I saw this question on another site and thought it would make for some interesting discussions.

Quality-wise. the UK

Commercially, the USA

My favorite band was formed in the 1970s, but top-to-bottom, I believe there were better UK bands:

Black Sabbath
Led Zeppelin
Deep Purple
UFO
Thin Lizzy
Pink Floyd
Slade
Sweet
Scorpions
Motörhead
Mott The Hoople
T. Rex
Queen
Judas Priest
Uriah Heep
Roxy Music
Foghat
Humble Pie
Status Quo
Boomtown Rats
Rainbow
Budgie
Trapeze
Nazareth
The Who
Rolling Stones
Free
Bad Company
Sex Pistols
The Clash
Specials
Elvis Costello

I'm preferential to the British sound. I enjoy many American bands, but the Brits always had a cutting edge. It seemed like American bands were attempting to emulate the British sounds. I can see some influence of American bands on the Brits, but overall give me the U.K. . American bands try to be pop music, and that's when it gets watered down.

The greatest example that I can give is the reception of Jimi Hendrix. He was with a talented band in the U.S. that influenced The Beatles, but he wasn't accepted until he made the journey across the pond. I still hate that Chas Chandler had a part in that, but I digress. Paul brought him back to the U.S. .

I was thinking about British bands and Cheapy's list and came up with a few more:

Yes
Ten Years After
Jethro Tull
Savoy Brown

I think most of these were formed in the 60's, but they all had hits during the 70's.

How about bands from America?

One band that people forget is Badfinger. Some people think they were a Beatles creation, but to me they were a dark shadow of The Beatles. There are two other bands that I enjoy from the British Isles that were formed in 1977 and it was Def Leppard and Whitesnake. This doesn't take into account The Kinks, Foghat, Elton John, ELO, The Baby's, Humble Pie, Peter Frampton, Bee Gees, Genesis, or Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. I won't mention three big players of the 70's British Sound that I loathe to hear.

My favorite American bands from the 70's were :

Van Halen, Boston, KISS, Foreigner, Journey, Blue Oyster Cult, Aerosmith, New York Dolls, Beach Boys, Kansas, Grand Funk Railroad, and Head East.

This doesn't take into account the Aussie and Great White North Bands that were big. You also have to take into that the conglomeration of British and American artists such as STYX.

More American bands:

Allman Brothers, Doobie Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, Montrose...more later

Foreigner was a "conglomeration of British and American artists"


Every member of the original Styx lineup is from the Chicago area & Tommy Shaw is from Alabama..


My favorite 1970s USA bands:

Cheap Trick
Blue Öyster Cult
Aerosmith
Dictators
New York Dolls
Ramones
Van Halen
Bloodrock
Ted Nugent
Ram Jam
Lynyrd Skynyrd
ZZ Top
Black Oak Arkansas
Ohio Players
Allman Brothers
Steely Dan
Chicago
Diamond Reo
Styx
Little Feat
Modern Lovers
Rex
Tubes
Frank Zappa
Starz
Warren Zevon
Angel
Montrose
Iggy Pop/Stooges
Hounds
Cars
Eagles

^ I suppose that I was thinking about Dennis time in England when he did his stage performances. He speaks with a British accent now, and they may have mislead me. I was thinking about Foreigner being formed in New York.

Southern Rock.

the clash - they were british right?

If you are asking which artist ruled the 70's, ther list begins and ends here: The Captain and Tenille.

That's it. That's the list.

Well then if you throw in Capt & Tenille, what about Sonny & Cher and The Carpenters?

The Captain and Tenille are the zenith of musical history. For hundreds of thousands of years before them, music was building to a crescendo. That crescendo? The Captain and Tenille. Everything recorded before or since pales in comparison to their genius.

Actually it was what country, the UK or the US.

The Captain and Tenille were so incredibly awesome that they actually transcended mere political and geographic boundaries, thus rendering any other American or British artists of the '70s or any other decade completely irrelevant.

Not many people know this, but the actual cause of the Beatles break-up was their knowledge that the Captain and Tenille were on the musical horizon, and if they had remained together they would have quickly been eclipsed by the most important musical act in the history of the world, that's right, the Captain and Tenille.

^ put the bottle down . . .



Muskrat Susie, Muskrat Sam
Do the jitterbug out in Muskratland
And they shimmy
And Sammy's so skinny

Into the Austin Sound of the Day -

Willie Nelson
Waylon Jenning
B.W. Stevenson
Jerry Jeff Walker
Gary P Nunn
Rusty Weir
Steven Fromholtz
Michael Martin Murphy
Ray Wiley Hubbard

thats pretty dang good right there.

RIP Rusty