Why Disco Had To Die: Reason #16 - Travolta

[remicks]

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By 1980 -

John Travolta was dancing like this :






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[barbarella]

Well I guess this is more why Disco died.. Rather than why it had to!
From the dawn of the real Disco and Funk era, in about '75, the quality of the Music on offer was steadily rising; Most of the Club Stuff was unavailable on British Labels.. I for one was constantly trawling the Record shops for stuff I didn't have. Even then, what was made available was mostly 7" singles. The 12" singles started to appear a little later, and only in very limited numbers. The British Record Companies who marketed Disco and Funk were unaware of the potential of this Music.
If you could find a Club with a DJ who had sussed out the Classy tracks from the vast majority of average stuff, then thats where your nights would be spent!
One of the Clubs we used to go to lost a lot of their Cred when they introduced Saturday Night Fever Dance Classes..!
As the popularity of Disco and Funk rose ever upward, the offerings by the likes of The Doolies, Liquid Gold and The Nolans increased. This was the only type of "Disco" to get Radio Airplay.
So, for me that was The Beginning of the End.. The Anti-Disco Movement was born, culminating in Punk and New Wave.
Saturday Night Fever was responsible for bringing popular Disco to the Disco.. but also responsible for its' death!

[drlove]

I basically agree that John Travolta played an ironic role in disco's diminishing dominance (for those who don't like to think it ever died). His Oscar-nominated performance in Saturday Night Fever helped sell the movie to the masses, which helped bring disco to middle-America.

Thus, by 1980, when disco's popularity was significantly off from its 1st-half-of-1979 media-saturation heights, his well-received turn in Urban Cowboy gave rise to a new direction for disco owners/operators to turn to.

Rotating mechanical disco balls were often replaced by rotating mechanical bulls (even in the little town east of New Orleans I grew up in, the Zodiac disco became Hawg's Saloon).

[remicks]

Well I guess this is more why Disco died.. Rather than why it had to!
From the dawn of the real Disco and Funk era, in about '75, the quality of the Music on offer was steadily rising; Most of the Club Stuff was unavailable on British Labels.. I for one was constantly trawling the Record shops for stuff I didn't have. Even then, what was made available was mostly 7" singles. The 12" singles started to appear a little later, and only in very limited numbers. The British Record Companies who marketed Disco and Funk were unaware of the potential of this Music.
If you could find a Club with a DJ who had sussed out the Classy tracks from the vast majority of average stuff, then thats where your nights would be spent!
One of the Clubs we used to go to lost a lot of their Cred when they introduced Saturday Night Fever Dance Classes..!
As the popularity of Disco and Funk rose ever upward, the offerings by the likes of The Doolies, Liquid Gold and The Nolans increased. This was the only type of "Disco" to get Radio Airplay.
So, for me that was The Beginning of the End.. The Anti-Disco Movement was born, culminating in Punk and New Wave.
Saturday Night Fever was responsible for bringing popular Disco to the Disco.. but also responsible for its' death!

Most interesting . But as for me , I never thought of punk as anti-disco . I thought of it as anti-corporate rock ....the desire to get back to the raw basics and provide a rougher edged sound and viewpoint from what studio rock had evolved into . It's anti-establishment bent made it more in alignment with the concurring disco movement ....both coming from the outside of the music norm and both self-generating their acceptance.
New Wave at the time to me was also not antagonistic ... It was just one more avenue of the ever evolving club/dance aka "disco" scene.

drlove:
I basically agree that John Travolta played an ironic role in disco's diminishing dominance (for those who don't like to think it ever died). His Oscar-nominated performance in Saturday Night Fever helped sell the movie to the masses, which helped bring disco to middle-America.

Thus, by 1980, when disco's popularity was significantly off from its 1st-half-of-1979 media-saturation heights, his well-received turn in Urban Cowboy gave rise to a new direction for disco owners/operators to turn to.

Rotating mechanical disco balls were often replaced by rotating mechanical bulls (even in the little town east of New Orleans I grew up in, the Zodiac disco became Hawg's Saloon).

very well said my friend !!

when Travolta traded in his platform shoes for cowboy boots ....many trend followers .....did exactly that and followed suit .....

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