The Dramatics on "Soul Train"	By the early 70's, funk music was proliferating radio playlists, and not only black radio but mainstream as well. As a result, the likes of Sly Stone, Tina Turner, the Jackson 5, and Stevie Wonder became arbiters of cutting-edge taste and style. It helped that all of these performers gained visibility once a little television show called "Soul Train" shimmied into syndication in 1971. Initially produced as a weekly music showcase in Chicago in 1969, Don Cornelius' "hippest trip in America" popped onto TV screens across America two years later. Every weekend, kids and their older cooler siblings glued themselves
to their televisions, chomping at the bit to watch the latest soul stars perform and to see the latest gear and smooth moves of the "Soul Train" dancers. Afros, dashikis, fringed vests, large hoop earrings and super-sized bell-bottoms all became de rigueur.

Living large became the only way to live as black Americans became mainstream consumers purchasing the loudest and biggest cars, jewelry, and clothing. And nowhere was this aesthetic represented more often than in the new group of action films known as "blaxploitation". These movies "celebrated the black experience" (as Vincent puts it) but all the while exaggerating it for the purpose of making an entertaining and accessible flick. Plus, a great soundtrack was essential to the success of these films. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song had Earth, Wind, and Fire supplying the music while Curtis Mayfield climbed on board for Superfly. Isaac Hayes even won an Oscar in 1971 for his title-track for the landmark film Shaft. But while earlier films like these had a serious message and well-imagined story-lines, by the mid-70's, the genre became a parody of itself; often the movie was made simply as a vehicle to showcase the talents of the funk artists as well as the outlandish (and more and more cartoonish) creations of the costume designers.	Superfly movie poster
1930's revivalism was in full-swing at around this time, so with wardrobes that were part Depression-era mobster and part pimp daddy, the costumes of these blaxploitation characters were reason enough to check out the flick, no matter how bad the scripts were.