UK Popular Music and Society in the 1970s

Commentators are unanimous about the important role of the UK in the 1970s in the history of popular music. Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Sex Pistols and the Police : perhaps no other country produced as many influential artistes in this decade. Yet there has generally been a separation between « serious » historical analyses of the decade’s social history and examinations of its musical legacy. This article attempts to look at the music in connection with the history of British society. What was changing about people’s relationship to music ? What were artistes proposing to consumers, as entertainment, as philosophical or political discourse or as aesthetic rebellion ?