Change was afoot in the late 1970s; from Punk in the UK, the Vietnam war had ended, New York City Blackout lasts for 25 hours, Elvis Presley Died at the age of 42, and the first commercial flight for Concord happened. Not so different from now, an old guard was going and a new style of thinking was coming in, but it took a fair amount of friction, and civil disorder to bring about change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Music transitioned between punk, rock, disco and soul as well as it being the very beginnings of rap too. A lot was going on. Strikes, anger, and conflict was everywhere showing their face not just on the streets from protests but in creativity with artist often saying what most people couldn’t. For example in both art and music protesting was capitalised upon to register social unrest. But not all conflict was visual to all. Marginalised communities often found creative ways to share their pain frustration and anger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A great example of this was the record Let\u2019s Clean Up the Ghetto<\/em>, a Philadelphia International Records comp featuring elites of \u201cThe Sound of Philadelphia,\u201d a style of soul music from the city that had long been a big movement in the R&B charts. Kenneth Gamble (owner of Philadelphia International Records) bought together some of his biggest artists of the time together including, The Three Degrees, Billy Paul, the O\u2019Jays, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Lou Rawls, and others\u200a to raise concerns about Philly\u2019s growing ghettos. Gamble is quoted on the back as saying<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnything physical has to first start as a thought\u2026there\u2019s a message in the music.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n