E08: Why the ‘70s?

Hear the full episode here:

In this final episode of our introductory series, Jeremy and Tim dig into why the 1970s was such a crucial decade for political, social and musical innovation. Challenging the negative image of the ’70s so popularly held, they discuss the crucial importance of the era's global anti-colonial movements, and its liberation struggles around gender, sexuality and race, which found expression in music through punk, disco, afrobeat, reggae and proto-rap.

Tim and Jeremy also take on the thesis that the Counterculture of the late ’60s and early ’70s served purely as a precursor to neoliberalism, arguing that countercultural movements represented a genuine rebellion against the rigidity and conformity of the postwar settlement. Finally, with an eye to the dancefloor, they discuss how the decade saw the emergence of the DJ, and later the remixer, and the technical innovations both of early mixing and of the 12" single.

Join us next series, where Tim and Jeremy will look in depth at the transformative period of 1965–1975.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:
Cristina - Disco Clone
Max Romeo - Socialism Is Love
Machine - There But For The Grace Of God, Go I
Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Mirage
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
Brian Eno - Music for Airports pt1
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - Burning Rubber
Dinosaur L - Go Bang