Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

DISCO DEMOLITION 25TH ANNIVERSARY

29 views
Skip to first unread message

last bingo in texas

unread,
Jul 12, 2004, 1:14:52 PM7/12/04
to
Heil Chairman Dahl

http://www.dahl.com/

To commemorate this landmark, WTTW11 is airing a one hour Teamworks
Media documentary called Disco Demolition 25th Anniversary: The Real
Story (July 12th, 8:00 pm - that's tonight!).

http://www.wttw.com/


someone hold a rap demolition!

Riverman

unread,
Jul 12, 2004, 8:15:39 PM7/12/04
to
lastbin...@hotmail.com (last bingo in texas) wrote in message news:<c531cab7.04071...@posting.google.com>...

I take issue with your perspective.Disco has been unjustifiably bad
mouthed by people who never cared much for ANY kind of Black music
period.Some of it was very trite but you can't tell me that songs like
Bad Luck,Disco Inferno,Hot Stuff,Knock on Wood,I Love Music,Heaven
Must Be Missing an Angel,Shame,Night Fever,etc were not great tunes
and very danceable.
What I remember about the whole Disco Demolition is that a bunch of
long haired white kids went straight up crazy about some music they
had very little understanding of.
And please don't tell me they were just representing the REAL Black
music of Little Richard and Ray Charles cause I ain't buying into that
one!
Riverman

BJB

unread,
Jul 12, 2004, 10:36:41 PM7/12/04
to
Yep, that's how I remember it too. Only long haired white guys watching a
ball game on the south side of Chicago. There weren't and females of any
race nor any blacks or Hispanics or Asians in there at all. Just long haired
white guys. Photo of the DD bear this out. Oh yeah, there were some photo
that seemed to show other races and other sexes out on the field, but we
both know that they were really long haired white guys in disguise.

A place for everyone, and everyone in their place.

BJB

"Riverman" <gog...@pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:b4b2a645.04071...@posting.google.com...

Robbie

unread,
Jul 13, 2004, 12:14:58 AM7/13/04
to
lastbin...@hotmail.com (last bingo in texas) wrote in message news:<c531cab7.04071...@posting.google.com>...

Thankfully, disco didn't die.

It made me laugh to see a bunch of no-hopers whinging about black music.

What did we have?

Chic - great!
Styx and REO Speedwagon - oh purlease...

deer...@mindspring.com

unread,
Jul 13, 2004, 12:36:47 AM7/13/04
to
Riverman wrote:
>
> lastbin...@hotmail.com (last bingo in texas) wrote in message news:<c531cab7.04071...@posting.google.com>...

> > someone hold a rap demolition!


>
> I take issue with your perspective.Disco has been unjustifiably bad
> mouthed by people who never cared much for ANY kind of Black music
> period.

They didn't like gay folks much either--g!

> Some of it was very trite but you can't tell me that songs like
> Bad Luck,Disco Inferno,Hot Stuff,Knock on Wood,I Love Music,Heaven
> Must Be Missing an Angel,Shame,Night Fever,etc were not great tunes
> and very danceable.

Yep. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were the Dr.
Dre/Holland-Dozier-Holland of their day. As was Giorgio Moroder.

> What I remember about the whole Disco Demolition is that a bunch of
> long haired white kids went straight up crazy about some music they
> had very little understanding of.

Part of it was there was a lot of bad disco towards the end
there--par for the course with any pop genre. And disco was
dominating the airwaves to such a degree it seemed like there was no
other music around. Part of it was money/class issues--you had to
have money to dress/hang out at disco clubs and once that whole
Studio 54 thing got rolling, disco got this snotty air about it.
But a good part of it was also mainstream insecurity. Whenever a
particular race seems to "dominate" a field, some white folks get
crazy. See, it's supposed to be people like them succeeding at
everything, and everyone else should be content with the occasional
token that breaks through. :P

> And please don't tell me they were just representing the REAL Black
> music of Little Richard and Ray Charles cause I ain't buying into that
> one!

Some did have a point that the music was too slick and repititous.
But more often than not those who hated disco weren't exactly
racially eglatarian--g!

C.
**

last bingo in texas

unread,
Jul 13, 2004, 4:49:14 AM7/13/04
to
gog...@pacbell.net (Riverman) wrote in message news:<b4b2a645.04071...@posting.google.com>...

there were good disco songs. but disco fashion was bad. it was like a
bad flaky parody of the soul funk thing. disco lacked a core,
something soul had. disco was too nightclub-centric, too dance
oriented without being musical in its own right. today, most disco
stuff sounds fluffy. it was, at best, great booty shaking music, but
not much more.

as for the longhaired white kids, i suspect their musical tastes were
even worse. probably AC/DC, foreigner, judas pries, and that shit.
but, it's true that for awhile disco was overhyped and just
everywhere. and it was very very cheesy.
everyone comes and goes; folk rock, psychedelia, punk, disco.
actually, i think disco demolition was immortalized by dahl's antics.
i'll bet punkers were jealous that their music was given such a great
sendoff.

i wouldn't mind having a rap demolition, heavy metal demolition,
grunge demolition, and country demolition. yuck.

trotsky

unread,
Jul 13, 2004, 8:36:04 AM7/13/04
to
in article 40F36617...@mindspring.com, deer...@mindspring.com at
deer...@mindspring.com wrote on 7/12/04 11:36 PM:

>
> Part of it was there was a lot of bad disco towards the end
> there--par for the course with any pop genre. And disco was
> dominating the airwaves to such a degree it seemed like there was no
> other music around. Part of it was money/class issues--you had to
> have money to dress/hang out at disco clubs and once that whole
> Studio 54 thing got rolling, disco got this snotty air about it.
> But a good part of it was also mainstream insecurity. Whenever a
> particular race seems to "dominate" a field, some white folks get
> crazy. See, it's supposed to be people like them succeeding at
> everything, and everyone else should be content with the occasional
> token that breaks through. :P


It had nothing to do with race. Disco was the epitome of superficiality and
shallowness, and the music certainly followed suit. Rock and roll was the
exact opposite: it didn't matter what you looked like or how you dressed.
It's not complicated. Looking back on it now disco wasn't really offensive,
just a novelty act. But at the time it was pretty offensive, as least to
somebody who was weened on rock and roll like myself.

Jim

unread,
Jul 13, 2004, 1:00:35 PM7/13/04
to
lastbin...@hotmail.com (last bingo in texas) wrote in
news:c531cab7.04071...@posting.google.com:

> disco lacked a core,
> something soul had. disco was too nightclub-centric, too dance
> oriented without being musical in its own right. today, most
> disco stuff sounds fluffy. it was, at best, great booty shaking
> music, but not much more.

Which was the whole purpose of disco...

Jim

Zaragon

unread,
Jul 13, 2004, 2:17:40 PM7/13/04
to
gog...@pacbell.net (Riverman) wrote in message news:<b4b2a645.04071...@posting.google.com>...
> lastbin...@hotmail.com (last bingo in texas) wrote in message news:<c531cab7.04071...@posting.google.com>...
> > Heil Chairman Dahl
> >
> > http://www.dahl.com/
> >
> > To commemorate this landmark, WTTW11 is airing a one hour Teamworks
> > Media documentary called Disco Demolition 25th Anniversary: The Real
> > Story (July 12th, 8:00 pm - that's tonight!).
> >
> > http://www.wttw.com/
> >
> >
> > someone hold a rap demolition!
>
> I take issue with your perspective.Disco has been unjustifiably bad
> mouthed by people who never cared much for ANY kind of Black music
> period.Some of it was very trite but you can't tell me that songs like
> Bad Luck,Disco Inferno,Hot Stuff,Knock on Wood,I Love Music,Heaven
> Must Be Missing an Angel,Shame,Night Fever,etc were not great tunes
> and very danceable.

The anti-disco movement was a whole load of racist ignorance. These
clueless, lame brained AOR geeks thinking they were "saving" rock n'
roll. Thanks, but the new wave was handling *that* job just fine.

> What I remember about the whole Disco Demolition is that a bunch of
> long haired white kids went straight up crazy about some music they
> had very little understanding of.

They had very little understanding of music, period. But what could
you expect from a region of flare wearing, hick teens reared on Styx,
REO, and Foreigner.

> And please don't tell me they were just representing the REAL Black
> music of Little Richard and Ray Charles cause I ain't buying into that
> one!

They knew nothing about real music, black or white.

One comment that summed up 1979 quite accurately came from Trouser
Press, who that December remarked "despite shrill protests from
anti-disco no-nothings, rock was in very good form during 1979."

And for that you can thank the Stranglers, XTC, the Boomtown Rats and
the Clash. And the Bee Gees, Chic, Earth Wind and Fire and Donna
Summers.

Had the protest been a burning of AOR records, it might not have gone
down as such a shamefull blight on history.

TS

Nick Macpherson

unread,
Jul 13, 2004, 2:52:12 PM7/13/04
to
>From: zara...@lycos.com (Zaragon)

>> And please don't tell me they were just representing the REAL Black
>> music of Little Richard and Ray Charles cause I ain't buying into that
>> one!
>
>They knew nothing about real music, black or white.
>
>One comment that summed up 1979 quite accurately came from Trouser
>Press, who that December remarked "despite shrill protests from
>anti-disco no-nothings, rock was in very good form during 1979."
>
>And for that you can thank the Stranglers, XTC, the Boomtown Rats and
>the Clash. And the Bee Gees, Chic, Earth Wind and Fire and Donna
>Summers.
>
>Had the protest been a burning of AOR records, it might not have gone
>down as such a shamefull blight on history.
>

1979 (along with 77 and 86) was one of my all-time favorite years for music.
It was also the year that Ian Hunter performed at a nearbye university, tried
to get the audience into a chance of "Disco sucks! Disco sucks!" and the
audience started chanting "Ian Hunter sucks! Ian Hunter sucks!"

By that time disco had more or less peaked, but the big fear of the white rock
fan was that his favorite band would "go disco". You lived in fear of that.
It was like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Going disco. One minute Rod
Stweart's music was okay, the next minute he did "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" But
what it ended up meaning was the Stones, rooted in black music anyway, could do
good songs like 'Hot Stuff" and "Miss You" while a band like the Who would
rebel with something as inane as "Sister Disco" (before belatedly jumping the
dance bandwagon with the awful "Eminence Front".)

People who weren't around in the late seventies really need to understand the
absolute hatred most white rock fans had for disco. In retrospect it was
silly, and rooted in racism (I heard the phrase "nigger music" an awful lot)
and homophobia but at the time it was a dominant feeling.

John_Doe the 2nd

unread,
Jul 13, 2004, 10:02:18 PM7/13/04
to

"Zaragon" <zara...@lycos.com> wrote in message
news:90eb345e.04071...@posting.google.com...

>
> The anti-disco movement was a whole load of racist ignorance. These
> clueless, lame brained AOR geeks thinking they were "saving" rock n'
> roll. Thanks, but the new wave was handling *that* job just fine.

Wha...wha...wha... So fucking what. I thought it was funny as shit.

>
> They had very little understanding of music, period. But what could
> you expect from a region of flare wearing, hick teens reared on Styx,
> REO, and Foreigner.

Understanding of music? What's there to understand? Robotic
cookie-cutter music that faggots and niggers danced to.

Nothin' to understand there.

>
> They knew nothing about real music, black or white.

'Real music' Hah!

>
> One comment that summed up 1979 quite accurately came from Trouser
> Press, who that December remarked "despite shrill protests from
> anti-disco no-nothings, rock was in very good form during 1979."
>
> And for that you can thank the Stranglers, XTC, the Boomtown Rats and
> the Clash. And the Bee Gees, Chic, Earth Wind and Fire and Donna
> Summers.

All of whom sucked.

>
> Had the protest been a burning of AOR records, it might not have gone
> down as such a shamefull blight on history.

We should do it more often. Like rap records, next. Let da 'lil sambos
know whitey means business.


Riverman

unread,
Jul 13, 2004, 10:49:36 PM7/13/04
to
ngrob...@hotmail.com (Robbie) wrote in message news:<b9d631ff.04071...@posting.google.com>...

As with so much in life,a person's musical loves often stem from
their personal journeys of the time and what they were experiencing.I
started not liking disco much and was still waiting for a rock group
to come out with an album like Surrealistic Pillow or
Sgt.Pepper.Sadly,it was not to be.Then I started hanging with a
racially mixed group who liked to go to clubs and I started hearing
the music known as disco in a different way.I remember my first real
disco trip-in 1977 after an Esther Phillips show at The City in SF.I
walked into the upstairs disco there and the song Devil's Gun by CC
and Company blasted from the sound system.It was completely
mesmerizing and I was hooked on the disco scene the next three years.
The Lake Tahoe scene was fabulous during those years with this
great disco at Harrahs and the famous Monte Vista Club over at Round
Hill Village.Party,Baby!
Riverman

deer...@mindspring.com

unread,
Jul 13, 2004, 11:57:10 PM7/13/04
to
Nick Macpherson wrote:
>
> 1979 (along with 77 and 86) was one of my all-time favorite years for music.
> It was also the year that Ian Hunter performed at a nearbye university, tried
> to get the audience into a chance of "Disco sucks! Disco sucks!" and the
> audience started chanting "Ian Hunter sucks! Ian Hunter sucks!"

*snicker* His time might have been better spent improving his own
music.

>
> By that time disco had more or less peaked, but the big fear of the white rock
> fan was that his favorite band would "go disco". You lived in fear of that.
> It was like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Going disco. One minute Rod
> Stweart's music was okay, the next minute he did "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" But
> what it ended up meaning was the Stones, rooted in black music anyway, could do
> good songs like 'Hot Stuff" and "Miss You" while a band like the Who would
> rebel with something as inane as "Sister Disco" (before belatedly jumping the
> dance bandwagon with the awful "Eminence Front".)

I _knew_ it. The minute some white folks get it in their head their
civilization/preeminence is being threatened by "others," all sorts
of weird crap goes down. Which is why dealing with some of them is a
problem if you are not-white because you never know what might trip
that "threatening my security/way of life" switch.



> People who weren't around in the late seventies really need to understand the
> absolute hatred most white rock fans had for disco. In retrospect it was
> silly, and rooted in racism (I heard the phrase "nigger music" an awful lot)
> and homophobia but at the time it was a dominant feeling.

Yup--folks scared to death "their" music was going to be "taken away
from them."

C.
**

Nick Macpherson

unread,
Jul 14, 2004, 7:57:21 AM7/14/04
to
>From: deer...@mindspring.com

>> People who weren't around in the late seventies really need to understand
>the
>> absolute hatred most white rock fans had for disco. In retrospect it was
>> silly, and rooted in racism (I heard the phrase "nigger music" an awful
>lot)
>> and homophobia but at the time it was a dominant feeling.
>
>Yup--folks scared to death "their" music was going to be "taken away
>from them."
>
>C.
>**

I was a music snob in high school, listening to reggae, Randy Newman, the
Clash, Public Image ltd., and most of my friends were AOR Nugent types or high
school band dweebs listening to Chicago but the one thing we agreed on was that
we didn't like disco. My dislike was rooted mostly in the music. I said at
the time that disco would be alright if they moved the percussion way, way into
the front and made the music more aggressive, which is what happened when
"disco" mutated into "dance music" and it all of a sudden developed crediblity,
when people who'd sneered at disco a few years earlier were listening to New
Order and the Pet Shop Boys.

Mpoconnor7

unread,
Jul 14, 2004, 6:57:52 AM7/14/04
to
>By that time disco had more or less peaked, but the big fear of the white
>rock
>fan was that his favorite band would "go disco".

Disco probably peaked in early 1978 when seven of the top ten songs in the
country (according to Billboard) were either songs from the Saturday Night
Fever soundtrack, songs written by or produced by the Bee Gees, or songs by
Andy Gibb. By 1979 Disco was already on the way out; Donna Summer's Bad Girls
album was the last big Disco album.

Michael O'Connor - Modern Renaissance Man

"The likelihood of one individual being correct increases in a direct
proportion to the intensity with which others try to prove him wrong"
James Mason from the movie "Heaven Can Wait".

Mpoconnor7

unread,
Jul 14, 2004, 6:49:05 AM7/14/04
to
>i wouldn't mind having a rap demolition, heavy metal demolition,
>grunge demolition, and country demolition. yuck.

I think in this era of PC if you tried to hold a rap demolition night (where
rap cds are blown up real good) somebody would claim it was racially motivated
and you would lose your job for racial insensitivity.

Bobster123

unread,
Jul 13, 2004, 9:43:23 PM7/13/04
to
>From: Jim no...@example.com wrote:


I agree. It enabled anyone to be a star on the dance floor. I think that's
one of the things that made it so appealing in 1978-79.

trotsky

unread,
Jul 14, 2004, 1:00:33 PM7/14/04
to
in article 20040714075721...@mb-m29.aol.com, Nick Macpherson at
nmacp...@aol.com wrote on 7/14/04 6:57 AM:

>> From: deer...@mindspring.com
>
>>
>> Yup--folks scared to death "their" music was going to be "taken away
>> from them."
>>
>> C.
>> **
> I was a music snob in high school, listening to reggae, Randy Newman, the
> Clash, Public Image ltd., and most of my friends were AOR Nugent types or high
> school band dweebs listening to Chicago but the one thing we agreed on was
> that
> we didn't like disco. My dislike was rooted mostly in the music. I said at
> the time that disco would be alright if they moved the percussion way, way
> into
> the front and made the music more aggressive, which is what happened when
> "disco" mutated into "dance music" and it all of a sudden developed
> crediblity,
> when people who'd sneered at disco a few years earlier were listening to New
> Order and the Pet Shop Boys.

But Nick you're not getting with the program and making it a "race" issue.
As if you can possibly get more white than the Bee Gees.

last bingo in texas

unread,
Jul 14, 2004, 2:53:58 PM7/14/04
to
Jim <no...@example.com> wrote in message news:<TyUIc.68170$a24.50722@attbi_s03>...

had it just stayed in the nightclubs, it would have been fine. but it
was hyped all over all night and day and it got stale.

Riverman

unread,
Jul 14, 2004, 10:19:58 PM7/14/04
to
mpoco...@aol.comnojunk (Mpoconnor7) wrote in message news:<20040714065752...@mb-m25.aol.com>...

I think Off the Wall by Michael Jackson was the last huge disco
album.Donna's dropped several months before,as I recall.Check me if
I'm wrong on that one.
Riverman

last bingo in texas

unread,
Jul 15, 2004, 4:07:05 PM7/15/04
to
gog...@pacbell.net (Riverman) wrote in message news:<b4b2a645.04071...@posting.google.com>...

alot more white folks are respectable to black music than blacks are
to white music. so who's are the closed minded bigots?
disco was cheesy and overhyped. there was no soul demolition because
whether one liked it or not, it was cool.
disco was just so shamelessly tacky and kitschy. it had some really
great dance songs but it tried to be a way of life and as such, it was
embarassing.

Mike1

unread,
Jul 17, 2004, 4:18:45 AM7/17/04
to

Disco sucked....until rap came along and made booger-twanging a more
talanted expressive form.

--
Reply to mike1@@@usfamily.net sans two @@, or your reply won't reach me.

Drug smugglers and gun-runners are heroes of American capitalism.
-- Jeffrey Quick

deer...@mindspring.com

unread,
Jul 17, 2004, 9:35:04 PM7/17/04
to

Nick Macpherson wrote:

> >**
> I was a music snob in high school, listening to reggae, Randy Newman, the
> Clash, Public Image ltd., and most of my friends were AOR Nugent types or high
> school band dweebs listening to Chicago but the one thing we agreed on was that
> we didn't like disco. My dislike was rooted mostly in the music. I said at
> the time that disco would be alright if they moved the percussion way, way into
> the front and made the music more aggressive, which is what happened when
> "disco" mutated into "dance music" and it all of a sudden developed crediblity,
> when people who'd sneered at disco a few years earlier were listening to New
> Order and the Pet Shop Boys.

It's a shame a form of music has to change to be "credible." I
didn't like every disco song, but I can take the majority of it much
more than I can deal with ambient dance music (which seems enslaved
to the beat/technosounds way more than disco ever was.)

C.
**

Pat Wong

unread,
Jul 31, 2004, 3:46:03 PM7/31/04
to
My apologies if this has already been mentioned in this thread (haven't read all of it), but
speaking of bad disco, I think Ethel Merman's disco album takes the top prize! Talk about
cheesy. Interestingly, this one has been reissued on CD. You can listen to several song samples
on amazon.com.


| Part of it was there was a lot of bad disco towards the end
| there--par for the course with any pop genre.


--
Spammers, please reply to ab...@comcast.net
For everyone else, please contact me through my website. Thanks.

~8^) Pat Wong
http://www.napathon.net/ - Music Around The World
For collecting tips, trade and want lists, album reviews and more.

http://www.techtipscentral.net/CDTrusteeIntro.asp - Showcase your
music collection on your website.


brigit bardot brigade

unread,
Jul 31, 2004, 11:24:44 PM7/31/04
to
"Pat Wong" <a@a.a> wrote in message news:<%FSOc.221710$XM6.101249@attbi_s53>...

> My apologies if this has already been mentioned in this thread (haven't read all of it), but
> speaking of bad disco, I think Ethel Merman's disco album takes the top prize! Talk about
> cheesy. Interestingly, this one has been reissued on CD. You can listen to several song samples
> on amazon.com.

did kids make fun of your name in school? there's so much that can
be done with wong. am i white or wong?

EvilRevReplies

unread,
Aug 5, 2004, 11:56:51 AM8/5/04
to
Hated Disco passionately...had nothing to do with racism or homophobia.
Had everything to do with:

1) A "scene" that was exclusionary & conformist

2) A form of music that "spoke" to me on absolutely no intellectual or
emotional level whatsoever

People who claim racism & homophobia are, IMHO, a bit dishonest


Rev Rockabilly
Avoided Disco, WI


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

Greg Ioannou

unread,
Aug 5, 2004, 6:17:50 PM8/5/04
to

"EvilRevReplies" <agen...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:d1c9798501bea22abd0...@mygate.mailgate.org...

> Hated Disco passionately...had nothing to do with racism or homophobia.
> Had everything to do with:
>
> 1) A "scene" that was exclusionary & conformist
>
> 2) A form of music that "spoke" to me on absolutely no intellectual or
> emotional level whatsoever
>
> People who claim racism & homophobia are, IMHO, a bit dishonest

Exactly. Nicely said.

I once had a guy accuse me of racism when I tried to argue that the best
dance music of the 70s was reggae, not disco. Huh?

Greg

-action/man

unread,
Aug 5, 2004, 6:55:39 PM8/5/04
to

"EvilRevReplies" <agen...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:d1c9798501bea22abd0...@mygate.mailgate.org...
> Hated Disco passionately...had nothing to do with racism or homophobia.
> Had everything to do with:
>
> 1) A "scene" that was exclusionary & conformist
>
> 2) A form of music that "spoke" to me on absolutely no intellectual or
> emotional level whatsoever
>
> People who claim racism & homophobia are, IMHO, a bit dishonest
>

Even if it was based on both of those things, who cares? Big fucking deal.

Richard

unread,
Aug 5, 2004, 8:12:32 PM8/5/04
to
trotsky <gms...@email.com> wrote in message news:<BD194211.4430%gms...@email.com>...

Yes, I used to like how Johnny Fever reacted to it's mention or playing
on WKRP In Cincinatti. "Droid, syntha-music."
-Rich

dave

unread,
Aug 5, 2004, 11:15:35 PM8/5/04
to
Disco arose, though, not from classy clubs like slick Studio 54,
but from humbler gay, black and Latino clubs. One of the regular
post-ers to this forum has pointed out that the very disco beat:
"tss-NN tss-NN tss-NN tss-NN" is a direct adaptation of a Dominican
merengue beat.

RHINO reviewer Paul Grein has pointed out that shouting "Disco sucks"
carries with it some pretty hefty racist and homophobic baggage.

Was lack of money really a problem to get into discos? If Tony Manero
and his pals could afford to get in, anybody could.


Best, DAVE BROOKS


"Richard" <rande...@rogers.com> wrote in message > > >

Part of it was money/class issues--you had to
> > > have money to dress/hang out at disco clubs and once that whole
> > > Studio 54 thing got rolling, disco got this snotty air about it.

<snip>

Demorat

unread,
Aug 5, 2004, 11:34:43 PM8/5/04
to

"dave" <rasp...@gvtc.com> wrote in message
news:q4SdnVebwOm...@gvtc.com...

>
> RHINO reviewer Paul Grein has pointed out that shouting "Disco sucks"
> carries with it some pretty hefty racist and homophobic baggage.

And??

Does that mean everybody's supposed to 'like it'?

Fuck, I hope not...

Disco sucks!!


Greg Ioannou

unread,
Aug 6, 2004, 12:15:13 AM8/6/04
to
> RHINO reviewer Paul Grein has pointed out that shouting "Disco sucks"
> carries with it some pretty hefty racist and homophobic baggage.

That doesn't seem to make any sense. Yes, homophobia is potentially implicit
in the "sucks". But I don't see how racism enters into it. Remember, the
most visible faces of disco were the Village People and the Bee Gees -- not
exactly Black icons.

Greg


Nick Macpherson

unread,
Aug 6, 2004, 8:54:48 AM8/6/04
to
>From: "Greg Ioannou" gregi...@rogers.com

Tell that to the people I went to college in Indiana with who called disco
"nigger music." In my own disco era experiences (when I wasn't in my room
listening to Lou Reed and the Clash), the hostility I saw aimed at disco wasn't
because it was elitist (damn, anyone could get into one of our high school
discos) or homophobic (we didn't know any gay people anyway so we were totally
oblivious to any concept of a "gay subculture") but it was sure as hell racist.

dave

unread,
Aug 6, 2004, 11:56:32 AM8/6/04
to
I hear ya. Yet it is my feeling that, just as with rock 'n' roll in
the 1950's (and the Little Richard/Pat Boone-type situations) disco
emerged first with black artists and then was picked up and mage hugely
visible by the Bee Gee's, Village People, Yvonne Elliman, Barbra
Streisand, Rick Dees, etc.

I don't know if music can really be "stolen" from one group by another (as
Little Richard, Miles Davis and Ike Turner, to name a few, have
vociferously ranted).

But the first mainstream records I can think of that truly presage Disco to
me were things like "Want Ads" and "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show" by The
Honey Cone, "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In" by The Fifth Dimension,
"Pillow Talk" by Sylvia, "Jungle Fever" by Las Chakachas,
"Backstabbers" by The O'Jay's, "Why Can't We Live Together?" by Timmy
Thomas, "Doctor's Orders" by Carol Anderson, and the oft-cited
"Rock Your Baby" by George McCrae. Even Diana Ross's version of "Ain't
No Mountain High Enough" (1969, IIRC) strongly seems to presage Disco
and is still a staple in every black drag-queen's repertoire even today...
(and it is surely *her* version of the song that gay audiences most cherish
today, not the one that actresses lip-synch to in every third Hollywood
movie)

To my way of thinking, the 70's Disco by black artists (Cheryl Lynn,
The Whispers, Chic, Spinners, Donna Summer, Grace Jones, Patti
Labelle, McFadden & Whitehead, Barry White and many others) remains
the "genuine article", and their records, IMHO, have survived
the decades better than the Bee Gees.


DAVE

Riverman

unread,
Aug 6, 2004, 4:35:49 PM8/6/04
to
"EvilRevReplies" <agen...@msn.com> wrote in message news:<d1c9798501bea22abd0...@mygate.mailgate.org>...
> Hated Disco passionately...had nothing to do with racism or homophobia.
> Had everything to do with:
>
> 1) A "scene" that was exclusionary & conformist
>
> 2) A form of music that "spoke" to me on absolutely no intellectual or
> emotional level whatsoever
>
> People who claim racism & homophobia are, IMHO, a bit dishonest
>
>
> Rev Rockabilly
> Avoided Disco, WI
I would never say that EVERYONE who hated disco was racist!yet
there was an anti-Black element from that time who seemed to hate all
R
and B and "soul"music.I would constantly get comments about"nigger
music"and how"those peopl'es"music sounded the same.
Disco wasn't exculsionary at all.Even a doofus type dude like me
could go to the disco and pull a nice looking woman.And,unlike rock
clubs,there was a great racial mix to chooose from.No fights or
gangsta activity either.I loved the disco era.
Riverman

Bob Roman

unread,
Aug 6, 2004, 8:21:05 PM8/6/04
to
rasp...@gvtc.com (dave) wrote...

> I hear ya. Yet it is my feeling that, just as with rock 'n' roll in
> the 1950's (and the Little Richard/Pat Boone-type situations) disco
> emerged first with black artists and then was picked up and mage hugely
> visible by the Bee Gee's, Village People, Yvonne Elliman, Barbra
> Streisand, Rick Dees, etc.

The lead singer of the Village People was always black.

> I don't know if music can really be "stolen" from one group by another (as
> Little Richard, Miles Davis and Ike Turner, to name a few, have
> vociferously ranted).

Playboy interview, September, 1962: *

PLAYBOY: In your field, music, don't some Negro jazzmen discriminate against
white musicians?

DAVIS : Crow Jim is what they call that. Yeah. It's a lot of the Negro
musicians mad because most of the best-paying jobs go to the white musicians
playing what the Negroes created. But I don't go for this, because I think
prejudice one way is just as bad as the other way. I wouldn't have no other
arranger but Gil Evans -- we couldn't be much closer if he was my brother. And
I remember one time when I hired Lee Konitz, some colored cats bitched a lot
about me hiring an ofay in my band when Negroes didn't have work. I said if a
cat could play like Lee, I would hire him, I didn't give a damn if he was green
and had red breath.

Bob Roman

* thanks Fred

dave

unread,
Aug 7, 2004, 7:58:50 AM8/7/04
to
Right, Riverman.

And lack of money wasn't even an obstacle in getting looped: if you just
hung around the disco long enough, you were sure to get offered a free
tipple, toke, toot or tab of something...

(or so I've heard [-; )

...even if you looked like Quasimodo. That's how giddy and generous the
scene was...

DAVE

Ecere Seluk

unread,
Jan 22, 2024, 5:35:45 AMJan 22
to
✅🔴▶️▶ Really Amazing ️You Can Try This ◀️◀️🔴✅

✅▶️▶️ CLICK HERE Full HD✅720p✅1080p✅4K✅

WATCH ✅💻📺📱👉https://co.fastmovies.org

ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ ✅📺📱💻👉https://co.fastmovies.org

🔴💚 Really Amazing ️You Can Try This💚ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ LINK >👉https://co.fastmovies.org

🔴💚 CLICK HERE Full HD 1080p 4K💚WATCH LINK >👉https://co.fastmovies.org

🔴💚Really Amazing ️You Can Try This💚WATCH💚ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ LINK >👉https://co.fastmovies.org

🔴WATCH>>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>>LINK>👉https://co.fastmovies.org

✅WATCH>>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>>LINK>👉https://co.fastmovies.org

💚WATCH>>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>>LINK>👉https://co.fastmovies.org

Habia Khet

unread,
Feb 2, 2024, 8:10:20 AMFeb 2
to
✅🔴▶️▶ Really Amazing ️You Can Try This ◀️◀️🔴✅

✅▶️▶️ CLICK HERE Full HD✅720p✅1080p✅4K✅

WATCH ✅💻📺📱👉https://co.fastmovies.org

ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ ✅📺📱💻👉https://co.fastmovies.org

🔴WATCH>>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>>LINK>👉https://co.fastmovies.org

✅WATCH>>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>>LINK>👉https://co.fastmovies.org

💚WATCH>>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>>LINK>👉https://co.fastmovies.org

🔴💚 Really Amazing ️You Can Try This💚WATCH>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>LINK>
👉https://co.fastmovies.org

🔴💚CLICK HERE Full HD✅720p✅1080p✅4K💚WATCH>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>LINK>
👉https://co.fastmovies.org

✅🔴▶️▶ Really Amazing ️You Can Try This ◀️◀️🔴✅

✅▶️▶️ CLICK HERE Full HD✅720p✅1080p✅4K✅

WATCH ✅💻📺📱👉https://co.fastmovies.org

ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ ✅📺📱💻👉https://co.fastmovies.org

🔴WATCH>>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>>LINK>👉https://co.fastmovies.org

✅WATCH>>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>>LINK>👉https://co.fastmovies.org

💚WATCH>>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>>LINK>👉https://co.fastmovies.org

🔴💚 Really Amazing ️You Can Try This💚WATCH>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>LINK>
👉https://co.fastmovies.org

🔴💚CLICK HERE Full HD✅720p✅1080p✅4K💚WATCH>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>LINK>
👉https://co.fastmovies.org
0 new messages