Music has always played an important role in human history. It mirrors opinions, desires, emotional and social states, and reflects the place and the age one lives in. As a result, music changes as people change. The aim of this thesis is to explore how the British popular music of the 1970s reflects the historical and social context. In the first chapter I will examine how songs functioned as socio-political commentary. In the second part I will elaborate on how generational differences in the 1970s can be traced in music, which in the first half of the decade was an escape from reality. In the third chapter I will inquire into how the class divisions of British society became manifest in the most influential branches of the early seventies’ rock music. But first of all, I will say a few words about the previous decade to make it easier to understand why the changes of the 1970s were so shocking.