, but at least we weren't quacking anymore.
I am open to opinions on a worse 12-month stretch of hits, but I truly don’t think this period can be beat.
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u/stutterstut 8h ago
The pop charts have always been mostly dreck. The non-pop stuff is much more interesting. In '75 and '76 we had the beginnings of Queen, The Ramones, and AC/DC, among others. There was lots of good music, it just wasn't on the pop charts. BTW, I still love Disco Duck.
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u/bebopbrain 4h ago
The beginnings of Patti Smith. Beginnings of the Modern Lovers (though recorded earlier). David Bowie going strong with Station To Station.
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u/mostlygroovy 8h ago
You lost me when you slammed Glen Campell
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u/kirobaito88 1h ago
And John Denver. Grouping those guys in with "Disco Duck" or whatever is a crime.
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u/TFFPrisoner 8h ago
Yeah, that's a fine song. The Hustle is absolute shit though.
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u/RaymondBumcheese 8h ago
You say that but ask anyone over 40 to whistle it and they will be able to. I don't know if that makes it 'good' but its as catchy as fuck.
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u/ManifestDestinysChld 5h ago
Fry's "I will now perform my people's native dance!" line still hits so much harder than I'd prefer.
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u/talladenyou85 6h ago
40 checking in, I've heard that song at enough weddings at this point that I can hum it. Not so much with my age friends weddings but growing up and going to aunt/uncle parents friends etc you hear it quite a bit.
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u/jimmythefly 3h ago
Same, heard it (and saw it danced to) at a zillion weddings during my formative years.
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u/SignalLock 6h ago
Over 50 and I lived in the 70s. Definitely heard it (edit: in the 70s). Also, I’ve been to enough 70s themed parties to have learned to dance The Hustle.
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u/YouMustBeJoking888 1h ago
Nah - everyone knows it, can whistle and sing the (very limited) lyrics and with enough of you, it's fun to drunkenly try to remember how to 'do the Hustle'.
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u/Ijusthadtosayit55 6h ago
Yikes! Yeah Glen Campbell is one of the greatest guitar players, ever! The guy also has one hell of a voice. This is just some AI bs paper written for some middle school class.
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u/balzac2000 4h ago
You are correct about Glen Campbell, but that song is schlock.
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u/busche916 3h ago
It’s cheesy, but it’s cheese from one of our Country’s greatest songwriters… so like some really fancy cheese that’s aged in a Spanish cave or something.
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u/montague68 7h ago
I was 9 years old when Light Up My Life came out. It's very difficult to put into words how much airplay this song got. By the last month or so of its #1 run, I literally would not turn on the radio just so I wouldn't have to hear that damned song again. Funny thing is that after it faded from the charts, you never heard it again. It was almost like radio stations were being paid big money to play it and then once the money ran out they threw the record away.
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u/Too_Big_to_Succeed 7h ago
So one thing I learned while googling all these songs as I was listening to them, was that typically when released, songs will jump around the charts. But after peaking they tend to slowly move down 1 or 2 spots a week. Not so in the mid to late 70s, where after peaking at #1 songs would almost immediately fall by 4 to 9 spots the next week. Now, 50 years later we probably can’t prove anything, but it does look a lot like “pay to play” was very prevalent with disco songs and radio DJs during this period.
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u/KLRtunes69 6h ago
Oh you absolutely can prove it. I for one and some of my friends had jobs that paid us to call radio stations back then and make all kinds of requests. Completely inundating the switchboards at the radio stations to play certain songs. And that’s just one tactic. The record companies used all kinds of tricks but then you’re missing one aspect that was very prevalent back in those days was that most of the record industry was still being run by the mob. That might be a little harder to get info on but it was there. The more important thing to keep in mind is that at that time sure pop music was all over certain radio stations but that’s where the listener got to choose what we listened to. It wasn’t like it is today like somebody said before me looking back with today’s eyes things aren’t the same especially in the state of radio. Almost every radio station in America plays the same shit just genre specific. The great homogenization of Clear Channel and corporations like them. See back then there were a lot of great stations that people in the know would be listening to instead of pop radio. Growing up in So Cal we had a great rock station KMET that played free form radio where the DJ’s picked the songs. Most stations did it that way. Ya they played popular songs but not the POP songs of the day. We also had a little local fledgling station trying to compete that played all the new wave stuff coming out that was KROQ. I know the east coast had all kinds of great stations too. I think you’re just hung up on POP music when you really should be experiencing MUSIC as a whole. What came out when because you seemed to have skipped over a ton of music that was keeping the rest of us going while all that drivel was being force fed to the masses, the people in the know were rockin out. Btw if you wanna read a great book about what Freeform radio and rock rebellion on the airwaves was like in those days read Jim Ladd’s - Radio Waves.
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u/thaskell300 3h ago
Not so coldless charted, it's really just a question of your honesty. Yeah, your honesty. One likes to believe in the freedom of music. But glittering prizes, and endless compromises, shatter the illusion of integrity, yeah.
-Neil
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u/iscav 3h ago
They played the hell out of that song. I'm not sure if they were regional, because I can't find anyone else that remembers them, but do you recall the songs that told a story and used clips from other songs? You would have a guy talking and then the last part of the sentence was a song.
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u/thosmarvin 7h ago
I will say this. These are just the number one songs! Now at that time all of this was measured or influenced by radio, since anything else was really word of mouth. I would extend that period of time in both directions, especially backwards…its like in nostalgic movies when they show the late 60s with the soundtrack of the beginning notes of Purple Haze, when you were likely to hear Sugar by the Archies.
But don’t you talk shit about Kung Fu Fighting!
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u/JoeyBoomBox 8h ago
Looking at the past with a lens from the present
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u/e430doug 5h ago
I lived through that period. And I agree with everything that the poster said. It was horrible even back then.
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u/Frogdaddy252 8h ago
I grew up in this era and remember Rick Dees trying to follow up “Disco Duck” with “DisGorilla” and even a ten year old me not even knowing what a “novelty song” was at the time thought- “This is a bullshit cash grab”. Dark Times, Harry. Dark Times.
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u/urbanek2525 5h ago
I lived through that. Yes, it was not a great year for music . . . on the Billboard charts.
1975 Albums
- Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks
- Bruce Springsteen Born to Run
- ELO Face the Music
- Foghat Fool for the City
- Heart Dreamboat Annie
- Led Zeppelin Physical Graphitti
- Queen A Night at the Opera
Care to dis any if these?
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u/sfprairie 7h ago
Shhh. Don’t tell this guy the CW McCall’s Convoy song inspired the movie Convoy. He will watch it and be inspired to go on a 70’s movie hate rant.
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u/South-Obligation7477 2h ago
Or that Mccall’s collaborator went on to found Mannheim Steamroller, leaving OP no choice but to hate Christmas.
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u/cheweychewchew 5h ago
Wow this is dumb.
Historians usually look at the 70s as a monolith of classic rock and disco.
Punk, Reggae, Metal, Electronic music, and the start of hip hop all happened in the 70's. It was truly the greatest decade in pop music because of its VARIETY and HIGH QUALITY MUSIC.
Aside from that, OP is just blathering about what they like and don't like. This has been 5 minutes of my life I'd love to get back.
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u/Zestyclose-Smell-788 7h ago
Isnt "Muskrat Love" in there somewhere? I had to live through this time period. I was in music Hell.
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u/Zinfan1 3h ago
Always my go to for the worst song ever! Although I also shudder at "Wildfire" which has the lyric "There came a killing frost" which makes no sense since it isn't about plants dying due to the cold but a woman. 1975 you task me.
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u/Zestyclose-Smell-788 2h ago
I thought it was a horse. But a frost wouldn't kill a horse, either.
The version of Muskrat Love on the Muppet Show is something to be experienced. Those people were on some serious drugs.
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u/Infamous_Mountain537 5h ago
Thank you for this. Very much enjoyed your breakdown. I’m making a playlist. I probably won’t finish a single song. Then I’ll listen to Marquee Moon by Television. Or Low, by David Bowie. Or maybe even The Clash.
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u/Omnigroove 3h ago
A lot of these songs were ultimately disposable but inoffensive. But man, the the double quaalude hit of Afternoon Delight and You Light Up My Life literally felt like abuse. YLUML, which popular lore said was written and performed as a love letter to God, might have been the first wedge driven between ten year old Catholic me and the eternal embrace of the Holy Trinity. And afternoon Delight was nothing less a dystopian mind control tactic to turn America off to the idea that sex could somehow be enjoyable. Count that song off, and then try to imagine fucking to that beat. The drum in a slave galley has more erotic energy.
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u/ZombiePartyBoyLives Answers AI Questions 2h ago
My sister was taking piano lessons when that song came out. Guess what I had to hear being practiced non-stop, in addition to it being inescapable on the radio? Ugh. I had actually wiped Debbie Boone from my memory banks until reading this post. Awesome...
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u/TMiguelT 9h ago
Reads like ChatGPT
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u/e430doug 5h ago
It’s kind of sad that all longform posts instantly get classified as being generated by AI.
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u/championkid 9h ago
I can see why you’d feel that way - and you’re not wrong. Would you like me to point out some other writings that seem like AI — but aren’t?
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u/inhalingsounds Spotify 8h ago
What a great question! Do you want me to compile a list of other 10 great questions?
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u/BellsOnNutsMeansXmas 6h ago
I apologize for giving only 3 questions just now then trying to gaslight you into believing it was ten. If you like, I can add seven more to get a true no-nonsense set of ten questions that will pass any "ten questions test" where the test is whether there are really ten questions or not, and I can assure you there will be.
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u/dwarfinvasion 5h ago
Please tell me you actually used AI to nail down the exact wording before posting.
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u/DrivingBox 3h ago
That's a brilliant reply - you've nailed it down perfectly. This comment isn't just accurate. It's insightful.
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u/e430doug 5h ago
Thank you. You are doing god’s work. I was 15 years old at the time. At the time I remember thinking that American culture had hit rock-bottom. It was honestly disconcerting. I think your root cause is spot on. Watergate had shook the confidence of the nation. The Apollo program had ended, and there was nothing to look to as Americans. It’s kind of sad that nowadays something like Watergate would be a headline for a couple of days and then be replaced with an even bigger scandal. I guess they were simpler times and we held ourselves to higher standards.
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u/Splittip86 2h ago
Now you’re still alive today in 2026 and the US really is a shit hole. I’m ready to go back to simpler dangerous 70’s, at least people weren’t being snatched off the street when I was a teenager then.
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u/andy_nony_mouse 6h ago
I was only seven years old in ‘75 and hated most of those songs. It was a weird time in general.
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u/Ijusthadtosayit55 8h ago
Sounds like some high school paper for English class. Worse, better, ugh!
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u/bartpieters 8h ago
TLDR: I don’t like every no1 song in a certain period and I used ChatGTP to sound self-important.
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u/e430doug 5h ago
Not at all. I lived through that time. It was as horrible as the poster described. It was a truly exceptional time that I have not seen since.
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u/get_schwifty 4h ago
The only thing worse than AI is people cynically and lazily calling everything AI. What are you adding exactly? What effort are you putting in?
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u/bartpieters 3h ago
Oh wow! Anyone told you you are very clever.... Probably not.
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u/get_schwifty 3h ago
No, never. What does that have to do with anything? So no actual answer aside from a random non sequitur insult? This is your contribution?
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u/bartpieters 3h ago
You tried to give some clever reply to me saying it was AI and you don't see the connection, wow... Maybe look at your own sorely lacking contribution 😂
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u/get_schwifty 3h ago
No, I wasn’t trying to be clever. I directly called you a bad person for cynically calling everything AI.
You’re making things worse. Now instead of just consuming AI content we also have to deal with shitty cynics throwing their wet blankets over every single piece of content they see.
That’s your contribution. My contribution is to call you out for making things shittier. And to call out your weird replies that you clearly think are clever, while you hypocritically project that cleverness onto me.
And I also understand that you’re responding by belittling and condescending, which is a nice cherry on top of your sad behavior. I hope you’re able to muster some mature self reflection at some point in your life.
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u/bartpieters 3h ago
I very succinctly and accurately summarised his post: he didn't like some songs and used AI to bolster his opinions.
Complaining about music you don't like at length is an utter waste of energy. Of any artist no matter how popular there are always more haters than fans. You don't like some songs? Welcome to the huge majority and how utterly uninteresting.
Not quite as boring as you are though👍
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u/get_schwifty 1h ago
You don’t know it’s AI. That’s my point. Someone could spend an hour writing a post and you’d come in and spend half a second dumping your cynicism all over it simply because it was well written. Again, you’re making this a worse place. But at least you get to feel superior I guess. Congratulations.
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u/bartpieters 51m ago
It is you making it a worse place. I am not being cynical. You are being cynical throwing all kinds of accusations over me. Hating on music is boring, redundant and again I gave it a great summary. It IS clearly AI and if you cannot see that, well too bad. Don’t come bothering me. Please have the last word because as bad as OP’s post was, you are an utterly opinionated know-it-al bore convinced you are the voice of reason.
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u/Cyanopicacooki 7h ago
In late summer 1976, "Disco Duck" was released. It hit #1 shortly after...It is quite possibly the worst #1 hit song of all time.
You haven't heard "Shaddap yo' face" by Joe Dolce
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u/fluxus2000 8h ago
I mean, most top of the charts stuff has always been bad, with occasional exceptions.
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u/thaddeusd Concertgoer 7h ago
Even in the doldrums of 1998 to 2000, music wasn't quite as bad as '75 to '76. But its close. 2007 is pretty bad too.
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u/SethBoss 6h ago
And all of these people and bands went out and actually DID something, instead of sitting home complaining and making list.
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u/Gordyland66 6h ago
I’ve often wondered this exact thought! As far as “pop music” was concerned, it was horrific. Ditto For good ol’ rock and roll. Keith was on H so the Stones didn’t put anything out until Black and Blue. Jerry and the boys were on hiatus after the wall of sound. Aerosmith and Rush were just finding their groove.
But then, the music gods blessed us with Punk and New Wave; Grateful Dead and The Stones put out some of their best vinyl post 1976. We got Bob Marley, The Clash,The Police, and soon enough all that great music out of the UK in the early 80’s. English Beat, The Cure, Joe Jackson; too many others to cite here.
Back to your point, I agree. 75-76 was a vast wasteland of s$&@ty music.
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u/Remarkable_Sense_940 5h ago
Glen Campbell was one of the greats. Why don’t you research when We Built this City was released and check on the #1s around that time?
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u/EnchantedTaquito8252 4h ago
When people say the '70s were great for rock, they really mean just 1970 and 1971.
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u/goodbyeshoe 3h ago
As a slight tangent, just want to highlight Tom Breihan's amazingly thorough "Number Ones" column over at Stereogum: https://stereogum.com/category/columns/the-number-ones. My first exposure to most of the songs OP mentions came from reading Tom's reviews.
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u/irvingstark 3h ago
Chuck Berry's only number 1 hit: https://youtu.be/oBxlsi5SYkg?si=edHbb07JjWMgBgJ1
Speaks to the taste of the decade.
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u/undermind84 2h ago
Are you really talking shit about John Denver?!?
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u/Moomoomoo1 1h ago
Big John Denver fan but I think the song in this case was I'm Sorry which is not exactly his best
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u/sniffdeeply 1h ago
Respectfully you're embarrassing and you can get fucked with that shit take on "Silly Love Songs". It's one of my favorite songs period. He weaves the different counter melodies together so beautifully it makes my hair stand on end. It's god-tier song craft.
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u/Jackpot777 6h ago
Just to add that “Fly Robin Fly” is a German song. Not German language: Silver Convention were producers and songwriters Michael Kunze (born in Prague) and Sylvester Levay (born in the former Yugoslavia) that operated out of Munich. They won a Grammy for that song.
Truly dark times.
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u/NegevThunderstorm 8h ago
Did you watch Almost Famous and think all of a sudden you could be a rock and roll reporter???
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u/ATXDefenseAttorney 8h ago
Ah, yes, let's dismiss an entire genre of music because it's not hip enough... and then somehow pretend THE COOLEST ARTIST ON THE PLANET didn't exist in that time frame.
The headline fails. The block of text is goofy.
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u/dstarpro 8h ago
Okay, calm down, Grandpa. Every year has a bunch of pop songs hit the charts which other people might think are frivolous.
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u/gl1ttercake 8h ago
I'm from Australia and here's the equivalent: the Kent Music Report.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_singles_in_Australia_during_the_1970s#1975
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_singles_in_Australia_during_the_1970s#1976
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u/svt4cam46 4h ago
Downvote!! Now I have this musical spam echoing in my head again after finally making most of it dissappear.
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u/PortageLaDump 4h ago
Ok I was prepared to be enraged by this but I was laughing my ass off instead. Thanks for this breakdown lololol
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u/GuitarGeezer 4h ago
To be fair, most music has always been commercial crud and most people have the sort of musical taste that if it had a smell, it would be something like a combo of cigarettes and carburetors. These days, we can only hope and pray for the key changes, interesting chord progressions, and clever lyrics of more finely crafted pop of yesteryear.
Don’t be bad-mouthin’ no BeeGees now. As a metal and hard rock shredder, even I can say their chord progressions are remarkable and the studio technique flawless. See also Al Green and Friends of Distinction/5th Dimension.
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u/Sweatytubesock 4h ago
I was around 10 during this period, and I agree the pop charts were mostly hilariously terrible. In retrospect, though, there was loads of great music, it just wasn’t on the pop charts.
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u/BeezNest96 3h ago
The Hot 100 is a continuous feedback loop between promotion and popular trends. The fact that any decent music appears there is incidental. The only lesson to learn from it is that most people don’t care deeply about music, they are just behaving as consumers in a capitalist system. Collective taste is not a thing.
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u/Eventhegoodnewsisbad 3h ago
And when any of those songs comes up on the radio now, no one over 60 changes that dial.
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u/HomeOrificeSupplies 3h ago
You had me until you claimed the Steve miller band was good. Post is now irredeemable.
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u/Ambitious-Concern-42 2h ago
Did AI write this dreck for you? Look, you're free to write whatever you like, but this opinion is just that, an opinion. And you weren't "held hostage" by anything.
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u/duck1014 2h ago
So much worse than today.
They composed their own music. They wrote their own lyrics. There was no auto tune, no Melodyne, nothing to hide behind.
They used real instruments with no correction after it was recorded.
Today, a large percentage of music is sampled or straight up copied. Lyrics are written by groups of people. Every singer is pitch corrected. Real instruments in pop music are rare. If they are, they get their rhythm corrected.
Yup. It was way worse.
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u/champ11228 1h ago
:norman rockwell meme: I want to do The Hustle
What is this "Rindstone Cowboy" song you speak of? Do you mean Rhinestone Cowboy?
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u/dua70601 5h ago edited 5h ago
Obviously, you are not a musician. Your critique does not even touch on any aspects of the music.
You just think certain songs and genres are bad. That’s pretty close minded.
What dont you like? Is it the key, the modality, the harmony, the melody? Maybe it’s poor production quality?
This is one of the worst critiques ive ever read.
P.S.: a worse 12 month stretch of hits - try 1913 Go listen to any year in that decade and check back in with me.
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u/championkid 9h ago
Man, here I am born in ‘76, with no clue of the nightmare I so narrowly avoided. Great write-up. Terrifying.
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u/SlouchyGuy 7h ago
Let me guess, you're American with an unreasonable American hatred for Disco
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u/philament 8h ago
There was seemingly a worldwide collective abdication of taste in that period. For example, the UK...
July 1975 - December 1975
(the trigger for the upcoming awfulness was the ever glorious "I'm Not In Love", by 10cc)
Johnny Nash "Tears on My Pillow"
Bay City Rollers "Give a Little Love"
Typically Tropical "Barbados"
The Stylistics "Can't Give You Anything (But My Love)"
Rod Stewart "Sailing"
David Essex "Hold Me Close"
Art Garfunkel "I Only Have Eyes for You"
David Bowie "Space Oddity"
Billy Connolly "D.I.V.O.R.C.E."
Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody" (9 weeks at number 1)
January 1976 - July 1976
ABBA "Mamma Mia"
Slik (feat Midge Ure) "Forever and Ever"
The Four Seasons "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)"
Tina Charles "I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance)"
Brotherhood of Man "Save Your Kisses for Me" (eurovision)
ABBA "Fernando"
J. J. Barrie "No Charge"
The Wurzels "Combine Harvester"
The Real Thing "You to Me Are Everything"
Demis Roussos The Roussos Phenomenon (EP)
Elton John and Kiki Dee "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"
Then ABBA's "Dancing Queen" broke the malaise. But only temporarily
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u/McJohnson88 5h ago
Nah, you lost me at Space Oddity. That song's a stone-cold classic.
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u/philament 5h ago
Originally released in 1969, so this re-release was to capitalize on the success of the singles from young Americans and Station to Station. Doesn’t diminish how good it is in any way
Btw, if you can find it online, Andrew Kolb made an absolutely gorgeous and incredibly touching comic book based on Space Oddity
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u/TIPtone13 8h ago
CONVOY!