No Dice–A '70s Music Blog

How do you define what rock music is at any given historical moment?

I have a little downtime over the holiday break … so I’d like to lay out or frame—over a half-dozen or so entries—an idea. It basically revolves around a particular period of time—‘75-‘79—and a particular music—rock—and asks: what did rock music have to offer music fans at this juncture of time?

The juncture seems to be the crossroads where whatever had been initiated in rock during the mid-‘60s was either coming to an end or changing. I’ll get more into the traditional narratives of this mid-to-late-‘70s juncture/change later … I’ve also picked this juncture because I came of age as a music listener during this time. The original question then—what did rock have to offer?—is set against a backdrop of familiar narratives on what happened to rock between ’75 and ’79, and against a personal backdrop of my listening habits during that time.

In a way, ’75-’79 seems like a bad time to write about, because it’s been covered so often. But how many folks have more than a rudimentary knowledge of what rock had to offer between ‘75 and ‘79? How many people have dug beneath the clichés to take a fresh look at the clash between classic rock, new wave, and punk? Other questions might include:

1. How did major labels and FM radio limit what kind of rock music was available between ’75 and ‘79?

2. How did the rock press and FM radio frame the rock cannon between ’75 and ‘79?

3. Were there non-mainstream forms of rock available for those industrious enough to find them in the mid-to-late-‘70s?

4. What were the spaces—musical, philosophical—between the various forms of rock during the mid-to-late-‘70s?

5. Is it possible to sum up rock music—what it was, wasn’t—during the mid-to-late-‘70s?