“The 1970s would be the 1950s reborn but without their self-contest vulgarity, their tranquilly obvious bad taste, their triumphant complacency.” – The Washington Post
FASHION & DESIGN
Fashion trends from the 60s found their way easily to the 70s: mini-skirts, bell bottoms, hot pants, and platforms continued to grow in popularity during this time. The disco aesthetic in particular became famous after Saturday Night Fever debuted in 1977 – the same year New York City’s Studio 54 opened!
These fashion trends, coupled with an increased blurring of gender lines (unisex clothing, for instance), lead to the prominence of music artists’ androgynistic styles in the 1980s.
In addition to fashion, modern notions of advertising and branding were born. Paul Rand, considered the father of modern branding, re/designed logos for major corporations, including UPS, ABC, and IBM; Nike gave birth to its now infamous “Swoosh” logo; and thanks to a prominent marketing campaign based on product names like “Stow Away” [pictured above], “Stereo Walky,” and “Sound About,” the immediate popularity of Sony Walkmans forever changed how the nation consumed music.
MUSIC
From punk and R&B to blues and disco, the 1970s welcomed an explosion of artists all across the music industry. In particular, hard rock bands rose to international fame: AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and Black Sabbath, just to name a few!
As just one specific example of rock’s prominence, Bruce Springsteen’s album Born to Run debuted in 1975 and skyrocketed to the top of the charts, seizing gold certification in just six weeks. Scholars note how Springsteen’s album “presents the American myth of escaping a small town for something better and speaks of open highways and love” (Rose). Springsteen and artists like him are still powerful influences on the music world today, and their work continues to bring to light the social attitudes and concerns of the day (see Springsteen’s 2012 album, Wrecking Ball).
POLITICS
While industries like fashion and music flourished during the 70s, the nation was not so lucky in the political realm, making the decade incredibly turbulent overall. Many cultural communities continued their fights for equality and civil rights, while middle class, white communities began pushing back and developing a mass conservatism.
From an ideological perspective, Americans continued to fight for a better future: antiwar protests, environmentalism, and feminism were hot topics during this era. But the nation also dealt with issues in the economy (inflation and the recession), as well as the Watergate scandal.
The political turmoil we experience today may be very familiar to those who remember the political environment of the 1970s. Although politics are not an explicit topic of interest in Company, the psychological effects of living in continued uncertainty and anxiety no doubt plague Bobby and his friends throughout the show. Short-term versus long-term thinking are especially a cause of social tension in the show: Bobby wants to live in the now (and does so through his relationships), while his married friends constantly remind him about the importance of thinking about and acting on the future.
Looking Back: The 1970s in 2019
Popular culture today seems obsessed with returning to the 1970s. In recent years, numerous films, television shows, and remakes have come out that portray 1970s lifestyles, including American Hustle, The Deuce, and perhaps most famously, That ’70s Show! America seems nostalgic for a period that itself was nostalgia-filled: the 1970s, as described by The Washington Post, was a period of self-discovery, “a rummaging through the costume-chest of earlier decades to find a mode and a pose that would fit.”
This still seems true of us today in 2019. In the midst of social- and political-consciousness, continued fights for equality and civil rights, and disillusioned generations dealing with the environmental, economic, and political repercussions of the generations before, Millennials (born ~80s-90s) and Gen Z (born ~90s-00s) are aggressively seeking an identity of their own — an attempt to (re)define themselves as wholly different and “better” than the generations who came before.
For more info on the 1970s:
“Nostalgia for the ’70s, When the Big Trend Was Trends.” The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/12/29/nostalgia-for-the-70s-when-the-big-trend-was-trends/4e0185d8-3388-48ea-ac8f-eddf9b66f192/.
Rose, Cynthia, editor. American Decades Primary Sources, vol. 8. Gale, 2004.
“The 1970s.” History, 3 Oct. 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/1970s/1970s-1.
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