From color-changing mood rings to late-night disco and CB-radio chatter, 1970s fads took many forms. These selected American examples include quick-hit novelties as well as hobbies and cultural movements that lasted longer; what people encountered depended on their age, location, and year.
Novelty objects people could wear or play
Mood rings turned body heat into color
Josh Reynolds and Maris Ambats introduced mood rings in American stores in 1975, according to HISTORY’s account. Their thermotropic liquid crystals changed color in response to temperature. That made the rings responsive to body heat, not scientific instruments for reading feelings. HISTORY reports that $20 million worth had sold by the end of 1975; that figure is reported by the publication’s secondary historical feature, not independently verified sales records.
Simon made an electronic game a household object
The Smithsonian’s 1970s collections include a Simon electronic game dated 1978. It is a concrete example of the decade’s playthings, but a museum object alone does not establish how widely a product was used or whether it was a brief craze.
Clothes and celebrity images people remember
Fashion can be part of the decade’s memory without being a short-lived fad. The Smithsonian collection includes a bathing suit worn by Farrah Fawcett, a documented artifact associated with 1970s popular culture. It is evidence of an object and its history—not proof that every item of clothing associated with the decade was a fad, or that the style had the same reach everywhere.
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Disco was more than a soundtrack
The Smithsonian’s 1977 retrospective connects the release of Saturday Night Fever with disco’s rise. But reducing disco to a film, a dance floor, or a set of outfits misses its social dimensions. The Smithsonian Archives Center’s guide to John-Manuel Andriote’s disco collection reproduces his description of the music bringing people together across social lines. Andriote writes that “getting down was the only thing that mattered on a Saturday night,” and describes disco’s capacity to bring together gay and straight, Black and white people. This is his interpretation of disco’s social force, not a claim that every club or listener experienced it in the same way. The guide also documents interviews and research materials related to disco’s history.
Skateboarding moved from object to street activity
In its account of 1977, the Smithsonian describes children taking to the streets on new skateboards. Its collections include a 1977 Powell Quicksilver skateboard designed by George Powell and used by Stacy Peralta. Together, the retrospective and artifact give the trend a setting and a tangible example; they do not provide national participation figures or establish skateboarding as the decade’s most popular pastime.
CB radio built a social world around the device
CB radio culture was not just about owning a piece of equipment. The 1979 Festival of American Folklife program describes users meeting on the air and in person, forming informal networks and clubs, and developing a distinctive vocabulary shaped by ham radio, truckers’ jargon, local speech, and popular culture. It was a communications hobby and a way to find community, not simply a gadget trend.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why these examples do not make a definitive ranking
“Fad” is a useful umbrella for a sudden novelty, a hobby, a fashion, or a larger entertainment phenomenon, but those categories do not imply the same duration or audience. A mood ring was a purchasable novelty; CB radio involved ongoing conversation and social networks; disco and skateboarding reached people through shared activities. Smithsonian collection objects and retrospectives document particular examples, while the sources cited here do not establish a single exhaustive list for the decade, comparative popularity, or uniform experience across the United States.
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