We've all read the comments about disco music, most seem to heavily weigh on the side of "it sucks". I cannot say how many times I've read that two word remark......yet, without any explanation. One thing for sure, that era defined our consciousness and is an important part of our musical history.
Frankly, I love listening to several artists from that era ... Bee Gees, Donna Summer, KC & The Sunshine Band...………..
I really can't understand how anyone can listen to these artists and not be moved to get up and dance. That IS an emotional connection. The exact connection most of us long for. So, what's the problem?
The Bee Gees were far better lyricists or should I say song writers period than a whole lot of groups regardless of genre. They wrote songs like ’I started a joke’ (which I think you can relate to) and many others that were covered by quite a lot of artist back in the day.
What I learned about the music industry is that there are only 2 types of music. Good and bad. It took me years to appreciate the Bee Gees until I heard their covers on artist like Richie Havens albums. Remember one mans dog is another mans hit song.
tlong1958, it's that distinctive "four on the floor" drumbeat that is common to disco and some Talking Heads songs. The Tom Tom Club, a big hit with the early 80's dance culture, was a subset of Talking Heads. Again, I like Talking Heads for the most part. Disco, not so much with a few exceptions.
Yeah, disco sucks. How can anyone can like blues; it's just the same chord patterns with the same lyrics over and over. Grunge is a few whiny bands from the same gray town who are pissed off at being alive. Metal? There's no music there, only hormones and screaming. You really want to hear some garbage? Listen to a few "songs" of hardcore. It's a joke, right? Don't even get me started on bebop. Who can listen to that tuneless crap. Oh, and don't forget modern C&W. It's pablum for people too stupid to listen to anything else. Only one thing I know for sure. The music you listen to is dumber than the music I listen to.
Wow, this is unexpectedly lots of angry thoughts about a music genre.
Maybe those who praise Santana, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, and whatever else while despising Disco came to the party too late, with their tastes already cemented. Too bad, it was a good party. Maybe next time?
There are those who enjoy playing Ottawan, Lipps Inc., Patrick Hernandez, and whatever else, even when alone while considering Fleetwood Mac boring, Steely Dan music for wannabe intellectuals, and Santana a virtuoso with three truly brilliant pieces of music and not much else. Why is it considered that Disco was made by people with less talent than some mentioned above? Sounds of a cat being pulled by a tail, played on a guitar, are no more pleasant than a lively rhythm Disco provided.
I would also like to remind everyone that big hits for Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones were Another Brick In The Wall and Miss You.
If you have not already, check out Random Access Memories by Daft Punk---they would have loved it in Studio 54--has a few too many bathtub farts though!
Problem with Disco was it followed on the heels of some very historic, groundbreaking musical trends from the 60's. It was an obvious money grab that corporate music completely embraced and basically shoved down the throat of the American public. And we ate it up! You have to understand, it wasn't just the music, it was a complete social overhaul. Picture the prototypical hippy from Woodstock, we went from THAT to John Travolta in Saturday Night fever!
Yup.
Seems to me there is some music that is a solitary experience. Much like reading a book. And there is some music that is a social/group experience, like dancing.
Right again.
So what you got with Disco was a corporate profits driven music conglomerate suddenly becoming incredibly socially powerful. Before disco we had Clapton, Santana, Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, Pink Floyd, a list of talent so long its futile even trying to pick a few examples. Aerosmith, Gerry Rafferty, Journey. The one thing they all had in common, talent. Styx, The Doobie Brothers, Credence. Talent for lyrics, melodies, songwriting, performing. Tom Petty. The music, incredibly varied. Steely Dan. Look at the talent! Look at the range!
The one thing they did not have, glamorous good looks. Simon and Garfunkel were of course the gold standard, but they all were to some extent making music for all us totally average kids to listen to alone in our rooms. We were (are) all like that, and with so much to choose from you could be sure to find something that reached deep inside and helped you find meaning. Meaning you share with your friends when you share that music.
Into this came Disco, which is dance music, which is fast dance or slow dance. Not a whole lot of variety. Either way, got to be a steady beat at a tempo you can dance to. Which being dance, you are out in public, so you better look good. And dancing: Not done alone. Kinda hard without a girl. Which a lot of guys sad to say don't have. Which the music we had before disco, a lot of it was about. Us not having a girl. Trying to get a girl. Heart being broken by a girl. Archetypal stuff.
And yeah I know there are disco songs about these same things. Except, listening in your room, or car, or with your friends, versus all dressed up with a bunch of strangers on a crowded dance floor. Probably don't even know the girl you're dancing with. Not even remotely the same thing.
So really, when you think about it, we went from music based on meaning and experience we all have in common to commercialism for the beautiful popular people. We all (well, a lot of us) want to dream of being the beautiful people. So a lot bought into it. But reality we never are. Its why they're beautiful, after all: they're not average. If you wanted to breed resentment, hard to think of a better way.
Intellectually, emotionally, musically, artistically, there is no comparison. The one thing disco had going for it was commercialism. Fleetwood Mac might fill ten 15k seat venues a year, with all the money going to them. Disco can fill ten THOUSAND clubs with 300 people a hundred nights a year, with all the money going to those ten thousand club owners.
And really: Fleetwood Mac. Bee Gee's. Seriously???!
So you asked, now you know. Although for most people, "disco sucks" will do just fine.
I lived thru the disco years. Being a rock ’n roller and a drummer, I hated the music. My friends would drag me to discos which were formerly live rock venues. What bothered me more than the thumping formula music was the disco lifestyle; platform shoes, silk shirts exposing mounds of chest hair, coke spoon necklaces.
So in 1977 I welcomed the punk invasion and the British new wave. In England it was a political movement and a revolt against the establishment and "dinosaur rock." For the US, it was a great movement against disco. Many punk clubs sprung up in NYC and it was a welcome relief to a stagnant time in music and culture. If you’d like to understand that period of time, watch the film "Summer of Sam." It is accurate and hits close to home since I lived in the Bronx. In addition to the Son of Sam murders, there was a divide between friends over the disco movement.
Regarding the music, there were a couple of standout acts, Nile Roger’s and Chic being one.
I really did like groups like BT Express, Chic and the Bee Gee's especially because they were good writers of song and music.
But in the seventies I was mostly into some good ole funk like p-funk and George Duke and for the life of me, at the time couldn't figure out why funk wasn't dance music anymore!
I own 'Saturday Night Fever' as part of my collection, you really can't talk about the '70s and not include that particular piece of music. Its as definitive a work as DSOTM. It defines the era. I play it for my kids who are in their mid 20s. They get a big kick out of it. Now, back then I wouldn't have owned it, but today its a relic of an era and still stands up.
I always thought disco was a joke, and it wasn’t very funny. And the Talking Heads were not even close to being disco. Not sure how anyone could make that connection. Saturday Night Fever was an extremely crappy movie. Except for the part where the one guy jumped off the bridge into the river. That was kinda funny. I remember wishing that the rest of them would jump off the bridge also, so that the movie would be over sooner. IMO of course
I enjoyed disco as a kid on AM radio. I did not listen to disco for maybe 30 years after the 70's but decided to buy some "mix tape" disco collections and I realized how much fun the tunes were. Especially for the weekend car rides I did along Hwy 1 from San Fran to LA. Nowadays I occasionally have some disco on the TIDAL playlist.
Same thing can be said for me about Rap/HipHop music. Love TIDAL and other streaming sources to expand my horizons.
The death of disco was still going strong in 1979 when they had a Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park in Chicago. I don't think any other type of music has been through anything like that. But disco morphed itself into Hi-NRG dance music throughout the 80s. Despite that, I think disco has earned it's right into music history. I believe Chic and Nile Rogers have been on the Rock-n-Roll Hale of fame ballot many times (and deserve it). Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder's 'I feel love' changed dance music forever, IMO.
Oh God, I grew up in Brooklyn by the famous DISCO place. Being a guitar player in a band I had to suffer through playing little guitar strumming crap and a few notes here and there. I even wore a big fro with multiple colors in a Disco band. There were two benefits though, lots of girls and got paid well to do nothing on the guitar, just strum away.
while you are saying there is an emotional engagement, but the music was not meant to sit in your listening chair for hours to listen to. YUK!
@reubent, '77 WAS a great year musically. So much was happening, local music scenes exploding all over the country. The Progressive and "Singer-Songwriter" era was over! I put S-S in quotes because a lot of the new music was still being written and sung by a single person (Graham Parker, Costello, Nick Lowe, Tom Waits, Marshall Crenshaw, Tom Petty, etc.), but the music wasn't being performed in the laidback "West Coast" S-S style the genre is thought in terms of.
That year I discovered the burgeoning underground scene of Fanzines---small 'zines dedicated to the Power Pop and Garage Bands I had missed after I abandoned Rock music entirely in '71: Bomp Magazine (the first and the best, written mostly by Greg Shaw, manager of The Flamin' Groovies and owner of the highly-influential indi label Bomp Records), Trouser Press (which focused on UK bands), and dozens more. That year I was introduced to Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, The Dwight Twilley Band, The Ramones, Marshall Crenshaw, Tom Petty, Jonathan Richman, Moon Martin, ABBA (they might seem out of place here, but in fact aren't), AC/DC, Squeeze, Television, Willy DeVille, Cheap Trick, The Symptoms (out of Springfield, Missouri; a great band.), and a bunch more.
In 1977 (maybe it was 1978), I had a Disco Sucks Tee-Shirt. Wish I still had it. Not necessarily because I dislike disco. But because I really did like 1977.......
Hate to see people put down disco--to each his own. I like reggae, jazz,both electronic and acoustic, c;assic rock, Beethoven, Tchaichovsky, Mozart and other classical and just about any other genre and oh yes, I have a blu-ray of Saturday Nite Fever and if that doesn't stir something up maybe you're dead.
Sems to me there is some music that is a solitary experience. Much like reading a book. And there is some music that is a social/group experience, like dancing. Different music serves different purposes for different environments. There is just music. Good and bad has nothing to do with what someone likes, it has to do with how well it does what the artist making it set out to do. It either works the way it was intended to do, or it doesn't. Opinion is just that, an opinion. There is a big difference between " I don't like it, therefor it sucks" and "I don't like it because I'm not a fan of what that artist does, and, I think it is an unsuccessful execution of that genre"
I understand that the distinction between funk and disco can sometimes be blurry but in general I see them as two very different things. I've heard lots of funk that I like very much. Less so with disco.
Disco is cool and so is funk. I like them both great dance music and bar music. I listen to more funk than disco at home but enjoy both. If you don't like a particular style of music fine but no need to denigrate it.
I love disco and classic dance/club music. I was too young to go to 'discos' in the late 70s but started going out to the new wave clubs in the early 80s. My vinyl consists of albums, 45s, EPs and 12" singles. I think part of disco's demise was several factors: stupid parodies (disco duck, Meco etc...), the rise of punk and synth from the UK and unfortunately, the association of disco with gay people. Remember, this is the late 70s, early 80s when AIDS was was about the enter the culture. That's my two cents, fwiw.
Bros Johnson- Strawberry Letter #23 is xxxxing killer. I like their version of it better than the original Shuggie Otis. Must be that slap bass. I lived through that era- I had a friend who worked on a bunch of recordings from the late disco era. Serious production values on some of them, serious musicians. I was in a Chaka Khan mode for a little while, more funk than disco. You can find gems. Disco Inferno -- crazy story with the one dude in that band.
Sometimes it just need to be said. Additionally, sometimes it’s best to explain by way of example. Slaw, you make discussions very difficult and unnecessarily contentious. You pose a question and solicit opinions. Then, when someone’s opinion differs from yours you get defensive and indignant. Worse, you personalize things way too much and make provocative comments about someone who took the time to answer your question. To quote you: “What’s the problem?” Chill! I do agree Chazro’s post is excellent.
For me, a good tune is a good tune, no matter the style it is performed in. There were songs considered Disco that I loved ("Funkytown", "Disco Inferno", "Dancing Queen"---Bjorn & Benny were as good of Pop songwriters as were Lennon & McCartney and Brian Wilson), And I don't know if it's Disco, but "Would I Lie To You" by The Eurythmics is definitely a great (dance) song, and the 12" single of it has KILLER sound quality! So does the 12" of "Hip To Be Square" by Huey Lewis & The News. Subwoofers required!
I really can't understand how anyone can listen to these artists and not
be moved to get up and dance. That IS an emotional connection. The
exact connection most of us long for. So, what's the problem?
There is no problem, it's just that some of us still think that disco sucks. That doesn't invalidate your preference at all. There's no accounting for taste, whether it's yours, mine or that of someone else.
Good music is good music. Most popular music is completely disposable, but the best endures. For me, Donna Summer's "MacArthur Park Suite" is outstanding. Chic had a number of fine albums as did Dan Hartman and Madonna. Now the criticism of disco as dumbed down R&B for "white people" has much truth, but the same argument can be made about early rock. Disco eventually morphed into EDM which as a music form isn't really meant to be heard outside of a club environment.
Frankly, in a lot of ways, I'd love to go back to the days of "pay-offs" When record company executives would travel around and pay djs to play their music with coke.
Problem with Disco was it followed on the heels of some very historic, groundbreaking musical trends from the 60's. It was an obvious money grab that corporate music completely embraced and basically shoved down the throat of the American public. And we ate it up! You have to understand, it wasn't just the music, it was a complete social overhaul. Picture the prototypical hippy from Woodstock, we went from THAT to John Travolta in Saturday Night fever! I hated the music, or so I thought, but went to the clubs for years and guess what? I found my universal truth ALSO applies to Disco, namely, there's only 2 types of music; good and bad. Nowadays, when certain, not all, disco tunes pop up they have the same effect as hearing a "golden oldie".
You're obvious dislike of a genre of music based on an emotional feeling would certainly preclude you going forward regarding a solid/realistic approach to evaluate music for others.
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