Classic Rock Crisis, Circa 1975-76
The Day the Music Died … Again
I started this blog to give me a format to think through a few ideas focusing on music during the ’70s … and I’ve been particularly interested in looking deeper into the classic rock crisis of the mid-’70s, a time when rock seemed used up … creating an opening for punk and disco and new wave. Growing up listening to classic rock on AOR stations during the late ‘70s, I never knew the punk rebellion had struck, and didn’t catch on to new wave until the early ‘80s. While cool kids with safety pins stuck through their cheeks were listening to the Ramones … I was listening to a kitchen sink format that included Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart, Foreigner, Styx, Boston, Aerosmith, the Stones, CCR, Peter Frampton, the Who, Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, etc.
One of the first questions I want to look at focuses on the reality of the “rock is used up” myth: did rock really run out of steam in the middle of the decade, or did radio formats and record labels simply promote a dumbed-down version of classic rock? Another question that interests me is a more esoteric “what if”: would I—and others like me who’d been weaned on classic rock—have been receptive to punk if it had been added to classic rock play lists?
These seem like good starting points …
