# 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:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/61 "2019-11-04T16:18:37Z")
1. All that cocaine didn’t hurt, either. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/62 "2019-11-04T16:46:44Z")
Hip hop sprung out of disco. So did house music. Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![sps49sd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@sps49sd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sps49sd)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/63 "2019-11-04T18:38:57Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > For young people disco was a way to meet the opposite sex… I was too young for bars and disco, but I wish I’d realized sooner the good dancing would’ve done me. My issue was that disco took over the two radio stations available that weren’t country, and I resented not having music to listen to for a while. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2019, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/64 "2019-11-04T19:24:19Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Three nights in Mexico City at a packed stadium > > World release > > Still filling stadiums to this day That’s fantastic for nostalgia filled people who want to see a concert. Shall we compare those sales to disco influenced albums and tracks today? Taylor Swift’s “Lover” that just came out this year is heavily influenced by pop disco and electropop and I bet she is selling far more than Metallica is. Drake’s work is also heavily influenced by electronica in hip-hop and released a big album this year. And then there is Billie Eilish who may be the most Moroder influenced big artist this year. I’d say those artists had far more influence on 2019 than old farts like Metallica or Rolling Stones or whoever old bands who are making money on nostalgia. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/65 "2019-11-04T22:46:23Z")
> [@road\_lobo](#): > > It is now known as EDM. Electronica was a marketing term. “Techno” is a shibboleth. Are you suggesting that twenty-somethings don’t refer to music that they produce and dance to as “techno”? Because they do. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2019, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/66 "2019-11-05T04:40:56Z")
> [@road\_lobo](#): > > It is now known as EDM. Electronica was a marketing term. “Techno” is a shibboleth. A shibboleth that you’re from Detroit? ---
**Author:** ![Kennedy1960](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@Kennedy1960](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kennedy1960)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/67 "2019-11-07T19:09:25Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > 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. Why did the WWII folks and middle aged people take on a lot of Disco/Hippie era aesthetics? For example, my stepgrandfather wore poka dotted wide colored shirts with bell bottomed slacks as early as 72. He was 55. My grandpa has a Disco shirt on - collar huge and pointy - in 1975. His brother has a pink shirt with a massive color, gigantic white belt, and fuschia pants in 1973 and he was 53. My other grandpa who was always stuck in the 50s otherwise has sideburns going down to the end of his ear in a photo from 1980 I have. My grandma wore frilly very 70s era blouses and whatnot in 1972 and she was 40 at this point. ---
**Author:** ![Moris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moris/32/2846_2.png) [@Moris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moris)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617/68 "2019-11-07T21:49:05Z")
> [@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. It’s not about Donna Summer. It’s about arrangement. It’s an electronic piece of disco music, hence electronic dance music. Before that electronic music was either avangarde/academic music, or in pop-rock context psychedelic/space rock, and ambient music was in its infancy. There was no “dance in the discotheque” electronic music save for “Popcorn” and some Kraftwerk. Metallica’s thrash metal was a huge influence on countless performers - but I’m afraid that house–\>techno–\>rave–\>electronic dance music in general was (and still is) leaving much bigger impact on contemporary music. Besides, all the drum machines signature sounds - hi-hats, handclaps, cowbells - started in 80s on Japanese devices as poor imitations of disco sounds. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-older-people-think-of-disco-back-in-the-70s/842617.md?page=3)