Disco Sucks?

[Hobbayne]

A lot of Blondie fans hated Heart Of Glass with a vengeance, accusing them of selling out and abandoning their punk roots. But the record sold trillions so they repeated the idea with Rapture, (Great bassliine from Nigel Harrison by the way) And Debbie Harry (who is older than my mother in law,) still sings them every night on tour!!

[cybertect]

Frank Zappa's take on the disco phenomenon from a 1978 SNL appearance (with Arthur Barrow on bass)

http://youtu.be/dI0SIg4njx0

[Musky]

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1375904862' post='2167305']
This kind of illustrates the whole rock=authentic, pop=artificial conceit - no offence intended Lowender, it's a long established phenomenon!
[/quote]
I must admit I view the disco backlash in the UK as an artifact of notions of authenticity as well. The wikipedia article makes or interesting reading, but I don't believe it can be generalised to the UK. Disco was grasped with both hands by the white working class in this country, and didn't fall away as it seems to have in the US. Large chains were converting pubs into discos well into the eighties. As a genre the music developed and reemerged as house and led directly to the rave scene, which itself found massive white working class support.

Given the authenticities created around rock music, especially in respect of live music, I find it far more likely that in the UK at least the backlash had its roots disco's lack of credibility in the eyes of its critics.

[Earbrass]

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1375900255' post='2167200']
I didn't see it as any of those things.

Rock was a music of rebellion but also an art form -- something to listen to. Disco was about partying -- something to dance to.

Rock music was progressing as was the musicianship. Solos and wild experimentation were a growing part of it. Disco was about precise rhythm, repetition and simplicity. Rock lyrics spoke of angst, revolution and insight. Disco spoke of Love to Love Ya Baby and Boogie Oogie Oogie.

When disco emerged, the clubs that hired rock bands switched to DJ's. So naturally, to the rock crowd, disco SUCKED.
[/quote]

+1000

[iconic]

[quote name='BurritoBass' timestamp='1375884938' post='2166923']
OK, sensible reply then - I think the answer lies within any genre being diluted. The early disco stuff was great music but once it catches on, the bar is somewhat lowered and acts of a substandard nature kick in - this is why a genre sucks. I remember in rock circles the debut Guns 'N' Roses album coming out in 1987 and it was fresh and exciting. By the time Nirvana came along we had 1000s of clone bands who were mostly awful so Nirvana broke through. Same with Britpop, any genre. I guess this is why Disco sucked even though a lot of it was actually very good.
[/quote]

+1....I hate the term/cliche/tag [i][b]'Disco'[/b][/i], makes me cringe, it seems to cover anything from the late 60's/early 70's stuff by say O'Jays, Trammps etc which to me was simply a fair tag for decent danceable Soul, R&B (proper R&B not modern application of the term) popular in the mainly underground gay clubs, to seemingly anything in the 70's with a bass/snare 4/4 beat....FFS I've even seen ELO, Bowie, Stones, The Wombles, Nolans and that 'We got a great big convoy' stuff labled as [i][b]'Disco'[/b][/i]...its all simply pop 'n rock ain't it?

....& as I often say, life's too short for cliches...

[MB1]

MB1.
Disco Duck Sucks!
I blame that Keith Harris.

[Lowender]

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1375904862' post='2167305']
This kind of illustrates the whole rock=authentic, pop=artificial conceit - no offence intended Lowender, it's a long established phenomenon!
[/quote]

I'm not defending it-- just commenting on the perception. As for Quincy Jones -- that was more a pro jazz arranger writing in a contemporary style. Not too many bar bands were playing that stuff. And Earth Wind and Fire's "Got to Get You Into My Life" wasn't really disco. (Listening to that today it actually sounds very much like a Vega show band).

Now in RETROSPECT, there was some great musician ship in disco at its best. But on the surface, going from "Close To The Edge" to "Push, Push In The Bush" seems like a decline.

[lowdown]

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1375949565' post='2167690']
As for Quincy Jones -- that was more a pro jazz arranger writing in a contemporary style. Not too many bar bands were playing that stuff. And Earth Wind and Fire's "Got to Get You Into My Life" wasn't really disco.
[/quote]

But it was tagged as Disco, and being played in Clubs/Discos all over the world.
Of course to musicians, music is just music, if they like it, they like it.........
Or.... "It leaves them cold"....or "they don't get it".... [size=4] [/size]

[dlloyd]

I think people are misunderstanding slightly what Nile Rodgers was talking about. The US "Disco Sucks" phenomenon was significantly different to anything experienced in the UK. There may have been people who grumbled about not liking the genre here, but we didn't have the full-on riots and record burning that happened in the US.

[mart]

[quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1375952047' post='2167723']
I think people are misunderstanding slightly what Nile Rodgers was talking about. The US "Disco Sucks" phenomenon was significantly different to anything experienced in the UK. There may have been people who grumbled about not liking the genre here, but we didn't have the full-on riots and record burning that happened in the US.
[/quote]
Agreed. There was a big difference between the extreme reaction seen in the US, and the reaction seen in the UK. But I feel the reaction to disco in the UK was stronger than, and different in nature to, the reaction to other genres. So I think there is [i]something[/i] to explain. Or at least something worth a thread on an internet forum

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

As a kid , disco was played everywhere to death! Rock on the other hand ,was scarce.
Purple, sabs, zep were all going through their troubles and metal was never on the radio in the daytime. Disco seemed to be all about sex, or so I thought. Then whitesnake were sliding it iin;)
Only liked a handful of disco songs at the most, probably because I was sick and tired of it.
Still think rivers of Babylon is a classic tho'

[dlloyd]

[quote name='mart' timestamp='1375960942' post='2167878']
Agreed. There was a big difference between the extreme reaction seen in the US, and the reaction seen in the UK. But I feel the reaction to disco in the UK was stronger than, and different in nature to, the reaction to other genres. So I think there is [i]something[/i] to explain. Or at least something worth a thread on an internet forum
[/quote]

I imagine there may have been a racist & homophobic element to it, but I don't think that was the primary reason in the UK.

Maybe the answer lies in the fact that disco appealed to women, and if men wanted to meet women, they now had to endure disco, the associated fashions and the dancing... which took a lot of men far, far out of their comfort zone. It was probably a lot easier to look like an idiot trying to be "disco" that it was trying to be a mod.

[casapete]

[quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1375965846' post='2167982']

Maybe the answer lies in the fact that disco appealed to women, and if men wanted to meet women, they now had to endure disco, the associated fashions and the dancing... which took a lot of men far, far out of their comfort zone. It was probably a lot easier to look like an idiot trying to be "disco" that it was trying to be a mod.
[/quote]

Absolutely. I was in my late teens / early twenties when the disco thing took off, and working in a record store. It was nearly always women who bought the stuff, with a lot of men being afraid of harming their 'rock' credentials to admit to liking / buying disco music. Makes me laugh (now it's considered okay to like disco) how those same blokes often make out they were really into it back in the day, when all they listened to was lousy prog rock / early metal etc. And funnily enough they were the ones then who usually did n't have girlfriends - go figure!

[Lowender]

[quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1375884883' post='2166922']
It's fairly well established what was going on... working class, white men saw disco as a threat as it was associated with afro-americans, latinos and the lgb community. Some of the backlash was quite violent:

[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night"]http://en.wikipedia....emolition_Night[/url]
[/quote]

That sounds like complete liberal media hogwash. (And I'm a liberal). If anything, disco was a very sanitized form of music -- the very opposite of hard core black R&B. The Disco audience were mostly working class whites.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Lowender

[steve-soar]

Discos were places where people might have the chance of sex with random strangers after a night of drinking Harp, Cheery B and Babycham.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

[quote name='steve-soar' timestamp='1375993965' post='2168473']
Discos were places where people might have the chance of sex with random strangers after a night of drinking Harp, Cheery B and Babycham.
[/quote]
And the worst places in the world