It seems even today disco is seen as something of a dirty word for those who like to claim that the 70s, particularly from 1974 onwards sucked for music (those who clearly haven't taken the trouble to dig deep to find the dozens if not hundreds of great albums that this era had to offer us in all sorts of genres, not to mention many by black artists that had little or nothing to do with disco music).
I don't understand this. I could see why people dislike genres like punk, rap, metal, or even prog, but disco was hugely popular and beloved worldwide for a reason; it blended the best elements of Motown, soul, and funk from the 60s-70s along with other elements like Latin, classical, reggae, and blues. Most importantly, it was a huge pioneer in mapping out so many of the paths of music that would occur from the late 1970s onwards - it had a big influence on so many of the greatest popular artists, producing some great stuff from a whole range of musicians such as David Bowie, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Abba, the Bee Gees and ironically later punk/post-punk acts like Talking Heads, Gang of Four, Public Image Ltd etc, and was the genre which established the roles of producer and DJ as having just as equal if not more prominence as the singer, performer and songwriter, a very important facet of later styles such as hip hop (which sampled a lot of disco in its formative years), electronica, turntablism, to name but a few.
It's been suggested that rawk fans couldn't deal with some other genre taking over the airwaves from them. And of course contrary to revisionist history, disco didn't die out in 1980, it evolved into new forms of dance music.
Well I think I've rambled on long enough, so to wrap it up, whether you like/dislike disco, what are your thoughts on this?
While there were unheard from small groups listening to the likes of Pink Floyd, and AC/DC, It was ALL disco as far as the media , and pop culture was concerned. This pop culture in the 70s went like this:
Kiss > Kiss > Disco > Fleetwood Mac > Disco > Disco
You had your disco music, disco clubs, disco dancing, disco ducks, silk disco shirts, disco, disco, disco! On TV shows everyone from "CHiPS" to Buck Rodgers were disco dancing. Even the rock guys started doing disco.
For those that didn't care for it it was just too much. The whole end of decade was being defined by it. Just no comparison to dance music of today.
Joshua Campbell
I'm not reading your personal blog post. I just want to say boney m and eruption is patrician. I mean almost all of disco is. But Italo disco is dogshit.
Kayden Nguyen
As much as I love disco, there were a number of bad and cheesy disco records.
Chase Allen
I think that overexposure of the genre was what doomed it. Disco so fully saturated the culture of the late 70s (radio, TV, movies) that you were forced to either love it or hate it. And many of those who initially loved it eventually grew tired of it. By the time of its decline, it seemed like everyone was ready for something else...anything else.
Also, I think disco grew to represent the excesses of the 70s...symbolizing a decadent lifestyle that increasingly felt more alien to people suffering through the recession of the late 70s. I think people got to the point where they wanted a more organic-sounding music that they could better connect with. I don't know if the 80s necessarily provided that...but at least some artists (like Bruce Springsteen) seemed ready to capture an audience turned off by disco.
The interesting thing is that several of today's artists are adopting some of the sounds of disco again. It seems to have caught on somewhat with the generations who either didn't live through the original disco era or were too young to remember it.
Ryan Howard
>It's been suggested that rawk fans couldn't deal with some other genre taking over the airwaves from them ^This. Rockists are sensitive and touchy as fuck.
Alexander Diaz
This is all true. Overexposure, commercialization, some bad songs, and yes, of course rockfags upset that they weren't front-and-center.
Julian Thomas
you don't need to add "bad" in front of rap. it can be assumed that it is bad already.
Hudson Price
disco sucked ass
Anthony Garcia
Lots of rockers bandwagoned disco at the time, but those songs sure didn't stay in the live setlists very long. Has Elton John _ever_ played anything from Victim of Love in concert?
