In 1977 the music was better (I’m pretty sure we can say that about the Pistols too), the cars looked nicer and the drugs were better. I would say, we got the wrong stuff for this revival 🙂

Its not often you get a year where the change in youth culture is quite so defined.

I read something about hw everyone feels that about their teenage years.

Ask someone in their mid 20’s now and they’ll say that culture was at it’s height in the early 2000’s, Facebook kicked off, guitar bands and Indie came back after years of Ammerican influenced R&B, the Artic Monkeys changed record companies forever by getting a number 1 without one.

Ask someone in their mid 20’s in 10 years time and they’ll tell you people were taking to the streets to protest about conservative cuts, and Adel re-defined the music industry handing the power back to the record companies.

Its a fair point tinas but nothing has been like 1977 for a dramatic change in the whole youth culture

you’re wrong TJ.

global communication at the touch of a button on a device nearly every kid now carries around with them.

twin towers

cctv

the wire on TV.

’77 was boring compared to what kids can do nowadays.

Its a fair point tinas but nothing has been like 1977 for a dramatic change in the whole youth culture IMHO

FTFY

How about:
The death of most blokes aged 16-30 in the 40’s?
The creation of a ‘youth culture’ sometime in the 50’s?
The swiging 60’s?
The 70’s and all the hippies?
The 80’s and ……..(ok this is a possible low point)?
The 90’s gave kids free parties?

Its a fair point tinas but nothing has been like 1977 for a dramatic change in the whole youth culture

The impact from House music still permeates 25 years later.

But that didn’t happen in such a short space of time, nor has it changed the fashions and music dramatically in that short time – thats why 1977 was special – the pace of the change in a pre computer era

The 50s kicked it off for sure.

What seems to me different about the late 70s and early 80s is that a lot of us who were part of youth culture then still feel like we are. The first generation of perpetual teenagers?

slainte ❓ rob

Ever been to Shildon? In Shildon it’s still 1977.

you leave Shildon alone, it’s a truly great place.

Punk was dead in 77.

‘Ere Grandad_Jez – what about E’s and proper dance music…even wiped out football hooliganism…

Perhpas the biggest since? how much effect right across the culture? fashions?

Pretty big I’d say based on the crap even us 12 yr olds were wearing at the time. Dayglo rubbish, acid house faces on everything… I just knew I had to get some pills down my neck asap.

I think that you’d’ve find that if it was a culture you were part of it’s impact will have seemed much greater… everyone will seem to be doing it. Even in 77 I’m sure there were plenty of yoot that didn’t jump whole heartedly with 2 feet into the new style.

Perhpas the biggest since? how much effect right across the culture? fashions?

Fassion is cyclic, a few yers ago converse trainers, long hair and checked shirts were in fassion amongst the indie crowd, there was even an ammusing then and now photo in the Reading Post of festival goers from 30 years appart wearing identical clothing! So saying that we still wear the fassions from ’77 is misleading, plenty of people I went to ui with wandered around in neon dayglow stuff as early 90’s rave culture was back in fassion.

And “the biggest since” kinda backs up the point I made, ’77 might have been the biggest since ’76, but you were too young to appreciate ’76 so ’77 becames the most infuential/best/whatever but to soemone a year older they just looked on ’77 as building on what they were part of in ’76, and someone a year younger in ’78 was having the time of their life so ’78 was the best.

And once you’ve ‘grown up’ you look on modern culture with dissintrest and distain and believe that the time you grew up was the best time.

It’s a bit like saying summers were longer when you were a kid, they weren’t, you just had nothign to compare it to at the time, I can’t remember a single miserable summer growing up.

Spoony – I’ve witnessed you riding a mtb in leggings. You have no right to talk about fashion! Jezza on the other hand is more than happy to sacrifice safety in the pursuit of style.

TINAS I accept teh rose tinted glasses argument but I I still think the way it was so explosive and changed so much in such a short time is unparalleled. Its the short time scale adn the wide reach that makes it different IMO

And once you’ve ‘grown up’ you look on modern culture with dissintrest and distain and believe that the time you grew up was the best time.

This however I do not accept. I have enjoyed several cultural shifts since then. I do not live in the past culturally or musically.

I do not live in the past culturally or musically.

Oh god, I do. When I was a teenager, I used to giggle at the grizzled chap at the bar, bemoaning how Donington was rubbish, and all the bands just had shouting and growling singers, and that 1984 was where it was at when AC/DC headlined. I am now that grizzled chap. But female, obviously.

“Chase & Status? Who the bloody hell are they, and why are they above Machine Head? Why are all these boys whining and have their fringes brushed over one eye? Pah, I remember in the 90s when White Zombie and Pantera played, jumpers for goalposts, etc, etc”

And children’s TV nowadays? Rubbish! Where’s the Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Ulysess 31, Mysterious Cities of Gold or Dungeons & Dragons for the new generations? Or the deeply, deeply sinster Moomins and Let’s Pretend?

i wasn’t born

…so much as I fell out…

I was 12 in 77. Not quite old enough to grasp the punk thing, but I caught up over the next 2 years.

Putting up a list of No1 singles doesn’t really mean much in this context, much more revealing about the influence of punk on music are the album charts from 1976-1979:

# Artist[a] Album[a] Record label Reached number one[a] Weeks at
number one[a]
re Perry Como 40 Greatest Hits K-tel 4 January 1976 1
re Queen A Night at the Opera EMI 11 January 1976 2
164 Roy Orbison The Best of Roy Orbison Arcade 25 January 1976 1
165 Slim Whitman The Very Best of Slim Whitman United Artists 1 February 1976 6
166 Status Quo Blue for You Vertigo 14 March 1976 3
167 Rock Follies Rock Follies Island 4 April 1976 2
168 Led Zeppelin Presence Swan Song 18 April 1976 1
re Rock Follies Rock Follies Island 25 April 1976 1
169 ABBA Greatest Hits Epic 2 May 1976 9
170 Rod Stewart A Night on the Town Riva 4 July 1976 2
171 The Beach Boys 20 Golden Greats Capitol 18 July 1976 10
172 The Stylistics The Best of the Stylistics Volume II H&L 26 September 1976 1
173 Dr. Feelgood Stupidity United Artists 3 October 1976 1
re ABBA Greatest Hits Epic 10 October 1976 2
174 Various artists Soul Motion K-tel 24 October 1976 2
175 Led Zeppelin The Song Remains the Same Swan Song 7 November 1976 1
176 Bert Weedon 22 Golden Guitar Greats Warwick 14 November 1976 1
177 Glen Campbell 20 Golden Greats Capitol 21 November 1976 6
178 Queen A Day at the Races EMI 2 January 1977 1
179 ABBA Arrival Epic 9 January 1977 1
180 Slim Whitman Red River Valley United Artists 16 January 1977 4
181 The Shadows 20 Golden Greats EMI 13 February 1977 6
182 Frank Sinatra Portrait of Sinatra Reprise 27 March 1977 2
re ABBA Arrival Epic 10 April 1977 9
183 The Beatles The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl Parlophone 12 June 1977 1
184 The Muppets The Muppet Show Pye 19 June 1977 1
185 Barbra Streisand & Kris Kristofferson A Star is Born CBS 26 June 1977 2
186 Johnny Mathis The Johnny Mathis Collection CBS 10 July 1977 4
187 Yes Going for the One Atlantic 7 August 1977 2
188 Connie Francis 20 All Time Greats Polydor 21 August 1977 2
189 Elvis Presley Elvis’ 40 Greatest Arcade 4 September 1977 1
190 Diana Ross & the Supremes 20 Golden Greats Motown 11 September 1977 7
191 Cliff Richard & The Shadows 40 Golden Greats EMI 30 October 1977 1
192 Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols Virgin 6 November 1977 2
193 Bread The Sound of Bread Elektra 20 November 1977 2
194 Various artists Disco Fever K-tel 4 December 1977 6
re Bread The Sound of Bread Elektra 15 January 1978 1
195 Fleetwood Mac Rumours Warner Bros. 22 January 1978 1
196 ABBA The Album Epic 29 January 1978 7
197 Buddy Holly & The Crickets 20 Golden Greats EMI 19 March 1978 3
198 Nat King Cole 20 Golden Greats Capitol 9 April 1978 3
199 Original soundtrack Saturday Night Fever RSO 30 April 1978 18
200 Boney M Nightflight to Venus Atlantic 3 September 1978 4
201 Original soundtrack Grease RSO 1 October 1978 13
202 Showaddywaddy Greatest Hits Arista 31 December 1978 2
# Artist[a] Album[a] Record label Reached
203 Various artists Don’t Walk – Boogie EMI 14 January 1979 3
204 Various artists Action Replay K-tel 4 February 1979 1
205 Blondie Parallel Lines Chrysalis 11 February 1979 4
206 Bee Gees Spirits Having Flown RSO 11 March 1979 2
207 Barbra Streisand Barbra Streisand’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2 CBS 25 March 1979 4
208 Leo Sayer The Very Best of Leo Sayer Chrysalis 22 April 1979 3
209 ABBA Voulez-Vous Epic 13 May 1979 4
210 Electric Light Orchestra Discovery Jet 10 June 1979 5
211 Tubeway Army Replicas Beggars Banquet 15 July 1979 1
212 Various artists The Best Disco Album in the World WEA 22 July 1979 6
213 Led Zeppelin In Through the Out Door Swan Song 2 September 1979 2
214 Gary Numan The Pleasure Principle Beggars Banquet 16 September 1979 1
215 Boney M Oceans of Fantasy Atlantic 23 September 1979 1
re Gary Numan The Pleasure Principle Beggars Banquet 30 September 1979 1
217 The Police Reggatta de Blanc A&M 7 October 1979 4
218 Fleetwood Mac Tusk Warner Bros. 4 November 1979 1
219 ABBA Greatest Hits Vol. 2 Epic 11 November 1979 3
220 Rod Stewart Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 Riva 2 December 1979 5
(The very last digit is the number of weeks at No1)
I think this really shows the non-influence of punk on music at the time.

apart from punk was not about albums but singles and live music surely?

do the same for the 60s and you don’t get what we now think of as the influential music of the time showing up strongly

John Lydon definitely puts the Count in Country Life.