Carole King and the Music of the Seventies
Carole King is a pivotal figure in the music of her generation. Charles Gillis reflects that in 1970s America, the popular music was an eclectic collection of new styles that made the term "rock & roll...nearly meaningless." During the 1970s, the Beatles broke up, Elvis Presley died, and instead of the familiar rock 'n' roll sound that everyone was accustomed to, there were myriad subgenres, such as soft rock, hard rock, folk rock, punk rock, and disco music, just to name a few (Gillis). Instead of Elvis and the Beatles, Americans began listening to the Bee Gees, David Bowie, the Electric Light Orchestra, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, and Three Dog Night, with easy listening groups like the Carpenters rising to popularity and Bob Marley and his reggae music beginning to get noticed (Gillis). Part of this new musical landscape consisted of female singers like Carole King, whose soulful tunes talked about rock 'n' roll, hinted at sexual pleasure, and described the angst of love relationships that did not work out. Coming as she did on the cusp between traditional rock 'n' roll and the explosion of new genres, Carole King was part of a musical niche that formed the transitional platform between Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You" with its catchphrase "Everything that I do is out of lovin' you" and Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman Hear Me Roar," with its declaration, "I am strong/I am invincible... No one's ever gonna keep me down again" ("Lovin' You Lyrics;" "I Am Woman Lyrics"). As such, it can be described as an intermediary genre whose music is grounded in rhythm and blues (R&B) and whose lyrics reach behind to those of torch singers while stopping short of the blatant feminism it was contemporaneous with.
In 1956 at the age of 14, Carole Klein renamed herself Carole King and became one of the white teens in the early 1950s who started listening to...