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Notes on video lecture:
The Backlash Against Disco
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on August 14, 2015 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
monkees, Sunshine, Worm, White, Hayes, Summer, Morali, extended, promiscuity, streaming, Dim, club, sexual, Wall, Hustle, danced, Dahl, YMCA, stamp, joke, two, English, Stewart, serious, recruiting, punk, dance, racism, anger, White, Travolta, sucks, Elliman, Alive, homophobia, backlash, hippy, popular, black, 1979, gay
Disco
just the word is enough to 1970s rock and rollers
how can you get so upset about a style of popular music?
as if you wanted to it out
and wish it never existed in the first place
it was a craze for sure
rejects some important elements of the aesthetic
the reaction may have to do with the misunderstanding of black pop
most white rock music listeners didn't know much pop music
they may have heard the Ohio Players Funky
they'd seen Curtis Mayfield on TV talking about Freddy's Dead or The Pusherman
they'd heard Isaac talking about Shaft or Can you Dig It
they knew some Stevie Wonder and listened to the Average Band
early days
the idea of disco was not unlike what was happening at American Bandstand
when you went to a disco, people played records, and you
there might not be a guitar or a drum set or a base guitar anywhere to be found
this sort of situation is familiar now but back in the 70s, it wasn't that way, when you went to a , you went to see that band that was playing there, the people performing
one reason why disco evolved the way it did
in the community, people who ran a gay club would want there to be music for dancing, but many bands wouldn't play those gigs
so they were in a way forced to use records for dancing
developed in urban areas
people discovered that certain recordings were better for dancing
bands began to create versions for dancing
disco records began to pop up on the chart almost as novelty records at first
1973 Barry 's Love Unlimited Orchestra
Love's Theme
was called a disco record but didn't get too many people upset yet
1975 Van McCoy "The "
that still didn't get anyone too riled up
it was just another one of these AM hits, who cares
1975 KC and the Band
That's the Way I Like It
but in 1977 there's a film, "Saturday Night Fever"
features a young John
who know John Travolta could dance
at the time he had pretty much only been a character on a television show called Welcome Back Kotter
this film launched Disco as music
it became the craze in America
1977 Saturday Night Fever, Bee Gees
Staying
How Deep Is Your Love
Night Fever
Yvonne
Yvonne Elliman: If I Can't Have You
part of the cast of the original Jesus Christ Superstar
when the disco craze breaks, every artist was running for their disco craze hit
Rod
The Rolling Stones
even KISS
was a return of the producers
Jacques
Giorgio Moroder
more euro disco based
drum machine that could do the beats exactly metronomically
artists
Donna
1976 Love to Love you Baby
patently sexual piece
you can hear her enjoy the act
meant to be heard to draw you in
1979 Bad Girls
Disco concept album
about ladies of the night and the various situations they get into
songs
Hot Stuff
Bad Girls
All the Lights
The Village People
assembled and produced by Jacques Morali
didn't speak much
brought together as a kind of gay
based on fantasies gay stereotypes drawn from Greenwich Village in New York City
weren't taking it entirely serious
most people didn't know, they just like the costumes
had no sense that the village people had anything to do with gay culture
a playful approach to the gay underground that for the most part went over the heads of most white, middle-class listeners
it was so not understood, that the song YMCA (1978)
essentially about gay guys hooking up at the YMCA
and still isn't, if you go to a minor league baseball game, in the 7th inning stretch, they will play over the stadium speakers
and everybody, Mom, Dad, grandma, the kids will all stand up and sing YMCA without the slightest idea that it has anything to do with gay culture
they still haven't gotten the yet
1979 "In the Navy"
The United States Navy licensed the song for purposes
on the condition that the Village People could do a video one of the Navy boats
when they found out what the village people were doing they pulled the plug on it
against disco
rock stations start to change format from rock to disco
the rock fans felt that their stations were being taken away
Steve
shock jock
1978 moved from Detroit to Chicago
was fired because the station he was at changed formats from rock to disco
went to another Chicago station
July : Anti-Disco Rally in Chicago
put a big box full of disco records and blew it up
people started onto the field
the second game of the double header had to be cancelled
spurred the "disco " movement
what upset rock fans so much about disco?
disco was about finding someone to dance with and then have a one-night stand
but when have rock fans been against promiscuity
not a good reason
they saw it was from the gay community
not many people really realized this
not a good reason
certainly racial
a lot of white rockers thought that disco was black music
if so, it was not a proud moment in the history of rock and roll
disco was a music that was fun rather than about issues
about the producers and not the artists
it wasn't about artistic anything
it was an assault on the hippy aesthetic
1966 - 1979 Pink Floyd's The
it seemed to be gaining ground with radio stations changing format
along with disco, was arising in England in 1977 and into 1978 in America
musical genres rejecting the hippy aesthetic
Ideas and Concepts:
From the detested-music-genres department, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "Disco. Just the word is enough to anger 1970s rock music connoisseurs who wanted to stamp out this loathed music and wished that it had never been created in the first place. But how can people you get so upset about a style of popular music? Disco was a dance craze for sure and certainly rejects some important elements of the 1960s and 1970s Hippy aesthetic such as live performances and the striving for an intensely personal and sophisticated expression in music. Dance-hit Disco albums began to pop up on the charts almost as novelty records at first as early as 1973 with Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra's "Love's Theme" which was probably the first to be called a disco song, but it wasn't noticed significantly by most listeners. In 1975 Van McCoy "The Hustle" got people out on the dance floor American-band-stand style, but still that didn't get anyone too riled up as most saw it as just another AM radio hit. And in 1975 KC and the Sunshine Band came out with "That's the Way I Like It" which got everyone chanting "uh-huh, uh-huh" but still Disco remained below the radar. Then, in 1977, a film was produced that changed the history of American music for decades to come, the film's name was, "Saturday Night Fever" which featured a young John Travolta, who up to this point had only been a character on the television show Welcome Back Kotter, and who knew that John Travolta could dance, which made all the difference. This film became an immediate hit and launched Disco as a new popular music in a grandiose fashion, and in so doing got people out on the dance floor pointing toward the sky and the floor in a fashion from which America and the world has yet to recover."
Surreptitious gay messages in 1970s disco pop, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "The story of The Village People is a fun one to tell in the History of Rock and Roll, the band assembled and produced by Jacques Morali, a groundbreaking French Disco & Dance music singer/songwriter from Paris who didn't speak hardly any English and so had to have most of what he said and was said to him translated. In any case, Morali had the vision to create a kind of gay Monkees group based on popular gay fantasy personae drawn from real people Greenwich Village in New York City. The running joke was with this group that most main stream listeners never understood that this group was a gay fantasy group, but just liked the costumes and had no sense that the village people had anything to do with supporting gay culture in the 1970s, so the band became a kind of playful approach to the gay underground that for the most part went over the heads of most white, middle-class listeners. For instance, the song YMCA (1978), was essentially about gay guys hooking up at the YMCA, and completely not understood by mainstream audiences and still isn't, which you can see if you go to almost any minor league baseball game, in the 7th inning stretch, they will play YMCA over the stadium speakers, and everybody, Mom, Dad, Grandma, the kids and macho, obviously non-gay and probably anti-gay men, will all stand up and sing YMCA without the slightest idea that they are in effect celebrating gay culture, and they still haven't gotten the joke yet."
Things I didn't know that happened in American history, via this afternoon's History of Rock and Roll class: "THE DISCO DEMOLITION, JULY 12, 1979:This act of destroying disco records during a baseball game intermission was the worst promotion in the history of the sport, the explosion of the records itself blew a crater out in the middle of center field, and when people starting pouring into the stadium, all hell broke loose, they were ripping the field apart, people started jumping up and down on the tarp, I saw someone literally steal home plate, dug it up and took it, and I'm pretty sure I saw two people having sex behind third base."