One family dominated the Billboard Hot 100 in the ’70s: The Gibbs. The three brothers in the Bee Gees landed three of the top 20 hits of the decade, and Andy Gibb — another brother — had two more as a solo artist. The Gibb Brothers single-handedly account for 25 percent of the top twenty in the ’70s. They didn’t start in disco, but they changed with the times, and as a white group embracing the disco sound, they became an unstoppable commercial juggernaut. (Walter Murphy & the Big Apple Band’s “A Fifth of Beethoven,” which appeared on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack alongside the Bee Gees mega-hits, also made it onto the top 20 list.) The Bee Gees weren’t the only act to have success with disco — so did Chic, Donna Summer, the Emotions, and Gloria Gaynor — meaning that the genre accounted for at least half of the decade’s biggest songs.

The Beatles break up in 1970, but all four members continue to impact the decade with successful solo careers. The early seventies are marked by the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison who all die at the age of 27. Pyschedelic music declines, but morphs into hard rock, progressive rock and heavy metal. Touring bands move from playing clubs and theaters, to playing sports arenas. Big time bands, many of them formed in the sixties, such as the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who, Grand Funk and Led Zeppelin travel in private jets and play to thousands in arenas and outdoor stadiums.