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Subject: what was the deal w/disco?
(I bet this sounded anti-disco but actually it's not!)
Why is/was there such a hatred of disco?
Someone asked why the hatred of '70s on the '80s MB, and I couldn't help but think this is mostly a disco-backlash question.
I only just found out about the baseball-game anti-disco tyrade that happened in '79 or so. This just punctuates my puzzlement over why people hated disco so much (and probably still do although the lovers have managed to get their way a bit lately w/o being embarrassed). I mean, even at the time to have a big brawl over getting rid of disco. To me, that's pretty pathetic - on the people who don't like it.
What is so offensive? Is it just because it was popular but wasn't "rock", per se? If so, that just points out to me how narrow-minded people have become. If it can't be called "rock", it must be bad, corny, worthless, unartistic, etc.
Subject: Re: what was the deal w/disco?
I gotta say I think it's just some kinda living in denial. There are some things in this lifetime which people hate to admit they like. For instance, I have joined in the jokes about Cliff Richard but then if a few his songs are played together I realise how good he really was and that I actually quite like a lot of his stuff!
I am an original Goth (Marilyn Manson is not a goth) I have also a lot of hippy and rocker in my soul but I loved disco music, disco dancing and discoteques. I was even in the world disco dancing championships once (way back when in my teens of course).
So don't you believe half of the disco snobbery you encounter, it's not for real
:)
Subject: Re: what was the deal w/disco?
Quoting:
I gotta say I think it's just some kinda living in denial. There are some things in this lifetime which people hate to admit they like. For instance, I have joined in the jokes about Cliff Richard but then if a few his songs are played together I realise how good he really was and that I actually quite like a lot of his stuff!
I am an original Goth (Marilyn Manson is not a goth) I have also a lot of hippy and rocker in my soul but I loved disco music, disco dancing and discoteques.I was even in the world disco dancing championships once (way back when in my teens of course).
So don't you believe half of the disco snobbery you encounter, it's not for real
:)
End Quote
I like Disco Songs but not quite to the extreme you went to.
But I like anything that has a beat and lyrics I can understand.
Subject: Re: what was the deal w/disco?
""Disco Demolition" rally in Chicago's Comiskey Park:
The event's original gimmick involved blowing up Disco records between games of a doubleheader, but the charged-up crowd lost control and began tearing up the stadium. Comiskey turned into a giant coded gay bashing, a frightening harbinger of an enraged, homophobic America, given sanction in the mock-patriotic venue of a baseball stadium.
By 1980, Disco had become a dirty word. The term was banished from the language as an added security measure, but the music was exported to England, where it was de-gayed and re-exported to the States under a new name: "New Wave Dance Music." The rock majority was satisfied by the replacement of explicitly gay Sylvester with flamboyantly closeted Boy George. As the playlist segued from "I'm Coming Out" into "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me," the pulverization of the liberal imagination became a political fact."
"Many sociologists agree that the "Disco Sucks" craze was thinly veiled bigotry. The pros and cons of disco music aside, the Disco culture introduced many new elements into modern music:
1) Many Disco artists were black.
2) Many Disco artists were Hispanic.
3) Many Disco artists were gay.
4) Many Disco fans were some combination of the above.
5) Disco culture heralded an environment where these three minorities could come together along with whites and heterosexuals to party and enjoy themselves.
Many people from conservative backgrounds were appalled at Disco and the environment it created. Some felt culturally threatened. Their reaction was to initiate a counter-Disco movement that culminated in "Disco Sucks." They claimed to hate Disco, but they hated much more than the music."
These are quotes from different sources on the net which give a point of view in reference to the reasons behind the "Disco Sucks" movement.
I have no opinion, except to say that Disco never died but morphed into different styles of music very much alive today.
Oh, and some rockers like The Rolling Stones, KISS and Rod Stewart "treaded on Disco grounds". ;)
Subject: Re: what was the deal w/disco?
Thanks for the reference. Interesting although I'm not totally convinced.....some of those statements are made as if fact but are truthfully opinion.
Quoting:
"Many sociologists agree that the "Disco Sucks" craze was thinly veiled bigotry. The pros and cons of disco music aside, the Disco culture introduced many new elements into modern music:
1) Many Disco artists were black.
2) Many Disco artists were Hispanic.
3) Many Disco artists were gay.
4) Many Disco fans were some combination of the above.
5) Disco culture heralded an environment where these three minorities could come together along with whites and heterosexuals to party and enjoy themselves.
Many people from conservative backgrounds were appalled at Disco and the environment it created. Some felt culturally threatened. Their reaction was to initiate a counter-Disco movement that culminated in "Disco Sucks." They claimed to hate Disco, but they hated much more than the music."
End Quote
1) This ignores that "many" of "rock's" stars had alwaysbeen black since the '50s. Not to mention the separate prominence of Motown. And I mean alot; I've never thought of disco as having more black involvement than any other previous "type" since rock came about.
2) Honestly, someone please tell me who were Hispanic artists in disco? I can't think of 1. Maybe I'm missing a 1-hit wonder.
3) I'm not sure if that was really true; who can be identified besides the Village People guys (I didn't know about this until a few years ago, incidentally)? I'm talking pretty big stars here, not unknowns and 1-hit wonders.
4) If 2 & 3 were rare, then 4 must've been extremely rare!
My point w/these replies to the list above is that I don't see that disco was much different in "make-up" than other types (by and large) and that this seems a weak argument (hardly a scientific view coming from me). But then, maybe bigots really did try to pump it up as accomodating the "outsiders" more than other pop/rock even though I don't see it myself. To me the only type up to that time that seems to fit the "white heterosexual" only is....metal/"hard rock". And then punk. Which to me are all basically the same ilk. I'm just saying I'm not sure if this is all bigotry; the evidence seems weak esp. compared to other pop. Maybe so, but if that's bigots' reason, I'd still tell them it was weak. And maybe there really is just plain music-bigotry as I was asking about.
I'm conservative, my parents are conservative, my sister's conservative, and we LOVED disco then and still do (and I hate hard-rock+ as a rule). I don't feel "threatened"; if it moves me I like it, I don't care where it's from. (I'm just tired of being labeled a bigot just because I'm conservative, which this whole write-up implies.)
I agree that disco didn't really disappear and Stewart definitely qualified for alot of his hits then. It did indeed morph a bit into "new wave" (Blondie did alot of styles including a blatantly disco "Heart of Glass") and other techno dance pop (early early Madonna). They dressed it up differently. Then we even had a few truly disco hits later, too; Rick Astley et al.
Subject: Re: what was the deal w/disco?
I happened to love Disco and saw no problem with it,just cannot see why others despised it.Oh well,they got their wish though.
Subject: Re: what was the deal w/disco?
Another reason that Disco was hated was that it was "soul-less". While Rock artists & groups sat in a studio with their instruments and recorded an alubum, Disco producers "manufactered" hits with synthesizers, drum machines, & throw-away singers.
Myself, I always liked Disco just as much as Rock.
Subject: Re: what was the deal w/disco?
This is a good discussion. I've often wondered why there was that "disco sucks!" movement myself. And I've also wondered why there was such a backlash against the 1970s during the '80s. No other decade has ever been just shat on by the next generation like the '70s were.
At least the '90s redeemed the '70s in many ways, and made it cool again. :)