:dubious::dubious::dubious: What history is that? One published by The Knack’s official fan club? (Membership: probably about 7.)
There was some good music put out in the disco format, but there was also a hulluva lot of utter tripe, often record-company manufactured tripe, that climbed the charts for no other reason than that it had a slick production and a danceable beat. What is more, this flood of danceable but otherwise bland material largely overwhelmed the creative tradition of real rock ‘n’ roll that had been developing before disco came along, so many rock fans deeply resented it for that.
Well, to be honest, I don’t consider “Stomp”, “September”, or “You Dropped a Bomb on Me” disco. “Stomp” is the closest, but the others are solid funk classics. Disco can be funky (Chic) and funk can have disco-like qualities, but the two are still different and appeal to different audiences. For instance, I can see my parents getting down to some Earth, Wind, and Fire and the Commodores. But Sylvester? First Choice? Roy Ayers? Much too dancy for them.
“A helluva lot of utter tripe, often record-company manufactured tripe, that climbed the charts for no other reason than that it had a slick production and a danceable beat” perfectly describes a ton of rock music around when disco hit big. “Bland” is another good descriptor of rock at the time, which was why punk happened - and punk was also much more open to disco than classic rock (except for acts shamelessly trying to cash in on the trend, like Kiss, Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones); lots of punk bands evolved into dance music, or had disco/electronic elements from the start. Not to cast aspersions on such a huge group of people, but I always kind of agreed with the premise that racism and homophobia had something to do with rock fans’ rejection of disco (along with just general conservatism).
This sounds to me like, if only there wasn’t so much sucky disco music, more people would have been exposed to more sucky rock music. There was plenty of sucky music to go around and I liked a lot of both at the time.
True, driven by payola and a shit load of coke if the stories are to believed.
In other words sour grapes that rock was no longer the only game in town and guys who could dance we’re getting your girls.
I like rock as much as anyone but the frothing hatred of disco was just as much about not liking change to the status quo as a distaste for the music, which when you think about it is kind of ironic for a generation or rebel minded rockers.
The problem with disco is that it always seemed so manufactured. I saw a documentary around 1977 or so where they actually constructed a disco tune by recording separate instruments individually in a studio and stitching them together with audio machinery.
Sure, there was a lot of fun stuff like KC and the Sunshine Band and, in hindsight I can even enjoy some of the BeeGees output. But there was so much more crap like the aforementioned Silver Convention’s Fly Robin Fly that bombarded the airwaves that it caused a backlash.
Want to have a good laugh? Check out the audience in this Silver Convention video. They’re really ready to get up and boogie, ain’t they?
Just FYI’s, Billboard’s top songs of the 70s were:
Debbie Boone “You Light Up My Life”
Bee Gees “Night Fever”
Rod Stewart “Tonight’s The Night”
Andy Gibb “Shadow Dancing”
Simon and Garfunkle “Bridge Over Troubled Water”
Three Dog Night “Joy to the World”
Roberta Flack “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”
Gilbert O’Sullivan “Alone Again (Naturally)”
Chic “Le Freak”
The Knack “My Sharona”
The Jackson 5 “I’ll Be There”
The Osmonds "One Bad Apple’
Carol King “It’s Too Late”
Rod Stewart “Maggie May”
Wings “Silly Love Songs”
Emotions “Best of My Love”
Donna Summer “Bad Girl”
I don’t know why disco gets the brunt of the blame for crappy 70s music when you’ve got Debbie Boone at the top of the charts and a dud like “Alone Again” beating out a jam like “Le Freak”. It’s also clear that rock and roll existed in parallel with disco and thrived. Rod Stewart had his foray into the dance music scene, yet the world still liked his rock and roll ballads more. And “Joy to the World” and “It’s Too Late” are rock and roll classics. Is “My Sharona” really in their league? I don’t think so.
I don’t get it. Disco Duck was one of my favorite songs when I was four right along with Macho Man! I don’t think disco ever really died. It’s just club music. Here are a few I like.
One problem with disco is that it’s not really conducive to getting gigs for your bar band when your competition consists of an army of dj’s, each one of whom can single-handedly manage the entertainment for the entire evening.
I am sorry, but that is bullshit. You should not give it any credence. The Knack were a fairly late bubblegumization of punk, which was what killed disco if anything did, and whose main work was done was done long before “My Sharona” came out. They are an unimportant footnote in rock history. Some journalists just need to make up contrarian bullshit so they can fill pages and attract eyeballs.
As for Queen and Bowie, they were big before the disco era, big during it, and big after it. They were also both creative enough to be able to occasionally make use of disco tropes without being taken over by them. They did not need any any rescuing, let alone by “My Sharona”.
Actually, I think I got more girls by dancing to disco than I ever did by dancing to (or otherwise consuming) rock. (Not that that is saying very much.) I also enjoyed some disco - The Village People in their heyday, for instance, and K.C. and the Sunshine Band - but as a “movement”, yes, I was one of the many who detested it.
The point is that rock was about rebellion, changing the world (or at least, it was in the fantasies of rock fans in the late '60s and early '70s), disco wasn’t, and it seemed as though it played a significant role in killing the revolution, stopping the message getting out. That is why it was hated. It was, or was seen (whether realistically or not, and certainly mostly only in a vague, inchoate way) as the horribly successful counterattack of the forces of reaction: a corporate sponsored opiate of the people.
And no, there is nothing ironic there at all. Would be revolutionaries are not seeking any old change to the status quo, they are seeking to go in a specific direction, a direction that disco helped to block. Point and laugh at disco-hate as being driven by ludicrous deluded idealism, if you like, by absurd, half-formed fantasies of an extremely vaguely conceived revolution that never had any chance of happening, but it was driven by idealism nonetheless, not by petty aesthetic conservatism.
Punk, of course, brought back that revolutionary enthusiasm, overcoming the counter-revolutionary forces embodied in both disco and the aestheticism that was strangling prog rock … and still the world didn’t change. Oh, well. So it goes.
Exactly my point, girls liked disco which threatened those solely committed to rock.
It was exactly ironic.
Rock stopped being revolutionary when it became the dominant genre on the radio. When disco became popular it threatened the installed base - rock. Rock was now the establishment and it hurt like hell to see the tables turned. Challenging the old guard is great when your group is riding the wave of the new change, it’s not so fun when you’re the party being replaced. The hate against disco was nothing more than a turf war, it was never driven by ludicrous deluded idealism, if you like, by absurd, half-formed fantasies of an extremely vaguely conceived revolution that never had any chance of happening, there was little idealism and much tribalism.
it was about rock losing it’s place and that scaring the shit out of the people over committed to it.
I was a teenager during that period, and yes, there was a massive Disco Sucks movement, and bands like Rush and The Knack and corporate rock like Journey, REO and punk bands were all considered “better” than disco.
It was probably a beginning of the “Rockist” movement - i.e., rock music must have guitars and live performance etc…
Having said all that, “Disco” as a label for the music in the 70’s was derided, but Dance Music is huger than ever and one of the, if not THE, primary underlying influence of modern pop music. So - derided at the time, but enduring.
And anyone who doesn’t love Donna Summer’s/Giorgio Moroder’s “I Feel Love” isn’t listening. I was a Ted Nugent-loving guitar weenie when it came out (I got better ;)) and even I knew it was amazing.
This basically sums up how I feel. I was an aspiring rock musician when disco got big. FWIW, in contrast to the OP, there was a lot of talk at the time that rock was dead, often associated with enthusiasm for disco. I know that all pop music has hype and marketing, but it seemed like corporate influence reached new levels with disco.
After disco had passed out of fashion, I was able to appreciate it a little better. There was some good melody and harmony (e.g., ‘The Grooveline’ by Heatwave)
If you wanted to go someplace and dance, or take an exercise class, it was great. But a lot of you guys grew up after discos heyday, and could do that with rock, rap, techno, pop, et.
Those of us who lived through it had to be exposed to it non-stop. Yes, gays and minorities pioneered it, but more importantly, everyone else liked it. Old people liked it. Conservatives liked it. You had to listen to it in restaurants while you ate, in theaters as you sat in the dark waiting for the previews, in traffic during crawl time, on your couch between programs. Your boss would pipe it in while you tried to work.
It was the perfect music for having a stupid good time, which we all need. But life isn’t always a stupid good time.
It’s funny how musically, to me, 1975 is as different from 1980 (not to mention disco rising and falling in between) as night from day…yet I couldn’t tell you the difference between 2009 and 2014 if my life depended on it.
