The "Death" of Disco

There is this repeated story that it went away because it was too black or too gay.

But it didn’t go away.

Like all music, it evolved.

^FYI, op here. Not sure what happened but apparently my keyboard or computer had a stroke while I was typing, so sorry about the mess at the beginning of the post.

It was more the fact that it just became too much.

Every big city had at least one radio station that played nonstop disco 24/7...and amid the many gems, there was also a whole lot of pure crap that got played, just to fill up all that airtime.

Artists that had no business attempting disco took a crack at it attempting to score a hit, and the genre as a whole suffered as a result.

In the wake of "Saturday Night Fever", we got a whole bunch of low-budget "disco" movies, each one more cringeworthy than the next.

And then you'd turn on the TV, and it had even invaded the commercial jingles.

When we started seeing local news reports about senior citizens being taught how to disco dance as a way to keep active, it was all over. Once the olds get a hold of something, there's no more pretending it's relevant...especially in those days.

The whole Disco Demolition being the official death knell is a lazy, after-the-fact VH1-esque rewriting of history. What Steve Dahl was doing in Chicago had no sway over those of us in Southern California. His pathetic anti-disco parody single didn't even make the top 40. Neither did Frank Zappa's "Dancin' Fool".

It was one of those things that got too popular and successful for its own good, and therefore had to die. Kind of like Hootie and the Blowfish.

Interestingly, a decade later when radio stations had the courage to start playing some disco again (oldies!), they left out Donna Summer and Bee Gees because they were just too disco.

Disco dominated the music scene in the later part of the 1970s. Straight, white men in the industry resented it. Also, straight, white men, in general, began to despise it, too, because of their homophobia, racism and sexism. The American public was saturated with Disco and began to tire of it, as well.

OP your information and source is wrong. Disco = dance music and it never died and was always evolving. And it did not evolve overnight. The 70s disco vibe hung on in clubs all over NYC even as other styles of music and clubs rose in popularity.

In the early 80s you could have had whatever you wanted. The variety was immense.

Yes, it's just changed its name but dance music is alive and well.

Conservative, straight, white people always destroy what they cannot control.

There’s a terrific documentary on the BeeGees on HBO. Gives a lot of insight into the death of disco. Also makes you realize how truly talented the BeeGees were.

Disco's cheesiness always was accepted. Celebrated, even.

But the time came, and it did seem quickly, when people applying the formulaic pattern at the heart of most of disco seemed to run out of fresh ideas. And the cheesiness percolated out like methane from the thawing tundra, and it smelled like hot greasy feet.

Disco was nearly always dance music, but it didn't fit into the subtler wit, cynical mechanics and ironic sexuality behind the best "dance music" since the death of disco.

There's this HBO documentary about the Bee Gees that shows very clearly what happened (as others have mentioned, yes it a lot to do with homophobia and racism). Highly recommend viewing if you want to dig more on the subject.

Rewrite your ignorant opener, OP, to be about Flyoverstan and then we can talk. Sophisticated global capitals of art and culture have very diverse nightlife.

All of the queens ended disco.

Your friend is delusional

I think the AIDS crisis and the rise of the moral majority coinciding with each other made for an imperfect storm. It's depressing how progressive the 1970s seemed in comparison to the decade that followed.

While disco remained popular as it evolved into dance music, there are significant elements of disco in hip hop: the hooks are all over rap hits.

The 1980s in NYC were progressive. Could we please relocate this idiotic zeitgeist analysis to the appropriate geographical region?

It came back as dance music within a few years. Shannon's "Let the Music Play," released in 1983, is often considered the first post-disco dance hit.

And we got British synthpop, Detroit techno, and Chicago house music just blocks away from Comiskey Park. Disco didn’t die; it had a successful 3:1 stock split.

Paradise Garage, Danceteria and similar clubs were spinning HEAVY disco. There was no break, it just morphed.

Ahem, R19....

R18 Maybe more progressive than that bumfuck Indiana town that shunned a 13-year-old boy for getting AIDS from a blood transfusion, but it definitely wasn't the free for all it was in the 1970s.

There was a lot of funk and early hip hop that bridged the years

“ Maybe more progressive than that bumfuck Indiana town that shunned a 13-year-old boy for getting AIDS“

Yes, we saw that progressive spirit in NYC when we cared for the guys you abandoned.

Some late disco and Philly sound was too perfect and never disappeared from dance clubs

R13, come again?

Well your thread opener is all over the place and self-contradictory. You set up that you heard disco died overnight in NYC and nothing could be further than the truth. Then you hedge and say it went underground and was relabelled dance music but it certainly it was always dance music. And dance music in clubs in world capitals is not "underground" for crissakes. You could have gone to London, Paris, New York, Ibiza and danced your ass off to dance music, every year, non stop, from the 70s to now. So what are you trying to get at? Do you think clubbers and nightlife business owners in cities with nightlife paid ANY attention to Demolition Derby?

[quote] yes it a lot to do with homophobia and racism.

Or maybe it was because people got sick of listening to that shit.

My points were already made upthread, but I want to emphasize them. Maybe among straight, White, Republicants, but nobody else, disco never died. Changed its name maybe, but dance music never stopped. The shrill, negative overreaction to its popularity was/is rooted in fear: it is too Black, too gay. Ironically, you can say that they losers who participated in the destruction of “disco records” actually saw their music (REO Shitwagon, The Knack, etc) disappear.

“ Maybe among straight, White, Republicants”

Nope. As always, it got to them 10 yrs later. Thus, wedding receptions ended with Last Dance in ‘87 - not ‘77.

R28, first of all I was relaying comments from an elder friend of mine telling HIS observations and then opening it up to DL to either agree or disagree with that or share their own observations of the backlash. And asking what their thoughts are on what caused the downward trend of the popularity of disco.

I may have misspoke when I said “underground” but I guess my point was that the disco “label” as such was no longer a commercial commodity and that it seemed like it was a swift decline. It also seemed like disco artists like Donna Summer and Grace Jones pretty much made different sounding records starting in 1980, and major labels were no longer throwing as much money at so called disco acts. On the other hand, smaller labels like West End and Prelude were making some really interesting records that I’m sure were still getting played in clubs. I didn’t mean to insinuate that nightlife really changed THAT much, I meant disco as a cultural phenomenon in America And again, I’m only 36 so I could have no idea what I’m talking about, hence why I wanted to hear primarily from people who were actually there

^For the brides maybe. No groom was choosing that music.

Ok well you have a point that the word "disco" was out. But it was dance music before, during and after. The chief issue with your thèse, young man, is that you keep switching localization between "America" and NYC. I was trying to inform you that some cities have nightlife dance culture and there is ALWAYS dance music and none of it is underground to the people who live in these cities. When I was clubbing in NY in the 80s and working legit jobs in finance - square tom dick and harry New Yorker knew the possible nightlife AND music that existed - even if they never went out.

R34, i understand. I always just think of NYC as having been the epicenter of disco, so I guess that why I conflated the two.

Can I come to your black panther party, R8?

Forrest Gump

Reports of disco’s death were exaggerated.

It's true for a couple years Disco was persona non grata. Reagan, AIDS, a resurgence of Country (Urban Cowboy, etc.), punk and rock hair bands...

But New Wave kept the synthesizers and drum machines, and Disco morphed into industrial, techno, club, house etc. etc.

I remember not hearing this music for about 15 years. It wasn’t until around 1993 that enough time had passed to play disco on radio again. On a car trip we came across one of those Saturday night oldies shows and it was a revelation to me just how good that music was.

I was born in the early seventies and grew up on Disco. Here's one I love to this day:

Madonna also did a lot to revive dance music in the early 80s. Her first album was essentially a disco album.

Homophobia and racism certainly played into the death of disco in mainstream straight America. After Saturday Night Fever, straight discos, populated by fraus in spaghetti strap dresses, with white leisure suited men popped up all over the place. I’m glad straight people lost interest in disco. Gay clubs kept dance music alive.

I don’t understand people saying disco never died. Dance music did not just continue. The 80s were filled with horror music that was the antithesis of disco. Big hair metal, new wave droning, cheesy pop. There was totally an anti-gay and minority backlash that was part of the anti-disco movement. I couldn’t wait to grow up to go to discos - then when I did hit my teenage years in the 80s, it was “gay” in the 80s sense to like disco. OP makes an important point - yet people are acting like dancing never died. Republicanism and the Moral Majority and the anti-disco movement were all part of the early 80s vibe.

[quote]Homophobia and racism certainly played into the death of disco in mainstream straight America.

It did not. That's bullshit and the rewriting of history.

First of all, it was a time when trends in music were brief. Trends came and went quickly. From 1960 to 1980 look at the various musical styles that were popular and then replaced with another. Considering everything, disco had a long shelf life compared to others.

Straight men loved disco just as much as anyone. The BeeGees, the whole macho Saturday Night Fever thing. Everyone loved The Village People.

The disco sound was seductive. Giogio Moroder's "Love to Love You Baby", "I Feel Love"...were love making tunes for straights and gays alike.

But the world was changing by the early 1980s. AIDS cast a pall over everything. No one knew how it was transmitted. Fear took over.

It just wasn't a time to go out and celebrate.

[quote]It did not. That's bullshit and the rewriting of history.

Racism and homophobia were definitely part of it

R45 How, where? Examples?

R43 The question was posed based on a location - NYC. Where dance music never died. Not even for a day. The OP sloppily mixed in America, confusing the framing. And here we are.

R44 I went out throughout the 80s and the worst of AIDs. As mentioned in London, Manchester, Paris, Hamburg, Ibiza, New York. The clubs were mobbed. Aids was a heavy burden but there were plenty of us young people who partied anyway. You all have SHIT, maudlin, historiography. Cliché statements based on ignorance.

Disco was very black and very gay, and straight America didn't like it. I also recommend the Bee Gees doc on HBO Max, it goes into detail about this. Of course, there were other factors in the decline of disco, mostly oversaturation of the market.

The clubs in Paris were SO mobbed, smelly and smokey we Yankees who partied there would spill out to the streets gasping for fresh air.

[quote]Disco was very black

And so? So was Motown.

[quote]Disco was very black and very gay, and straight America didn't like it.

They didn't like it.

But they bought it in droves. And made stars out of of plenty of performers.

But they didn't like it. Explain that one.

Even as the 80s rolled around Kool and the Gang, KC and the Sunshine Boys were in the Billboard year-end top 10. MJ comes along with "Beat it" and "Billie Jean" and sells millions of discs.

Where's the racism?

R22, "Let the Music Play" and "Lucky Star" came out within a couple of weeks of each other. They were both part of the dance music revival, but you are right that Lucky Star hit #1 on the dance chart first, staying there for five weeks until being unseated by "Let the Music Play."

Billie Jean is 1983 as well, a massive hit, and is disco.

Popular music genres change about every generation or so as tastes and and or demographics do as well.

As noted several times in this thread dance/club music simply began evolving away from disco to "House", this was direct result of what was happening in clubs via DJs' along with growth and spread of "rap" music.

Other thing of course was by 1980's you had a whole new generation of young people who like others before them wanted something new and their own, not what their parents or other older adults had.

Just as 1960's brought changes to dominate (then) dances and music of 1950's (Madison, the Stroll, and the Hand Jive, the Cha-Cha, and Jitterbug), gave way to new sounds and dances. But the change was gradual as new decade unfolded.

No one does the Hustle anymore, but assure you at any wedding or social event at least here in NYC/LI/NJ area you will be doing a line dance (Bus Stop, Electric Slide, or whatever you want to call it), which came right out of SNF and disco.

Punk was up and coming and what all the “cool kids” wanted to associate with- ie. The Ramones, The Clash, Patti Smith, Sex Pistols, etc.

It was the Mudd Club vs. Studio 54. Steve Rubell would never have dared to go downtown for fear of being turned away at the door of the MC.

Of course, now that building is luxury condos, like everything else in NYC.

DJ Frankie Knuckles introduced "Chicago House" music in late 1970's early 1980's, that's what happened to disco.

New Order massive club hit 1983. Disco.

Mudd Club played everything. And they had that crazy screening room upstairs. Fun.

Frankie Knuckles - Your Love, about far away from "disco" as one could get.

In clubs gay and straight this is what you heard in Paris, London, New York, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, etc....

1980's also saw rise of the DJ as superstar of club/dance music scene, something that still is true today.

New Order is a perfect example. 80s dance music sucked. House music didn’t really become big until the 90s. The 80s were not a dancing decade generally speaking - even if the gays still danced.

Erasure and other European groups had a huge influence as well in 1980's and beyond club/dance music.

Again tracks like Oh L'Amour is what you hear in clubs, not disco....

Everyone became homophobic towards disco and then started listening to Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Soft Cell and Pet Shop Boys and Culture Club? 80s music was way gayer than Disco.

[quote]and then started listening to Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Soft Cell and Pet Shop Boys and Culture Club? 80s music was way gayer than Disco.

With the exception of Culture Club those bands only had one real hit. And that was because of gays. Gays were still influencing pop music after disco. No straight guys were into "Relax."

Depeche Mode.... Enough said....

This is a good disco documentary, at 1:09 they start explaining where it all went wrong

Kraftwerk and English electro disco led to Detroit House so you don't know your history. And Chicago house was in NYC in the 80s. This was everywhere in NY in 1986. That's how fast shit was moving and evolving.

It would be nice if people such as R62 would specify if they are referring to flyoverstan American dullards or clubbers in the exciting cities of the world. "The 80s were not a dancing decade generally speaking." Lordy, just NO.

[quote]Kraftwerk and English electro disco led to Detroit House so you don't know your history. And Chicago house was in NYC in the 80s. This was everywhere in NY in 1986. That's how fast shit was moving and evolving.

Yes, that music was played in clubs in major cities, but it wasn't in the mainstream. Acts like Donna Summer and Chic dominated mainstream music.

The clubs just got better and better and better. The sound systems ever better, and the DJs too.

Ku

Saint

[quote]With the exception of Culture Club those bands only had one real hit. And that was because of gays.

"Karma Chameleon" was the 10th biggest song of 1984. You don't do that by just appealing to gays.

No one gave a shit that Boy George was singing in a dress and makeup. He was wildly popular.

And for that matter Prince was in ruffles and makeup and had the number one song for the year 1984.

r74 the gay connotations of disco definitely had an impact on ending it, but there were other factors.

This is the Bee Gees documentary. At 1:19 they go into the decline of disco and the big backlash.

The tracks at R61 and R63 have a lot of disco influence in them. You could easily remix either as a disco song with minimal tweaking.

Well the homophobes did a poor job after ending disco considering how gay a lot of New Wave was and how it dominated pop music in the beginning of the 80s. They must have been too busy getting laid while listening to Journey's Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' to notice all the gay shit that was happening.

Someone up thread is arguing that Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle are FAR from disco? Anti-disco?

Well I never in all my life...

Disco didn't die...it evolved into trance/edm.

[quote]Well the homophobes did a poor job after ending disco considering how gay a lot of New Wave was and how it dominated pop music in the beginning of the 80s.

It dominated in Britain, not so much in America. Those shitty, godawful rock bands like REO Speedwagon etc. were still very popular in America in the early 80s.

I never thought of the BeeGees as disco. I don’t get these deluded kaweens who think disco ever died. It may have been called something else, but dance clubs flourished long after disco was pronounced dead (1979?!?) in the Disco Demolition. Are we talking about hets only? Every major American city had multiple gay dance clubs throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Please elaborate how Jamie Principle is the antithesis of Ring My Bell?

[quote]Well the homophobes did a poor job after ending disco considering how gay a lot of New Wave was and how it dominated pop music in the beginning of the 80s. They must have been too busy getting laid while listening to Journey's Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' to notice all the gay shit that was happening.

There are people today intent on rewriting history to fit their 2022 narrative about racism and homophobia.

They will never understand that when it comes to pop culture, in many respects, things were LESS polarized back then.

That whole "disco died" thing in the air also seemed to coincide almost right with the change from 1979 into 1980. So there was the pull and awareness of moving into a new decade pushing and enabling it, along with all the other social, political, technology, fashion and music changes that were going on in the world at that time and which "change" us psychologically to a certain degree each time one decade segues into the next one. Disco, and everything associated with it from the 1970s, didn't seem to "fit" and needed to evolve suddenly, likewise.

r84 watch the linked documentaries where people who were actually there at the time talked about the racism and homophobia in the disco backlash.

R84 indeed. and though AIDS was grim, and one city in particular, SF, had a very heavy feeling, its not like the gay capitals rolled up their sidewalks, closed the shutters, and stayed home for a dozen years, like our 2 COVID years. I realize a small number of very anxious unfucked eldergays haven't been out since 1983, but thats the exception.

I thought we were talking about American society as a whole, not just gay neighborhoods in major cities. Of course those areas always had dance music, but in the rest of the country dance music did go through a period of intense hate.

In 1979 an editor of one of the Gay club magazines in NY dropped off magazines where I worked and told me to stop kissing everyone and get my own glass as there was a disease..... OK AIDS was in it's infancy and we had no clue what it really was and how one got it.

It was the beginning of the end of Discos in NY, Queens and Long Island. So to me it wasn't the end of disco music, it was the end of the Gay club scene.

That is the issue in the thread. Poorly defined criteria. American zeitgeist? Or NYC?

"I have an eldergay friend who lived in NYC in the 70's and 80's and he was telling me that when disco died, it was literally overnight. It was as if disco was everywhere one day and then the next day it was nowhere, and everyone wanted to be so far away from it. He said it was incredible how quickly it just dissipated from the American zeitgeist. How many of you on here remember these days and the backlash against disco, particularly those of you who lived in NYC at the time?"

Lest we forget,Urban Cowboy was a hugely popular movie that influenced music and fashion. Much to my horror. I hated that movie,I hated country music and I still hate plaid shirts. It was country EVERYTHING for quite a few years after that.

R89 Patently blinkered history!!!! I arrived in New York in 1980 and there gay clubs GALORE all the way through the decade. New ones every year, in fact.

'81 and '82 were lean years for dance music, but around '82 we started seeing some signs of resurgence. Even in '81, at the height of the disco backlash, I remember Rick James' "Super Freak" being really popular among white dudes that would normally be blasting AC/DC or Lynyrd Skynyrd from their car stereos. They'd ask me "hey, who sings that song 'Kinky Girl'?" A few of the big black acts could still deliver a big dance-oriented hit, like Earth Wind & Fire with "Let's Groove", Kool & the Gang with "Get Down On It", Stevie Wonder with "Do I Do", and Diana Ross with "Mirror Mirror". Hell, even the Queen of Disco herself, Donna Summer, was still in the game with "Love is in Control". And even though they weren't massive hits, there were still a handful of dance tunes by R&B artists that made the top 40, like Junior's "Mama Used to Say", Skyy's "Call Me", Patrice Rushen's "Forget Me Nots", and Evelyn King's "I'm in Love" and "Love Come Down".

Meanwhile there were all these synth-pop acts that were picking up where Blondie left off and starting to have big pop success with a new-sounding type of music that was danceable, but that was definitely not disco...like Human League, Thompson Twins, Eurythmics, Culture Club, and ABC, to name a few. And by the end of 1982, with two pivotal releases, "Thriller" and "1999", the walls between black-oriented dance music and huge pop success really started to crumble.

By 1983, the dance music comeback was pretty much complete. There were SO many songs that charted simultaneously on the rock charts, the dance charts, and the pop charts...with the resurgent David Bowie leading the charge: "Let's Dance". Cyndi Lauper with "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". Prog-rock has-beens Yes suddenly back at the top with "Owner of a Lonely Heart". Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue". MJ's "Beat It". Prince's "Little Red Corvette". "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats. "Jeopardy" by the Greg Kihn Band. And on and on and on. "99 Luftballoons". "Der Kommisar". "Stand Back". All shit you could shake your ass to, or rock out to, or both.

Oh, and a little movie about dancing was released, called "Flashdance", with a soundtrack full of dance music, and it became a huge cultural phenomenon, proving to the industry without any doubt that there was money to be made. And there was a certain girl dance-pop singer who was starting to cross over from the clubs and MTV onto the pop charts, and who would proudly carry the dance music torch as she became one of the biggest stars in the world.

In summary, yeah, disco as a phenomenon and as a specific genre pretty much died in late 1980, early 1981. Maybe not totally dead, but it got beaten within an inch of its life...surviving just long enough to give birth to the various new kinds of dance music that replaced it. As for the original genre itself, disco really remained a dirty word for a long time. I remember in the mid-90's, some LA radio station did an April Fool's joke where they pretended that they'd changed their format and were now "Disco 102" or something, and they played nothing but the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, KC, all the great old stuff...and stupid clueless people called in all day, absolutely furious that they were playing that garbage. So disco was still being dunked on and the butt of jokes 15 years after its "death". But it wasn't that much later that the tide started to turn, and a lot of people were able to admit they actually loved that old 70's disco. There are still some diehard haters, mostly Boomer classic rock fans and headbangers who boil over with anger at the mere mention of the word "disco"...usually the same old farts who proclaim that "rap is crap" or whatever.

And with that, I leave you with what I'm pretty sure we can all agree is the greatest disco record ever made.

For a while, all we had was Kim Wilde.

Bravo R93 great post

Good tune

To view the demise of disco through a political lens saying it was too gay or black or whatever is revisionist history. I know that revisionism is popular these days to get the clicks and the emotions running high, but it’s not truthful and over complicates the matter. The truth is, disco over stayed its welcome and most of it sucked. Yes, you could dance and have a good time with it, but it was as tired as a coked out queen in platform shoes.

It had gone mainstream and played out. People were getting tired of it.

Music got darker, less fun.

The religious right began to take power.

[quote]To view the demise of disco through a political lens saying it was too gay or black or whatever is revisionist history.

It was absolutely a factor, but not the only one.

Madonna had those rubbery baselines on the first album like Evelyn King had a few years earlier. Many assumed the new girl was black.

I seem to remember Disco Duck being disco’s jumped the shark moment. That said, I’ve never stopped loving disco music. It was the soundtrack of my 70s gayling life.

I wish there was a backlash against Rap that ended this crap music once and for all!!

I don't think in the history of popular culture, there ever was a music style which was this annoying, trashy and low brow.

1981

I agree about rap being annoying, trashy and low brow. It is also full of thievery. You can steal a song's melody and then just say you sampled it.

A 90s descendant of 70s disco

R89 There may have been gay clubs galore but the disco music itself was dying.

R93 Most of the songs you mentioned might have been played at dance clubs but were not Disco with the fast, danceable beat. " The average disco song was about 120 beats per minute. You couldnt Hustle to "Girls Just want to have Fun"

The music genre as we knew as disco started to evolve from Motown's soul and rhythm music. By 1975-76 it became the music we knew as disco and by 80-81 started to get away from that heavy beat and was the stuff 93 mentioned

[quote]Artists that had no business attempting disco took a crack at it attempting to score a hit

Elton John's "Victim of Love" is my favorite example of bad disco, done by someone who had no business trying to get into the genre and released too late to look like anything but desperation.

When you consider how well he did with disco-tinged R&B like "Mama Can't Buy You Love," I cannot for the life of me figure out why he tried straight disco.

[quote]Interestingly, a decade later when radio stations had the courage to start playing some disco again (oldies!), they left out Donna Summer and Bee Gees because they were just too disco.

That's interesting, because the first disco I heard during the early 90s FM radio disco revival was "Stayin' Alive." I still remember it to this day, I was shocked, I hadn't heard disco played publicly since I was a little kid with a transistor radio. At least in our area, Bee Gees and Donna Summer got plenty of play in the 1990s.

R107 "EJ's "I'm Still Standing" was the closest he got to anything that resembled disco.

Cher managed to cross over into disco with the wonderful "Take Me Home"... I hear this and it takes me back to a time that was "dance on the table" fun...we will never be able to go back

[quote]Well the homophobes did a poor job after ending disco considering how gay a lot of New Wave was and how it dominated pop music in the beginning of the 80s. They must have been too busy getting laid while listening to Journey's Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' to notice all the gay shit that was happening.

I mean... yeah, they were. The music industry in the 1980s was far more diverse than in the 1970s, and the success of all those AM rock stations in the 70s showed corporations that they could make money by adhering to a narrow genre of music. In the 1970s I'd hear stations play anything from country pop to disco, but by the end of the decade those same stations would have certain hours of the day for certain genres, and soon you had radio stations that only played, say, Top 100 Billboard Rock, or only R&B, or what have you. Cable TV separated out the MTV crowd from the country crowd, at least, and it got more granular as the decade went on.

It was very easy for people to ignore the genres they didn't like. I'll never forget when we got a jukebox in the high school lounge in 1988, it had a weird mix of songs, and I played "It's a Sin" while a friend played the Beatles' "Lady Madonna." The normie redneck kids got so upset at hearing music that was strange to them that a group stormed the principal's office and demanded both songs be removed. I remember him standing there, hurt, saying "But it's just the Beatles" and kids saying they didn't want any of that new gay music.

Yes, OP specifically talked about NYC, and yes, there's one of the subtle-as-a-dildo dipshits on this thread trying to start a class war about "NYC vs Flyoverville," but when talking about the culture at large, if you're asking why they didn't notice that New Wave and Dance in the 1980s was gay like they noticed Disco was gay, the answer is because the culture got more segmented and diverse and it was easier to stay in a bubble of your own making.

[quote]EJ's "I'm Still Standing" was the closest he got to anything that resembled disco.

Ha. Not even close. "Victim of Love" is a disco album, and most of what he recorded on the Thom Bell Sessions were basically disco. "I'm Still Standing" is not disco.

Weird that there are so many posts on this thread from people who don't know what disco is. Too young? Or too old?

2 giant Disco era figures from the 70s, united for the last time in the 00s

Morrissey killed disco

What was the dance music played in the clubs immediately after Disco?

Going by the 1980 Billboard charts, the music you could dance to seemed to be more R&B/soul based (disco without the stings and the 4/4 rhythm, I guess?) with Michael Jackson, Kool and the Gang. Then there is a bit of new wave Blondie and M and the rise of AOR/Adult Contemporary with Billy Joel, Eagles and Hall & Oates.

Dance singles in 1981 included Evelyn Champagne King, Kool & The Gang, Earth Wind & Fire, but you were also starting to get Duran/Duran, The Cars, Depeche Mode, Stray Cats, none of whom were disco but were often influenced by it.

R111 I never said ISS was disco..I said , it you would have read my whole post that it was the closest thing EJ did to disco. I was responding to 107 who mentioned EJ and disco (who also never said EJ did disco)

I’ve been loving this remix recently

R116, I am both r111 and r107. You're kind of incoherent and also mistaken; at r107, I did indeed say Elton John tried disco. Because he did.

It's true that the Thom Bell Sessions are more straight disco than I remembered, I called them "disco-tinged R&B" when a re-listen a few minutes ago made me realize several of those songs were actually just plain old disco. But my point at r107 stands: how could he do disco and disco-lite so well with Thom Bell, then screw it up so spectacularly with "Victim of Love"?

And "I'm Still Standing" is not disco on any plane of existence.

As someone born after the era, it does often appear as if disco dropped off the face of the earth right as the decade changed.

Sort of how it also seems like "New Wave" dropped off the face of the earth sometime in 1985.

Both were very distinct styles with lots of sub-genres but I don't think music's seen that sort of boom-and-bust cycle since-"grunge" seemed to hang on for a bit longer and do a slow fade, as no other named style with lots of one-hit wonders jumped in to replace it.

This EJ song had a disco flavor, but a pop song tempo. I like this mix that makes it a disco track.

whatever r118...you obviously know everything about, well everything and aren't you special !!

R41 Her first album was unlistenable early 80s synthesizer crap. Don't disparage disco by equating it with Vadge's garbage.

[quote]Artists that had no business attempting disco took a crack at it attempting to score a hit

I think Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" was the most egregious example. That song was just awful. It was a big hit, though.

r122 Madonna's first album is a classic. Very catchy dance-pop songs.

R124 If you like crap, go for it.

The weird thing about Madonna's first album--which I admit is very listenable--is the vocals mix. For some reason, they're pitched very high and in some songs, she sounds like Minnie Mouse. She doesn't sound that way on any other album.

Physical attraction is 117 bpm. Disco often 120. Back then I recognized immediately its effect on my body. I would never categorize it as catchy dance-pop.

Blue Monday is 128 or 130 bmp.

Planet Claire a proto-HiNRG at 142 bpm.

Fun fact: The Revolting Cocks covered Do You Think I'm Sexy?

The 'disco sucks!' yellers were the proto deplorables.

True r131. They were Trump voters three decades later.

They were deplorables already. Hillary Clinton didn't will them into existence.

Most straight people can't dance for shit...one of the biggest reasons.

They can have fun trying and failing. I don't buy the premise anyway.

It is bizarre to hear a gay man say that disco ever “died.” Smfh

Fascinating thread.

"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" was just embarrassing.

[Quote]Most straight people can't dance for shit...one of the biggest reasons

A majority of straight white men hate to dance and hate dance music as a result. It was easy to sweep them up into "disco sucks!" For several years, just the mention of the word 'disco' would get a disco sucks! reply, unbidden. Like a tic.

straight white men from a FEW tribes of "white" may hate to dance. Dance culture is strong in many straight white cultures. I really don't buy this explanation.

Classic disco

I like disco. I went to a disco.

Music. Good! Disco. Good!

Nice synthesesis of New Wave, rock and dance. Some people kept the flame burning, thank god.

R144 that tune has zero disco in it, dear.

I'm a huge Rick Springfield fan. He was so cute and sexy! And still is! I haven't read this thread closely but it's about early 80s hits, right? Well this is the best one. You're welcome!

What ya cunts think of this list of best disco songs? MJ's Billie Jean disco? Nope.

Gumby loooooove Disco!

I was in college in the late 70s and already there was a big backlash against disco there. I agree that that backlash was mostly led by straight guys who wanted to listen to rock, Springsteen, and the like and wanted nothing to do with disco. There was also the perception of disco as being an exclusive club phenomenon. Studio 54 was at its height from 77-80 and the lines went around for blocks, people trying to figure out the magic code for getting past the security guards and bouncers to get into the club. There was a snob appeal to that, but also a backlash against it,. But I also agree with some above that in exclusively gay dance clubs, disco and disco-type music continued for a long time after it was declining in popularity in radio play. It was also the primary music found in bathhouses and sex clubs, as long as they existed. Many of them closed down in the mid-80s or earlier. There was also a big counter-culture club scene that was not particularly gay. CBGB was sort of the prime example of that. Mostly punk in the early 80s. I briefly had a roommate (In 1982 or so) who was part of that club scene as a punk performer, Miki Zone. He was gay, although I didn't know it at the time, but his fans were not exclusively gay. Moving to the deep south in the mid-80s, the gay clubs still played some disco - at least the final song every evening was Last Dance, and there were lots of other disco tunes sprinkled in. That's how I remember it, but I was only paying attention peripherally, because none of this music - disco, punk, rock, pop, country - was my particular listening music. So my memories might be faulty. I did always find that disco was the easiest music to dance to. Some of the other music popular in the late 80s was NOT good to dance to and the dance floor emptied out when the DJs played it.

I also think too much of certain pop songs got way too much play and burned people out. It’s kind of like you you hear only the same group of songs over and over on decades channels, even though the 70s and 80s, had lots of great music you never hear on decades channels. Most disco songs played today are played to death. How many times have you heard I Will Survive?

Does anyone remember this gem?

Pasted from woketards.com, [R9]? Or is that an original thought? We live in hope.

I tried to post this or something like it earlier and I don't think it posted....forgive me if this is a duplicate.

I'll concede that there's been a bit of an attempt to rewrite the death of disco through the eyes of today, and label it as completely due to racism and homophobia. BUT those things DID play a role.

Were they the only reason? No. Disco had, as the old saying goes about chewing gum, lost its flavor. What once was a megafresh underground sound from the fringe of the club scene went mainstream - then saturated - then OVERsaturated the market. When Donny and Marie and Ethel Merman were doing disco......that was a bad omen.

The Bee Gees documentary also covers this period well, because they talked about a point (1978ish, I think?) where like 6 out of the top 10 songs on various radio station playlists were either their songs or songs they produced with a similar sound. Some DJs were just sick of it, and listeners began to be sick of it too.

But it's also delusional to say those things had nothing to do with it. I know - I was not in Chicago around the Disco Demolition time, but that was a movement and attitude that spread to other parts of the country, including the Rust Belt city I grew up in. I remember being at a Halloween hayride type of thing a few months after Disco Demolition and they'd told listeners to bring their old disco records to be bulldozed, and the DJ and several young guys there had plenty to say about the awful n*gg*r and f*gg*t music. We didn't have the language of "homophobia" but they had no problems expressing themselves.

And I remember seeing old Supremes records, Smokey Robinson, etc. at that hayride/bonfire. (Things I know now as a vinyl collector are super valuable). It wasn't just disco records being destroyed, it was any black artist. They also showed this in either the Bee Gees doc or some other documentary about that night - people brought Stevie Wonder records - Stevie was in no way shape or form a disco artist.

Yes, disco had run out of steam, and would have probably dissipated on its own. But it ended abruptly because of Disco Demolition, and yes, racism and homophobia was at least ***some*** of the fuel for that night and that reaction. Pretending it didn't play ANY role is as delusional as suggestion it was the ONLY catalyst.

Disco needed to die. 80’s music is awesome.

When suburban frauen started taking disco dancing lessons, it ruined disco’s image as everything hip and cool.

R153 here - I will say there's probably an interesting and somewhat unexamined connection between the death of disco and what emerged a few years later with R&B music or pop music with R&B roots.

Michael Jackson's Off The Wall had a bit more disco flavor, thanks to Rod Temperton - though Temperton's sound (with the band Heatwave) was never totally disco. By the time Thriller came out, a deliberate turn into rock had been made. So Eddie Van Halen is on "Beat It." Thriller and Billie Jean are much darker, have a harder edge than his Off The Wall singles. (Don't Stop Til You Get Enough is the most danceable/disco track on the record.)

Prince was never disco, but the market became a very fertile place for his offerings, because he had great music that was lively but not too "disco." It also had that rock edge, especially Purple Rain.

The end of disco required a lot of black musicians to fine tune their offerings. Chic had been masters of very GOOD disco, with lots of layers. In Nile Rodgers' case, he was able to switch gears and change into a producer role, which married pop sounds with a meaty disco bass sound.

I remember listening to our R&B station in the early 80s and hearing songs that had an upbeat sound but weren't quite "disco" - like Evelyn King's Love Come Down, some later SOS Band songs....and those were two artists who hit it big initially within the disco sound. They tweaked their sounds to stay in the game.

R10- The Bee Gees best music was in the 1960's. Their disco stuff in the 1970's was

TACKY

Back in the mid to late 70s to the early 80s if it made me want to get up and dance (mighty Real still makes me feel that way) it was good enough for me.

I’m 96 years old and still DISCO dancing 🕺

This was the death knell for first wave disco. What on Earth was she thinking?

Goodness, look at the name on the first comment of the video at R160: "Attmay."

who or what is attmay?

Clearly there are wildly differing definitions of what constitutes disco music. That may explain the bizarre claims of when it allegedly “died.” Personally, I don’t think it ever died. I certainly do not understand any gay man making that claim. Although I lived in large California cities from 1980s onward, I frequently visited (usually exclusively gay) dance clubs in smaller towns and cities of the Midwest and South for 1980s and 1990s and can personally attest to the fact that they played (almost exclusively) what I would call disco/dance music. Maybe not every club, but at least one club in some very ordinary towns. The fact that there Top 100 dance (record) charts for “dance music” for the time period in question proves that it remained popular enough to track. It.never.died. Come on. Less popular? Ok, I can agree. Less common, or less mainstream? Ok. Give it up already. Why are some of you so invested in that possibility?

r163 nobody really said Disco died in the gay world, just in the mainstream culture. I realize many of you elders lived in gay ghettoes and had no experience with the rest of society, but Disco music was gone from Top 40 radio in the rest of America. House music and Trance were not popular outside of gay ghettoes in major cities. The average American had no idea what the fuck House music even was.

Disco - which is a specific type of dance music played i the 1970s - died. The 1980s had less danceable music without question. Dancing to New Order was possible - but it ain’t disco. House music in the late 80s/90s revived dance music. The culture did not accept dancing again u til the straight buys in the 90s started doing raves and listening to EDM.

We had differing interpretations of the OP's query.

I thought the eldergay who offered the historical viewpoint, to OP, was talking about NY and gays but in fact I can see his "disco died overnight" claim was about the general American culture.

I also thought OP wanted to to hear from NYers, who would also discuss the NY experience, but no, OP wanted to hear from gay NYers because "they know a lot about disco".

Is that about right?

Then some gay drama queens mess up the topic to claim that when GAY CANCER became known, they rolled up the sidewalks of gay culture, all gay nightlife closed, thus disco died because of GAY CANCER and crass hetero men in flyoverstan hated gays and blacks.

[quote]The Bee Gees documentary also covers this period well, because they talked about a point (1978ish, I think?) where like 6 out of the top 10 songs on various radio station playlists were either their songs or songs they produced with a similar sound. Some DJs were just sick of it, and listeners began to be sick of it too.

This is exactly what we have today in popular music, the same sound written/produced by Max Martin and a couple of others who write just about everything on the radio. Producers take hit songs and with a little tweak turn them into a different but similar sounding song.

Most 80s music, like Billie Jean, could never be considered disco. Nobody was dancing in polyester to Billie Jean in the gay clubs.

Several people in this thread made that claim, R164, but whatevs. It does not appear we disagree about the rest in my post @ R163

Off the Wall to Thriller is a good example of how quickly and drastically music changed. Off the Wall had disco to dance - Thriller had 80s video music.

Thriller and Billie Jean are disco-funk dance-pop. Very polished at that. "80s video music" hardeeharhar.

R165 still ignored the real history as if Detrot and Chicago revived disco spontaneously out of thin air. Detroit took Kraftwerk and early 80s European electronica dance, which had itself absorbed disco. Its a clear fils conducteur.

80s disco never existed.

Mid 80s electronic dance 84-88, say, and house music, which yes, was in clubs in from 86 on, is disco music in my opinion.

I was in those clubs. It went disco, New wave, RNB pop, Freestyle. That's the order.

Freestyle was disco. Direct line. Oh look, Palladium!

Fascinated is also 120 bpm

This single-handedly killed disco.

Sylvester, 1982, “Do You Want to Funk”, when all that is sublime in disco and the 80s converge.

The music evolved as did clothing styles, and dance clubs. But there was still "It's raining Men" and "I'm coming Out" and lots of very very disco type songs in the 80's. I think what happened is the term "Disco" went out of fashion but they were still cranking it out.

I just read that Sylvester died of the aids. Sad. I had no idea. She was a real gay hero.

I was there. I'm glad it's dead.

It had a lot to do with the people who bought most of the records—teens and people in their early 20s—wanting something that spoke to them.

By 1979, disco had been everywhere for five years. It was a thing for older people who dressed up and went to discos.

Kids couldn't go to discos. Disco was something for their older brothers and sisters. So when New Wave and power pop acts started bubbling up, they jumped on them. "My Sharona" wasn't #1 for six weeks in 1979 because it was a brilliant song. It was different.

The people who usually hated disco were people who couldn’t dance.

Also, there’s this misconception that The Bee Gees were a disco act, when their music charting history actually dates back to the early sixties. They were in fact a family pop/rock band who happened to pen several enormously successful dance songs for a disco-themed blockbuster hit movie. And if we actually get technical, these hits were a bit too slow to be considered hard-core disco, yet it was those low bpms that probably made them more popular worldwide because now the people with two left feet could join in the fun by making it more plausible for them to keep up with the partnered steps.

In summation, The Bee Gees were not disco and disco was not The Bee Gees. That’s why I leave the dance floor whenever some unaware DJ (the Wedding, Bar Mitzvah, Cruise Ship kind) decides to shake things up by playing some “old disco” snd then goes with Bee Gees or “I Will Survive.” The latter is indeed by the Queen of Disco (Gloria Gaynor) but features a very droll, basic syncopated high hat beat (it’s obviously the lyrics that get all the cruise ship frauen all riled up) and the former had huge pop hits that are nevertheless too slow for me to enjoy dancing.

Disco transcended its roots in soul and funk, both primarily black influenced. So the backlash and hatred of disco by whites and rock fans was definitely racist against black culture and homophobia against gays as well.

[quote] EJ's "I'm Still Standing" was the closest he got to anything that resembled disco.

Closer than “Philadelphia Freedom” or “Victim of Love”, both of which were actually disco songs? Don’t think so.

[quote]This is a good disco documentary, at 1:09 they start explaining where it all went wrong

Thanks, R67. The hair at 1:52.

Jesus.

R179, I loved Sylvester when I was a burgeoning young gayling. He was was the most beautiful, flamboyant, unapologetic and above all talented performer. Imagine what he could have done if he had survived. A very sad loss.

I don’t understand how people equate 80s “dance music” to disco. It’s Raining Men makes you rock back and forth and sign along- Disco Inferno , I Love Music makes you swirl and dance and move your body soulfully. Like trance and house music of the 90s/00s - very different things.

House music was in the clubs from 1986 on but you have a right to your experience in flyoverstan.

House music wasn't a thing with a lot of people in NYC, r190

This helped kill it. This commercial was always on when I was a pre-teenager.

It was fun while it lasted. I went to Studio, as the kids called it, for the first time a couple months after it open. I was 17.

Today’s dance music can be so harsh on the ears. I can only imagine dancing in a big place like Studio with that lush disco music at full volume, all those strings, those bass lines and whirling synths. Heavenly! Popper paradise!

The cowbell killed disco and 70's rock.

Disco Evita!

Don’t fuck with Disco Evita, r196. That was a great album and to this day I still listen to it on occasion.

In my formative years there was a bit of a disco revival (late 90s/early 00s) and I have to say I've always liked that type of disco more than the original, but this makes sense because it was what was playing when I grew up. But I think I also prefer it because it had a slightly harder edge than original disco. My favourite period in music would have to be the post-disco period, stuff that was punk, post-punk, new wave is my jam.

Just recently I am starting to get into more disco though. I just prefer stuff that sounds a bit darker, maybe more ominous sounding disco. If you boys have any suggestions, please share 'em!

I do have to agree with people above though. When I listen back, and this is out of context as I wasn't around then, but a lot of the "post-disco" dance music sounds pretty... disco-ish to me.

^Also, just want to add, it's crazy this topic came up on here to me, as I literally just learned of the Disco Demolition thingy two days ago!

Recent hit songs with a disco groove:

Cold Heart by Elton John feat. Dua Lipa

Skate by Anderson .Paak, Bruno Mars, and Silk Sonic

Take My Breath by the Weekend

R197, my apologies, i wasn’t trying to imply disco Evita sucked. I love it! I was just thinking of disco stuff I loved and posted it

Theres supposedly a "nu disco" revival going on with DJs like Purple Disco Machine, but I think its bogus. basically a lot of remixes of disco songs with house beats underneath. Its just house music with disco samples. The SiriusXM disco channel (Studio 54 Radio) is understandably championing it in order to stay relevant, but its really not disco.

By the way, that channel plays a lot of great disco, not just the obvious choices but deep cuts as well, whoever is programming it knows their stuff

I know yall hate Billie,but I think this song has very much a disco vibe . I could damn sure see getting on the floor to this one.

I just pulled this vinyl gem out the other day. Glad I still have it!

R203 how many times do you plan to plug that dud on DL?

R204 that song is not disco, moron.

Fuck the 80s!!

Sylvester the "Queen of Disco Music" for much of 1970's like many others recording artists was out of sorts by early 1980's. Tastes had changed so quickly with disco being out of favor few studios wanted to bother with Sylvester or many of the others who once were very popular.

No discussion of disco can be complete without mentioning Patrick Cowley. Not well known by much of younger generation but Mr. Cowely was an innovator not just for disco, but the genres that followed.

Sadly Patrick Cowley was another great talent and person we lost far too soon as HIV/AIDs claimed one more victim. IIRC he died not long after or just before Sylvester.

For the NYT challenged...

Who calls it New Y?

Disco died and we got Reagan, AIDS, Tylenol tampering, recession, The Day After, The Moral Majority, Chrysler K-Cars, etc.

My God what happened.

"To view the demise of disco through a political lens saying it was too gay or black or whatever is revisionist history."

Sorry, but that is incorrect. As others have stated the POC and gay thing weren't only factors but they did pile on fuel.

It was Sylvester's partner, Rick Cranmer who predeceased him by about a year (HIV/AIDs complications). Patrick Cowley died six years before Sylvester in 1982.

While they weren't totally to blame, the Village People just put another nail into coffin. They gave the "disco sucks" people plenty of ammunition to fire, and it was used widely. The Village People and their songs were parodied mercilessly without end as an example of how gay disco was supposed to be.

Straight people liked The Village People, and still do! Trump even plays them at his MAGAT rallies.

The "Village People" were just one guy. A straight black man named Victor Willis. He was the Village People. Who cares what anyone thought of a fake group who were faker than Milli Vanilli.

Not to mention the fact that the Village People were beloved by straight people,who the fuck knows why.

Victor Willis had a great tenor voice and his music, while super cheesy, was no more cheesy than the Bee Gees disco songs. That is why they had enduring popularity, turd brain.

I’m still baffled by how many straight people still think the song YMCA is some kind of PSA celebrating the org and its services.

I never thought of Victor Gillis as a tenor, but more as a rich baritone who could wail some high notes. The deepness of his voice does not point to tenorland

Sort of like Levi Stubbs from the Four Tops or that ugly but talented soloist from Blood Sweat and Tears.

Madonna was always a disco artist at heart

One of the reasons that her 2005 album Comfessions on a Dancefloor was so successful was because she finally embraced it and the retro disco feel and vibes of the album

Madonna dancing in her Hung Up video like Karen Lynn Gorney on Saturday Night Fever with Farrah Fawcett hair

Disco was attacked because it was the only music where female artists were as big as, if not bigger than, male artists; where Black artists were as big as, if not bigger than, White artists; where artists could be openly Gay and still be as big as, if not bigger than, straight artists. Anytime the spotlight moves away from straight White males, especially YOUNG White males, they throw a F***ING TANTRUM. That's what that Disco Demolition Derby was about. There were tantrum throwing White boys showing up with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album to destroy it; that album isn't Disco, but it IS Black. They can't stand to see anyone else getting the focus of attention. They're spoiled. Their egos and power fantasies have been catered to and pandered to in the popular media their whole lives. So what happens when you spoil a child by catering to it its whole life. Does it make the child generous and empathetic? No. It makes the child selfish and narcissistic and entitled. You see it now with these comic book movies. They're losing their minds now that women and POC are getting some of the focus, instead of the exclusively white male images they are used to.

R222 than how come rap music has been insanely popular especially with straight, white males, for years now?

Watched that Bee Gees Doc last night. It was really good. I had forgotten how adorable Andy Gibb was. Example of 70's bulgeage below. Those were the days.

r223 it's a different generation now. But the older generation was accurately described by r222.

Ethel Merman

222- Too much of nowadays Rap is the "Black' version of what the worst of Rock used to be. Misogynistic, homophobic, filled with low vibrational men who breath a sigh of relief that MeToo hasn't really shone a light on them ( but know that if it did, there are enough Black women who only see themselves as Black and not women of it comes to a famous Black man getting accused of being a perv to rally behind them - the toll that white supremacy has taken on Black women will one day be talked bout in its totality..how Sojourner Truth bawls in heaven. Rap has even contrived to rid itself of women who are not low vibrational, but who instead appeal to another set pf men outside porn addled straight men......the porn addled, women can only exist of they look like they are always "up for it" ( but not with them) neo misogynistic, uber critical ( of appearance) gay man.

You go too far when you compare the of the too often narcissistic/sex cult/ death cult rap music of now with the life affirming often ethereal disco of yore, just because Black people were/are often the face of both.

Identity Politics can never be allowed to dull the critical thinking skills. It allows pretend well meaning white people and lazy Black people to patronise Black people into being basic and low thinking, which I am most certainly NOT. There is a reason why white men, often anti Black themselves LOVE post 1990s rap. No other current music is as low vibrational as rap music is today, especially Anglophone rap, which the U.S is the chief of. It's a racist white man's paradise, what with it being filled with oafs who haven't enough self awareness to keep themselves quiet outside of performing and often having too high an opinion of their own uninformed opinions. Even the most intelligent of them is often a misogynist. That's stereotype mediocre , straight white man, right there, too often Black form. Why wouldn't basic thinking , racist straight white men not love rap as it is stripping itself of all true danceability , groove and intelligence?

Could you explain the "low vibration" angle, dear? Thanks, doll.

R223 here, I work with mostly all younger white guys and they constantly have Black tap artists playing on there phones

They love everything about that culture and life

And I hear lots of “faggot this” and “faggot that” in the lyrics, it’s both cute and delusional that R222 thinks that gay and Black men like each other and are joined against the “evil straight white male”

Hilarious even

And secondly why do Blacks hate gay men so much?

1) men of minority and abused status are usually NOT protective of other men in the same status.

2) african american men for centuries were highly sexualized both positively and negatively. so its going to be queasy around men who might participate in that sexualization

3) african American culture is heavily influenced by centuries of conservative christian faith

4) african American culture we for generations generally a conservative mind-set, racial equality aside.

I loved Village People’s “San Francisco”, it was sexy and surprisingly dark. It calls pre-AIDS urban gay life to mind.

R222, I read up on the Disco Demolition thingy just a few days ago for the first time, and my first thought was: "my god, how pathetic!"

But I also can't understand how that happening would affect everyone else. The article I read argued that overnight everyone turned against disco because of that. I feel there had to be more going on, because I struggle thinking all the people who liked disco suddenly got so aggressive against it after that night, you know?

it didn’t just abruptly end, remember a lot of disco artists were also R&B artists that crossed over, they went back to R&B.

On that, R233, I read how Donna Summer had her album remixed so it didn't sound too disco-ey. You can now listen to the original tracks and the ones that ended up on the album, and I don't really understand the difference being that big.

I was listening to a dance music podcast interview with D.C. LaRue (if you’ve never heard of him, he released several really great disco albums and was on Casablanca) and he talked about how in the 80’s people like Gloria Gaynor, KC (of the Sunshine Band), Peter Brown, and countless others could not get record deals or singing gigs simply because they were known for disco. And in the case of someone like Gaynor, the fact that she had sold millions of records just a few years earlier meant nothing. The ‘disco’ tag was toxic. Luckily disco started having a new appreciation in the 90’s

Like you have any clue what a tenor or baritone voice is, turd brain.

Frauen AND libertarian buttholes are invading Datalounge.

DLers have always had single digit IQs, gurlfren.

R235 Yes, he's great and he knows his shit, he was there.

[quote] I also can't understand how that happening would affect everyone else. The article I read argued that overnight everyone turned against disco because of that. I feel there had to be more going on, because I struggle thinking all the people who liked disco suddenly got so aggressive against it after that night, you know?

It did have an impact. It was a ripple effect.

Radio stations - the "demolition" and that sentiment gave program directors and DJs already looking for a reason to dial back on disco on the playlist to do it, with some DJ's denouncing it on air.

More importantly, it threw cold ice on any record label's desire to sign or promote new disco acts. As I said upthread at R153, some acts did come back a few years later, but they definitely made changes to their sound, or the record company changed how they were promoted. Michael Jackson went from the disco of Off The Wall to Thriller, which had Eddie freaking Van Halen playing a solo. Evelyn King went from disco dolly with "Shame" to the pop/R&B of "Love Come Down." Donna Summer's "She Works Hard for the Money" - I mean, she wrote the song but Pat Benetar could have sang it, you know?

There was a definite change. And yes, dance music and high BPM music made a return to clubs and, to a lesser degree, radio in the late 80s and 90s. But 140 bpms does not a disco song make.

The Disco Demolition Night was organized by a Chicago drive time radio host named Steve Dahl, who was a fat, creepy, smelly loser. What today we would call an incel.

R242 He is a fat douche, who did it to rile up and thrill fat douches like himself.

He's one of many fat douches who cluttered their airwaves in Chicago - a thing called "Mancow" did for a time.

Thanks for giving some context, R241. That was a very interesting read.

R232

Read linked above articles about Sylvester, who was arguably the "queen" of disco in 1970's. Seemingly overnight all that was over, and by early 1980'was struggling as recording studios didn't want to bother, nor radio stations for that matter.

Sylvester's final recording to gain any traction was "Someone Like You", and that was only barely just.

When you listen to SLY it is a world away from Sylvester's previous 1970's disco sound, but echoes R&B and much of where Hi-NRG dance music was going in 1980's.

Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In the early 1980s, high energy music found moderate mainstream popularity in Europe, while opposing both Euro disco and electro on the dance scene and it became mainstream in the gay community in the United States. Hi-NRG was totally reliant on technology and was all about "unfeasibly athletic dancing, bionic sex, and superhuman stamina".[18] Freedom seemed to be embodied by a literal escape from human embodiment and synchrony with technology. However, this was generally limited to the bodies of men as evidenced by songs titled, "Menergy", and "So Many Men, So Little Time". Producers such as Bobby Orlando and Patrick Cowley created "an aural fantasy of a futuristic club populated entirely by Tom of Finland studs."[18]

During the same period, a genre of music styled as "hi-NRG" (EDM) became popular in Canada and the UK. The most popular groups of this style are Trans-X and Lime. The genre is closely related to space disco. Bands include Koto, Laserdance, and Cerrone. The hi-NRG sound also influenced techno and house music.

Born To Be Alive marked start of evolution from "disco" to Hi-NRG music,

Thanks as well R245. I'm finding all of this so interesting. I've fairly recently developed quite an interest in the 1970s and very early 80s and reading up on all this stuff and hearing all of your perspectives on places like DL is really cool.

Jimmy Somerville, another gay falsetto singer built his career from nearly early on with Hi-NRG dance music recordings. This includes his work with the Communards and Bronksi Beat.

Jimmy Somerville's cover of "You Make Me Feel (Mightly Real) did quite well in USA and Europe.

So Hi-NRG would be stuff like Giorgio Moroder, is that right?

It is interesting if one examines career of Jimmy Somerville in 1980's with his soul/counter tenor voice it really seems as if he picked up where Sylvester left off.

Patrick Cowley's influence is everywhere by middle to late 1970's onwards as Hi-NRG began to nudge then replace disco.

Jimmy Somerville scored another hit with his cover of "Don't Leave Me This Way" , released in 1986.

"Smalltown Boy" was huge hit for Bronski Beat and further cemented Hi-NRG taking over from disco in early 1980's.

More importantly gays embraced the song because of story it told. It was something many could relate to this as push for gay rights and equality was picking up steam in face of unfolding HIV/AIDs pandemic.

Hey, R227, I never said a single syllable about Rap music in my post, so why are you gibbering about it to me? That entire grammatically indecipherable nonsensical rant of yours had nothing to do with anything I wrote. Please shut up and blow away.

You, too, R229. Exactly where in my post did I say Gay men and Black men "like each other and were joined together?" Talk about delusional. What are you? An idiot? You need to learn something called reading comprehension. I merely pointed out a fact, which is that Black artists, female artists and Gay artists found success in Disco music and, in some cases, were prominently the face of Disco: Donna Summer, Sylvester, Village People, Gloria Gaynor, Chic. I didn't say they "liked each other and are joined together." If you're going to be a patronizing douche bag, learn to read first, moron.

I would appreciate it if both you nitwit jackasses wouldn't make things up in your pea brains that I never said and then try to attribute them to me. Or maybe you both think comic books, which I did mention, are a form of Rap music. You're both so stupid you probably do.

Let the cobbler stick to his last.....

Many recording artists in 1970's tried their hand at disco music, and some really shouldn't have done.

Aretha Franklin released "La Diva" in 1979, and it was a huge flop for most part. It didn't help by that time disco was in twilight years anyway.

That now having been said never count the Queen of Soul out!

Though the 1980's onwards DJs like Frankie Knuckles began sampling Aretha Franklin's music into their mixes. Fast forward to 1990's and Ms. Franklin knocked it out of the ballpark with her cover of "Pride" A Deeper Love.

I was first exposed to Hi-NRG music when I started going to gay clubs around 1984.

I couldn't stand it. I thought it sounded awful, and it didn't make me want to dance at all. Every song sounded exactly the same. All those stupid "men" songs: It's Raining Men, So Many Men, So Little Time, I Love Men, Where is My Man, Manhunt, Man 2 Man...it's like OK, we get it already, can you sing about something else now?

And it was all that was played in the gay clubs at the time, except in Latin and black gay clubs.

I got used to it eventually though...I wasn't going out to listen to music anyway. I was going out to meet guys.

Madonna did a short stint as a back-up dancer for Patrick Hernandez...

R257 yup

Miss Ghurl is still at it late as 2021, still milking her only big hit "Born To Be Alive" for all it's worth.

Still you have to give the song and artist credit; one or more generations who weren't even born when BTBA was released obviously love the song. French are rather odd in that respect I suppose.

World Disco finals, 1979...

I'm sorry but it just doesn't get any more gayer than this......

There were a lot of murders in the room, but it was Punk that fired the bullet that killed Disco. In fact, the murderer was Johnny Rotten. He was wot did it Your Honour!

He just made disco look frivolously gay, erstaz, and passé. Beauty was out – ugly was in. Ugly had its own integrity, and its own beauty. And gay was now queer, which had a completely different spin then from the fuckery that surrounds the word today. Then it was a different fuckery. Gay was perceived by radical alternative types who were into sodomy as having become middle class and bourgeois – which it had. As for disco: it had to shed its tinsel to remain respectable, so House music was invented. Which was as boring as batshit, but it had something more important for those who peddled it – gravitas!

I fear I'm writing someone's thesis for them, so I better stop.

R245 Thanks for that post. Sylvester is a great example of someone who had to change his sound. And the disco curtain fell not long after Sylvester scored his biggest hits on mainstream charts (Mighty Real broke into the Top 40).

Musically he was prepared for it, because if you listen to some of his earlier stuff, it's more funky R&B with almost a blues sound. He was working with a band back then. But still, the "demolition" stopped his ascent dead in its tracks.

R261 With all due respect, I think you're overstating punk's impact on the end of disco. Unless you're in the UK and speaking from that perspective? In the US, punk had a pretty limited impact in terms of mainstream recognition and chart success.

Punk had a short lifespan in terms of the Sex Pistols - before the "Disco Demolition" era, it had already sort of turned into a joke on itself and became a commercialized thing, which was a completely anti-punk concept.

I suppose the thing is that there will always be something that sounds fresher and more exciting that people are looking for, and it would've died out anyway.

It's interested hearing about Hi-NRG being an 80s thing, because I never realised that, or that that's what that music was called. Hi-NRG was something we used to call the music we danced to in club in the mid-00s, so that's what I think of when I hear the term.

R260 - I love that video!

Disco had been getting "stale", sharing a lot of the same sounds, and by the late 70's it was getting cloying. The new dance music was edgier and modern. There was no "death" on the dance floor whatsoever. The music just evolved into a new sound.

Did you miss the movie, OP?

^^^ nothing late 70s looking about these girls. They could direct from the set of ‘Friends’ in the late 90s.

Right, R267? For a brief moment I thought that WAS Courtney Cox in the middle!

High NRG had some fun songs ... I Loved Lime's Take It Up . Wouldnt Company B fall under the High NRG label ?

Punk had nil to zero to do with death of disco.

Disco as dance music genre was already changing by middle of 1970's or so as Hi-NRG producer Patrick Cowley, and influences from Italo-disco began to change things up on one side, then you had things coming from Latino/African American side such as House music.

As someone stated upthread, by late 1970's and certainly into 1980's there was less to nil dance sort of music like disco of old you could do the Hustle, line dance or otherwise slower dance steps. That clip in R260 showing world disco dance competition shows how fast the pace had picked up.

Much like change from "rock and roll" dancing of 1950's to 1960's post British Invasion the new Hi-NRG dance music of 1980's meant you didn't need a partner. Just get out on dance floor and do your own thing. Main difference is unlike 1960's where dances had names (the Frug, Chicken, Watusi, Dog, Monkey, Mashed Potato, Jerk etc...), 1980's Hi-NRG was all about freestyle.

Back to Italo-Disco....

Alberto Tozzi had a huge hit in Italy and other parts of Europe "Gloria", released in 1979.

Laura Branigan's cover of "Gloria" released several years later (1982) was huge hit in USA.

Though slowed down a bit from Hi-NRG, again you clearly couldn't do the Hustle or any other such dance to "Gloria". That didn't stop some from trying, but it just looked odd.

Laura Branigan scored another hit with "Self Control" released in 1984.

Again elements and influence of Hi-NRG are there, but pace is slightly slower.

Speaking of Italo-disco, "Paninaro" would fit the bill, wouldn't it?

R272 What are you 5 years old? As if the dino-gays don't know about Laura Branigan's two biggest hits.

TL;DR. so very tiresome. However, no matter what you want to call it…Madonna, Gloria, anything! People will demand some form of dance-to music. And there will be trends that come and go, but in the end it’s all just dance music.

[quote] Like you have any clue what a tenor or baritone voice is, turd brain.

Well, maybe not, but I am a musician who sang and danced professionally for 15 years and still do choreography work. My venues included Broadway, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Europe, Dozens of regional theaters, College a spells, and high school choir in reverse order. I also speak four languages, including Italian which helped with operatic roles.

And you?

*college acapella

If Disco died (eye roll) so did Rock-n-Roll.

R276 is a moron. Has no clue what a baritone or tenor voice sounds like.

R279 is an imbecile. Thinks he knows music but only knows childish insults.

Moron is childish? You truly are shit for brains, fucker.

Barry White was one of those artists who struggled after disco era ended. His voice just wasn't suited to Hi-NRG dance music, but like good number of others Mr. White found somewhat of home in R&B during 1980's.

By 1990's when disco nostalgia wave hit Barry White came back into his own.

LOL. Then he died when he was what 36? Some comeback.

Barry White doing what he did best.....

Practice What You Preach was a solid hit for Mr. White, putting him back in the mix.

I like Barry White and that shit at R284 is D-list Barry White, pure schlock.

[quote] Then he died when he was what 36?

He was 58 when he passed, asshole.

Fuck you, he was only 36.

R287 is a moron

[quote] straight white men from a FEW tribes of "white" may hate to dance. Dance culture is strong in many straight white cultures. I really don't buy this explanation.

Yeah. British men of all ethnicities and orientations love clubbing.

Maybe white American men don’t like dancing. Robbie Williams was not butch enough for America.

I don’t understand the denial of the disco backlash. The end of disco was not just a “transition”. It was an aggressive repudiation of all that disco stood for. Unlike other musical styles that just faded, disco was killed. The burning of disco records is indicative of a much deeper issue than simply “tastes changed”.

"Can't Stop the Music" delivered the coup de grâce

I didn't realize NYC had some kind of exclusive right to disco music.

Damn,Barry's voice still makes me feel funny 'down there'! Such a sexy voice.

R288 You believe wikiepedia. You truly are a moron. He was 36.

How old are you r294? Apparently not old enough to be around in the 70's when radios played his music. What a Moron...sheesh!

You never believe everything you read on the interwebs. LOL.

Interesting article summarising the disco era:

This is a very interesting thread.

Disco never really died it simply evolved into other forms of dance music.

People like Madonna, who never had any problem with ripping off fashion icons, movie icons etc, sure didn't have a problem ripping off dance music icons. Considering she came to NYC to be either a dancer or a rockstar, she stumbled upon a genre which worked for her and stuck with it.

Madonna sure wasn't a rock singer! Madonna did know how to market herself, to surround herself with excellent musicians and good songwriters to cover the fact that she wasn't a very good singer.

Madonna wrote or co-wrote a lot of her own songs. As she has said many times, she didn't really invent her original look, she looked like every other girl in the East Village in the early 80s but she just happened to be the one who got famous.

My dear elder gay children I will always be with you in song .......

[quote]Disco never really died it simply evolved into other forms of dance music.

This is very true, it seems to me. I honestly feel like a lot of the music released after the "disco backlash" where they were told disco would no longer sell, still sound pretty disco-y to me, maybe just updated. And then evolved as you say into other forms of dance (Hi-NRG for example).

In a way the Demolition was a complete failure. Disco was probably going to evolve anyway due to overfamiliarity and the rise of punk. But rock and roll never really came back in the way those who hated disco wanted it to. Punk was in part a reaction against that type of rock (and other types of music), which then became post-punk with its darker topics and more ambient sounds at times, then there was New Wave which still retained an element of camp as did hair metal during the 80s. Pop became very sugary with the whole SAW thing. Then by the time Grunge turned up in the 90s, it was much more introspective and less "cock rock" or confident in any way. The rest of the 90s was RnB, German techno, house and latin music amongst others. There was probably a brief return in the early 00s but even that was more New Wavey. I don't really see that the Demolition people every really got what they wanted. But disco keeps returning.

Steve Dahl, the organizer of Disco Demolition Night, was a fat ugly loser.

[quote]Madonna wrote or co-wrote a lot of her own songs. As she has said many times, she didn't really invent her original look, she looked like every other girl in the East Village in the early 80s but she just happened to be the one who got famous.

You can believe what you want about Madonna's songwriting abilities, but she lies so much about her backstory, I believe little of it. Her story about coming to NYC with only $35 in her pocket isa total like. Madonna already made connections before she arrived in NYC.

Disco died because it became a formulaic joke or developed into less-mechanical versions of its beat and arrangements.

And its popularity did seem to end overnight.

r304 Madonna's songwriting has been corroborated by many. She's written or co-written many of her songs. Nile Rodgers said she's his favorite artist she's ever worked with.

I found the video below where Nile Rodgers talks about the 'Disco Sucks' movement a bit. It is interesting to hear directly from someone in the middle of it, especially the way the media tried to play Chic against The Knack (who totally got along in real life).

Incidentally, I've seen a couple other interviews with Rodgers today and he is a really interesting guy. Has a lot of interesting stories to tell from the time. I was also impressed with how he managed to keep on track in one of the other interviews with a terrible interviewer who kept interrupting his story, but he did it firmly but in a very nice way too.

The Duran Duran boys said Rodgers could talk under water, but he does sound like a lot of what he has to say is really cool at the same time.

When people like Ethel Merman and Al Martino made disco albums and when the local YMCAs gave hustle lessons, disco jumped the shark.

R16, I'd say EVERY decade since.

[quote][R304] Madonna's songwriting has been corroborated by many. She's written or co-written many of her songs. Nile Rodgers said she's his favorite artist she's ever worked with.

Nile Rogers is such nice man, he rarely said anything negative about anyone in the music biz.

If Madonna is such a great songwriter. or musical collaborator. why is her career stagnating? Age should have zero to do with talent, she should still be able to write.

The Madonna defenders at DL, and elsewhere, are so tiresome. Because they are such rabid fans, they cannot find anything negative to say about her.

[quote]The Madonna defenders at DL, and elsewhere, are so tiresome. Because they are such rabid fans, they cannot find anything negative to say about her.

I'm not a 'Madonna defender' and will criticise her when appropriate, but it's just the truth that pretty much everyone she's worked with has complimented her contributions to the music. The only time I've heard someone be anything close to critical was William Orbit on the MDNA album, and that clearly shows that she WAS very involved in Ray of Light and he was startled with how much less involved she was during MDNA.

I think you could turn your statement around and say that some of those who hate Madonna on this forum are so rabidly anti-Madonna that they cannot find anything positive to say about her.

Most of the criticism here seems primarily about her erratic behavior and being a non-stop stunt queen of IG. If she put as much energy into producing good music as she puts into selfies and garnering negative attention online, no one would complain.

*on

r310 you really don't know much about Madonna's career. She wrote or co-wrote a lot of her own stuff. That's common knowledge.

R310 Vadge's contribution to songs is nothing but cliches or adding a single word here and there fro songwriting credit. This Used to be My Playground is nothing but one cliche after another. That is classic Vadge.

r315 just stop. She's written some classic songs that people still know and still get played decades later.

Looks like the obsessed Janbot has attempted to take over the disco thread to use it to trash Madonna who isn't even from the disco era. Don't engage her. Go away.

WHET to David Morales? I loved most of his remixes. Genius. But music has changed so much.

R317 Fuck your cunt, cunt. There are a million reasons to trash Vadge. She has never been a good "songwriter". All she knows are cliches.

r319 you're wrong. So many of her songs are still played nearly forty years later.

Whatever, delusional cunt. I have never heard one of her songs anywhere. On the radio or in stores. She and Janet and Paula are rightfully forgotten relics of the 1980s.

r321 you're just an idiot troll.

So, anyway... about the death of disco. Anyone got any thoughts on the Nile Rodgers video above at R307? I thought it was interesting!

R322 Way to argue, cuntbrain. Clearly you're just a stupid white girl.

Another vid people here might be interested in.

Eldergays - I was not around then, but my dad, who was, said it felt like there was a very abrupt shift in many things when Reagan became president--clothing, hair, movies, attitudes towards life and materialism (e.g. yuppie-dom) and of course, music.

I suspect changes were more gradual and he's looking back from 40 years on, but how much of the "death of disco" do you think had to do with America shedding just about everything that was associated with the 70s?

That's a really interesting notion R326, especially how abrupt it all seemed. I wasn't around then either, nor am I American, but I am keen to hear opinions from those who were.

I will say that I am sure that type of music would've dropped from the top around then anyway due to overexposure. Plus the rise of punk/new wave. But what's fascinating is that it never really seemed to have died, just gone a bit underground and then re-emerged in different forms over time, and by the time I started going to clubs too, a kind of "nu disco" thing was happening (Jamiroquai, Daft Punk, Kylie Minogue going from Indie back to dance, etc.).

Just to add, I've been reading some comments under the video at R325, and there are people there who were around in the 70s talking about how the problem wasn't with disco being black or gay or anything like that, but it was because it dominated every radio station to the point that no one was playing anything else. So a lot of people weren't getting a chance to turn on the radio and hear the stuff they liked, if they weren't into disco.

That oversaturation would certainly be annoying. I remember the time I stopped being so into the alternative music scene in the mid-late 00s because the entire thing was dominated by hip-hop, which, while I like some of it, I don't want to listen to only that. So I can understand there. Plus, if I were around in the 70s I'd probably be annoyed to. I like some disco, but I am more of a rock/punk/new wave kinda guy.

^annoyed *too

Death to Disco was not a natural evolution of dance music. R326 gets at it. It was a violent backlash against gayness, blackness, sex and liberalism - which disco embodied. Replaced by rock. Yes, dance music still existed via Madonna. But you can’t dismiss the violent anti-disco social movement as just an evolution of dance music, it was a sudden and dramatic hatred of all things disco - embedded in the poltical and social culture of the 80s.

Disco died when Evangelical Xtian Donna Summers said she hated the fags and they deserved the aids.

Donna Summer claimed she never said any anti-gay remarks, but the damage was done regardless. Gays dropped her like a hot potato and her career never really recovered.

Giorgio Moroder confirmed what she said about hating fags. She could have denied all she wanted.

Yes, he did confirm in an interview after her death that Donna didn't like gays.

Steve Dahl, originator of the Disco Sucks movement is a notable homophobe and racist. It became evermore evident in the following years on his drive time show. Somehow this guy escaped the “ Me too” movement, but I’m sure there are stories there as well. Also a raging alcoholic that gave up the booze a few years ago. In fact Chicago radio rock stations rode the anti-gay, racist wave for quite some years.

I've always had an idea of what disco is, but looking into it more the earlier stuff is really quite varied, as to what is considered disco. I've even heard later stuff like Bowie's "Heroes" described as disco, which I would never have thought myself. I guess the four-on-the-floor beats is a staple to look out for (which is also a staple of House, yes?). Sometimes I get so confused about genres, it seems the boundaries between genres are often pretty flimsy.

[quote]it seems the boundaries between genres are often pretty flimsy.

Bingo!

Donnas husband resembles a clone.

I've heard people claim Donna Summer was not really disco, that she came after disco.

I've heard r339 lets people pull his leg.

Disco didn't die. It just got abbreviated and jammed into small snippets called "Stars on 45"

R339 Are you being purposely stupid/obtuse? She revolutionized and was the Queen of fucking Disco. Moron.

What other homophobic statements did Donna make about gays? I only know about the AIDS comments.

Donna Summer never made any anti-gay statements, it was an evil rumor started by David Geffen.

I just listened to an interesting four part podcast series on the history of disco, on a podcast called The Speed of Sound, which is all about music.

My takes on it are: first of all, I really found it interesting how until 1974, disco wasn't a type of music so much as an event, and at these events varied types of music where played; from jazz fusion, to world music, to obscure European songs, to obscure b-sides, just anything that would get people dancing, and dj-ing sprung out of these events. When I heard some of the music and the way the events where described, I almost got a FOMO type thing going on. This proto-disco stuff sounds much more my jam than what disco ended up being. It was underground, inclusive, and obscure.

By the first big disco wave 1975-76, I must say a lot of the songs didn't do it for me. Too much flute, and too upbeat. The stuff I enjoy tends to be stuff that has a bit of a darker edge and a funkier and more prominent bassline. But there were still some interesting songs. You could see how "factory" a lot of the stuff that was being churned out was.

There was a whole episode devoted to Saturday Night Fever, which doesn't interest me at all. That movie, from the bits of it I have seen, seems pretty miserable, plus, I'm a terrible gay and I don't like the soundtrack at all. However, after this, the second disco wave had some good stuff in it. I do like Chic, and I was really interested in the stories behind what inspired "Dance Dance Dance" and "Le Freak". Plus a lot of stuff that had a disco beat maybe but was kind of mixing with a punk sensibility was pretty cool. Oh and stuff like "I Feel Love" and "You Make Me Feel Mighty Real" are great; I think of them as more precursors to modern dance music than disco really.

The whole discussion on Studio 54 made me wonder: am I the only one who doesn't find that whole thing that interesting? It sounds annoying, more than anything. Taking something that was more underground and inclusive and turning it into an exclusive "you can't come in here" type thing doesn't do much for me, I'm afraid. I much preferred the ideas of the early disco get-togethers, much more my thing. Also, the people there sounding like they were so impressed with themselves, just makes me roll my eyes.

But I will say, as things got completely saturated in late 78-79, I could see why people might be pretty frustrated with the disco movement. There was a lot of cheap, tacky stuff being produced, and to the exclusion, it seemed, to a lot of other things which couldn't get radio play. The stuff that did get radio play around then seemed to be mainly horribly sappy love songs that made my teeth ache. I'll be honest, post-punk and new wave are more my thing.

However, as much as I am probably more a rock person than a disco person myself (though why limit yourself musically, at the same time?) the Disco Demolition stuff was so utterly pathetic. I had heard of it, but I didn't realise [italic]how[/italic] pathetic it was until I heard about it all happening. You think disco sucks? Totally your right. Burning and breaking albums and destroying property is sinister though, the racist and homophobic remarks awful, and honestly I think the kinds of people who got involved in that would all be considered incels these days. I feel bad for the musicians and producers who lost their livelihoods overnight. And that dj crowing about the death of the guy who wrote "The Hustle" was just soulless.

I do think it seems like disco had overstayed its welcome at the top and I think overexposure to it was bound to have people searching other music, but that behaviour just grossed me out.

Well if Disco is dying.....I'm going out with The Brothers Johnson!

On the podcast I listened to today they mentioned that when this song was released they had to remix it slightly because they didn't think it would get any airplay without a disco touch to it at that particular time. It's funny, I would never have thought of this as disco. My dad used to play it when I was a little tacker, I never knew what it was called until today. Takes me right back and makes me feel strangely comforted:

R326 again.

Had another discussion with my dad about this he said that with the Iran hostage situation and inflation and general malaise, Americans were just so ready to be done with the 70s and believe that it was "Morning in America" again.

So they pretty much dumped everything associated with the 70s and just moved on. Punk, which became commercialized as New Wave was the music of rebellion, not disco, which was seen as overly corporate and very much tied to the vibe of the 70s

^Really interesting, R348, thanks for sharing. Sorry to keep harping on about this podcast, but something you said reminded me: they played a clip of Jimmy Carter on the podcast where he was lamenting the lack of faith and morals in American society at the end of the 70s. I guess it really was a feeling at the time that people wanted to turn things around.

R344 Fuck you, asshole cunt. There are published reports of peeps who confirmed it, cuntlicker.

Ahh Datalounge.

Where the Eldergays furiously debate minor incidents from half a century ago.

R351 Your black ho of a mama shoulda aborted you when she had the chance, Soniqua.

R348 I have that song "The Party's Over" in my head.

Ahh Datalounge.

Where r351 comes to furiously troll with her ageist fecal matter.

It's a very interesting topic, to me at least. And I'm really grateful to have the chance to discuss these things with the gay guys who were alive then. To me the period from the late 60s to the early 80s is a really interesting one, across the board. I love being able to get first hand accounts of history and information on where to find out more. Plus, I just love music and discussing it in any way.

r345 I'm going to check out that podcast.

I've seen footage of the Disco Demolition in Chicago on various documentaries and those people were basically the 70s version of Deplorables. The ones that were still alive 37 years later undoubtedly voted for Trump.

I'm a 48 year old Lesbian but if I was around back in the disco era I totally would have seen Sylvester James in concert. I'd have gone back stage and helped him take his pumps off and whatever else needed from the heart. His voice was just quite something else.

Disco was cool. The "Disco Duck" record I vaguely recall from Kindergarten I think it was is wrong and it might have helped kill things off, eh?

This is a highly informative thread and I dig it.

[quote]I'm going to check out that podcast.

I'd love to hear your thoughts back here once you do! I enjoyed it!

the documentary linked by R67 is so great! thanks for posting it. so much great footage and some pretty insightful moments, particularly if you actually care about disco, as i'm assuming everyone on this thread does. but geez, village people, lighten up a bit will ya?

^I know what I'm watching today, thanks for bringing it to our attention again!

The doc at R67 fucking sucks. I hated every one of the interviewers, especially the feminist girl who has to offer her worthless opinions. Every one of them just had worthless opinions.

I decided to have a listen to Chic on the way to work this morning. I have heard "Good Times" before, but this version was an extended version it seems (12"?). I have to say, this is probably the first 12" I've heard that I've really enjoyed. When it breaks down to just the bass, it's such a great bassline that I really enjoyed the breakdown (I usually don't), and love the little synthesised chimes coming in too. I was quite surprised, although maybe I'm just better able to handle extended remixes and breakdowns now, who knows. Anyway, for someone who isn't a huge disco fan, this song is definitely one of the excellent ones.

On reading up on the song too, I get a kick out of learning that the song is actually meant to be cynical.

Wow, so "Love Hangover" is a great song too. How is it that I've gotten this far in life not having heard it before.

Reading up on it, apparently in the UK, the punks in the 70s adopted this song as an anthem of sorts. I think that's sweet. The "death" of disco seems to really have been exclusively an American thing, which is interesting.

Maybe Jamie Lee killed it?

You know, I think I've worked out what it is about disco that determines when I like it and when I don't. Just thinking about this this morning and I don't have the correct music terminology for this, but when the music is all at the "high end", I don't really like it very much, you know, lots of flutes and high violins with tinny drumming. But when it's bass and bass drum heavy, with maybe a bit of piano at the lower keys, a bit of guitar or brass, well then I like it much more.

To me in general, music centred around drums, bass and keyboards is pretty swell.

R43- By the late 1970's the choice was- Disco, New Wave or Punk- what DISMAL choices.

Music was at it's best in the mid to late 1960's.

R154- You have very average taste.

[quote]By the late 1970's the choice was- Disco, New Wave or Punk- what DISMAL choices.

I dunno, I love punk and new wave! I think post-punk/new wave has some of the best music out there ever.