“‘Soft Rock,’ they call it; low-key stuff with wide appeal.” So stated a 1971 Chicago Tribune article on the Carpenters. Over time, Soft Rock became the butt of jokes, yet during its heyday, it fit America’s changing mood, blending rebellion with conservatism. Easy explains how Soft Rock and associated genres emerged in the late 1960s and achieved broad recognition in the 1970s. Tracking hundreds of songs, Timothy Gray supplies Billboard’s chart rankings to show how soft music easily crossed over from one fan base to another. Featuring acts as familiar as Fleetwood Mac and Carly Simon, and as underappreciated as the Three Degrees and J. D. Souther, Easy provides an entertaining aircheck of American culture during a transformational era.
