Love the Sound of 1975? Then You’ll Love These Musicians
The psychedelic hippie rock lovefest music of the 60s gets a lot of attention, but everybody with a really good ear knows nothing is better than music from the 70s! By the middle of the decade, clubs were blaring disco for the dancers with all the cool moves. Acts like the Bee Gees won over the critics, Stevie Wonder was still in the middle of his unprecedented five-album golden era, and Parliament Funkadelic was poised to take funk to outer space, or rather, graciously deliver space funk back to Earth.
It was a glorious time for music that still influences singer-songwriters today. If your ear is still tuned into 1975, here are some musicians you’ll love today.
Anderson .Paak
The musician known as Anderson .Paak has a very fresh, modern sound, but it’s no secret which musical decade produced him. His funky but tight drumming has something from hip hop, and sometimes he’s rapping as much as singing. Make no mistake, he pulls much from the 1970s.
If you couldn’t hear it in his music, the 70s fashion ensemble he wears playing with Bruno Mars in his band Silk Sonic is a dead giveaway, not to mention the band’s other member, Bootsy Collins, the 70s P-Funk legend who is still playing “on the one” today. Paak has different sounds he can move between seamlessly, but his sound and feel bear a lot of resemblance to 70s music.
Lila Drew
The 22-year-old Lila Drew is already making a name for herself in the indie music scene by writing smart but plainspoken love songs with a poppy rock sound that belongs on any vibes playlist you’ve got going.
Musically, she’s got more in store than a lot of modern musicians, with unexpected twists and turns. Don’t get comfy after the first verse, thinking the second will sound just like it. While, like every musician, she borrows from 70s giants, she also recalls contemporary artists like Lana Del Ray, Sky Ferreira, and others.
Lila Drew has toured Europe, and her album All the Places I Could Be caps off her viral hits perfectly.
Leon Bridges
Leon Bridges honoured the music of the 1950s with his first release from 2015, Going Home. Since then, he’s tapped into a groovier, low-end-heavy 70s thing. 2018’s Good Thing blends a contemporary freshness with some chops and feels from past decades.
Gold-Diggers Sound is his most recent release and feels the most like something from the 1970s. The R and B combines the sounds and feels of yesteryear without seeming old or stale. There’s a difference between repeating prior music versus absorbing its core and finding ways to add to it that bear your own signature as an artist.
On the one hand, music from the 1970s ranges considerably in terms of feel and instrumentation. Yet there’s something about songs from that decade that just seem recognizably from that time period. These modern musicians have clearly listened to a lot of that music before forging their own path. Those who love what is arguably music’s best decade should listen to these artists.
