Music of the '70s: Rock, Funk, Disco, Punk and More

• Week 1
  While 1970 saw the end of the Beatles, they opened the door to so many new artists. The ‘60s were a period of “experimentation”; in the ‘70s, new artists built on that experimentation. New ideas, new sounds, new groups and new technology gave the ‘70s its own sounds. It’s been said that 1971 “saw the release of more influential albums than any year before or since.” We’ll see how the changes in the ‘70s enhanced and influenced popular music—changes that are still with us today.
• Week 2
  We’ll look at some of those iconic album releases of 1971 and some of the events that began to unfold through 1972. Society was still being rocked by the war in Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement became the Black Power movement and a new music—“funk”—was filling the dance floors.
• Week 3
  The ‘70s were also the era of “rock”, with groups like The Doobie Brothers, The Eagles, Pink Floyd and Aerosmith leading the way. Mixed in were the smooth sounds of Philadelphia and the pop sounds of ABBA. The year 1974 is considered the beginning of “hip-hop” and we’ll look at how that began.
• Week 4
  New faces on the musical scene, like Bruce Springsteen, Kiss and Queen, continued the “stadium-rock” tradition that began in the early ‘70s. A new sound came out of Jamaica infused with a sense of spirituality, with Bob Marley and the Wailers; in the UK, a very different sound was unleashed on an unsuspecting world when “punk” roared onto the scene.
• Week 5
  Even though there were many new musical styles appearing in the ‘70s, nothing had the effect on the musical world as the start of “disco” did. No longer did the audience sit in their seats and simply watch bands; now they were on the dance floor all night, under the glow of a mirror ball in their new disco outfits.
• Week 6
  As the 1970s drew to a close, movies like Saturday Night Fever and Grease brought pop music to the silver screen. Even more changes arrived when “new wave” gave us new styles and new groups like The Police and Blondie.

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

• Recognize musical style changes that built on the musical experimentation of the 1960s to create new sounds of the 1970s
• Identify prominent bands and artists in these new music categories
• Appreciate the continuous evolution of popular music

• Lectures
• Participation in discussions
  
• Supplementary resources accessed through Canvas
  
• Reflective essay (applicable only to certificate students)

No textbook is required. We will provide all course materials online.