There was no fond recollection of hippies, free love, psychedelics, bell bottoms nor the music of the decade.
Many bed to differ and would offer things like the popularity and longevity of televisions 1999s 'That 70's show' as fairly compelling evidence. In film you had such backwards looking as Boogie Nights (about the porno industry in the late '70s), The Ice Storm (wife-swapping and Watergate), Donnie Brasco (Mafia chic), Studio 54 (the 70s club scene), and Forrest Gump (Vietnam). There were rereleases of epochal Hollywood hits from the 1970s: The Godfather and Star Wars, and Tarantino released Jackie Brown, starring '70s blaxploitation icon Pam Grier. Granted all are considerably rose tinted.
Radios and dance clubs got "Groove Is in the Heart" by dance band Deee-Lite. Bart Simpson strutted through Springfield to the strains of "Staying Alive." and stadiums regularly played 70s hist like the Village People's "YMCA" through Fleetwood Mac andLed Zeppelin (much of which never really went out of style). Some see Grunge as just an echo of 70s punk. In fashion Built-up soles recalled platform shoes in shoestore windows. Bell-bottoms came back and fashion shows fairly echoed '70s style. The famed Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress sold out.
It's not cynical to note much of this was astroturf based, commerce exploiting nostalgia. They've always been shameless pushers of the ripest 'member berries' of their target demographics. Commercials had Hot Chocolate's "You Sexy Thing" (advertiser Burger King) to "Fire" by the Ohio Players (in Intel ads). In the The Full Monty they stripped to Donna Summer's "Hot Love." You can count on car and coke commercials to play popular music of the past with strict precision. Not everthing succeeded though, like The Brady Bunch or Leave it to Beaver movie.