Well, it also had to do with being the music of “those kind of people,” similar to how a decade later rap became reviled.
Just wanted to point out something that’s not been mentioned in the backlash against disco: I think fashion changed a lot back in the 70’s and you started seeing flashing neon lights, the shirts open to the belly button, gold chains, bell bottoms, and oh, that horrible hair.
I feel that at least some of the backlash against disco was for that reason, it became an outdated and uncool fashion embarrasment that “old people” (the parents) liked. Leather and chains became the new fashion in the 80’s for the rebels.
And to answer the OP: I think the rock stars trying their hand in what was a popular, growing music trend made it more popular (for the most part). And a lot of these bands did suffer backlash when disco became out of date, and they got out of it.
While there were, and are, legitimate aesthetic reasons to dislike disco, a lot of backlash was also driven by racism, homophobia and sexism.
That is not how I would have characterized either of those bands…
100%
Yea, even Kiss cashed in on it.
Thoroughly agree, and that was pretty obvious to me in the 90s, which was about the first time I’d thought about disco for more than 5 minutes. And while those positions were more acceptable then, they were likely to have tried to legitimise racist-sexist-homophobic attitudes to disco and all it represented in some higher moral purpose, such as biblical injunctions against strobing dance floors…
Although I don’t think it aspired to being a documentary, and was flawed even for him, Barry Luhrmann’s The Get Down, looked at the start of hip-hop and disco in New York as being embedded in racism, political disenfranchisement and urban politics. Probably worth a second look with this discussion in mind.
You were getting busy to Yes and America?
… in a roundabout way, yes.
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 …, and my 3 fave bands were Rush, Queen, and (less proud of) ELP. The problem was that top-40 AM radio was playing Journey, Foreigner, etc.
In Chicago, you had to tune into XRT - before it turned into classic rock - to hear anything other than the top singles.
Apparently my problem was that I liked all those bands and couldn’t understand the freaking controversy if you liked one versus the other. Disco didn’t suck. ‘Disco sucks’ people sucked. As my ‘Classical is the ONLY music’ uncle sucked.
Yep. And, I hate dancing. The lyrics of most disco songs were repetitive and empty.
Shake shake shake, shake shake shake
Shake your booty, shake your booty
Oh, shake shake shake, shake shake shake
Shake your booty, shake your booty
or this gem:
That’s the way, aha, aha
I like it, aha, aha
That’s the way, aha, aha
I like it, aha, aha
That’s the way, aha, aha
I like it, aha, aha
That’s the way, aha, aha
I like it, aha, aha
Here’s another
get up and boogie
Get up and boogie
(That’s right) get up and boogie
Get up and boogie
Boogie
Boogie
That’s right
Boogie
Boogie
That’s right
Get up and boogie
Get up at boogie
I rest my case.
“I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You” is the Alan Parsons Project song that springs to mind as having some disco flavor.
Don’t forget that classic that had only four words.
Do. The, Hustle. It.
And I sure hope you like dancing, because they’re usually repetitive and about dancing.
I’m not one of the “disco sucks” camp, but those lyrics are even more vapid than a square dance caller - at least the square dance calls are providing instructions on how to do the dance (well, if you know the language).
Fortunately, we will always be allowed to loathe the Bee Gees without accusations of bad thinking. And Andy too.
It seemed only natural that Todd Rundgren, who dipped his toe into a whole range of styles, would offer up a disco tune: Rock Love
And who can forget the big disco hit by Kiss, I Was Made For Lovin’ You ?
,
See post 84.
Oops 
It wasn’t just rock stars who went disco.
Of course not. Even Mickey Mouse went disco.
