1970s

The 1970s was a decade of significant global change, marked by economic upheavals, political upheavals, and armed conflicts. It was characterized by frequent coups, domestic conflicts, and civil wars, especially in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The decade saw significant social progressive values, such as women's economic liberty and increasing political awareness. The economy of industrialized countries experienced a recession due to an oil crisis caused by oil embargoes by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries. The 1970s were also an era of great technological and scientific advances, characterized by the appearance of the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004, in 1971. However, the decade was also marked by global tensions, with over half of the world's population living under a repressive dictatorship. The decade also witnessed the Green Revolution, which brought about self-sufficiency in food in many developing economies, but was followed by an increasing number of people seeking urban prosperity over agrarian life. The oil shocks of 1973 and 1979 caused high inflation throughout much of the world for the rest of the decade. The 1970s also witnessed an explosion in the understanding of solid-state physics, driven by the development of the integrated circuit and the laser. The decade saw significant advancements in space exploration, with the US making two successful crewed lunar landings, and the Soviet Union launching the world's first space station program.The 1970s: A Decade of Social and Technological Change

Social Science:

• Natural language processing and cognitive sciences saw renewed vigor in the 1970s.
• Behaviorism was severely criticized by Noam Chomsky in 1971.

Technology:

• Concorde made the world's first commercial passenger-carrying supersonic flight.
• The 1970s saw the birth of modern computing and the development of microprocessors.

Electronics and Communications:

• The first digital watch was invented in 1972.
• The first mobile phone call was made in 1973.

Rail:

• British Rail introduced high-speed trains on InterCity services in the UK.
• Amtrak was formed in the US in 1971, taking over inter-city passenger operations.

Automobiles:

• The 1970s saw fuel-efficient vehicles due to the oil crisis.
• American-made cars lost their power and became progressively more boxy in design.
• The Japanese automobile industry flourished during the 1970s.

Society:

• The role of women in society changed significantly with growing feminism across the world.

• The Second-Wave Feminist Movement in the United States took a prominent role in society.

• The Civil Rights Movement began to fracture in the 1970s, with social groups defining themselves more by their differences than universalities.The Music of the 1970s:

• The 6th amendment was ratified in 1971, lowering the voting age to 18 due to young men being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War.

• The Beatles disbanded in 1970, but each member released successful solo albums.

• Popular music was dominated by musicians from the 1950s and 1960s, with newcomer rock groups like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin appearing.

• Funk and disco music were popular, along with hard-edged rock and metal artists like Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix.

• Classical and experimental music influenced art rock and progressive rock genres.

• The mid-1970s saw the rise of electronic art music and synthpop.

• Jazz musicians achieved cross-over success through jazz-rock fusion and acoustic jazz made a comeback towards the end of the decade.

• The punk rock movement emerged with bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash.

• The highest-selling albums of the decade were Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, Eagles' Hotel California, and Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.

• Country music increased in popularity with the outlaw movement led by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, and the rise of southern rock.

• Several popular rock stars, including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison, died at the age of 27.

• Statistically, Led Zeppelin and Elton John were the most successful musical acts of the 1970s.

The Film of the 1970s:

• The top ten highest-grossing films of the decade were Star Wars, Jaws, Grease, The Exorcist, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, The Godfather, Saturday Night Fever, Rocky, and Jaws 2.
• The New Hollywood movement continued with young filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg.
• Jaws ushered in the blockbuster era of filmmaking, and Star Wars surpassed it in 1977.
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show became the longest-running theatrical release in film history after flopping in its 1975 debut.
• The Golden Age of Porn continued with films like Debbie Does Dallas.
• The horror genre gained popularity with films like The Exorcist, The Omen, and their sequels.
• All That Jazz won four Oscars and critical acclaim.

Television in the 1970s:

• In the UK, three stations began broadcasting in colour between 1967 and 1969, but many viewers still watched black-and-white television sets.
• Notable dramas included Play for Today and Pennies from Heaven, with police dramas becoming more realistic.
• Popular UK sitcoms were gentle, unchallenging comedies of middle-class life, with exceptions like The Good Life and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.
• Spike Milligan's Q and Monty Python's Flying Circus were popular comedy shows.
• The science fiction show Doctor Who reached its peak.Television in the 1970s underwent a significant transformation with the rise of socially conscious programming, the women's movement, and minority-centric programming. Game shows, variety shows, and pay television services also saw a surge in popularity. The 1970s also saw the rise of disc sports and horror genre novels. In architecture, the decade brought experimentation in geometric design, pop-art, postmodernism, and early deconstructivism. The use of dark, earthy tones and wood decor replaced the bright colors and futurism of the 1950s and 1960s. The decade also saw the completion of several notable buildings, including the World Trade Center towers in New York and the National Assembly Building of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The discovery of the Terracotta Army figures in China in 1974 was a significant archaeological find.