origins of fear/hatred of disco

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The number of songs RV praises at great length that are actually more disco than funk is staggering.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:34 (seventeen years ago) link

But I reckon the closet would probably produce more bass players, you know, the one in the background who's not flashy, who just holds it down.

styx bassist chuck panozzo came out a few years ago. styx of course were faves of the hard-rockin' anti-disco crowd. later they'd get booed off the stage *at their own headlining stadium shows* for playing synth-dominated pop.

Lawrence the Looter (Lawrence the Looter), Friday, 12 May 2006 14:41 (seventeen years ago) link

disco culture was decadent in the eyes of 60s veterans too, not an extension of the hippie thing but a rebellion against it, the next step on the cultural path to 80s conservatism.

However, from what I've read about Mancuso's original parties, it seems like he was applying a very Zen-like tea ceremony approach to throwing the perfect dance event, which might be a product of hippie interest in such things. Also, in that book Last Night the DJ..., the rhetoric from many of the early DJs sounds quite cosmic: creating the perfect vibrations and flow, etc.

QuantumNoise (Justin Farrar), Friday, 12 May 2006 15:07 (seventeen years ago) link

why everybody equally loved and loathed Duran Duran in the '80s seems to me to tie in with the general idea expressed in this thread. now I'm once more convinced of their greatness in the Zeitgeist of the time: they, too, managed to bring the two opposites - disco and rock - together.
(the third strand of their activity is, I think, a longing for beauty - which would explain why you find so many DD-lovers losing themselves in the swooning arms of 'artier' music of the likes of David Sylvian, for example).

Kitaj (kitaj), Friday, 12 May 2006 15:53 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost
Sounds cosmic but relates to empirical things. Dealing with large groups of people going apeshit together, under a variety of influences and for untold hours, to a soundtrack carefully chosen out of a zillion million possibilities.. justifies a few linguistic shortcuts.
Mancuso's "ur-model" is the children's birthday party.

blunt (blunt), Friday, 12 May 2006 16:02 (seventeen years ago) link

getting back to the initial thread question, 90% of all fear and hatred of disco (in fact, 90% of everything that is just flat-out *wrong* in music) can be traced back to Rush...

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/hardstaff/rushdiscosucks.jpg

hank (hank s), Friday, 12 May 2006 16:03 (seventeen years ago) link

People who hate all black pop actually make more sense to me as far as consistency than those who supposedly love funk and soul, but despise all disco.

Well, I hate funk even more than I hate disco, but I do not hate soul. OK, I am not too keen on Stax/Volt, but I like Motown, and I really like Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson and a bunch of other black acts who have put sufficient emphasis on melody and harmony.

Now, disco was at times rather melodic, but it was extremely corporate as well, and I think that was the background for most of the disco hate (the same people will also dislike current white corporate trends such as boy/girl bands). And as far as the more prejudiced minority of disco haters went, I think there was more homophobia and sexism in there than rascism.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 12 May 2006 18:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Did you gauge this with your PKE meter?

jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Friday, 12 May 2006 18:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Disco does tend to be a little more straight four-on-the-floor rhythmically than funk and soul though. (xpost)

Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Friday, 12 May 2006 19:05 (seventeen years ago) link

four years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_FXBkoYxMM

hubertus bigend (m coleman), Monday, 13 December 2010 20:09 (thirteen years ago) link

you're half right -- disco culture was decadent in the eyes of 60s veterans too, not an extension of the hippie thing but a rebellion against it, the next step on the cultural path to 80s conservatism.

think this is otm. pretty much what Steve Dahl, who was behind the Disco Demolition, has always said. In Chicago (and prob in most places that aren't NYC), disco was associated with rich white young downtown businessmen, not black or gay people. He also now says "lol yeah I was fat and couldn't dance, disco dudes were getting all the women".

hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Monday, 13 December 2010 23:22 (thirteen years ago) link

aw this thread

the tune is space, Monday, 13 December 2010 23:54 (thirteen years ago) link


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