Why do I hate the 1970s so much?

[Marc Chevalier]

Cool photo! You look like a cross between Dennis Hopper and Rob Reiner.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I remember in the 90s when the seventies was making a comeback and it was the worst parts: mood rings and bell bottoms.:eusa_doh:

As far as fashion goes, the '60s and '70s have been back since the early '90s. The resurgence has lasted far longer than the '70s itself.


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[Marc Chevalier]

I can live without everything done then---yes and I mean the technology too. we would have just figured it out later. Whee.

In Chile, the '70s literally stopped on September 11, 1973. A military coup d'etat almost instantly turned back the clock to around 1950. Soldiers were ordered into the schools to forcibly cut the long hair off of boys. Jeans all but disappeared: quite a few were burned (along with books). Brylcreemed slickness was -- and still is -- the preferred look among conservatives there.


I'm not at all convinced that "figuring stuff out later" is a feasible (and good) idea. Reviving the '50s for another 16 years had a stultifying effect on Chile's intellectual, cultural and entrepeneurial life. Stagnation in excelsis.

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[Martinis at 8]

As far as fashion goes, the '60s and '70s have been back since the early '90s. The resurgence has lasted far longer than the '70s itself.
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That's because it's like a cancer going in and out of remission.

M8

 

[dhermann1]

I graduated from high school in 1964. If you didn't live through that time you can't imagine how shattering it was to have our idealistic young president murdered so violently, and almost immediately be plunged into the Vietnam War. Without that war there would have been no "60's". My perception of that era is that the "counter culture", which had started incubating as early as 1945, with Jack Kerouac, started to emerge around 1964-65. The real hippy era spans maybe from 1965 till 1973, when the Nixon era suppression really got into high gear. In terms of fashion, I see the "70s" styles as the mainstream trying to coopt the exotic styles of the earlier hippy movement, with truly ludicrous and hideous results.
The 60's "revolution" was inspired mainly by the war, but also it was a reaction to the dullness and conformity of the 50's. As much as I've come to admire and appreciate Dwight Eisenhower over the years (in 1959 it was common knowledge the president was an idiot) he did foster that atmosphere of dismalness. Again, if you didn't live through it, you couldn't understand. The retrospective view of the 50's as "fabulous" is 95% fantasy. Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley were fabulous, nothing else.
Personally, I stopped listening to rock and roll by the mid 70's. I think it was Bad Company that really killed it for me. Since then it's been all classical and big band/swing. I'm definitely in the disco sux camp.
And even tho I had my hair down past my shoulders within a year of getting out of the service in 1969, I definitely think there's nothing more pathetic than a fat, (long) grey haired middle aged hippy.

 

[jamespowers]

That's because it's like a cancer going in and out of remission.

M8

lol lol lol :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[jamespowers]

In Chile, the '70s literally stopped on September 11, 1973. A military coup d'etat almost instantly turned back the clock to around 1950. Soldiers were ordered into the schools to forcibly cut the long hair off of boys. Jeans all but disappeared: quite a few were burned (along with books). Brylcreemed slickness was -- and still is -- the preferred look among conservatives there.


I'm not at all convinced that "figuring stuff out later" is a feasible (and good) idea. Reviving the '50s for another 16 years had a stultifying effect on Chile's intellectual, cultural and entrepeneurial life. Stagnation in excelsis.

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I don't think a military coup d'etat era is a good example.
Just saw off the 60s and 70s and butt up the 50s to the 80s and be done with it.

 

[jamespowers]

I never hated the 70s. Had the best time of my life back then.

Alright, who let Charles Manson have a computer?

Regards,

J

 

[mikepara]

Punky Reggae party

I'll stick up for the 70's. It was a totally great time to be a teen! Better by far, than the 80's, 90's and 00's so far. I suppose it was my teen years. Everyone should look fondly on 'their time'.
I could list scores of cool 70's records, groups, clothes and other stuff and a large list of naff as well I suppose.

I can see how someone totally into Golden age 'vintage' could dislike it though. myself with a foot in and a foot out can see the good in all the decades from the 20's on.

In the Wonderland Zoo
There are certain bears who
Stay at home every night
Never quarrel or fight
Ahh, we don't even bite!

Help help, here come the bears
Lets split!
Help! It's the Hear Bear Bunch

 

[Quigley Brown]

In my school in '79, seniors wore t-shirts that said "Death Before Disco" and "Disco Sucks." Then again, they also wore shirts that said "Go to H*ll, World! I'm a Senior!" Whatever.

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The anti-disco stuff was mainly a publicity stunt. It was time for new dance music anyway.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I don't think a military coup d'etat era is a good example.

Actually, it's a better example than we might think. In the early and mid '60s, an array of right-wing paramilitary groups right here in the U.S.A. advocated exactly that -- for our own country. At the same time, left-wing paramilitary groups wanted to wage their own coup d'etat -- but with their own army. Frankly, both sides were nuts.


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[J.S.Udontknowme]

I think your age and where you lived has a lot to do with your opinion of the 70’s.
I was already in high school in 1970 and I don’t remember the 70’s as bad. Most of the 70’s haters here were very young , some weren’t even born in 1970.
A few of the bad things about the 70’s that I’ve seen mentioned here are the music, clothes, hair, gas lines, drugs and even mood rings.
My favorite music is 70’s. CCR, the Eagles, Joe Cocker, the Guess Who, the Allman Brothers , The Marshall Tucker Band and Eric Clapton are some that I listened to then and still do. I just ignored Disco like I do most of today’s music and nobody ever tried to force me to listen to it.
I did wear bellbottoms in the early 70’s but, even bellbottoms and long hair looked mild compared to some of the freaks you see today. I never wore a leisure suit and I only remember a few people that did but, they were everywhere on TV and in the movies. I’d probably hate the 70’s too if my parents had made me wear one. Late 60’s and early 70’s mini skirts were a dream come true for a teenage boy like me. I even had high school teachers that wore them.
Gas lines were never a problem here, I didn’t like the high prices but, I never had to wait in line to buy gas. Charlotte is only forty miles away but, gas lines were a big problem there.
Drugs were a problem in the 70’s and I think it’s worse now.
I don’t understand how a silly fad like mood rings could influence a person’s opinion of a decade. The only people I remember wearing them were teenage girls.

 

[mikepara]

I'd have to disagree with some of the era labels listed here though. The way I see it:
1920s = 1919 (Volstead Act) to Stock Market Crash 1929
1930s = Market Crash to 1940 (I see the invasion of Poland as a definitively 30s agression, and the few months that followed a period of change as the public sorted it all out)
1940s = 1940 to VJ Day.
The Atomic Era = VJ Day to Elvis on Sullvan.
1950s = Elvis on Sullivan to Sputnik (Really, about two, three years when you think about it)
The Space Age = Sputnik to Rubber Soul
The Swinging 60s = Rubber Soul to Sgt. Pepper.
The 60s = Sgt Pepper to Watergate.
The 70s = Watergate to Iranian Hostage release.
The 80s = Reagan years
The Nobody Can Recall if Anything Actually Happened, There Might Have Been a War on but We Were All Watching Twin Peaks Era = George Bush Sr.
The 90s = Nirvana to the Dotcom Bust
The 00s = The Dotcom Bust to Nobody Recalls if Anything Actually Happened, There Might Have Been War but We Were All Watching American Idol Day.
Senator Jack

Now Senator, Who's been listening to 'We didn't Start the fire' by Billy joel?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

... if you didn't live through it, you couldn't understand. The retrospective view of the 50's as "fabulous" is 95% fantasy. Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley were fabulous, nothing else.

My dad agrees with you. He was a teenager and young adult in the '50s, and hated it as much as I hated the '70s. My dad describes it as the most repressive, grey, and artificial decade of his life -- and he's a fairly conservative guy!


It was in the '50s, for example, that cities really began to decay, thanks in some part to white flight to the suburbs. The '50s also saw the dawn of really horrible urban architecture. Yet the decade's media glossed over all that. Even Esquire magazine was terrible in those years.

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[Marc Chevalier]

The decade we're living in now ('00-'07) is the most faceless of my lifetime.

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[Senator Jack]

Now Senator, Who's been listening to 'We didn't Start the fire' by Billy joel?

Certainly, not me. Billy Joel was one of the worst things about the 70s, and unfortunately, he lasted far beyond them. About a decade ago he said he was through with rock, that he'd never make another rock and roll record. The first thing I wanted to ask him was, 'When the hell did you ever make a rock and roll record?'

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

The cars of the seventies were the worst! Designed to rot away into mulch in about 3 years,... and for the most part the styling left much to be desired.

 

[Quigley Brown]

The cars of the seventies were the worst! Designed to rot away into mulch in about 3 years,... and for the most part the styling left much to be desired.

Remember the U.S. Bicentennial Editions of the Chevy Nova, Vega and Impala? They're all rusted away by now.

 

[jamespowers]

Actually, it's a better example than we might think. In the early and mid '60s, an array of right-wing paramilitary groups right here in the U.S.A. advocated exactly that -- for our own country. At the same time, left-wing paramilitary groups wanted to wage their own coup d'etat -- but with their own army. Frankly, both sides were nuts.


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But it never happened is my point. :eusa_doh:
I advocate a sawing off not a military coup. :eusa_doh:
The theme song for the 1970s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7twxFSKyTQ

Regards,

J

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Remember the U.S. Bicentennial Editions of the Chevy Nova, Vega and Impala? They're all rusted away by now.

I think they rusted away by about 1978.