Top 10 Greatest Rock Bands Of The 1970s

Famed alt-rock producer Steve Albini harbored an infamous hatred for Steely Dan, famously comparing them to an SNL band warm up. But we couldnt disagree more, since this quirky seventies rock act is beloved by legions of progressive-minded and jazz-focused music fans. The duo of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker started out as record company songwriters before taking their witty and sarcastic lyrics to a project named after an infamous sci-fi sex toy. Steely Dan employed legions of talented musicians as session hands, delivering music that vacillated from jazz fusion workouts to pop-focused hits with that inimitable Fagen/Becker humor.

Whoever said that all seventies music was required to be brainless and boring? If that stereotype rings true, then nobody bothered to tell the boys in Blue Öyster Cult. This Long Island-born group captured an imaginative seventies sound like no other, incorporating lyrics that were often intelligent, strange and profound in equal measure. Elsewhere, BOC could also rock with the best of them, combining muscular riffs with an atmosphere of ever-present weirdness. Influences from science fiction, comic books and literature permeated the BOC sound, and the Cult continues to this day, adhering to their promise to be on tour forever.

One simply cannot discuss the arena landscape of seventies rock without mentioning and heralding these bad boys from Boston. Aerosmith was one of those acts whose music defined not only the seventies, but multiple decades. Their bluesy swagger and heavy guitar pyrotechnics allowed for the insurgency of heavy metal, while Steven Tylers generational charisma reiterated what rock n roll frontmen was supposed to look and sound like. Dream On remains a prototypical example of the power ballad, while Toys in the Attic and Kings and Queens perfected heaviness with style to spare.

The seventies were a musically diverse decade that saw rock n roll splinter into a myriad of subgenres, including prog and punk. Progenitors for the latter arrived in the form of New York Citys Ramones, who played rock music louder and faster than just about anybody outside of Motörhead. The bands aesthetic was ultra-cool, too, with each member taking Ramone as their surname, while adopting a uniform leather jacketed look. Influences from the sixties could also be heard within the Ramones music, however, including sunshine pop and classic rock that filtered their way into the bands punk rock spirit. Hey ho lets go indeed.

It speaks volumes that Australias AC/DC are still going strong as of 2025, touring the world and bringing their uncompromising simplistic style of hard rock to the masses. Theres little room for complex song arrangements or lengthy compositions here with AC/DC, and it was the groups seventies sound that codified their legacy. Brian Johnson may have been the perfect lead singer replacement for the fallen Bon Scott, but old school fans know full well just how important the latter was to AC/DCs sound. That screaming wail melded perfectly with Angus Youngs fiery guitar and Malcolms rock-solid rhythm. It was a match (and highway) made in hell.

Their sound was rooted in the blues, but all it took was the welcoming of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks into the group to help change Fleetwood Macs sound forever. The self-titled album from 1975 was the bands tenth studio effort, but the first with Buckingham and Nicks, and helped polish up Macs rough n ready rock roots into something more commercially viable. Fast forward to the gargantuan Rumours record, and you have essentially a band with the sound of the seventies under its collective thumb. The blues was still there, but now a chorus of different songwriting voices were softening things up and appealing to an entire rainbow of new listeners.

The 2018 Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody definitely did a great job at reminding a lot of people about Queens multi-generational greatness. That said, the bands legacy of operatic hard rock never really went away, as evidenced by just how much Queens music still means to listeners today. Queen could virtually invent speed metal one minute with Stone Cold Crazy, before venturing effortlessly into disco with Another One Bites the Dust. Then, there was Brian Mays tendency to fill Queen records with orchestras of guitars. Walls of sound that made Queen sound large, in charge and second to none. Long may they reign.

The age old question of who exactly created heavy metal is up for debate. Was it Deep Purple? Led Zeppelin? Maybe, but the answer most historians offer up is the almighty Black Sabbath. These boys from Birmingham, England took their dreary, working class doldrums and sprinkled a little occult fairy dust on top. Tony Iommis use of that devils interval tritone on Black Sabbaths opening track essentially set the tone for all doomy metal greatness in its wake. This was a band that could sound heavier than God, while also experimenting with more melodic soundscapes in the eighties and nineties. Said simply: there was little heavier than Black Sabbath in the seventies. And its still a marvel to listen back to those records today.

The burgeoning psychedelia that helped make Pink Floyd stars in the sixties turned darker and more progressive at the dawn of the seventies. This was the decade that arguably made Floyd matter more than ever before, making them legends and future elder statesmen for classic rock. Landmark studio efforts such as Animals, Meddle, The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon would endear Pink Floyd to a new generation of music fans that was experiencing rock n roll revolution at the ground level. The band would continue on into the eighties and nineties with other, fantastic releases, but its their seventies era thats still rightfully appreciated to this day.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Phil Lynott Remains Irelands Greatest Rock Star

Seventies-Era Priest Forged the Heavy Metal Fire

A Sound Like That Warm California Sunshine

Songwriting Chops for Days

Southern Rock Royalty

They started in the late sixties and were gone by the early eighties. Yet, it was the work Led Zeppelin put in during the seventies that helped make them legends. Led Zeppelin III debuted in 1970 and showcased a band in transition, still incorporating heavy bombast into their sound, while also writing quieter songs, influenced by traditional folk music. Future Zep efforts during the seventies would see this soft/loud dichotomy grow greater, while their live shows proved just how magnetic the boys could be on stage. Coda was an odds n sods compilation that effectively put an end to Led Zeppelins studio story in 82. But fans will never forget how these classic rock titans effectively put audiences in a riff-written chokehold in the 1970s.

What were some seventies rock contemporaries that fell under the radar? Shout out any cult classics of the decade in those comments below!