The Music of 1971: Was it the peak of Rock?

I know that title sounds silly, as there was a ton of killer music released in the 1960s, and much more since 1971, but here is the deal.

First off, this is my first thread, so please be gentle... I hymned and hawed about this for a while, and finally decided to go for it...

Ok, so next Monday I have to turn in my Master Thesis in History for a committee reading and then I must defend it on June 10th. I've been feverishly working on it off and on since I first started reseaching my hunch over a year ago. Most seriously, since this past January.

I'm in the final stages now, and I'm mostly just curious as to your opinions on the music of 1971 and its relative import in the history of Rock. I highly respect the wealth of knowledge on Rock music collected here in these forums, and more importantly, many of you were buying and listening to this classic music back then... (Sadly, I was only 6).


Here is my basic argument, highly simplified:

1971 represents a unique moment in Rock history. Certain factors to combined to create what I consider to be the best concentration of rock albums which have come to define and reflect the Baby Boomers and the counter culture in which they were created. The counter culture's political aims died by 1971, and as the 1970s progressed, many of the poltical aspects of the counter culture dissappeared as the Baby Boomers turned inwards, towards self-reflection, spirituality, drugs, communes, and/or just gave up on alternaive lifestyles and joined the mainstream. Concurrently, the music industry changed, increased technological advances meant better sound quality, and increased artistic control meant groundbreaking album cover like Led Zep IV and Stick Fingers. Rock became big business, really big business post 1971, and it also splintered into all many sub-genres, thus ending any sense of community or collective conciousness that the counter culture may or may not of had. Thus, at this particular moment, these artist created and released these amazing records, which, arguably remain their artistic peaks, if not their commerical one. Then the drugs and money kicked in...


I know there are some gross generalization in here, but I'm basically asking you all to share your stories and thoughts on that year, the music, what it all meant to you etc... Feel free to tear my thesis apart, it might help me prepare for my defense, but it is too late to change it seriously now.


There are literally 50 killer, career defining, albums form in 1971, but for the sake of this paper, I focused only on these omnipresent ten for various reasons, mostly obvious:

Led Zeppelin IV
Sticky Fingers
Who's Next
Aqualung
Hunky Dory
Imagine
Tapestry
Blue
What's Goin' On?
and
There's A Riot Giong On...


It would take me an hour to type up and spell check the next forty, (hint, many of them are on gold disc) but if you can think of any career defining albums released in 1971 which represents, arguable of course, that artist's artistic peak, please feel free to chime in.


I must be on my way, time waits for no man, and this fool is way behind...


Over to y'all, I don't plan on chiming back in for a day or two to see what develops.

Discuss:

 

I think, historically speaking, it was a significant cross roads year for pop music and as you mention, the era when fragmentation began to occur in earnest. What many people define as the 'sixties' (culturally) was really the period from 1965 to 1975 - the beginning and end of the Vietnam war - the decade following the British invasion (now generically termed Classic rock) - the last years before Disco and punk. So 1971 was just beyond the mid-point of this decade.

I still marvel that this was only 5 or 6 years after the significant shift in youth behavior (i.e. longer hair, relaxed dress & moral codes, a willingness to experiment with drugs, group resistance to popular / government activity, Civil rights awareness, etc.). Popular media (and most older generational folk) tended to portray pop/rock music to that of a quasi-tribal gathering (even if this was not exactly accurate). Certainly there was, leading up to the seventies, a 'leading edge' to music and woe be to the band or artist that fell off that or strayed too far from it. 1971 was the year following the death of several of rocks most popular stars. Suddenly what conservatives were saying about drugs seemed to be coming true. Promises like the space program (the moon landings were at their apex) and surgical advances (open heart surgery) contrasted with dark government fear mongering (the Vietnam and Cold Wars). It was also the year following the first 'Earth Day' - the beginning of 'pop' environmental consciousness and an awareness of humankind's unchecked abuse of the earth and its life forms.

As the recent Wrecking Crew movie/documentary noted, in the early '70's the 'self contained' artist or group - and the 'album' - became the predominant vehicles for 'relevant' music. By 1971 the need for pop artists to have 'hits' (in order to be 'successful') was fading fast. The old school music marketers and controllers were nearly irrelevant and out of touch by then.

 

It was a great year for babies being born. But one year shy of the peak. 1972 reigns supreme if you ask me.

 

Uh...as a baby-boomer, ...I was all of nine years old in 1971, and I wasn't that attached to music that year.

My musical world consisted of The Jackson 5, The Archies, and the Partridge Family.

I heard a lot of damn good soul music that year, too.

 

I'd say no way was it the peak.
But it was the beginning of a resurgence, IMO. I don't know about career defining but there were some good albums out that year.
Surf's Up Beach Boys
Broken BarricadesProcol Harum
Straight UpBadfinger

 

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=104162

 

So your thesis is pretty much built on the premise that these 10 albums rocked -- in your opinion?

I dunno, man. My college courses were a lot tougher than that.

Jeff

 

Without agreeing or disagreeing, I think at the very least your thread title should include the words "so far."

 

Alice Cooper - Love it to Death and Killer

both 1971

 

Meddle, Muswell Hilbillies & Master Of Reality would be in any of my 1971 lists. but it's far from the best year of rock.

 

I say 1973 was

 

I don't know about it being "the peak of rock", but I've always thought 1971 stood out as the most amazing year for great albums. The next LPs I'd personally add to your very agreeable list of ten would be Paul McCartney's "Ram" and Roy Harper's "Stormcock".

 

"Everybody knows rock music attained perfection in 1974; it's a scientific fact!"

 

Interesting in that theres six English artists/bands listed here. One of the first albums I think of - when I think '1971' - is Neil Young's After The Gold Rush. Also the Allman Brothers Live At Fillmore East. Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, I think, really captures a still picture of America in 1970-71.

 

I think there was more exciting stuff going on, album wise, in '67, and '65 and '66 were peak years for singles. That said, '71 does seem to be when what might be termed "album rock" really came into its own. All vestiges of psychedelia were well and truly gone by then, and you had several progressive and hard rock masterpieces that came to define what is now "classic rock"

 

I'm doing my thesis on popular music, too - and, hey, give the dude a break, if you can get your committee to go for it, there is a wealth of cultural meaning expressed in pop music (much of it because we can't express it in other ways).

Anyway, I like that you made this important point:

I would hit that hard.

I think it's very interesting that even without the political and social impetus behind the music and the advent of a HUGE money-making apparatus, the music actually THRIVED.

I would think about why that might be, though I realize you've already done all your "thinking" and now it's time to defend.

Best of luck to you - if you want to PM me, Hell, I'll read the whole thing and give you feedback.

Regardless, let us all know how it goes!

 

If '71 represents the peak, as the OP suggests, then no, the music didn't thrive, it merely sputtered on.

 

I think you're off by a couple years but that's subjective I guess. I will say thart the Sixties began on Feb. 8, 1964 when the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.

 

Not so fast there! Yes the Paisley / English and over the top '60's variety of psych was pretty much gone, but in its place were more diffused forms; David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name, The Moody Blues Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, The James Gang 'Thirds'. Ten Years After's 'I'd Love To Change The World' is another good example of psych of that period.

 

I endorse every word of this post, especially the point about '65 and '66 being the peak years for rock singles.

 

The fact that rock shook free of the psychedelic/hippie influences was huge. 71 was indeed a great year. Brown Sugar and Maggie Mae on the radio. Wow.

And there ain't nothing wrong with the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds, either!

 

My preferences would be with 1972 or 1973, but in previous threads it seemed that the consensus range would put 1971 right in the middle of the great years.

 

Music has been going mostly downhill since 1966 in my opinion. Lately it's been a little better than the previous 15 years though.

 

Look, let's just agree that for one special decade (1965-1975) music was magical. It will never be that good again. While we may enjoy lots of good stuff in the present day, we will always be looking back at that decade.

 

It was one of the peaks of rock... It all comes down to taste. My favorite years are 67 and 77, but 71 is definitely 3rd! It has my favorite non Beatles album in Who's Next and I still drool over Carole King's Tapestry.