Early '70s Radio: The American Format Revolution

by Kim Simpson

Providing a fresh reevaluation of a specific era in popular music, this book contextualizes the era in terms of both radio history and cultural analysis. Early '70s Radio focuses on the emergence of commercial music radio "formats", which refer to distinct musical genres aimed toward specific audiences. This formatting revolution took place in a period rife with heated politics, identity anxiety, large-scale disappointments and seemingly insoluble social problems. As industry professionals worked overtime to understand audiences and to generate formats, they also laid the groundwork for market segmentation. Audiences, meanwhile, approached these formats as safe havens wherein they could reimagine and redefine key issues of identity. A fresh and accessible exercise in audience interpretation, Early '70s Radio is organized according to the era's five prominent formats and analyzes each of these in relation to their targeted demographics, including Top 40, "soft rock", album-oriented rock, soul and country. The book closes by making a case for the significance of early '70s formatting in light of commercial radio today.

Genres: Music, History

286 pages, Paperback

First published July 21, 2011

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like a lot of 70s popular music, but not so much this book's dry, academic treatment of the era. Perhaps useful as a reference source.

[Phil Schafer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read. The book covers the history of American radio, from border radio to the blacklisting of Elvis, and on to album rock. My only complaint was the font size.

[Russell Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

A deeply detailed study of the songs, the industry choices, the personalities, the cultural trends, and the business models that shaped how pop radio changed in the wake of the 1960s, with the multiplication of styles and formats--Album Oriented Radio, Progressive Rock, Disco, and more-- both contributing to and normalizing the racial and musical and gender shifts by which the once capacious understanding of rock 'n' roll became divided and even segregated in the popular consciousness. The salesmanship and strategy of radio station owners and record marketers is only part of this complicated story, but Simpson tells it very well.

[George Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gloomy retrospective

First of all, I loved the 70's.....the music, the feeling, the television, etc. While historically accurate, this work paints an extraordinary dismal view of the decade.. The author is entitled to their views, but for me, I will continue to cherish my "Wonder Years."