Ultimate Pre-1980 Songs The decade preceding the 1980s was one filled with musical diversity.  While it's impossible to neatly segment the decade of the 1970s by musical styles, the following generalizations can be made.  The songs of the early 1970s saw continued experimentation with psychedelia in music, as well as the popularity of country rock, soft rock, and folk songs of such artists as John Denver, the Eagles, Bread, and America.   Many popular songs of the mid-1970s were of the styles funk and soul, and scores of black artists rose to the top of the charts.  The mid- to late-1970s also saw the emergence of rock bands like Kansas, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Styx, and Van Halen into popular music.  The legions of adolescents and teenagers who hung out at rollerskating rinks can well attest that disco music became wildly popular in the late 1970s.  Songs by Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, and the Village People were mainstays at the rink.  Finally, as seen in songs like M's "Pop Muzik," The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star," as well as songs by such bands as The Cars, the late seventies contained the beginnings of techno-pop music that would become the hallmark of the 1980s.