Introduction

Abstract

Since the early nineties it has become fashionable to make reference in a number of spheres, and in a way unthinkable in the 1980s, to the decade of the 1970s. A ‘glam’ revival — or a ‘Glam Racket’ as the Fall would have it — recruited, in some measure, the likes of Suede, Pulp and Morrissey in pop music. The Sex Pistols re-formed in 1996; disco returned with a vengeance; even prog. rock got another outing. Fashion reappropriated tight-fitting shirts and blouses as well as platform shoes; nylon and polyester made an unexpected comeback. Meanwhile, films like The People vs. Larry Flint (1996), Boogie Nights (1997) and Velvet Goldmine (1998) depicted 1970s America (and Britain in the latter film) as a playground of sexual and sartorial excess. Elsewhere in Hollywood, the egregious Quentin Tarantino rehabilitated 1970s icons such as John Travolta (Pulp Fiction, 1994) and blaxploitation goddess Pam Grier (Jackie Brown, 1997). Al Pacino, Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight, on the other hand, were rejuvenated without his help.