•

second half of the seventies

•

FM radio changed over the course of the 1970s

•

started as free form, you can play anything you want, disc jockey was in complete control

•

as it became popular, more stations switched to the album-oriented rock format

•

more possibility of profits being made

•

so only had songs that people wanted to hear

•

radio was not just radio, it was commercial radio, the owners of the stations were in it to:

•

self advertising, make money

•

the more ears you could get on the station, the more you could charge for advertising

•

there was a force on the station to construct a play list that kept people listening as much as possible

•

as the 70s unfold, the disc jockeys have less and less say about what is played on the air

•

they don't lose all say but in general

•

leads to a bigger FM radio business

•

in the beginning of the 70s you might have had long tracks that went on for 8 or 9 minutes

•

by the end of the 70s the maximum song is about 4 to 5 minutes

•

AM became pop radio at the end of the 60s

•

rock radio moves into the FM band at the end of the 60s and into the 70s

•

but by the time it gets to the mid-decade it looked quite like AM radio from the 60s

•

in the sense that it is highly formatted

•

almost a top 40 kind of format

•

a lot of the musicians from the first half of the decade didn't like that that much

•

concert circuit venues

•

the first tours in the 60s was not a big concert business

•

in the late 70s you have people who are in the business of doing nothing but

•

promoting these tours

•

providing sound systems for these tours

•

providing lighting for these tours

•

being on the road with a band becomes a business that you can do full time and make a lot of money

•

provides a lot of opportunities for bands

•

the rise of the mega-album

•

1975-1980

•

comes as a bit of a surprise in the music business

•

some bands in the second half of the 70s had record sales far beyond the wildest fantasies and dreams of record company owners and investors

•

explodes in a fantastic kind of way

•

triggered a kind of dumbing down of rock in order to go for the biggest sales possible

•

Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive (1976)

•

one of the first big mega albums

•

previous bands

•

Humble Pie

•

1971 Rockin' the Fillmore: double live album

•

1972-1974 three solo albums

•

a live album

•

"Show Me the Way"

•

"Baby, I love Your Way"

•

"Do You Feel Like We Do"

•

became famous for something called the talk box

•

had inch-wide surgical tubing

•

you could shape it as if the guitar was talking

•

make him into a star

•

Eagles - Hotel California (1976)

•

Joe Walsh

•

very big album

•

"New Kid in Town"

•

"Hotel California"

•

"Life in the Fast Lane"

•

a bit of a concept album about what can happen to you if you get stuck in the California life style

•

you can check out anytime you want but you can never leave

•

influenced by the Sgt. Pepper album cover

•

1979: The Long Run, another big album

•

put the Eagles into the category of mega stars with gigantic sales

•

Fleetwood Mac -

•

originally starts out as a Blues band in England

•

Mick Fleetwood and John McVie

•

Peter Green on lead guitar

•

black magic woman, later a hit for Santana

•

Bob Welch in early 1970s

•

then leaves

•

then two Americans

•

Lindsey Buckingham

•

Stevie Nicks

•

1975 Fleetwood Mac

•

"Over my Head"

•

"Rhiannon"

•

1977 Rumours

•

very big album

•

not only #1, but spent 31 weeks at #1

•

"Dreams"

•

"Go Your Own Way"

•

"Don't Stop"

•

all staples of classic rock radio now

•

tremendous expansion of profit in the business

•

record businesses had their mouths watering

•

because there was so much money in it

•

the criticism would be that this shapes a lot of their thinking

•

it's a multi-million dollar lottery and they don't want to invest their money in bands that don't have a chance of winning