When I was a wee lad in the early 70's I listened to a whole lot of bubblegum AM top 40 radio. I was young and completely absorbed in mindless music. I didn't become a serious music listener till 1979-80. For the most part, early to mid 70's rock offered us a large collection of great talent. The latter part of the decade saw a majority of awfull, over-blown arena rock. Thank god Punk came out and kicked their ass. Now I'm not saying that Punk was mainstream and sold alot of records, but it sure did have an effect on the 80's. Outside of Jackson Browne, JT and a few others, Most of the acts from the 70's were discovered late for me in the 80's and 90's. During the very early 80's I listened to a lot of heavy metal and prog rock. Then a friend turned me onto The Jam, Punk and New Wave. I do believe there was a whole bunch of "crap music" in both decades. Maybe the focus should be on the great music from both decades. So here's a list of artist I found to be enlightening to me from both decades. Mind you, I can't possibly list all of the acts I own LP's and CD's of, so I narrowed it down to the acts I am trully still favor with.

70's- Jackson Browne, Abba, The Jam, The Clash, Bob Marley, Peter Gabriel, Velvet Underground, Joan Armatrading, Cat Stevens, John Prine, Richard & Linda Thompson, The Motels, Midnight Oil, Nick Drake, Townes Van Zandt, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, ...

80's- The Go-Betweens, Paul Kelly, Crowded House, The Chills, The Bats, Simple Minds, U2, R.E.M.,10,000 Maniacs, Throwing Muses, The Style Council, Joy Division, New Order, The Chameleons (UK), David & David, The Waterboys, RomeoVoid,  Echo & The Bunnymen, The Stone Roses, The Blue Nile, Talk Talk, Lucinda Williams, Kirsty MacColl, Lone Justice and Maria McKee, Sinead O'Connor, Billy Bragg, (The) Oysterband, The Men They Couldn't Hand, The Pouges, ...

 I better stop now, it's getting far too long.