― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 21:23 (nineteen years ago) link
Which reminds me to mention, we seem to be talking strictly in the context of Top 40 here. R&B radio was far less trigger-happy to drop disco off their playlists just yet. (Probably because all the musicians behind those disco platters already joined new R&B/dance/funk bands that were less anonymous, and just carried the disco/funk along with them...)
― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 21:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― Susan Douglas, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 21:25 (nineteen years ago) link
obviously the big differential re: disco dying is terminology, because 1980 was a HUGE year for disco. but 1980 was also the year when disco "died"--and turned into a verboten word if not sound.
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 21:25 (nineteen years ago) link
Disco definitely lived on, just incognito and a bit more mutated into what we now call 80s funk/R&B.
― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 21:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 21:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 21:33 (nineteen years ago) link
I think it threatens to sort of ruin a genre really, this "this is the old stuff, yes sir" sentiment. I remember Simon R saying something about how difficult it was for him to enjoy Aretha Franklyn because he kept thinking of the stuffiness of the language used around soul and I empathised alot with that.
This is a bit of a tangent perhaps, sorry!
― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 21:40 (nineteen years ago) link
...
the funk vs. disco wars were not at all unlike the rock vs. disco wars. maybe MORE heated because funk got stigmatized as "disco"--"fake, phony, mechanized bullshit" rather than "live, played by people," etc.--by white media. when disco fell, funk fell with it--it's one of the major reasons for P-Funk's collapse (that, and all the drugs)
Heh, I wasn't saying the MUSICIANS were embracing the abandoned disco puppy. Just R&B radio. In this one Rick James greatest hits CD, he describes "You and I" by basically saying "Yeah, we hated disco, but our record company wanted something disco-ey, so I made the first 10 seconds of 'You And I' disco-ey, then brought on the funk."
Rick James's success in 1981 with his fifth album Street Songs (namely "Give It To My Baby" and "Super Freak") was a major milestone, as, acc. to Bootsy Collins, it really brought the funk back into Top 40... given your prelude there, Matos. (Then again, i thought the Gap Band did that a year before, but I guess they didn't strike it as big as James did.)
― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 21:47 (nineteen years ago) link
This brings up the Mojo Chic article...did you read that? Nile and co. were totally about the "real musician" thing...they wanted to be respected like a great rock band and Nile has this anecdote about having Kurtis Blow open for them and being totally disheartened because (as he saw it) Chic's brand of pro muscianship was being usurped by the drum machine, etc....
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 21:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 21:49 (nineteen years ago) link
good on Quincy, this has always been GLARINGLY obvious to me, and MJ lovers seem to hate it when I point out this rather obvious cop.
And again: MORE GAY ROBOTS k thx (where did Spencer go?)
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 21:56 (nineteen years ago) link
OTM I think it was Dan Selzer on that other thread who would not call anything after 1980 "disco". he had been brainwashed!
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:04 (nineteen years ago) link
Why exactly? This is a pretty old idea. I guess I should clarify that the discomfort is not necessarily conscious and people probably would not even make the connection in their own mind - but the causes are similar.
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link
This whole discussion has got me craving the new Daft Punk album for a number of reasons!
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:19 (nineteen years ago) link
now I can go back to fantasizing about my new, healthy, all-natural gay robot-a-go-go band, the Sperm Trees.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:40 (nineteen years ago) link
There were several other good reasons for people to dislike it though:
- Rockers felt threatened by the polished sound, completely free of noisy guitars- Prog fans disliked it for the same reason they had also disliked bubblegum and the teen oriented glam stuff, and would later dislike punk: It was too musically simple- People preoccupied with rock ideologi disliked the fact that there were people behind caring more about constructing hits to bring them money rather than about making good music.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:43 (nineteen years ago) link
YET.
x-post
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:45 (nineteen years ago) link
(By the way, straight males might have listened to Sylvester and Chic's "Real People" album more carefully if they'd realized they would have gotten laid if they'd danced to those hits. Most indie boys nowadays know that dancing - well or badly - makes you 10 times hotter. Here in Miami we have the swishy mid '90s Britpop to thank for that development).
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:59 (nineteen years ago) link
xpost that proves my point!
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:01 (nineteen years ago) link
What is cryptic about it? For the record, I do not think that homosexuals and machines are 'unnatural'.
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:03 (nineteen years ago) link
he did kind of hate machines, now that i think about it.
and all this talk about disco, machines and gays cannot lumber forward another step withour a mention of "There But for The Grace Of God Go I" by MACHINE which is, in and of itself, a version of this very discussion...
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:04 (nineteen years ago) link
Chorus:There but for the grace of God go I
Poppy and the family left the dirty streetsTo find a quiet place overseasAnd year after year the kid has to hearThe do's the don'ts and the dearsAnd when she's ten years old she digs that rock 'n' rollBut Poppy bans it from home
Chorus
Baby, she turns out to be a natural freakPopping pills and smoking weedAnd when she's sweet sixteen she packs her things and leavesWith a man she met on the streetCarmen starts to bawl, bangs her head to the wallToo much love is worse than none at all
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:08 (nineteen years ago) link
challenge of origin myths
privileging
logocentrism
obsession with authentic
(i get the idea you might be taking an interesting idea and turning it boring; i just have no idea what the idea *is*, because you haven't remotely explained it.)
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 23:32 (nineteen years ago) link