Ep. 55: Heartland Rock is about More than the Heartland
The heartland is an American region, but heartland rock is not regional. In fact, it can be argued that it is more of a culture than a sub-genre of rock. This episode discusses the origins of heartland rock and the themes that attracted fans to it, which are far more universal than record companies and music executives of the 70s and 80s would have liked to admit. Artists such as Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, and John Mellencamp created music that touched on feelings and issues that many people could relate to, whether they lived in the American heartland or not.
-------- Â
46:37
--------
46:37
FTR70 Sound Bite: Remembering Sly Stone
-------- Â
7:38
--------
7:38
Ep. 54: Into the 80s! What Came Next for 70s Heavy Metal?
How did heavy metal change from the 70s to the 80s? This episode examines the birth of "hair metal" and how, for a short but LOUD period of time, heavy metal was one of the most popular genres in American music. Bands such as Quiet Riot, Def Leppard, and even Van Halen benefitted from widespread exposure on MTV as the visual aspect of a band's image became as important as the music. *This also marks a change in venue for 80s music topics as FTR80 will be merged into the FTR70 feed. Look for 80s topics to be a continuation of topics previously discussed on FTR70.*
-------- Â
46:23
--------
46:23
Ep. 53 - More than Charley Pride: African Americans in 70s Country
The roots of country music are black and white. So, why do most people think of country as a white person's genre? This episode considers answers to that question and examines the contributions that African American artists made to country music in the 1970s.Â
-------- Â
42:30
--------
42:30
Ep. 52 - 70s Christmas Music
It isn't easy to write an original Christmas song that stands the test of the time, but artists of the 70s gave us several, such as "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano and "Step into Christmas" by Elton John. These songs, combined with some iconic covers, added a wide variety of Christmas music created in the 70s to the holiday song canon.Â
An audio documentary of 70s music. This podcast examines the intersection of a wide variety of musical genres -- pop, rock, country, country-pop, disco, punk, soul -- with the historic events and decisions that helped shape our modern world.