1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything

I disagree with some of the other reviews about this documentary I thought was really well done. A lot of people said there was too much context about the music and it made the documentary feel stuffy well I actually felt that the context was appropriately put together and flowed very well. I really enjoyed watching some of this footage that I've never seen before.

Overall, an interesting docuseries. My biggest frustration was the opening narration and the lack of introspection of the narrators in general.

The opening scene is narrated by Chrissie Hynde of "The Pretenders". She states how she and her fellow anti-Vietnam War students set fire to the ROTC buildings at Kent State University, because ",The ROTC was a military presence on our university... The military presence had to go." Kent State University is a state-run (and therefore government-run/funded) university. The ROTC cadets were her fellow students, most participating in ROTC solely for scholarship purposes to be able to afford a college education, and were not government employees / had NOTHING to do with the Vietnam War. The burning of the ROTC buildings at Kent State is what DIRECTLY led to the National Guard presence on campus, which caused the Kent State shootings. At NO POINT does she take responsibility for or show remorse or regret for her and her fellow protestors' actions. Had the ROTC buildings not been set on fire, the National Guard would not have been called in, and students would not have died.

I think we can all acknowledge that the Vietnam War was something the US should not have been involved in, but the hateful and purposeful destruction of property and abuse of ROTC cadets and US soldiers at that time was (and still is) deplorable. Hate and violence do not make other hate and violence okay! "Make love, not war" isn't just something to preach but to practice as well. Self-righteous hippies gave birth to self-righteous millennials.

While it did indeed cover a great many bands, songs, and issues of the day, one INCREDIBLY HUGE and surprising ommission was the biggest rock song of not only 1971, but all of the 1970s, and even some would claim to this day, the greatest rock song of all time... STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN by Led Zeppelin. I simply cannot understand how an 8 part series about the music of 1971 could ignore this very important and influential song.

I was 16 in a 1971. This really took me back. Fun to binge on. Plus, it's as good a soundtrack as you'll hear anywhere.

I really loved this series, but they left out so many ground breaking albums. 1971 was the year Led zeppelin released IV with Stairway to Heaven, Pink Floyd released Meddle, The Allman Brother live at the Fillmore East, Janis Joplin released Pearl, Yes released Fragile, Van Morrison released Tupelo Honey, Jethro Tull's Aqualung, and Rod Stewart's Every picture tells a story. There were dozens of other albums that came out that year but these are just a few that helped shape my life. I was ten years old and had just got my first record player. The first 3 albums I bought were Aqualung, Zeppelin IV and the Allman Brothers live at the Filmore East. It was a great year for music.