Why do I hate the 1970s so much?

[Dan G]

my dad still has green shag carpet in his bedroom, despite the fact that the rest of the house has been recarpeted TWICE since the 70s. [huh] i still had it in my room when i was a kid, it was perfect for losing legos in and then stepping on them later!

Ouch!! I had many a missing lego in the shag carpet of my parents house.... And many a sore foot from stepping on them...lol

 

[jamespowers]

Nah, give it a few more years, people will be yearning for it, especially in bright orange and yellows.

God forbid. I just can't see anyone being stupid enough to actually like avocado fridges and stoves. :eusa_doh:

 

[catsmeow]

Sorry if already mentioned, but wasn't there a 40's revival back in the 70's?

 

[Roger]

Sorry if already mentioned, but wasn't there a 40's revival back in the 70's?

Very briefly around 1976, I think with the first season or two of Wonder Woman and then some '40s themed sitcom on ABC, it was with Adrian Zmed and that guy who played on Bosum Buddies opposite Tom Hanks. I forget the name.:eusa_doh:

 

[catsmeow]

Very briefly around 1976, I think with the first season or two of Wonder Woman and then some '40s themed sitcom on ABC, it was with Adrian Zmed and that guy who played on Bosum Buddies opposite Tom Hanks. I forget the name.:eusa_doh:

There was definately some kind of revival going on because some clothing kind of have the style and shape but then look weird. I think maybe there was even a 20's thing? I was tooo young to remember.. You're right the later part of the 70's. I remember that blonde guy from Bosom Buddies. What happened to him..

It's good to have these sort of eras, so we can reflect whether good or bad. Each decade has it's own story to tell.

 

[jamespowers]

Sorry if already mentioned, but wasn't there a 40's revival back in the 70's?

More like a 30s revival for a short time with lousy polyester material in ugly colors. :eusa_doh: Big lapels with a double vent jacket and hippy hair. Woo hoo. :eusa_doh:

Regards,

J

 

[Marc Chevalier]

There was definately some kind of revival going on because some clothing kind of have the style and shape but then look weird. I think maybe there was even a 20's thing?

Two movies ushered in a brief '20s-'30s revival in the '70s: The Great Gatsby and The Sting. The best retro '30s film of that decade, Paper Moon, had no influence on '70s fashions.


.

 

[Dr Doran]

Two movies ushered in a brief '20s-'30s revival in the '70s: The Great Gatsby and The Sting. The best retro '30s film of that decade, Paper Moon, had no influence on '70s fashions.


.

Speaking of which (and referencing powers' comment supra, does it bother anyone else when a 1930s movie is made in the 1960s or 1970s and they bow to popular fashion and give the males long hair? This most upsetting trend is visible in the otherwise pretty interesting Bonnie and Clyde from, I believe, 1967. Although the ravishing Faye Dunaway makes the film work, the longish hair on Warren Beatty and the mullet on their sidekick bothered me like a sty in the eye. At least Carnivale featured proper haircuts on the leads.

 

[Lincsong]

1970's do it yourself kit cars

Remember the kit cars? Take the fenders off of a Pinto or Mustang II and make the car look like a 20's or 30's roadster. lol A couple guys in my neighborhood had those. Then there was the Excalibur retro ride. Ford also did a limited edition Model A repro in the late '70s. It too was built off of a Pinto/Mustang II platform.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

... does it bother anyone else when a 1930s movie is made in the 1960s or 1970s and they bow to popular fashion and give the males long hair?

With one noble exception: Paper Moon.

.

 

[Dr Doran]

Ya know, I started this thread, and to tell you all the truth, now I feel sort of bad about it. There are, here on the Lounge, a lot of people who had valuable experiences during the 70s and I realize that some of what has been said on this thread has stepped on those experiences. I wasn't really thinking about that. I suppose that I should restate this and say that to me many of the mainstream styles from that period were sub-optimal. (Of course, that would not have been a sufficient yeast to create a thread.) But I am afraid I came off rather insolently and I now somewhat regret it. The last thing I want to do is repel people from this vibrant place, the Lounge. Moreover, some of what the defenders of the 70s have been saying have made me see the decade differently, and more positively, especially the gentleman who was a skin going to clubs every weekend in London at that time (that post is pretty far back and I don't feel like digging it up, so I cannot tell you his name at the moment -- never mind, it was Salv). To tell you the truth, there are some 70s things, some mainstream (i.e. not the Clash or Tom Waits or the Stooges, who need no apologies) 70s things, that I like.

Steely Dan. For the sinister and allusive lyrics under the smooth, positive music. The inclusion of odd instruments.
The Eagles. For the encapsulation of all that was California.
Boston (don't ask me why -- I cannot defend them, but I get happy when I hear them, even "More than a feeling.")
Fleetwood Mac. For the superb drumming. For Rhiannon, the Celtic divinity who finally received a pop song (see Robert Graves' book The White Goddess for more on her). For the perfectly realized glamorous 70s "coke, hot tub, pink champagne, and peacock feather party" imagery, and for especially that very spooky song in which the singer chants, "they say there's a place in Mexico where men can fly over mountains and hills," which chills my spine just to write it.
ELO. For the cardboard UFO that came with one of their records.

I suppose that the insolent trashing of a decade is not the most constructive thing I could have done on the Lounge. I apologize to those who were taken aback.

 

[Dr Doran]

The rest of the country has long blamed the South for every racial ill, without making the effort to examine their own 'glass houses.' It's been so easy for the rest of America to say, "Quit complaining, [minority of choice]. Things are so much better here compared to the South." What an excuse to keep on keepin' on! It was, and is, a smug and hypocritical thing to do.


As a whole, the South didn't and doesn't deserve to be lumped together under one big, simplistic stereotype, which perpetuates ignorance and prejudice against an entire (and complex) region and population.

.

I agree, Marc. More on this interesting topic is written in a curious book called The Redneck Manifesto by Jim Goad. It's an interesting book with much the same argument you give, but more provocatively argued, and I have ended up buying it several times because someone always sees it in my house, gets fascinated, and I give it to them.

 

[catsmeow]

Speaking of which (and referencing powers' comment supra, does it bother anyone else when a 1930s movie is made in the 1960s or 1970s and they bow to popular fashion and give the males long hair? This most upsetting trend is visible in the otherwise pretty interesting Bonnie and Clyde from, I believe, 1967. Although the ravishing Faye Dunaway makes the film work, the longish hair on Warren Beatty and the mullet on their sidekick bothered me like a sty in the eye. At least Carnivale featured proper haircuts on the leads.

Doesn't really bother me. What I do think is a bit strange are movies for example made in late 60's and early 70's or later about WWII and you get like German characters with english accents. That doesn't bug me too much, more funny than anything else. I totally understand why it would have been made like that though.

 

[catsmeow]

Ya know, I started this thread, and to tell you all the truth, now I feel sort of bad about it. There are, here on the Lounge, a lot of people who had valuable experiences during the 70s and I realize that some of what has been said on this thread has stepped on those experiences. I wasn't really thinking about that. I suppose that I should restate this and say that to me many of the mainstream styles from that period were sub-optimal. (Of course, that would not have been a sufficient yeast to create a thread.) But I am afraid I came off rather insolently and I now somewhat regret it. The last thing I want to do is repel people from this vibrant place, the Lounge. Moreover, some of what the defenders of the 70s have been saying have made me see the decade differently, and more positively, especially the gentleman who was a skin going to clubs every weekend in London at that time (that post is pretty far back and I don't feel like digging it up, so I cannot tell you his name at the moment -- never mind, it was Salv). To tell you the truth, there are some 70s things, some mainstream (i.e. not the Clash or Tom Waits or the Stooges, who need no apologies) 70s things, that I like.

Steely Dan. For the sinister and allusive lyrics under the smooth, positive music. The inclusion of odd instruments.
The Eagles. For the encapsulation of all that was California.
Boston (don't ask me why -- I cannot defend them, but I get happy when I hear them, even "More than a feeling.")
Fleetwood Mac. For the superb drumming. For Rhiannon, the Celtic divinity who finally received a pop song (see Robert Graves' book The White Goddess for more on her). For the perfectly realized glamorous 70s "coke, hot tub, pink champagne, and peacock feather party" imagery, and for especially that very spooky song in which the singer chants, "they say there's a place in Mexico where men can fly over mountains and hills," which chills my spine just to write it.
ELO. For the cardboard UFO that came with one of their records.

I suppose that the insolent trashing of a decade is not the most constructive thing I could have done on the Lounge. I apologize to those who were taken aback.

Musically(as you've mentioned some good bands) we needed the 70's. It's all part of progression. Don't feel bad. As I mentioned before, each decade has it's good and bad points.

 

[jamespowers]

Ya know, I started this thread, and to tell you all the truth, now I feel sort of bad about it. There are, here on the Lounge, a lot of people who had valuable experiences during the 70s and I realize that some of what has been said on this thread has stepped on those experiences. I wasn't really thinking about that. I suppose that I should restate this and say that to me many of the mainstream styles from that period were sub-optimal. (Of course, that would not have been a sufficient yeast to create a thread.) But I am afraid I came off rather insolently and I now somewhat regret it. The last thing I want to do is repel people from this vibrant place, the Lounge. Moreover, some of what the defenders of the 70s have been saying have made me see the decade differently, and more positively, especially the gentleman who was a skin going to clubs every weekend in London at that time (that post is pretty far back and I don't feel like digging it up, so I cannot tell you his name at the moment -- never mind, it was Salv). To tell you the truth, there are some 70s things, some mainstream (i.e. not the Clash or Tom Waits or the Stooges, who need no apologies) 70s things, that I like.

Steely Dan. For the sinister and allusive lyrics under the smooth, positive music. The inclusion of odd instruments.
The Eagles. For the encapsulation of all that was California.
Boston (don't ask me why -- I cannot defend them, but I get happy when I hear them, even "More than a feeling.")
Fleetwood Mac. For the superb drumming. For Rhiannon, the Celtic divinity who finally received a pop song (see Robert Graves' book The White Goddess for more on her). For the perfectly realized glamorous 70s "coke, hot tub, pink champagne, and peacock feather party" imagery, and for especially that very spooky song in which the singer chants, "they say there's a place in Mexico where men can fly over mountains and hills," which chills my spine just to write it.
ELO. For the cardboard UFO that came with one of their records.

I suppose that the insolent trashing of a decade is not the most constructive thing I could have done on the Lounge. I apologize to those who were taken aback.

Don't feel bad. Nothing you mentioned changes my mind. It actually makes some of my points about the 70s. I still hate the 70s and will continue doing so.

Regards,

J

 

[jamespowers]

Remember the kit cars? Take the fenders off of a Pinto or Mustang II and make the car look like a 20's or 30's roadster. lol A couple guys in my neighborhood had those. Then there was the Excalibur retro ride. Ford also did a limited edition Model A repro in the late '70s. It too was built off of a Pinto/Mustang II platform.

Oh geez! Yes, I remember those. What loads of junk they were. Anyone who could slap fiberglass and bondo on a vehicle could make a monster car that looked ridiculous--not any more so than many of the 70s cars produced by the big three though. :eusa_doh:

 

[Lincsong]

Oh geez! Yes, I remember those. What loads of junk they were. Anyone who could slap fiberglass and bondo on a vehicle could make a monster car that looked ridiculous--not any more so than many of the 70s cars produced by the big three though. :eusa_doh:

You have no imagination.

 

[Lincsong]

I agree, Marc. More on this interesting topic is written in a curious book called The Redneck Manifesto by Jim Goad. It's an interesting book with much the same argument you give, but more provocatively argued, and I have ended up buying it several times because someone always sees it in my house, gets fascinated, and I give it to them.

What amazes me is that people still believe that stuff here in California. They need to look around and in the mirror before talking about prejudiced people in the South. I hear it from some people who will say something like; "oh don't move to Atlanta or Houston, they're real prejudice down there." It's also said to people in Hawaii to keep their young people from moving to the mainland, although it doesn't stop all levels of education from fleeing that place.

 

[jamespowers]

You have no imagination.

Yes I do. I can still remember seeing those and that is enough imagination. Geez, Ford products. :eusa_doh:

 

[Tango Yankee]

I enjoyed the '70s!

They were my teen years, having been born in late '59, graduated High School in '77. My home life had it's ups and downs. I didn't pay much attention to fashion or style, mostly wore jeans and t-shirts. I liked a lot of the music but not disco. I managed to avoid the drug scene completely. I lost 50% of my hearing in my left ear during the two years I worked in a factory after high school. Went to science fiction conventions and the Renn Faire.

All in all, the '70s were just like any other decade--it had it's good points and it's bad points. Things that were considered so cool or modern or whatever are looked back on with embarrassment or hilarity. There are some trends from the '70s I wouldn't want to see repeated, though.

BTW, I saw an actual Ford Pinto hatchback in decent shape on the road just a few days ago! Was so surprised I had to call my wife and tell her (she'd told me she had a Pinto for a while, as did her sister.)

Me, I learned how to drive in a manual-transmission Chevy Vega hatchback!

Cheers,
Tom