# Would disco not have been so hated had so many rock stars not gone disco? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [January 2, 2022, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070 "2022-01-02T06:01:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/21 "2022-01-02T15:16:17Z")
I think that the hatred of disco sprung from a push back on black culture creeping in to mainstream America. Classic rock had dominated the airwaves until then and it was aggressively white, especially as time went on. > **[Disco Demolition: the night they tried to crush black music](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jul/19/disco-demolition-the-night-they-tried-to-crush-black-music)** > > When a DJ called on listeners to destroy disco records in a Chicago stadium, things turned nasty – and 40 years on, the ugly attitudes behind the event ring out loud and clear ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/22 "2022-01-02T15:16:28Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > I wonder why people hated disco. My reason was that suddenly it was everywhere. Keep in mind, this was still the pre-ipod days when you listened to the radio and it played the same 40 songs over and over and over again. It started getting hard to hear “real music”: good old rock and roll and R&B. That was getting crowded off the radio dial in favor of disco (and not just the good stuff. Middle-aged program managers wanted to jump on the disco craze and played anything with that beat). ---
**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:** [January 2, 2022, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/23 "2022-01-02T15:34:43Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I think that the hatred of disco sprung from a push back on black culture creeping in to mainstream America. While acknowledging racism was a big issue in America then, I think you’re reaching here. Rock and roll itself was “black culture creeping into mainstream America”. Early rock was openly called “race music”. People were afraid for their daughters in the 50s. None of the Bee Gees were black, nor KC (of the Sunshine Band). And funk, R&B and soul didn’t have the backlash. Sometime shitty music is just shitty music. ---
**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:** [January 2, 2022, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/24 "2022-01-02T15:41:34Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I think that the hatred of disco sprung from a push back on black culture creeping in to mainstream America Naw, Rock and Roll already went through that in the Fifties. The cultural pushback to Disco had a lot of homophobia to it as well as a rejection of what the “free love” of the Sixties evolved into. But mostly, the Disco Sucks movement was led by young males who were certain that British Blues influenced rock was some sort of cultural high point in the evolution of music that can’t abide the heresy of something that couldn’t be confused with a Led Zeppelin album. Punk was more of a rejection of those guys than it was of Disco. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/25 "2022-01-02T15:45:13Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I always call that song “that Stones disco tune.” It’s filtered through their lens, but it’s pretty clearly disco to me. Four to the floor kick, bass guitar often emphasizing the second half of the beat, hi hats opening in small parts to do the same (more cliche would be “pea soup” hats where a closed-open hat pattern would go through the song), the funk based keyboard part, the main riff and the falsetto “oo”s. It’s all sooooo 70s disco to my ears as played by a blues-and-country based bar band. The feeling is looser and airier than your usual disco track, but it doesn’t hide what it’s trying to be, Man, if anyone asked me to pick either the most disco rock bass line or the most rock disco bass line, I’d point to that one. Due to that, I’ve also always thought of it as a disco song at it’s heart. > [@madmonk28](#): > > I think that the hatred of disco sprung from a push back on black culture creeping in to mainstream America. Classic rock had dominated the airwaves until then and it was aggressively white, especially as time went on. That argument would make sense if Classic rock wasn’t an offshoot of black culture itself. Plus, disco was pretty goddamned white by the time they did that nonsense at Comiskey. (aww, double ninja’d) As to my thoughts on the OP: No, not really. I agree with @digs , the sudden complete ubiquity of the form was probably the major factor in the hatred of it. It was difficult to escape, and it’s a pretty insistent and in your face sound. Plus, there was a too-long fad of reinterpreting other songs into its format, which is kind of easy to do. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/26 "2022-01-02T15:48:14Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Rock was killed by a one-two punch: rap _and_ grunge. I’d consider grunge a form of rock. It’s clearly rock music, just not the hair metal-pop stuff that was popular before grunge took over. When I hear people lament the waning popularity of rock, they seem to refer to any collection of distorted guitar-based music with a strong backbeat, in contrast with genres like hip-hop, electronica, EDM, etc. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/27 "2022-01-02T15:56:45Z")
Someone once said that writing about music is like tap dancing about architecture. That said… > [@NDP](#): > > As I said a long time ago in an old Cafe Society thread I’m too lazy to dig up, “Miss You” is disco _ish_ as opposed to Rod Stewart’s “Do You Think I’m Sexy” which is _full_ disco. I wouldn’t categorize “Miss You” as disco, certainly. Disco-ish? I’ll have to think about that. We have to acknowledge that you can make a dish or paint a painting, but when you see how a pro does it, the results dictate that you acknowledge how much difference skill and finesse can make. “Emotional rescue” goes to show that even skilled professionals drive off the edge of a cliff occasionally…or maybe they’re pulling our leg. > [@Banksiaman](#): > > In this alternative universe should I love Blondie more or less? IIRC they recorded the song even though they hated it. “Oh, that disco song…” But most of the stuff they recorded wasn’t like that. I think of them as New Wave. [Wikipedia has their picture on that page.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_wave_music) > [@Banksiaman](#): > > I wonder why people hated disco. Some of the lyrics, e.g. Da Ya Think I’m Sexy. Some of it was the arrogance, e.g. people trying to get into Studio 54 deemed not cool enough and the whole shallowness culture. One summer I let myself get drawn into soap operas and Port Charles (“General Hospital”) actually had a disco in its story line. It was a bandwagon, me-too, and even folks who were grandparents headed over there to shake their wrinkly booties. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > designed for dancing, not for listening For me, that’s close. I don’t love dancing, but if I’m going to dance it would be to something like “I Saw Her Standing There” rather than a disco song. While we’re on the topic, I would point out that I suffered some disillusionment in the early MTV years. There were a lot of puzzling videos that had nothing to do with the story the music told. And an awful lot of bands seemed to be trying to attract fans by how they dressed, wore their hair, etc. rather than focusing on the music. > [@madmonk28](#): > > I think that the hatred of disco sprung from a push back on black culture creeping in to mainstream America. I didn’t particularly think of it as black music. I mean, sure there was Donna Summer, Thelma Houston, Earth, Wind & Fire…but also KC and the Sunshine Band, the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart. Plus that hodgepodge group, Village People, that spewed the vile “YMCA.” Besides, as @Just_Asking_Questions says, some of the R&B and Philly Soul, Jackson 5, Temptations, Stylistics, Spinners, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Supremes, 5th Dimension, and more had had success. There were a few songs I liked. But mostly it felt like a force feeding of stuff I didn’t want to hear. > [@digs](#): > > My reason was that suddenly it was everywhere. Keep in mind, this was still the pre-ipod days when you listened to the radio and it played the same 40 songs over and over and over again. And then in 1979…[Sony mercifully gave us the Walkman.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkman) ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/28 "2022-01-02T16:02:19Z")
I’m an old dyed in the wool rocker who appreciated that young women of the time enjoyed dancing and drinking to disco. _Hard For the Money_ still makes any mix tape of mine. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/29 "2022-01-02T16:03:46Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > IIRC they recorded the song even though they hated it. “Oh, that disco song…” Blondie had first written (and recorded a demo of) what became “Heart of Glass” several years before they finally recorded the version we know; up until then, they even referred to it as “The Disco Song.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/30 "2022-01-02T16:06:47Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > I wouldn’t categorize “Miss You” as disco, certainly. Disco-ish? > > […] > > “Emotional rescue” goes to show that even skilled professionals drive off the edge of a cliff occasionally… I always used to get _Emotional Rescue_ and _Miss You_ confused. I’m pretty sure I still do. ---
**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:** [January 2, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/31 "2022-01-02T16:10:26Z")
Yeah. Even if they weren’t fully aligned musically with Disco, much of Blondie’s social environment was that scene, as it was for almost all musicians living in New York in the late ‘70s, even the likes of the Ramones. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/32 "2022-01-02T16:15:35Z")
By the 70s, rock and roll had been completely coopted into white culture and was an aggressive expression of whiteness. It went from underground subculture to mainstream. The idea that the backlash against disco was racist is hardly a fringe idea and has been written about quite a bit. > **[The "disco sucks" movement and the cycle of white grievance that is still...](https://signorile.substack.com/p/the-disco-sucks-movement-and-the)** > > A new Bee Gees documentary highlights the time thousands of white people gathered in a stadium to blow up records by Black and gay artists -- and then rioted. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/33 "2022-01-02T16:19:49Z")
In my memory, the black disco bands usually had a lot of funk and R&B influence. But the synthesizer-driven monstrosities that people viscerally loathed usually had white lead singers. ---
**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:** [January 2, 2022, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/34 "2022-01-02T16:25:56Z")
Anything that happens in Chicago is going to have a racial element to it, but I’ll wager that even at Comiskey Park an overwhelming majority of the attendees idolized Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix as gods. ---
**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:** [January 2, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/35 "2022-01-02T16:30:56Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > has been written about quite a bit. That article is so full of shit its breath smells. From the point he states the Bee Gees “were _not_ a “disco” group” (no, they were a disco group - no scare quotes) to the point he states that the “white, heterosexual, predominantly male Americans” would be afraid of teh gey disco, but would embrace “Queen [and] Elton John” shows he has no idea what he’s talking about. Between those sets, I know which ones we were worried were gay, and it wasn’t the disco artists. (and we was right!🙂 ) There was nothing gay about Saturday Night Fever or the Bee Gees or KC. Or Donna Summer. (The Village People, OK, I’ll grant that one). ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/36 "2022-01-02T16:31:11Z")
There was a lot of homophobia in the anti-disco sentiment as well. This is well documented in the Podcast ‘You’re Wrong About’ in regards to disco demolition night. But to argue that white America, especially teenaged and twenty-something rock fans, weren’t racist in the 1970s because they liked Hendrix is an especial form of historical revisionism. > **[Disco Demolition Night](https://open.spotify.com/episode/408d5mTIc2rqfjpqB9ueRl?si=Tj-dPxhRQtWsovA3nWe6-A&utm_source=copy-link)** > > Listen to this episode from You're Wrong About on Spotify. Mike tells Sarah how a silly sports promotion galvanized a reactionary movement. Digressions include “Charlotte’s Web,” Jane Fonda and German-language musicals. Songs are dissected; the honor... Lol. JAQ, talk about cross posting. Sorry, but you’re wrong. Tons of homophobia and racism were involved in the anti-disco movement. They were the fuel which kept this specific fire burning for 4 years. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/37 "2022-01-02T16:32:59Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > One summer I let myself get drawn into soap operas and Port Charles (“General Hospital”) actually had a disco in its story line. It was a bandwagon, me-too, and even folks who were grandparents headed over there to shake their wrinkly booties. Yeah, it’s amazing how many television shows incorporated disco into the plot line. You might be able to avoid a lot of disco on the radio but then you sit down to watch CHiPs or Three’s Company and there’s a disco plot! ---
**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:** [January 2, 2022, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/38 "2022-01-02T16:36:36Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > But to argue that white America, especially teenaged and twenty-something rock fans, weren’t racist in the 1970s But to argue that they only expressed this racism towards disco and not Sly Stone, Hendrix, Gladys Knight, Santana, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Ike and Tina Tuner, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, is to be pushing their own agenda. “You all were racist” is easy an easy weapon to use. The writer is probably a disco lover. 🙂 ---
**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:** [January 2, 2022, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/39 "2022-01-02T16:37:09Z")
Disco was hated because it was just awful. You can point to the best songs of an era and explain why they are well made. Over the years I gained an appreciation of The Bee Gees and their best songs. Donna Summer had a lot of talent and her hits are enjoyable. But transport yourself back and listen to what was actually being played and it was awful. The good music was the minority If _Staying Alive_ was all that was playing there wouldn’t be a big backlash. It wasn’t because of The Rolling Stones doing a lot of coke at Studio 54. It was because we quickly became inundated by _Disco Duck_ and the disco version of the Star Wars theme. In a short amount of time everything became discofied. Punk may have had a huge future influence and hit some of the population at the time but the vast majority of the population wasn’t even aware of it. But my parents were exposed to disco every day. Variety shows had disco acts. Old stars were doing disco. Johnny Carson was making jokes. It burned out quickly because of the vast amount of dreck that was put out in a short amount of time. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/40 "2022-01-02T16:44:46Z")
As a teen in Chicago, I considered myself to be as into rock, and as big of a disco hater as anyone. But, having said that, I recall working out “Saturday Night Fever” bus stop moves to the BeeGees. And we LOVED Parliament Funkadelic - which is only a hop, skip, and a jump away from disco. I think the pervasiveness is what bothered me/us the most. Country western and soul had their own radio stations. But disco was taking over the rock stations (on AM at least.) And Blondie/Rod the Mod had been 2 of my faves. I HATED their forays into disco. Today, I enjoy disco when I hear it. Likely a good part of that is nostalgia. But I also suspect that the QUALITY disco withstood the test of time, whereas th dross has disappeared. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070.md?page=3)