Musically, the 1970s was a decade of great variety. Hard rock got harder, soft rock got softer, and artists frustrated with standard musical forms tossed them aside and started their own. For fans of such new forms as funk, disco, punk, or new wave music, this innovation was wonderful. But others hated the music. Groups formed to express their hatred of disco. Some thought that punk culture was the sign of the downfall of civilization.

Hard rock had emerged in the 1960s as a way of protecting the angry and rebellious spirit of rock and roll. In the 1970s, musicians like KISS, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Alice Cooper (1948–) took hard rock in different directions. KISS was less famous for its music than for its outrageous costumes and explosive stage shows, and they blazed the way for rock as spectacle. Led Zeppelin inspired a...