While the '50s is known for the Saxophone and Piano, the '60s for the Electric Guitar and the '80s for the Synthesizer, wouldn't you agree that strings (especially the violin) are the one instrument that mainly gets the '70s association? It's all over the place from pre-disco hits like early Jackson 5 material, The Theme from Shaft, TSOP and Love's Theme, Walking In Rhythm, to the disco classics "The Hustle", "Fly, Robin Fly", "Disco Duck", "We Are Family" and "Night Fever" and "Staylin Alive" and "YMCA". But once the '80s arrived, strings quickly fell out of use in favor of synthesizers.

A midtempo or quick pop song with lots of strings and no guitars really screams '70s to me.

i associate 70s pop/soft rock with electric piano and lavishly produced, multi-tracked clean electric guitar with lots of effects on it. there were lots of strings and brass etc., too, i think it was a symptom of the obsession with production and massive multi-tracking. 24- and 48-track boards were sorta new and people liked to fiddle with them in the studios, piling on massive tracks -- hence the massive overlaid guitars, strings etc., and four part vocals. those were the days man! i wish they still did that stuff.

There was a good bit of synth in the 70's too.

More cowbell, please!!!  :D  ;D  ::)

Seriously, the 70's decade was "high diversity" when it comes to instruments.  Strings seemed more popular in 70's pop music than before or since.  Horns were well represented, too, along with other types of mouth-played instruments.  Keyboards were popular - think electric piano and its various forms, electronic organ varieties, plus a significant amount of piano.  Don't discount the almighty guitar - acoustic indeed, plus tons of electric guitar of many types and with gadgets galore.  Percussion was also most prominent.  Of course synthesizers matured during the 70's so they're well represented too.

Synthesizers got cheap and easy to use in the '70s but mainstream artists didn't warm up to them until the early '80s.  Why hire a session orchestra when you can just program a computer to do the same thing?  

OK, Fairlight computer strings sounded robotic and a lot of fans bitched about it (not to mention musicians), but I always liked the robotic synthesizer sound!  
:)

More cowbell, please!!!   :D   ;D   ::)

Seriously, the 70's decade was "high diversity" when it comes to instruments.  Strings seemed more popular in 70's pop music than before or since.  Horns were well represented, too, along with other types of mouth-played instruments.  Keyboards were popular - think electric piano and its various forms, electronic organ varieties, plus a significant amount of piano.  Don't discount the almighty guitar - acoustic indeed, plus tons of electric guitar of many types and with gadgets galore.  Percussion was also most prominent.  Of course synthesizers matured during the 70's so they're well represented too.




Latin disco was especially big on the percussion section!

Synthesizers got cheap and easy to use in the '70s but mainstream artists didn't warm up to them until the early '80s.  Why hire a session orchestra when you can just program a computer to do the same thing?  

OK, Fairlight computer strings sounded robotic and a lot of fans bitched about it (not to mention musicians), but I always liked the robotic synthesizer sound!  
:)
they might have been cheap, i dunno, but they were about as easy to use as flying the space shuttle!

http://www.jingleuniversity.com/images/13.jpg

"Where's the 'on' switch? where's the 'Rock' button? where's the 'suck' knob, it's cranked up too high!"

http://www.jingleuniversity.com/images/13.jpg

"Where's the 'on' switch? where's the 'Rock' button? where's the 'suck' knob, it's cranked up too high!"


Check the manual under Wakeman, Rick

http://www.assistnews.net/images08/rick%20Wakeman%20on%20stage%20with%20cape.jpg

Devo and Gary Numan were using MiniMoogs by the late '70s, and they were not yet established rock stars with big budgets; however, in order for my favorite synth pop to have its day, synths had to not only be easy to use, but cheap enough for British schoolboys to buy them: Human League, Depeche Mode, OMD, etc.!
;)