Can you define the disco subculture?

[Brie3]

Hi all, I'm writing an academic paper on the disco subculture, not the "saturday-night-fever-bee-gees" culture, the more "underground" subculture focused on DJs and innovative songs and mixes that many of you seemed interested in. I want to hear from the fans themselves. Do you think there still is a disco subculture? what defines it? what holds the members together? and also how do you think media forms like tv, radio, and internet have affected the subculture? Feel free to ramble on and speak your mind.

[Forrrce]

G'day, Brie3.
I'm surprised no-one's even bothered to patronise you yet! Maybe there's not a lot going on, except in the minds and memories of many near-pensioners and young pretenders. There's not much of a subculture now as I see it - you have the first-timer old school who are a mixture of open minded, spirited people and know-alls who believe disco was theirs alone, thus rejecting the perspectives and opinions of others. Then there are those who were too young to have been DJ-ing in 1975 but were aware of disco and carried their love of the music through to present day. Then there's the new school of disco student, many of whom will have had their grounding in other forms of (not necessarily black) music and have taken the route via house music. Whilst some of these students have a genuine affinity with disco, too many have jumped on the bandwagon of paying lip service to a period in time that to them, can be summed up by a few DJ names, clubs and key 'classic' records. 'We wouldn't be where we are today...' they lament, simply because they now 'know' a liitle bit of the history and can read many interviews with their 'heroes' about the 'good old days'. These are the same people who will dismiss perfectly good disco records unless they meet certain criteria, ie 'It's a Loft classic...', 'Larry used to play this one 3 times a night...', 'It's a Gibbons mix' (even if it's one of his worst) or, perhaps best, if it hasn't been sampled. Woe betide a record which gets put on a Kenlou comp, or sampled in a trendy DJ's tune - demand will go through the roof. More to do with one-upmanship and looking like you know what's what than love of music, I think. So is there a current disco subculture? I don't know, though maybe I should refer you to the masses who go to bed every night wishing they'd gone to the Paradise Garage in 1979 and will, until they finally grow up, spend their every waking moment chasing Bulgarian, turquoise vinyl test pressings of chipmunk conversations with thunder effects in the background, because...

[K-Bee]

Brie 3.

I did a paper on a somehow similar subject about two years ago.
A few good books about it exist:

Simon Reynolds - Energy Flash
Simon Reynolds - Generation Ecxstasy
Dan Sicko - Techno rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk

They all offer excellent coverage of the detroit techno scene as well as info about the Paradise Garage and the whole "Disco Sucks" movement.
For all of us who were not there when it happened, these books can prove very helpful indeed.

[QUINNY]

I haven't replied 'cos I've been thinking about a reply.
I get the impression that there is probably a hardcore element for whom today's club culture is everything and in that respect there is a 'disco' subculture that thrives on being hip to all the latest hip pressings (in any one genre). This is most probably more highly defined than it ever was back in the '70's or '80's.
From a purely personal perspective I can truthfully say that I wasn't aware of any disco subculture for many years, except possibly among a very few punters and some DJs. Sure, we'd have people who almost lived in the club I was playing, who'd even come along to it during the day to hang out, but I sorta took that for granted and so did everyone else. I don't think any of us stopped and thought about it for one nano second. I was maybe different to most, in that I'd try to keep up to date with the records I bought (to play in my job as a DJ), but that was as far as it went. Fashion wasn't important to me, nor was peer pressure....I just tried to plough my own furrow and not worry about anyone else, so I never got caught up in whatever else might have been de rigeur to qualify as a true disco head. The cult of disco (in the UK) only really became obvious to me for about 6 months or so after the release of Saturday Night Fever. Suddenly, we had fools thinking they were the world's greatest dancers and that somehow their dancing would magically transform their lives. I never felt what was happening was at all special, at the time, although door figures suddenly leapt up. It's only years after the event that one suddenly wakes up to what was really happening. Everything was specific to that time and that space, but somehow I don't feel like I was part of it. I just imagined that every young adult went through similar life processes.
So, although your question does have an academic meaning and an academic answer, I'd have to say that in pursuing it I feel your tutor is somewhat making you miss the point to some degree. To really find out what the subculture means and what it is, you really need to live it, see how it affects you and have your note book readily to hand. You really have to live the life. Luckily, you could do this if you're interested in today's disco subculture.

[unremarkable]

You need a book called "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life". It's excellent.