70s Music Videos

No decade did more to define what popular music could be than the 1970s. It was the era when the album became the primary artistic statement, when FM radio gave songs room to breathe, and when the sheer range of what counted as a hit split wide open. Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd built cathedrals of sound while Stevie Wonder ran off one of the greatest creative streaks in the history of recorded music. Elton John and David Bowie turned the rock star into a shape-shifting character. The singer-songwriters — James Taylor, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne — made confession itself into a commercial force.

Then, halfway through the decade, the floor lit up. Disco moved out of the clubs and onto the charts, and for a few years the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, and Chic ruled the world from the dance floor. But the 1970s were never just one thing at a time. Funk from Earth, Wind & Fire and Parliament sat alongside the outlaw country of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings; the soft-rock gloss of the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac shared the airwaves with the hard-charging riffs of Deep Purple and Aerosmith. Motown was still humming, Philadelphia soul was at its peak, and reggae was crossing over through Bob Marley.

It was also the decade the music turned genuinely global and genuinely heavy at once. Progressive rock stretched songs past the ten-minute mark; punk arrived at the end of the decade to tear the whole thing down and start again. Europe produced its own giants — ABBA out of Sweden, Boney M. out of Germany, glam and glitter out of Britain — while American radio absorbed all of it. The 1970s were sprawling, ambitious, and gloriously uncontainable, a decade that refused to settle on a single sound.

Below you’ll find Music Videos Club’s growing collection of 1970s videos — official releases, live performances, and television appearances — each paired with the full story behind the recording: the chart performance, the studio sessions, the human details that most sites don’t bother with. Browse by what you remember, discover what you missed, and find out what was actually happening when these songs were made.