“The early 1970s kinda creeps me out”

The ear­ly 1970s occu­py a strange and unset­tling place in cul­tur­al mem­o­ry. For many peo­ple look­ing back, the years between rough­ly 1968 and 1974 don’t car­ry the col­or­ful opti­mism of the 1960s or the glit­tery exu­ber­ance of the lat­er ’70s. Instead, they feel heavy, eerie, and in some ways almost post-apocalyptic—a nation­al hang­over after the chaos and promis­es of the coun­ter­cul­ture col­lapsed.

A Cul­tur­al Hang­over
The late 1960s end­ed with a boom of cul­tur­al exper­i­men­ta­tion, youth rebel­lion, and polit­i­cal upheaval. But by the ear­ly ’70s, the ener­gy had soured. Cities were plagued by crime and decay, drugs were no longer coun­ter­cul­tur­al but a wide­spread cri­sis, and bro­ken fam­i­lies were increas­ing­ly vis­i­ble. Sleaze dom­i­nat­ed parts of main­stream culture—from porn the­aters to peep shows—while deep­er issues such as teen preg­nan­cy, absen­tee par­ents, and addic­tion came to the sur­face. Lay­ered on top of this was the chill­ing real­i­ty that dozens of ser­i­al killers were active at the same time, a fact soci­ety only grasped in hind­sight. Despite all this, many Amer­i­cans still left their doors unlocked.

The Look and Feel of an Era
Even the aes­thet­ics of the ear­ly ’70s con­tribute to the unease. The shag­gy hair, poly­ester clothes, and fad­ed pho­to tones give off an uncan­ny qual­i­ty that feels arti­fi­cial to mod­ern eyes. As one com­menter put it, the ear­ly ’70s give off the same “uncan­ny val­ley” vibe that the 1950s did to the cre­ators of Fall­out.

Para­noia and Pop Cul­ture
This mood seeped into film and music. Para­noia thrillers like The Par­al­lax View, The Con­ver­sa­tion, and All the President’s Men reflect­ed a soci­ety los­ing trust in insti­tu­tions. Dis­as­ter films, cult scares, and the rise of hor­ror like The Exor­cist mir­rored wide­spread anx­i­eties. Music shift­ed too: the utopi­an dreams of the hip­pies gave way to dark­er, edgi­er sounds, though by the late ’70s dis­co, punk, and new wave revived a sense of excite­ment.

Cults, Con­trol, and Col­lapse
The peri­od was also marked by the explo­sion of cults, and with them, the rise of “depro­gram­mers” hired by fam­i­lies to res­cue loved ones. Sto­ries of abduc­tions and brain­wash­ing became house­hold fears, feed­ing the sense that Amer­i­ca had lost its cul­tur­al cen­ter. Writ­ers like Stephen King drew on this climate—his nov­el Firestarter being one exam­ple inspired by the cult phe­nom­e­non.

Chil­dren of the ’70s
For Gen X, who were chil­dren dur­ing this era, the mem­o­ries are com­pli­cat­ed. Many recall grow­ing up with lit­tle super­vi­sion, sur­round­ed by smok­ing, drink­ing, and neglect. Some saw this free­dom as for­ma­tive, oth­ers as fright­en­ing expo­sure to dan­ger and inap­pro­pri­ate adult behav­ior. Com­menters in the dis­cus­sion not­ed that the 1970s were a hos­tile time for children—one that shaped both Gen X and the tail end of the Baby Boomers in last­ing ways.

Echoes Today
Inter­est­ing­ly, sev­er­al par­tic­i­pants com­pared the ear­ly ’70s to our cur­rent era. Just as the opti­mism of the 1960s dis­solved into dis­il­lu­sion, many feel the hope­ful ener­gy of the 2010s col­lapsed into cyn­i­cism after 2020. Eco­nom­ic strain, cul­tur­al divi­sion, tech­no­log­i­cal stag­na­tion, and polit­i­cal unrest echo that same feel­ing of malaise. Movies like Taxi Dri­ver were men­tioned as mir­rors of that era’s despair, with some sug­gest­ing we’re reliv­ing a sim­i­lar cycle today.

A For­got­ten but Defin­ing Moment
Ulti­mate­ly, the ear­ly 1970s were a tran­si­tion­al time—a “metaphor­i­cal hang­over” between two cul­tur­al highs. The hip­pie dream was dead, but the dis­co lights hadn’t yet switched on. What remained was grit, fear, and con­fu­sion. Look­ing back, it’s no won­der the peri­od gives off an eerie vibe: it was the moment Amer­i­ca stum­bled through the shad­ows, unsure of what would come next.