The Eagles didn’t just play country rock. They crowned it the reigning style and sensibility of white youth in the United States throughout the 1970s. Before the band recorded, the genre was little more than a local alternative scene in late 1960s Los Angeles. It was niche. It was underground.
After the Eagles stepped up to the mic, everything shifted. Country rock became the soundtrack for millions of rock kids. It offered something distinct. Something appealing. It stood as a sharp alternative to the glitter and excess of glam rock and the pulsing beats of disco. The Eagles took a regional sound and turned it into a national phenomenon.
