In North America, Europe, and Oceania, the decade saw the rise of disco, which became one of the biggest genres of the decade, especially in the mid-to-late 1970s. In Europe, a variant known as Euro disco rose in popularity towards the end of the 1970s. Aside from disco, funk, smooth jazz, jazz fusion, and soul remained popular throughout the decade. It is this influx of popular music that soon transformed into rock and roll during the Early 1970s. Rock music played an important part in the Western musical scene, with punk rock thriving throughout the mid to late 1970s. Other subgenres of rock, particularly glam rock, hard rock, progressive, art rock and heavy metal achieved various amounts of success. Other genres such as reggae were innovative throughout the decade and grew a significant following. Hip hop emerged during this decade, but was slow to start and did not become significant until the late 1980s. Classical began losing a little momentum; however, through invention and theoretical development, this particular genre gave rise to experimental classical and minimalist music by classical composers. A subgenre of classical, film scores, remained popular with movie-goers. Alongside the popularity of experimental music, the decade was notable for its contributions to electronic music, which rose in popularity with the continued development of synthesizers and harmonizers; more composers embraced this particular genre, gaining the notice of listeners who were looking for something new and different. Its rising popularity, mixed with the popular music of the period, led to the creation of synthpop. Pop also had a popularity role in the 1970s. In Asia, music continued to follow varying trends. In Japan, the decade saw several musical phases, including the highly popular folk-influenced fōku, as well as greater experimentation with electronic music, ranging from developments in synthpop, electro, and Electronic Dance Music, created through different Japanese artists and bands such as Yellow Magic Orchestra. In Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, the Nueva canción movement peaked in popularity and was adopted as the music of the hippie, Liberation Theology, and New Left movements. Cumbia music began its internationalization as regional scenes rose outside Colombia. merengue experienced mainstream exposure across Latin America and the southern US border states. In Africa, especially Nigeria, the genre known as Afrobeat gained a following throughout the 1970s.
Disco, Punk, Hip hop, country and pop became the main music outlets and cultures/sub cultures that arose from the 1960's, but The 1970s saw the emergence of hard rock as one of the most prominent subgenres of rock music with acts such as Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Nazareth, Black Sabbath and Blue Öyster Cult were highly popular during the first half of the decade. By the second half of the decade, many other acts had also achieved stardom, namely, AC/DC, Kiss, Aerosmith, Van Halen and Ted Nugent. Arena rock grew in popularity through rock acts such as Styx and The Who. Psychedelic rock declined in popularity after the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison of The Doors, the self-imposed seclusion of Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd, and the break-up of The Beatles in 1970. This went off into many genres such as soft rock, punk rock, country rock, glam rock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Hot_100_number-one_singles_of_the_1970s
http://www.nme.com/list/100-best-songs-of-the-1970s-1153
