Problem: music in 1976 sucked - Dazed and Confused (1993) Discussion

[–] Viper2880 10 years ago

Ill take "sucky" 76 music over what they spew out today. Its not even music.

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[–] Viper2880 10 years ago

LOL holy *beep* LOL at saying Fleetwood Mac blew. You know nothing about music

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[–] mburns955 10 years ago

Yeah awesome musicians. You must love journey and reo
Speed wagon. Rock on

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[–] themidgarzolom 8 years ago

Agreed; kind of a moronic OP. Boston were also incredible musicians who were kind of at the forefront of harmonized metal guitar leads in rock music, particularly in mainstream music.

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[–] Oracle2959 8 years ago

Yah, music in 76 sucked, cars in 76 sucked, women in 76 sucked :), gas prices sucked in 76, no internet and texting sucked in 76, drugs sucked in 76, hell 1976 sucked!! NOT!

I suppose you would have had to been there to experience it. The music sucked if you listened to the wrong radio station. I grew up in North Dallas and graduated in 76. I will tell you one thing, the music and the radio station I listened to did not suck. The mighty ZOO! KZEW in Dallas.

"KZEW was a pioneer on the FM dial at a time when there were few FM stations and those that did exist drizzled out tranquilizing music for doctors' offices. After a meteoric rise to the top of the rock radio heap, The Zoo completely disappeared from the FM dial and does not exist today. To look at the history of KZEW is to look at the changing profile of Dallas-and the evolution of "underground" radio into a more profitable, more
cautious, less vital medium."

http://www.thezoofile.com/The_KZEW_Story.html

Back then Dallas also had a pirate radio station around 90 or 91 on the dial that played even more alternative rock, they would mainly broadcast late at night and on the weekends.

It was located in this creepy old house northeast of downtown Dallas that looked like a halloween set.

There was something to be said for drag racing on Forest Lane while listening to the ZOO.

I visited Dallas last year and just could not imagine how much everything changed. Might as well landed on another planet. It's not the Dallas I knew growing up. That's probably why I like D&C so much, for a moment I can travel back in time and it's almost real. In my mind and imagination I am there for 90 minutes or so.

Yah, everything about 76 sucked!! Especially the skimpy halter tops on well endowed suntanned bodies that had absolutely NO TATTOOS anywhere on them. That really sucked!!

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[–] trfruin 8 years ago

I also was a teen in the 70's The thing I remember most was the HUGE nostalgia for the 50's with movies or shows like American Graffiti, Grease, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, plus the explosion of Disco music in 1978. The Gibb brothers as songwriters actually broke the Lennon/Mccartney record of 1964 of hit singles in 78.

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[–] michaelamurray1 8 years ago

Hi Oracle,

I saw your post on the Thirteenth Floor board. I was inspired by the cinematic, science "fiction" work done, on the film. The reason why I am trying to contact you is because I was inspired by what you said regarding of the subject "Is Our World a simulation"?

I was just curious, what kind of metaphysical books would you recommend for me to start reading? I've been also looking into books that talk about Magick. Because I believe that they is DEFINITELY something out there, on this rock we call Earth or La Terra or La Terre, which is beyond our five senses and beyond our mainstream religious beliefs; Christianity, Judaism, Islam, even Buddhism & Hinduism, etc. I do also understand that we all come from the Motherland, aka, Africa, aka Alkebulan.

So, I want to research and learn as MUCH as POSSIBLE of the beyond & beyond. Thank you for your input and I look forward hearing from you. Much love & peace.

Sincerely,
Mike

P.S. I'm also into time travel theories and quantum leaping & physics. Even though, I don't have enough time to study those concepts, I have a deep interest in them. Thanks!

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[–] bsmith441 10 years ago

I could not agree more.

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[–] Bubbathegut (18054) 2 years ago

I am from 9 years in the future and music is even worse. Its all basically the same.

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[–] csweetleaf2 10 years ago

I disagree with you because there was a lot of great music that was out in 1976 with bands like Aerosmith, KISS, Ted Nugent and Heart, IMO it's a lot better than music that was popular during the 1977-79 range.

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[–] mburns955 10 years ago

Guess it depends upon your taste. As in any art form it's. Subjective. When I review my top
album picks ( Zeppelin, Who's Next, Dark Side, Aqualung etc) they are all from 69-73. If you
Like Heart you know that their heroes were Zep (and do some great covers of that band) but
those bands were not in the class of Floyd, Who Tull during the early 70's. Do agree better
Than late 70's which led us into video music. Punk became big in 76 as a push back to the stadium
bands of the era (including bands I liked but were making crap).

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[–] mburns955 10 years ago

Oh yeah best way to look at it is to look at Stones
Who put out "let it bleed" "sticky fingers" up to "goats head soup" and then look at stones work
In mid 70's on.....no comparison.

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[–] franzkabuki 10 years ago

Popular music has always been big business, before or after 1976. Many era-defining rock groups did go into decline past the mid-70's (including Zep, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper & Aerosmith, all prominently featured on the soundtrack), but that's because they were simply burnt out by all that rock n' roll lifestyle and excessive substance abuse transforming into a serious addiction.

However, I'd argue that Jethro Tull - which I also see mentioned here - released their best albums in 1977/78 with Songs From The Wood & Heavy Horses. And there's interesting sh-t from all eras, even though you often need to look away from mainstream rock (which today is total crap, of course... and the last time it 'wasn't' crap, was probably the first half of the 1990's).

As for this film, the soundtrack´s mostly good stuff, but I feel Linklater really overdid it - from some point on, it began to play like some kind of Greatest Hits of the 1970's, with various popular numbers coming up thick and fast on each other's tails.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

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[–] mburns955 10 years ago

Good point about the drugs affecting the music but I feel it
was more the "creating an image" that was the problem. Seen a lot of concerts and
by far the worst was in 77 (I think) when one of the era 's most popular bands, Bad Company played the Garden.
They were the type of band I am referring to in my original post and when they played I couldn't
Believe how bad they were as musicians...and the music sucked too. As for Tull, can't argue as they
Were good albums but I still prefer the Thick as a Brick period. Regards

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[–] Viper2880 10 years ago

I know you are trolling, but mentioning fleetwood mac should have you banned from here

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[–] Skydog722 10 years ago

Kinda validates what MBurns said. Fleetwood Mac headed up by Peter Green was great. Then one headed up by Buckingham, Nicks and Christine McVie was just ok....... if you liked pop music.

But, what came out from '74 to '79 is still far and away better than the crap that came out after that for the most part.

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[–] xenopharb 10 years ago

Kinda validates what MBurns said. Fleetwood Mac headed up by Peter Green was great. Then one headed up by Buckingham, Nicks and Christine McVie was just ok....... if you liked pop music.

Fleetwood Mac with Buckingham and Nicks is classic. Have you ever seen Buckingham finger pluck the guitar solo on Go Your Own Way? It is some amazing work.

1976 had Led Zeppelin, Queen, Boston, Sweet, Wings, Nazareth, Eagles, Chicago, Aerosmith, ELO, KISS, Thin Lizzy, The Who, Steve Miller Band, Peter Frampton, Rod Stewart, Blue Öyster Cult, Heart, Kansas, Styx ... 1977 would bring Cheap Trick and Foreigner. Van Halen kicked off guitar metal in 1978.

Yeah, there was a lot of crap too. I listened to a lot of Beatles, Herman Hermits, Monkees, and Raspberries records back then because FM radio played flush pop music, and 1977 brought in Saturday Night Fever and disco.

But, what came out from '74 to '79 is still far and away better than the crap that came out after that for the most part.

I disagree. The early 1980s had some of the best rock music ever. The NWOBHM invaded. International Metal ruled: Def Leppard High -N- Dry, Scorpions Blackout, Judas Priest Screamin' For Vengeance, April Wine, Nature of the Beast, Rush Moving Pictures, and Iron Maiden Number of the Beast. Journey and Foreigner kept up the arena rock, and the LA scene was kicking it up with Ratt, Dokken, and Motley Crue. Sammy Hagar, Billy Squier, Ozzy Osbourne, and Ronnie James Dio went solo. Pat Benatar jumped in where Heart left off, and some new band named Bon Jovi was first heard as an opening act for the Scorpions World Wide Live tour.

The 1970s had good music if a person knew where to look, but the early 1980's had fantastic metal and great live shows. The Grunge years had good music too, but it does not compare well with the early to mid 1980's.

Many of those bands are not in the so called Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But Donna Summer, The Petenders, and rappers get in? What an awful joke. It is well known that the editors of Rolling Stone hated arena rock and heavy metal, and they control the voting for the Rock Hall.

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[–] terric01 10 years ago

You sound like an old man, and old fogey. Oh wait, you are! I'm 56, class of 1976 and there was some great music, some not so great. It's that way with every generation, and you have to let every generation express themselves. Just because you don't think there's any great music anymore doesn't mean it's not great for someone else. Think of our dads who said Big Band and Swing was the last good music... or our granddads who said Al Jolson was the greatest singer... Times will change, we will age, enjoy the ride and be thankful we're not 17 again! I happen to like The Beatles, Outkast, Justin Timberlake and Queen, just to name a few out of about a thousand other bands. And I dance with my grand children. Alright, alright, alright.

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[–] mburns955 10 years ago

Yeah, glad I'm not 17 in today's world. As for the music, to each their own

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[–] csweetleaf2 10 years ago

I personally thought the pop music in 1976 was much better than the pop music that was popular in 1974-75 and 1977-79.

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[–] tallkennj 10 years ago

Your point is well taken, but I will respectfully disagree. Music was definitely dying at that point, but it definitely wasn't dead and, in fact, wasn't even on life support yet. There have been plenty worse musical crimes committed in recent decades than anything put down on vinyl by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Sabbath, War and (70s-era) Aerosmith.

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[–] mburns955 10 years ago

Agree there were exceptions. Love Skynard
but in general the Kansas, Journey, Styx were
Not my cup of tea. Check out Skynard doing Freebird
On the UK show the old grey whistle show...awesome

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[–] TheMouseShadow 10 years ago

[laugh][laugh][laugh][laugh][laugh]Freebird....hilarious. That song is so overplayed it never needs to be played again. You sound like some of the annoying people i went to high school with. The problem with people like you is everything is black and white to you. Everything you like is "AWESOME DUDE!" and everything you dont like "SUCKS DUDE!". How boring.

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[–] mburns955 10 years ago

You have made a very informed and highly
thought out response. You have convinced me, now
where are those Styx albums?

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[–] TheMouseShadow 10 years ago

almost as thought out as your replies......

SKYNARD!! ZEPPELIN!!!! FREEBIRD rules dude! everything else sucks!! That sums up most of your points.

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[–] mburns955 10 years ago

No, my point was that after1973 or so, money trumped
music so all of these mediocre bands like journey or heart
became the norm. MTV then made it worse with videos trumping
music. Thought 90's brought back some great bands (pearl jam, sound garden etc.
To each their own since it's simply my opinion which these
Boards are for. Peace out

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[–] yatzo376 9 years ago

True
The most fertile and creative period for pop/rock music was 66-73.
Everybody was taking chances, throwing ideas against the wall to see what would stick.
But under the radar there will always be great artists at work making good music, you just have to look for it.

"You work your side of the street, and I'll work mine"

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[–] Viper2880 9 years ago

The op is certaintly trolling, but I think music has been on a steady decline since the 70s. Well at least since the 80s, even though 80s music is my favorite

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[–] Viper2880 9 years ago

You cant use the age excuse with music imo. Im only 34 and can see it a mile away. Hell Ive recognized that since I was 10 years old or so.

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[–] Viper2880 9 years ago

The most fertile and creative period for pop/rock music was 66-73.

I pretty much agree with this. Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys, even prog rock bands like the Moody Blues put out their best stuff in this period.

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[–] Viper2880 9 years ago

American radio may have sucked though, I'll give you that.

Hell no american radio did not suck. A lot of the music on here was current on american radio and it kicks ass.

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[–] billymac72 10 years ago

I don't want to get into the whole better/worse thing, but want to mention that Richard Linklater has stated that he chose this year in large part because it was just slightly before disco hit and permanently changed the music scene he loved, at least. None of this is to say that there wasn't good music that came after, nor that there weren't hints of disco already in the air (Bee Gees' "Jive Talkin'" for instance was released in 1975, and a lot of soul/funk music was starting to breathe life into the trend).

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[–] sonofbeach-sheet 10 years ago

1976 had some funky *beep* for music! Remember "Moonlight Feels Right", "Disco Duck" and the like?

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[–] billymac72 10 years ago

I agree. Heck, Barry White's "Love Theme" came out in 1973 and Van McCoy's
"The Hustle" in 1975. You can't get much more disco than those.

I think what Linklater was probably getting at was the by the late 70s, disco had really taken over everything. The culture became saturated in it. You had rock bands like Kiss and The Rolling Stones releasing disco-oriented music for crying out loud. I think "Saturday Night Fever" played a huge role in that. Then, there was this huge punk thing that also started to happen. In many ways, I agree with him that rock was never quite the same, at least rock of a certain era. He went with 1976, while I may have gone with a different year. But I do see his point.

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[–] sonofbeach-sheet 10 years ago

I forgot, it seemed that around 1976-1977, hard rock or classic rock as we called it today tended to start appealing to lower-middle class white guys in the inner city and suburbs, especially the Midwest, Texas, and California. Whereas disco was more popular with the educated and sophisticated.

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] mburns955 10 years ago

Liked "Almost Famous" better but I would
have put in different songs from the movie such as "Mona Lisa's and
Mad Hatters" etc

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[–] rooprect 10 years ago

I was too young in '76 so I don't know what was on the airwaves then, but my guess is that you experienced something that happens a lot. Radio keeps hammering the lamest stuff down our throats while the gems go unknown.

For example, in hindsight I know that '76 was the year of Genesis "Trick of the Tail" which didn't have a single radio-friendly hit, but the album was amazing. Zeppelin released "Presence" which was certainly not their greatest effort, but it did have some great tunes like "Nobody's Fault But Mine" or the blues epic "Tea for One" (rarely if ever played on the radio). And although you may be sick of Boston's overplayed stuff, their '76 album had one of the greatest rock organ solos of all time "Foreplay". I guess my point is that I agree with you if you're saying *mainstream* music sucked in '76. But to me the early-to-mid 70s cranked out some of the best B-sides in the business.

The same can probably be said for today, if we weed past all the top 40 played-to-death rubbish, there's probably some great music hidden out there. But, I guess like you in '76, we won't know about it until the overplayed stuff dies out. Such is the beauty of music... give it a good 30-40 years and we'll be able to pick through the rubbish for the real gems. You just gotta keep the faith that every generation has its moments of brilliance, however hard to find!

P.S. It goes without saying that none of the rare gems made it onto the soundtrack of this movie (not even Zeppelin's "Dazed & Confused" which gave this movie it's title for chrissake). But maybe then it's an accurate reflection of what was on the radio back then. If you want a real awesome 70s soundtrack, check out "Buffalo '66" which features some very radio-UNfriendly King Crimson & Yes. Or check out movies by Italian director Gabrielle Salvatores for great 70s rock like Deep Purple "Child in Time" and PFM "Impressioni di Settembre".

**edited to include a link to the Deep Purple scene in Salvatores' "Teeth". It's in Italian but this scene requires no translation if you watch it to it's shocking conlcusion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gv7EliJGBo

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[–] mburns955 10 years ago

Great Post. Zeppelin was my favorite band up until Houses of Holy and I don't
Listen to anything by Zep after that. Trick of the Tail a great album (big fan
of prog rock) so there r exceptions. Again, all my favorite albums were made
in early 70's and everyone has different tastes but can't help but think that
money and then video hurt music quality. Cheers

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[–] rooprect 10 years ago

(big fan of prog rock)

Ahhh... there's the problem (for me, too). Prog rock was unstoppable from like 1970 to 1974. And then what happened? It stopped! I still can't figure out what went wrong. It's like, one year Yes is doing the 22-minute monster "Gates of Delirium" and the next album they're doing the colossally stupid dud "Don't Kill the Whale" (Hey I love whales as much as the next guy, but that song makes me want to harpoon someone).

I'll definitely check out the docs you mentioned. I wish there was more info out there about the early 70s. Instead it's almost like an entire musical genre just vanished into a black hole. It must've been awesome to have been there when it happened.

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[–] mburns955 10 years ago

It was awesome; zeppelin playing 6 straight nights at MSG, sleeping out
for Stones "Hot Rocks" tour, Yes at Roosevelt Stadium etc. what made it really great
was lack of internet or videos and seeing them was special. Hanging out with friends drinking
and discussing best bands, best guitarist etc. then around 1975 corporations
started to create bands and the music suffered. Kansas, Journey, Heart, Bad Company
we're all horrible in concert. You can catch some of these acts (Lynard skynard doing Freebird)
On "Old grey whistle test" , a BBC show. In early 70's NY, the Fillmore East was the
place to see the up and coming bands. Can't replicate that time but can enjoy some old videos.
What killed Prog Rock was that they became so self involved and too artistic. I missed out
On the real early stuff like Cream or early King Crimson or Genesis ( as far as seeing them in person),
70-73 was the peak in my opinion. Cheers

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[–] yatzo376 9 years ago

I think prog Rock took up too much radio air time , getting in the way of greedy sponsors.

Less music, more commercials, more revenue,, but sadly , less art.

"You work your side of the street, and I'll work mine"

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[–] rooprect 9 years ago

Great point, yatzo. We needn't look to any complex conspiracy theories about the death of prog on the radio. The fact is, every time a dj plays "Close to the Edge" or "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" or "Dazed & Confused (live)" that's 30 minutes with no commercial breaks. I'm still amazed that any of those songs were played at all. Then there's "Thick as a Brick" at 45 min... each play probably lost a few thousand in advertisements. Bad for business!

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[–] mburns955 10 years ago

Forgot; if you get Showtime they have some awesome
music docs. Genesis, Beware mr baker (Cream), last days here (small but
interesting doc on Pentegram). Enjoy

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[–] stones78 10 years ago

Trick of the Tail is great, as is Bruce's Darkness on the Edge of Town from 1978.

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[–] rooprect 10 years ago

Yup, Trick was amazing probably because the band was giving it their all to prove that they could still hack it without Gabriel. Or should I have said, they could still Hackett without Gabriel. Haha lame

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[–] mobocracy 9 years ago

There's also a kind of lag effect. What was popular to the jock kids in 1976 was kind of a commercialization and distillation of music trends that may have been cutting edge almost 10 years previously.

The hard rock sound of the artists in this film wasn't cutting edge in 1976, it might have been seen as cutting edge in the mid-late 1960s (think the MC5 or maybe the Stooges), but the kids of Lee High School, 1969, would have been listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and some pop acts that faded away, none of which were really cutting edge at the time.

It's probably demographics that mostly explains the staying power of the mid-70s hard rock acts. A big enough bubble of people were into that kind of music that commercialization of it was seen as profitable. The bands also held onto that niche into the early 1980s, and the whole sound got revived with Van Halen and ultimately a bunch of West Coast acts by the mid-1980s and later.

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