The five
items of popular culture that seem significant in the 70s for Australia are:
music, racial rights, the hippie movement, technology advances and
transportation. Music is the 70s became very bold and alternative to what older
music was like. Artists like David Bowie, Led Zepplin, The Masters Apprentice
and disco music in general was introduced and was a lot different from songs
that we listen to today or that was popular in later decades (Timelines of Trends of Australian music, 2015). Another popular
‘item’ in the 70s was the beginning of racial rights. Aborigines were starting
to have the right to more land, acceptance and by 1979 Galarrwuy Yunupingu who
was a chairman in the Northern Land Council (NLC), was announced to be
Australian of the Year (ABC Archives & Services, 2002). This is part of Australia’s popular culture because it
changed they way white people thought and acted around Aborigines. The third
item that I chose was the advancement in technology. By 1973, family home
phones were invented, 1974 FM radios were around, 1975 colour TV was
introduced and by the late 1970s, phones were changed from turn dial, to
keypad (Communications 1970s-1990s, 2015). Quite a lot of substantial technology advancements happened for
Australia in the 1970s, which evidently has long lasting effects to this
country. The next thing I researched was transportation changes in the 1970s.
Examples of this are the introduction to large turbine powered airplanes, the
pricing of petrol rose highly in 1974 and by then Australia had around 40
million vehicles all together (Transport 1970s-1990s, 2015). Lastly, the fifth item I chose was the Hippie
alternate movement, and this is the one I deemed most significant to popular
culture after researching and uncovering facts about it because of its effects
to more than one aspect of living, including fashion, young adult’s opinions
and music.