What was the general 'feel' of 1972? What do you remember being popular in the movies, on TV, what kinda fashions do you remember seeing?

Also, how 'alien' would 1972 seem to someone my age (27) if I were to go back in time to that year? How different was everyday life then compared to now?

Didn't we just do all this?  :)

1972 was the last year of the cultural 60s. No one event "ended the 60s". Not Altamont in 1969, not Nixon's landslide reelection in 1972. The 60s just petered out tiredly at the end of 72.

But I will say this, the music was staggeringly good in 1972. Unimaginably good in a way today's standards cannot even understand. But again I stress one has to look beyond the mere top 40, although even that had great stuff.  The fashions were tight, very tight and the shorts wre short, very short (male and female). But if you had the body for it (male or female) you looked great.

...The fashions were tight, very tight and the shorts wre short, very short (male and female)...


Indeed.  It was a fun time to be 12, fashion-wise.  Hip huggers (the low-slung pants variety) were cool then.  Tie dye was still around, though on the decline.  Women wore short skirts/dresses - almost exclusively.  We school girls might wear our short skirts with knee-high socks - or in the winter, tall boots.  Turtlenecks were cool, too.  Bellbottoms were also the preferred look.  In warm weather, halter tops were all the rage.  But platform shoes (at least the outrageous ones) weren't in fashion yet.  I do remember those funny shirts whose collars had rounded edges.  Vests were also in - the knit pullover type, sometimes with an argyle pattern.  And bright colors - bright blue, bright green, yellow, purple, orange, red - those were the look.  Although earth tones were okay, too, as well as denim (speaking of denim, patchwork denim was crazy cool then).  8)

Indeed.  It was a fun time to be 12, fashion-wise.  Hip huggers (the low-slung pants variety) were cool then.  Tie dye was still around, though on the decline.  Women wore short skirts/dresses - almost exclusively.  We school girls might wear our short skirts with knee-high socks - or in the winter, tall boots.  Turtlenecks were cool, too.  Bellbottoms were also the preferred look.  In warm weather, halter tops were all the rage.  But platform shoes (at least the outrageous ones) weren't in fashion yet.  I do remember those funny shirts whose collars had rounded edges.  Vests were also in - the knit pullover type, sometimes with an argyle pattern.  And bright colors - bright blue, bright green, yellow, purple, orange, red - those were the look.  Although earth tones were okay, too, as well as denim (speaking of denim, patchwork denim was crazy cool then).  8)


Hiphuggers were great. Especially with a suede belt with fringe hanging down one side. This was popular with both males and females.  In my opinion, the tight pants of the 70s just fit and looked better than the "skinny jeans" of today.  In the 70s the pants were tight all over, including (or maybe most especially) the butt. Today's tight pants are tight as can be in the leg and saggy in the butt. What kind of thing is that? At last back then we were in all the way. Tight was tight. We didn't suddenly cop out and go all loose in the butt.  ;D

... Today's tight pants are tight as can be in the leg and saggy in the butt...


Yeah - what's with that  ???  Who likes saggy butts?  ;D

IMO 1972 music (and I speak more of Top 40 than not) was a serious mish-mash of styles.  It seemed that no one knew the next major direction that music was going to take, and so there seemed to be a lot of experimenting with styles going on.  It lacked cohesiveness.  That said, amazing music was everywhere – it wasn’t hard to find.  Listening to Top 40 was a perfectly enjoyable experience, even if it meant such disparate hits as “Suavecito - Malo”, “Tumbling Dice – Rolling Stones”, “You Could Have Been A Lady – April Wine”, “Day Dreaming – Aretha Franklin”, “I Saw The Light – Todd Rundgren”, “(Last Night) I Didn’t Get To Sleep At All – 5th Dimension”, ”Old Man – Neil Young”, “Rockin’ Robin – Michael Jackson”, “Nice To Be With You – Gallery” and “Doctor My Eyes – Jackson Browne”.  In spite of nobody foreseeing “the next big thing” at the time, there was an abundance of musical genius ready for the taking just by turning on the radio.  We had it good!  :)

In fact, most of the '70s had that mish-mash until the last part, thanks to disco's dominance, and 1972 was no exception in terms of musical styles. That said, it was the heart of the singer-songwriter era, and for the first time, rock itself had a generation gap (not simply rock vs. non-rock like you had in the '50s/'60s), with many singers like Elton John, Carly Simon, Carole King, Neil Young, Jim Croce, Bread, The Carpenters,  and Todd Rudgren appealing to a young married demographic (think early Boomers), including some first generation rock stars like Ricky Nelson, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley having comeback hits, while the teenaged later Boomers preferred the progressive rock, hard rock, and glam rock. This meant that the pre-Boomer artists like Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, and Perry Como were suddenly having trouble even charting on the adult contemporary charts (still known as easy listening, but this "shift" sort of brings on a new generation of that sound) This was still before Arena Rock and its corporate sound was born in the mid-70s, so it was still a fun time for the genre. R&B/Soul music was still going strong, including the Motown/Stax sounds, along with Philly soul breaking through with songs like The O'Jays "Back Stabbers" and Billy Paul's "Me and Mrs. Jones". The Osmonds were the hot "teen" sensation, replacing The Jackson 5 which had dominated 1970 and 1971, though they were still popular. Bobby Sherman, David Cassidy, and Michael Gray posters were common sights on teenaged girls bedrooms of the time. And there was this exciting new electronic machine that gave birth to a new industry: Pong. 

By now, TV was no longer seen as a novelty like it was in the '50s/'60s (possibly except if you're late to the color party), but it was still chop full of great shows, even if most people only had three or four channels. Led by All In The Family, primetime TV was dominated by Sanford & Son, Hawaii 5-O, Adam 12, The Partridge Family, The Flip Wilson Show, The Carol Burnett Show, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Long-runner Gunsmoke was still popular, while late '60s/early '70s staples like Mannix, Marcus Welby, M.D., Here's Lucy, and Mission: Impossible were fading. Game shows hit a new high in daytime, bolstered by the return of The New Price Is Right, with all three major networks having several classics on its schedule. Soap operas were still 30-minute episodes, while Saturday Morning cartoons were dominated by Scooby-Doo clones and limited animation (a bad time for animation in general).

Hollywood was in the heart of its "New Hollywood" era, with The Godfather of course being the dominant film of the year, with blaxplotation and disaster movies being popular genres of the time. Other acclaimed films included Sleuth, The Ruling Class, Sounder, Cabaret, Lady Sings The Blues, Deliverance, The Emigrants, The Heartbreak Kid, Jeremiah Johnson, The Poseidon Adventure, Travels With My Aunt, and Young Winston. Multiplexes were still a few years away, but rising inflation meant a decline in double features and cartoons prior to the film.

This mish-mash of musical styles people are mentioning here is accurate, but this was not for lack of any "communal direction" so to speak. Like in the 60s, the mish-mash of styles WAS the style, if you get my drift. Nobody was really looking for any one dominant style. In fact, that would have been anathema (though little did us innocents know that the dreaded disco was lurking around the corner). Everybody from folksingers to hard rock bands (the term "heavy metal" was not quite in use yet in 1972 the way we would later use it and it had not solidified into what it would later become) were making records and having hits, and this is what we expected. We luxuriated in the variety. People who owned Alice Cooper albums would have a Joan Baez album.  This type of thing was the norm. The early 70s were also very much the era of "the solo album". The Beatles had split and all four members were making great albums and having hits. CSNY had all gone their way making solo albums and there was one interesting point in Spring 1972 when Neil Young's "Harvest" was number one, the "Graham Nash/David Crosby" duo album was number two and the Stephen Stills "Manassas" album was number three on the Billboard or Cashbox charts.

This gem was among my (many) favorites of 1972 - from Top of the Pops

Rod Stewart - You Wear It Well  :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQqNUwNNkTo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoYvCb0d3h0
another hit from 1972

I remember the '72 Olympics-it was the first Olympics that I remember. I remember Olga Korbit which my friends & I wanted to be her. We had our own "mock" Olympics and the only category we had was gymnastics. Instead of gold, silver, & bronze, we had tin, plastic, & paper.  ;D ;D ;D  After that Olympics, my picnic table bench became my balance beam. I could do cartwheels but I was so afraid that if I tried to do it on the bench and missed, I would scrape my leg BAD-so I purposely always did a cartwheel OFF the bench.

I don't remember the Israeli wrestling team, though.  :-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IIrU2qXzmU



Cat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoYvCb0d3h0
another hit from 1972


Funky good!  :)

...I remember the election and we had a mock election in school...


Me too!  I think McGovern won our school class mock election, but it was somewhat close.

Check out this stellar collection of artists who got their first big U.S. hit in '72:

- Steely Dan
- Jackson Browne
- America
- O'Jays
- (post-Motown) Spinners
- Eagles
- Paul Simon (solo)
- Raspberries
- Jethro Tull
- T. Rex
- Doobie Brothers
- Loggins & Messina
- Billy Preston
- Rick Springfield
- Leon Russell
- Raspberries

I'm sure there are a few more  :)