# 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:** 6
**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 3, 2022, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/101 "2022-01-03T17:44:15Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Of course not. Even Mickey Mouse went disco. I’m sure us “disco sucks-ers” be accused of being mousephobic. ---
**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 3, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/102 "2022-01-03T17:46:07Z")
My favorite album as a kid! One of the few vinyls I’ve owned. ---
**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 3, 2022, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/103 "2022-01-03T17:49:56Z")
Exactly. People were upset when rock stars from ‘their’ culture were performing music from those other peoples culture, because it meant cultural hegemony was cracking. From the article: Because, in the end, the chance to yell “disco sucks” meant more than simply a musical style choice. It was a chance to push back on a whole set of social dynamics that lied just beneath the surface of a minor battle between a DJ and a radio station that decided to change formats. More importantly, it was a chance for a whole lot of people to say they didn’t like the way the world was changing around them, or who they saw as the potential victors in a cultural and demographic war. > **[Time Obscures Meaning of Disco Demolition](https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/mists-of-time-obscure-disco-demolition-meaning/98306/)** > > Thirty-five years later, not everyone remembers Disco Demolition Night the same way. ---
**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 3, 2022, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/104 "2022-01-03T18:31:42Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > People were upset when rock stars from ‘their’ culture were performing music from those other peoples culture, because it meant cultural hegemony was cracking. What do you think rock music is? ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2022, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/105 "2022-01-03T18:55:42Z")
Was there a significant anti gay backlash in the disco era? How much knowledge would the average person have of gay discotheques? Even today, straight people loudly sing YMCA at sporting events, completely ignorant of the lyrics about anonymous gay sex at bathhouses. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2022, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/106 "2022-01-03T19:35:46Z")
Gays were comparatively accepted by rock: Bowie and Queen and the Glam Rockers had a pretty overt vibe. But the anti-gay forces were with the uncool people like Anita Bryant. You, as a working-class hard rock guy, would be offended if an actual gay guy made a pass at you, but the same people who were against gays in general were also against your thing: (straight) sex and drugs and rock and roll. I don’t recall any anti-gay aspect to disco sucks, more about “our” girls would dance to music we’d look stupid doing. Now how were we going to get laid? Society didn’t ramp back to homophobia until AIDS. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2022, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/107 "2022-01-03T19:47:40Z")
My bad: I meant Bread and America. ---
**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 3, 2022, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/108 "2022-01-03T20:30:08Z")
As I said before, by the 70s, rock music had been completely coopted by white America. It was aggressively white. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/109 "2022-01-03T20:38:56Z")
That’s definitely true. In the eighties, a black rock band like Living Color was a total outlier and a kind of sensation. ---
**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 3, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/110 "2022-01-03T21:23:40Z")
Yeah, rock had become every bit as establishment as Lawrence Welk by the late 70s. It’s why punk was born. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/111 "2022-01-04T00:12:06Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Yeah, in high school (78 grad) I owned my share of crap albums from Styx, Kansas, etc. But also Genesis, **Alice Cooper** , Blue Oyster Cult Speaking of which…I’m pretty sure his quote (which if I wasn’t a lazy SOB I’d find a video link) sums up why Disco (as a fad) died a horrible death: _“No kid wants to be dancing with his girl in a club, look over to his left, and see his mom and dad dancing right there.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/112 "2022-01-04T00:33:29Z")
When wasn’t rock music in America completely white? We talk today about Chuck Berry and the others in the 50s, but they weren’t played on white radio stations or seen very often on television. If kids ever heard their music it came out of the mouth of Pat Boone. Rock groups were always white in the 60s. Hendrix was then the great outlier. Today, again, we talk about the great session bands at Motown and Stax, but they were never thought about as rock groups. Same with all the groups that followed. Earth, Wind, and Fire, P-Funk, Chic, none of them were thought as “rock,” no matter how many guitars they had. ---
**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 4, 2022, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/113 "2022-01-04T00:52:06Z")
Preaching to the choir. As soon as a dime could be made, they found Elvis, crowned him King and kicked Chuck Berry to the curb. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/114 "2022-01-04T00:54:30Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Rock groups were always white in the 60s. Hendrix was then the great outlier. Not always. I offer Sly & The Family Stone as an example. (They’re in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, so they count, no matter how funkified they were.) ---
**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 4, 2022, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/115 "2022-01-04T00:55:29Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > As I said before, by the 70s, rock music had been completely coopted by white America. It was aggressively white. And by the late 70s, when there was a backlash against disco, it had become just as white. It was the land of Rod Stewart and Walter Murphy by then. I mean, I absolutely love “Funkytown” by Lipps, Inc. but it’s as stiff and white as anything until it gets to the chorus, and goes back to being stiff as soon as it’s over. ---
**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 4, 2022, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/116 "2022-01-04T00:57:03Z")
Resolved: White people ruin _everything_. ---
**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 4, 2022, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/117 "2022-01-04T01:01:43Z")
Awww, I don’t know about that. I had a friend who’s dad had seen just about everyone from his day, including Hendrix and Floyd at their peaks. His opinion on the best music ever? English hippies on drugs, playing the blues (Fleetwood Mac). I don’t agree, I think it’s Canadians playing avant-garde hardcore. We can all blame society, in the end. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/118 "2022-01-04T01:09:33Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > They’re in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, so they count, no matter how funkified they were.) So are Earth, Wind, and Fire, P-Funk, and Chic. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/119 "2022-01-04T01:27:15Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I rest my case. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/BAyxatBvKfg/hqdefault.jpg "Steve Allen") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAyxatBvKfg) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2022, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-disco-not-have-been-so-hated-had-so-many-rock-stars-not-gone-disco/957070/120 "2022-01-04T01:43:36Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Yep. And, I hate dancing. The lyrics of most disco songs were repetitive and empty. Compared to the poetic mastery of rock classics like “Surfing Bird” or “Tequila”? Do you remember “A wop bop a looma a lop bam boom”? ETA: just saw it, the video @Yookeroo posted makes my point even better. [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=5) [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=7)