Thanks for waiting two weeks for the latest post in my quest to determine my “Peak Music Year”. Get more background here and here if you wish. My task is to examine the BillBoard Hot 100 music charts for the years 1965 through 1975 to see if I can pinpoint the year that most influenced my taste in music. This installment brings us to the year 1970. And awaaaay we go!
You can see the 1970 BillBoard Hot 100 Chart for yourself here. My first impression is that Pop Music, or what we used to call “bubblegum pop” seems to be emerging as a dominant genre, with more than half the #1’s fitting that description. Indeed the group with the most #1’s in 1970 are the poster children for pop music, with one of those children eventually earning the title “The King of Pop”. They are the “winners” of 1970 with four #1’s, The Jackson 5 which of course featured Michael Jackson. The runners up with only two #1’s in 1970 are – no surprise here – The Beatles. I’ll show you the four #1 Jackson 5 songs, but before I do I have to say that right off the bat I think I can eliminate 1970 as my peak music year. Chronologically it might have been a good candidate as it was the year I entered High School and was well into my adolescence which seems like a good time for a person to bond emotionally with music. However, after perusing the chart I find no songs that really made an impression on me. Even the Beatles’ #1’s that year, including the iconic Let It Be, aren’t among my favorite tunes though there are some tunes whose titles one would recognize, including Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel.
OK, back to The Jackson 5. They had four #1’s in 1970:
First up – it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it – I Want You Back
Next up – bubblegum, anyone? ABC
Third up – The Love You Save. Huh. Forgot about that one.
And fourth, probably my favorite of the bunch, the ballad I’ll Be There
So in conclusion, 1970 is most likely not my peak music year, and possibly a year the marks a turning point in the culture away from the counterculture and rock music that dominated most of the 1960s to more commercial pop music. What do you think?