3 Rock Bands From the 1970s That Had Short Five-Year Careers

Sometimes a band has a lot to say. They want to stick around for not just a few years but maybe a few decades to get out all the ideas and music that they can generate. But then there are the bands that only want to stay in the game a short time.

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Like a flash, they enter our lives. Then like a flash, they’re gone. That’s just what we wanted to dive into here today. We wanted to explore three groups with quick careers. Indeed, these are three rock bands from the 1970s with short five-year careers.

Sex Pistols

To be first is no easy task. Those on the front lines of any movement often don’t enjoy the fruits of their labor. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why the Sex Pistols had such a brief, yet influential career. What started in 1975 quickly kicked off a punk rock movement in the UK that, in some ways, is still going on today. The band lasted just two-and-a-half years and released only one album, Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols. Yet that LP remains a must-have for any music fan.

Big Star

Art is not for the weak-stomached. Today, Big Star is beloved, renowned for its power pop style. But when the band was writing and releasing records in the mid-1970s, they seemed to experience almost nothing but trouble. Problems with their label and underwhelming sales contributed to the now-iconic group’s dissolution just a handful of years after it started. Then tragedy struck. In the mid-1970s, around the time of the release of their third album, Big Star’s guitarist Chris Bell died in a car accident. He was just 27 years old. After that, nothing was the same again.

Nick Drake

Born on June 19, 1948, songwriter and performer Nick Drake died at just 26 years old on November 25, 1974. In between, he released three studio albums—Five Leaves Left in 1969, Bryter Layter in 1971, and Pink Moon in 1972. Fans of Drake’s know his gentle touch, his deft musicianship. But they also know his brittle sensibility, his penchant for sorrow. It’s believed he died of suicide, an overdose on antidepressants. Thankfully, his music remains today for us to enjoy.

Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns