Here's a post from a 90's messageboard i found on 1970's revival in the 1990's. http://www.superseventies.com/very70s.html

There was definitely a 70's revival in the 90s.  I appreciated hearing some of the forgotten music finally being played, as it had been ignored for years.  The overall trend didn't last that long, though, compared to some other revivals.  Thankfully 70's music didn't all disappear as did the overall 70's nostalgia boom.

There was definitely a 70's revival in the 90s.  I appreciated hearing some of the forgotten music finally being played, as it had been ignored for years.  The overall trend didn't last that long, though, compared to some other revivals.  Thankfully 70's music didn't all disappear as did the overall 70's nostalgia boom.

In my experience, '70s revivalism lasted until roughly 2004.

In my experience, '70s revivalism lasted until roughly 2004.

True, I still remember music in the early '00s had '70s influences.

True, I still remember music in the early '00s had '70s influences.


'70s nostalgia actually originated in the late '80s, but the '60s nostalgia (and even some lingering '50s nostalgia) up until around 1994-95 had dominated what '70s there were. Mariah Carey's I'll Be There hit #1 in 1992, and although 1970 isn't 70s 70s like 1974-77 are, it clearly indicated its influence on the era. There was a special titled "The '70s: A Musical Celebration" in 1993. Unlike nostalgia for the 1950s/early 60s in the '70s/early '80s which reflected the when the economy and world seemed bigger and better while repressing the dark sides of that decade, '70s nostalgia during the '90s/early '00s had a "when technology was simpler and look how far we've come" mood. Other popular songs that got covered during the '90s were Big Mountain's version of "Baby I Love Your Way", Gloria Estefan's "Turn The Beat Around", the Fugees "Killing Me Softly (With His Song)", Whitney Houston's "I'm Every Woman", and new versions of Elton John's "Candle In The Wind" and "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" (an artist huge in the '70s in the first place). Speaking of Mariah Carey, her 1991 hut "Emotions" is heavily inspired by the group with the same name's hit "Best of My Love". I also remember ESPN using Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town" for their "Old School" special celebrating the 20th anniversary of the network in 1999. The disaster movie genre got a bit of a revival with Twister, Blaxploitation with Men In Black, and even '70s hairstyles making a comeback.

The '70s nostalgia did get a good run, thanks to the large second half of the Baby Boom generation it was targeted to, and thanks to the smaller Generation X for the then-current '90s culture, it was a strong enough force for some to declare that decade a "rerun of the '70s". Remember that nostalgic decades overlap, and we've currently (or recently) seen that with the '80s and '90s. Of course, the "early '90s guy" may say that '80s nostalgia began in 1997 with the Star Wars re-releases.


Nowadays, the '70s are more or less a museum decade, as people who remember the decade first hand are now at least 45 and soon destined to be unattractive to advertisers, not to mention songs from that decade gradually disappearing from oldies/classic hits radio even as I type.

In my experience, '70s revivalism lasted until roughly 2004.


Yes, from my memory it lasted probably around the same time too.

"Who Do You Think You Are" by the Spice Girls was very disco-ish.