No, no, no, the 70's was the pinnacle of bad taste, but the 80's were great! (OK, the '70's bled into the 80's just a little bit) And lazy, limp, flat, straight 'Marsha, Marsha, Marsha' hair is SOOOOO 70's(a carryover from the grunged, unshaven doped-up naturist end of the 60's.) A great debate could be started over the true cultural stylistic lowpoint, somewhere between 1969 and 1974. Even Saturday Night Fever was an improvement. The mid to late 90's approached, but never reached that stylistic train wreck, mainly because it was a retro imitation, instead of a true meltdown.
Goodness gracious, I'm not advocating Farrah Fawcett, Morgan Fairchild, or Rosanna Rosannadana fro's.
You're so right about the 70s. What a squalid wasteland it was. But there were some bright spots in popular culture. Marvin Gaye lent it some polish with tunes like "Mercy Mercy Me." Brook Benton gave us the best rendition of the best rainy night driving tune ever, "Rainy Night in Georgia." Joe Simon was drowning in his "sea of love" and the O'Jays were warning us all about "the back stabbers." Jimmy Cliff threw down the gauntlet with "the harder they come." And two of the tightest arrangements ever came our way courtesy of the Temptations (Papa Was A Rolling Stone) and Isaac Hayes (Theme From Shaft).
It was a trashy decade, but it was also the decade of the Eagles, Star Wars and Hill Street Blues.