The 1970s...

The guitar was the main instrument of rock'n'roll and the great players became huge, enduring heroes to aspirants. These are the towering figures of British rock....

The Bay City Rollers were one of the biggest pop groups of the 1970s - but their fame was short-lived, caught between glam and punk and disco....

Folk-rock – the mixing of traditional material with electric instruments, blossomed fully-formed on Fairport Convention’s Liege and Lief and became an important…...

Where rock had looked to blues and America for its inspiration, progressive rock turned its face to Europe and the classical tradition as the basis for its complex…...

As a generation of West Indians grew up in the U.K., it was inevitable that British reggae bands would form. These were some of the big ones....

Hard rock developed out of blues and blues rock to become one of the dominant musical forms - and one of the most long lasting. These were the biggest names in the 1970s....

In a time of questing musicians, mixing jazz and rock was inevitable. Although the results were artistically satisfying, they generally made little commercial impact....

New wave was the more commercial, more acceptable face of punk. But it produced some excellent lasting music and artists....

For serious rock lovers, the Old Grey Whistle Test was the most important TV show of the 1970s, a place where they could see their favourite artists....

The 1970s continued the golden age of pop music, before it became too corporate. Although the charts were open to many things, a number of pop idols emerged during the…...

The short post-punk era offered a window for dark experimentation to groups, and several took great advantage of it to produce lasting, influential music....

The late 1960s and early 1970s brought a wave of singer-songwriters whose work has endured. These are some of the biggest names....

Space rock took psychedelic music as a starting point on its journey to the stars – of both inner and outer space....

One of the biggest acts of the early 1970s, T Rex began glam, but Marc Bolan's fame crumbled under the classic combination of drink and drugs before a car accident…...

The middle of the 1970s brought the era of doi-it-yourself releasing records, as a small wave of independent labels began to challenge the majors....

Punk changed the course of music. Although reviled by the mainstream at the beginning, it produced some of the most exciting music on the 1970s....

Glam was the first, and possibly the biggest, pop music fad of the 1970s, one that even crossed into more serious music as well as ruling the charts for a few years....

For a brief moment at the beginning of the 1970s, the festival seemed the perfect way to see groups. But a combination of factors gave it just a brief place in the…...

He’s one of the world’s great enduring pop stars, with true iconic status. But Elton John’s real artistic triumphs were in the first half of the 1970s....

For a short while the speeded-up ska of the Two Tone label was hugely successful. This is how it all happened....

From mail order import records to global mega brand, Virgin has gone from humble beginnings to make Richard Branson wealthy. During the 1970s, Virgin was a vital chain…...