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Never got the hate for Disco


Count Drugcula

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I know back in the 70s, and even to this day, Disco is considered by quite a few to be a blight on music history; a black mark, a dark moment, etc. Things got so tense that Disco records were burned; The famous "Disco Sucks" pin and t-shirt came into being.

Disco went from breaking into the mainstream and hitting popularity around '73-'75, exploding as the biggest music at least in the States in '76-'78 to being utterly hated and disdained by '79-'81. Truly an interesting and really wild history--I don't think any musical trend has ever came so large and burnt out so soon and crashed so hard. It went from literally being the biggest music in the country to being near universally reviled in just two or three years.

But I never got the absolute hate that the music and the scene associated with it got. To me, a lot of Disco's music was just fun and a good time, it was very urban and very much built for the gritty city goers like New Yorkers and the like, and it's lyrics were VERY real, especially compared to the stuff that rock groups were putting out by the late '70s.

I mean a song like Stayin' Alive--That song was RELEVANT, especially in 1977, with the incredibly violent NYC black out and the Son of Sam killings that same Summer; the malaise of Jimmy Carter and the like. And really it's a timeless song.

But then you got really inventive, just instrumental stuff, like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLUiNAdP-v4

And tons of other great songs. And the scene around it was cool, I love the way they dressed, the hairstyles, etc. If this was 1977 and I had to choose between being a hard rocker, a punk or a disco kid, I'd have to choose Disco.

Edited by Count Drugcula
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Disco never recovered for a reason. The corporate sense of music continued on with Lee Abrams's statistical album oriented rock programming on radio and that philosophy continues on to this day. Twenty years from now I'm not going to reflect on how Jersey Shore and reality shows got too much hate on MTV. Sometimes, certain things in life really do suck. Even George Clinton (who profited greatly from it) understood the criticism of disco.

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I dunno about the racist stuff...I don't recall that ever entering the equation in conversations. :shrugs:

Most people had a beef with the songs.

I know respect was given (where due) as far as talented musicians were involved.

Some of those cats could play!

But for the most part...you basically couldn't go for a piss without stuff like this blaring at you from somewhere.

cluck cluck

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A lot of record companies were bought by corporations that knew nothing about music, they just knew about making money.

George Clinton once said they took the groovy part of their funk and just played over that same 4 on the floor beat and that became disco.

Gloria Gaynor mentioned it was danceable music for white folks who couldn't grasp the more complex rhythms of funk and RnB.

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