The music industry is a completely different world than it was 50 years ago. Today, Bucking He will read about artists squabbling over tracks and hear countless songs explaining the downfall of social media. But 1973 saw the formation of some of rock’s biggest bands and the release of some of the biggest albums in history.
In 1973, heavy metal was still in its infancy and had only really taken off a few years earlier. But with bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple in their prime, hard rock was on top of the world. In fact, other bands also made some pretty monumental line-up changes that year. Otherwise, heavy music might have turned out quite differently than it used to.
We can’t physically travel through time yet, but we can look back at historical events and compare them to what’s happening in music today. So, we’ve put together a list of the biggest rock and metal moments that happened in 1973 to show how important it was for music, and how the oil crisis pretty much ruined the vinyl industry.
For the purposes of this list, we have not included band formations (you can find a list of bands formed in 1973 here) or album releases. or Huge.
Scroll through the photos below to take a look back at the biggest rock and metal event that happened 50 years ago.
The Biggest Rock + Metal Moments of 1973
These are the biggest things that happened in rock and metal music in 1973.
Top 70 Hard Rock + Metal Albums of the 1970s