By the mid 1970s everything was eclipsed by an electronic beat called Disco. Some people loved it while others loathed it. The Bee Gees who had enjoyed considerable success during the sixties really hit their stride with 'Saturday Night Fever', the benchmark disco album. Donna Summer's 'Bad Girls' was another landmark but the dance floor was littered with fly-b'-nights like Gloria Gaynor, Ami Stewart, Grace Jones and Patrick Hernandez.

Flared trousers, paisley shirts, clown suits and wide ties went out of fashion around about the same time as disco. The whole world heaved a sigh of relief. Fleetwood Mac did in the 80s what the Rolling Stones had done in the 60s – they abandoned the blues and went for the money! Their teaming up with songwriting duo Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham was a stroke of genius and their next two albums were among the best ever recorded. Actually, Stevie Nicks was the writing genius, Buckingham just provided some extra guitar licks.

Rod Stewart got over Maggie May and kept on rocking. T.Rex rode a White Swan and Got it On, Eric Clapton got Creamed and Joe Cocker hit the jackpot with a Little Help from his Friends. Queen spent A Night at the Opera while Mike Oldfield chimed in with Tubular Bells. Roxy Music strode across Virginia Plain while Neil Young found and then lost his Heart of Gold. His teaming with Crosby, Stills and Nash showed that they were superfluous to their own band.

Meanwhile in London there was a riot going on. Out went pomp rock, hippy hair and anything considered arty-farty and in its stead we got spiky hair, razor blades and Punk! The Sex Pistols, the Damned, the Stooges etc were a reaction to the wretched excess of bands like The Nice, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Yes. Genesis survived the punk era, deservedly so. Abandoned by Peter Gabriel, Genesis persevered with Phil Collins and by some 'Trick of the Tail' he led Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks to the promised land. Mid period Genesis was up there with the best of them. Shame they exceeded their use-by date, but that's life.

Punk gave way to New Wave, an advertising agency term for whatever came next, but it included some great bands like Talking Heads and Blondie. The Police were arresting and the Pretenders earned some Brass in Pocket. Despite the best efforts of glitzy twerpy bands like Duran Duran there was some great music recorded in the seventies. Tom Petty stopped aping Bob Dylan and discovered his own unique style. J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton cocained their way to the top while The Cars revved up on gasolene. The Allman Brothers continued to dazzle despite the death of Duane Allman. Bruce Springsteen was Born to Run and Born in the USA and apparently he was "The future of Rock 'n' Roll" – well, not quite Bruce, but nice try.

Reggae made its presence felt – Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Decker, Toots and the Maytals, Burning Spear, Culture, Steel Pulse, Gregory Issaacs, Dennis Brown, plus too many to mention, they brought the sunny Caribbean into our gloomy over-punked lives. The Clash welded reggae and their own brand of neo punk together and produced music that mattered, as did Chrissie Hynde's 'Pretenders', and without much Brass in Pocket. The Electric Light Orchestra showed that there was still a huge market for happy snappy songs with a tune. Robert Smith's The Cure impressed with some well structured songs and mascara. Meanwhile the New Romantics lulled us to sleep.

Madonna, a poor-man's version of Petula Clarke, came on Like a Virgin. Scandinavia conquered the world with Abba, Michael Jackson terrified us with 'Thriller', the biggest selling album of all time, and Prince got drenched in Purple Rain. John Lennon regained his musical composure before meeting a tragic end. America loves guns but hates people. Fuck – what a waste. Like Buddy Holly, what might he have gone on to write and perform? Like the library of Alexandria, what a fucking waste.

Heavy Metal smashed the doors down with bands like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Motorhead and Slayer. It didn't really matter what the music was like just so long as it was loud and the singer sounded like Satan. Metallica showed that even Heavy Metal could be depressingly intelligent. AC/DC showed that it could actually be fun, but Guns and Roses proved that new bands should be euthanased at birth. Kurt Cobain obliged.

New Zealand's Split Enz exposed their True Colours, reached number one in the USA but eventually spent Six Months in a Leaky Boat and sank. Australia's Divinyls experimented with 'Pleasure and Pain' and shocked America with 'I Touch Myself'. Natalie Imbruglia got Torn, while Kylie Minogue wriggled into some tiny gold hotpants and churned out hit after hit. Neil Finn survived the sinking of Split Enz, moved into a 'Crowded House' and hit the number one spot yet again. Australia made him an honourary Australian.

Back in Bleaksville, Paul McCartney soldiered on but his output was spotty and often disappointing. Bands like Joy Division, Magazine and the Buzzcocks caught our attention, then with the death of JD's Ian Curtis – New Order. New Order experienced a Blue Monday but lived to tell the tale. Everyone else slipped into the Manchester ship canal and drowned, or were drowned out by what came next. Soon we heard a term we'd never heard before – House – it evolved into Techno, a sort of electronic loop music created especially for people who are off their brains with Ecstacy. Having said that, some of it was good.

Shortly after Techno we got Rap – the 'C' is silent. And sometimes we got them both together, a sort of Techno-Rap. Eminem appeared on the scene and did to Rap what Elvis Presley had done to blues/country forty-five years earlier – he made it fun! Moby – an electronic vegetarian Debussy – wrote and performed some of the prettiest music of the 20th century, alongside some of the ugliest. The 20th century closed with a wiggle and a whimper from the Spice Girls and Britney Spears. What would come next?

In the 21st century we got gorgeous black girls like Beyonce, Kellis and Rhianna and some pretty good music to boot. Gwen Stefani, Pink and Christina Aguilera did it for the white girls. Silverchair, Rogue Traders and Sneaky Sound System proved that Australia was still alive and kicking. Throughout the whole of this Disco to Techno period we got repeats of old music from the 1950s, 60s and 70s because if there's one thing that no one can do these days it's write great music. No one, that is, except for England's pop pixie Lily Allen, soul sister Joss Stone, and the new blues deva Amy Winehouse. And then of course there's New Zealand's Bic Runga who wrote and performed Sway, probably the most melodic song since Gershwin and Cole Porter. Then, insisting that there's Nothing Sweet About Her, our own Gabriella Cilmi. No question about it, the girls are calling the tune these days, calling it, writing it and recording it. But then... the Herd stampeded down from Queensland, and Angus and Julia Stone Just Blew in from the Windy City – Perth.

And so after periods of ups and downs, excellence and dross, understatement and wretched excess, I'm pleased to report that The Beat Goes On! Just.

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