# What did older people think of Disco back in the 70s? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 28, 2019, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617 "2019-10-28T20:29:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/21 "2019-10-28T23:14:53Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > It also gets at one of the reasons rock fans hated disco during the late 70s: it was safe. It was edgeless dance music that white middle-aged people wouldn’t find objectionable. Granted, there was a decadent side to disco but it was The Establishment’s form of decadence. It wasn’t like rock which was loud, discordant, and proudly reveled in anarchy (never mind the fact non-punk rock was engrained in the entertainment establishment by then). _I Feel Love_ came out in 1977, and had a bigger impact on the next 40 years than any guitar band of that era ever did. And I’m quite fond of a fair few guitar bands of the late 1970s but, y’know, there wasn’t a hell of a lot of innovation going on. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/22 "2019-10-28T23:29:33Z")
Probably about the same as I feel about hip hop or rap right now. I know it’s out there. I know of some “artists.” But I don’t know any songs and I don’t care to learn any more about any of it. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/23 "2019-10-28T23:41:36Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > _I Feel Love_ came out in 1977, and had a bigger impact on the next 40 years than any guitar band of that era ever did. This is silly. I love Donna Summer and especially Bad Girls but she just wasnt that influential. Van Halen and Metallica were much more influential and Metallica still rocks stadiums around the world. Summers music didnt even hint at the rise of rap and hip hop. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/24 "2019-10-28T23:50:17Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > This is silly. I love Donna Summer and especially Bad Girls but she just wasnt that influential. Van Halen and Metallica were much more influential and Metallica still rocks stadiums around the world. Summers music didnt even hint at the rise of rap and hip hop. Who said anything about rap and hip-hop? Also, and somewhat crucially, the music was Georgio Moroder’s. Donna was of course the perfect vocalist for it, a strange happenstance that they were both in the same part of Germany at just the right time. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/25 "2019-10-29T00:11:10Z")
> [@Kennedy1960](#): > > What did your average person say who was at or above 50 at any point in the 70s think of that music? [I guess it depended on their definition of disco.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw2lCPeyyCk&list=RDxw2lCPeyyCk&start_radio=1) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/26 "2019-10-29T01:06:23Z")
I was a kid at the time but it didn’t seem like it was the kids music. It felt like a widespread fad. It grew out of dance clubs filled with adults not with kids. Punk was the music of the kids. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/27 "2019-10-29T02:49:32Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Who said anything about rap and hip-hop? Also, and somewhat crucially, the music was Georgio Moroder’s. Donna was of course the perfect vocalist for it, a strange happenstance that they were both in the same part of Germany at just the right time. Indeed. Daft Punk even had a song called Moroder on Random Access Memories. Not to mention that rap & hip hop has had some heavy influence by electronica in the last decade (lots of thanks to Kanye West actually - Stronger with Daft Punk and then 808s and Heartbreaks broke a door open that had been letting in electronic influences for a while). As for more pop disco - who do people think artists like Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake were influenced by? Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/28 "2019-10-29T03:09:00Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I _still_ enjoy the Bee Gees and Donna Summer. Once in awhile I enjoy their hits. > > I don’t listen to the one hit wonders like KC and the Sunshine Band and Village People. Their time had passed. KC and the Sunshine Band were hardly one hit wonders. And that’s the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/29 "2019-10-29T03:12:23Z")
My parents were in their late 40’s when The Hustle came and they gushed about how they danced to it and other disco songs at a company party. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/30 "2019-10-29T04:26:23Z")
Back in 1976, I had an art teacher who was in her 40s (I was in high school). A little old to be a Baby Boomer, but still kind of hip and with it. She liked the idea of kids wearing fancy clothes to go out and learning complicated dance steps, as a tonic to the hippie love-in t-shirts and denim of a couple years earlier. My parents? WWII generation? They couldn’t stand that shit. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/31 "2019-10-29T11:41:59Z")
I strongly object to the remark that everyone was into disco at some point. Disco was - and is - a million miles away from my musical tastes. (Ok, you might catch me tapping my toe to Stayin’ Alive, but that’s about it). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/32 "2019-10-29T12:11:36Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I strongly object to the remark that everyone was into disco at some point. Disco was - and is - a million miles away from my musical tastes. > > (Ok, you might catch me tapping my toe to Stayin’ Alive, but that’s about it). Agreed. I didn’t listen to disco when it was popular, and the closest I’ll get to it now is Cake’s cover of “I Will Survive”. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/33 "2019-10-29T13:18:49Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > This is silly. I love Donna Summer and especially Bad Girls but she just wasnt that influential. Van Halen and Metallica were much more influential How are we defining “more influential”? Never mind “_much_ more”? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/34 "2019-10-29T13:23:06Z")
After 45 years, the passage of time has dulled my disgust for disco. Some songs are OK, many are crap. Take the good and leave the rest, just as with any genre, be it baroque, classical, jazz, swing, pop, rock, metal, r&b, rap… I think living through a fad can cause a instant backlash that is sometimes undeserved. We hated disco because it was disco, and if there was a good song that was “disco” we hated it because. Like how I hated the Stray Cats when they were new, because they were pretending to be fifty’s rockabilly but doing it all wrong But now, it has been twice as long from now back to the early 80s as it was between the SC and the era they were ripping off/paying homage to. Now I can appreciate them. (My 80s self would never speak to me, I’m sure!) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/35 "2019-10-29T13:33:09Z")
Divorce among the 30-40 something crowd was epidemic in the late 70s and the disco was made to order for a generation of newly single people who thought a spouse and kids had made them miss out on the freewheeling 60s. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/36 "2019-10-29T14:46:46Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I think pretty much \*everybody \*was into Disco for at least a little while. Not everybody will admit it, however. I once owned a leisure suit. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/37 "2019-10-29T15:18:19Z")
My parents were in their early forties when disco was peaking, and I don’t remember them caring about it one way or 'tother. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/38 "2019-10-29T15:26:47Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I think pretty much \*everybody \*was into Disco for at least a little while. Not everybody will admit it, however. Uh, no. I was in my mid-20’s. Everybody I knew was waiting to see what the Beatles were gonna do since they’d broken up; bands like Blood Sweat & Tears, Emerson Lake & Palmer and Yes were (too our ears) breaking boundaries and heading for new things, and we were all ready for… Well, not disco. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/39 "2019-10-29T16:28:53Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > How are we defining “more influential”? Never mind “_much_ more”? Donna Summer had a respectable pop/r&b career that bled over into the disco revolution. She was never in the pantheon of great R&B singers like Aretha Franklin or Whitney Houston. She had a very nice career. But her music was never revolutionary and game changing like an Eddie van Halen and she never had the worldwide fame that Metallica has to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/40 "2019-10-29T16:41:33Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Donna Summer had a respectable pop/r&b career that bled over into the disco revolution. She was never in the pantheon of great R&B singers like Aretha Franklin or Whitney Houston. She had a very nice career. But her music was never revolutionary and game changing like an Eddie van Halen and she never had the worldwide fame that Metallica has to this day. Plus, her music made that scene in The Full Monty where they guys are dancing in the dole line to Hot Stuff! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617.md?page=3)