Acetate [Level 1]
I´m a truly disco - lover these days, but I was a little
child when Disco was BIG in 70s.
So I don´t understand why Disco was dead when
the 80s started .... ??
O.K. there are still Disco lovers around the world like me,
but no commercial overground like 30 years back ....
In some countries (Canada e.g.) disco still lived in 80s,
also today house music sells (Europe e.g.), but in USA
for example I think Disco is like dead (like Jazz also...).
Am I wrong or do you agree ?
What was the reason that the worldwide Disco - boom
stopped so fast ? Was it like "uncool" from one day to
another ? Or was it that productions were sad ? Was
it that there was a Disco - Sellout that everything was
DISCO and people couldn´t hear it no more ?
Maybe some of you who recognized that period can give
some answers what the people felt back that time and why the
masses went away from disco .... ?
THX :)
No Longer Charting
By '80 - '81 many of us (U.S. baby boomers) were partyed out, drugged out and fucked out so we stopped partying, got married and had our own babies.
Seriously, I think the demise of Disco was caused by demographics, politics, the revolution of MTV ('81) and the record industry pulling the plug on expensive disco music and pushing this cheap to produce cRap. You'll notice that jazz, r&b and soul pretty much died at the same time as well.
Platinum Record [Level 8]
Not really sure if this caused the demise, but when I was growing up most young people that I knew (teens & college age) didn't like disco. It wasn't cool to like disco.
Nowadays, most young people are into rap. I think rap is portrayed as tough and macho where disco wasn't.
No Longer Charting
IT never died in the U.K....just went very slightly underground for a couple of years and then burst out again to become House, Garage, Rave, Trance et etc.
I think it was probably a combination of over commercialism and the genre's propensity for (and the publics seemingly unquenchable thirst for) cheeseyness that did for it in the U.S.A. There was maybe a touch of homophobia built in too, but I think this angle is over emphasized. As for political reasons....hmmm. Times changed....it's simple really.
Trouble was that it emerged from black music and was hi-jacked by too many non blacks who ended up with a music without an ounce of soul or funk within its grooves. It was this whitewashed musak that was touted and accepted by all and sundry and ultimately its lack of quality was seen through. Good black music continued to be made and still thrived in certain clubs, but they were not enough on their own to sustain the huge momentum that had been built up by the Disco phenomena. Rap, hip hop and electro grooves were ultimately black music's (and Discos) saviours in those dark immediate post Disco years. The music's instrumentation was pared down not only for commercial reasons, but for so many more; the most important was so that black music could regain its rightful territory as the dance music of youth, the street, rebellion and choice. Quite rightly so in my opinion.
Platinum Record [Level 8]
I think here in the US we have a tendency to pick up on something make a big deal out of it for a while and then drop it just as quickly.
Today's Salma is tomorrow's Farrah. :D
Indie Release [Level 4]
And let's not forget that the was A LOT of crap released in 1979-1980. For every *good* song, there were hundreds of cheap, bad, tuneless tracks.
Chart Hit [Level 6]
In the period '73 - 77 its was all good but as the 70s ended, record companies scrambled for ANY track that could be contrieved as 'Disco'. This, in turn, created a glut, many of them being meaningless dirges and as Quinny said without an ounce of soul. With the sudden infux of the punk/new wave, the 'Disco Sucks' parade started. Thankfully not so much in the UK!! Yes, disco was still popular in the UK when it shoved out in the US, and changed into various other breeds of dance music. Unfortunately when you mention Disco people then think of Abba, Bee Gees, Boney M unbeknowing there were many other better tracks out there which should've been given a Top 40 chance, or at least radio play!!
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Just like most great things...too much exposure!...once it left the Club Scene into the lexicon of America Hippsternism and commercialization Disco became a commodity . Disco-Techs became a breeding ground for hip suburbinites. :evil: So in order to accommodate new listeneres disco became less funky and more cross-over. Later, when the burbie hipsters didn't fit into the context, subtext, or pretext of disco life and urban life, they became the torch carriers for the Disco suck exposure at National baseball and football game as well as Presidential gatherings....Thus it became "uncool" :evil: to like disco.
To City Dwellers of all over the world....Keep on Trucking....Get Down...Get Funky...Get loose.....and all other idoms, semantics,syntax, grammar, dialects, vernaculars, and language that identify the Disco Society.
Peace to all
Super D(Detroit)
Chart Hit [Level 6]
You can thank the major labels for that.And let's not forget that the was A LOT of crap released in 1979-1980. For every *good* song, there were hundreds of cheap, bad, tuneless tracks.[/list]
**** THE MAJORS!
No Longer Charting
I think the majors come in for too much criticism. There was a whole lotta crap on indie labels too!!!
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Do not let all of these media corporations brainwash you into what they want for you to think. DISCO and the club life never went anywhere regardless of what they may tell you. Sure the sound has changed but there are still record labels pressing DJ 12" wax and the turntabels are still spinning. When I say record labels I mean indie labels **** a damn major label!I´m a truly disco - lover these days, but I was a little
child when Disco was BIG in 70s.
So I don´t understand why Disco was dead when
the 80s started .... ??
O.K. there are still Disco lovers around the world like me,
but no commercial overground like 30 years back ....
In some countries (Canada e.g.) disco still lived in 80s,
also today house music sells (Europe e.g.), but in USA
for example I think Disco is like dead (like Jazz also...).
**** THE MAJORS!
Are you the kind of person who needs media and corporate approval on how you live your life?
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Too much demand, too strong of an anti-disco movement (tell tale warning sign: the Death Of Disco demonstration in mid-1979), the negatives were outweighing the positives - so to me it did go underground until about 1982 when it was okay to like disco songs again, and the new romantics movement out of England brought dance music around in a different way. But certainly in some countries, disco/dance music remained a strong commercial force, never encountering what occurred in North America.
No Longer Charting
Two counter forces in North America that Europe didn't have - MTV and cRap!
No Longer Charting
Excuse me. We didn't have RAP?!?!?!?!? We loved the old early Rap records and totally embraced them. They were an integral part of any DJs playlist in the UK.Originally Written by DiscoMan
As for MTV......it took a while to make it over here, but we felt the force of it. It was obvious that music per se was taking a slightly dodgy route when bands started making videos and spending such huge wads of cash on them. The video suddenly became more important than the music. We did feel its effects, believe me.
Acetate [Level 1]
That´s not the point
I just wonder how something that was so good
in so many peoples life just dissapears from one moment
to the other.
It doesn´t matter who releases a good disco record,
if it´s a major or Indie... Majors just have better ways
(more money) to marketing their records if they want to.
Why doesn´t happen "death" to cRAP nowadays ?
Is cRAP the better Music ?
That Pseudo - Coolness of these "Gangsters" (hahaha!)
every kid should know is also just a part of
marketing and selling Music of Companys whatever kind of.
The only cool thing about it is making lots of money.
You find this ways of marketing since records came out,
no matter which style of music in history was HOT.
Gold Record [Level 7]
The rap scene although small was well under way here in the early part of the '80s. Surprisingly even Kurtis Blow did quite well in the UK nation chart during 1980. Electro which I loved, was around too, and as you quite rightly pointed out Quinny, disco was still being appreciated here. Barry White was still much loved across Europe, even though he was seen as a joke in the US. You could go to the Electric Ballroom or Legends and certain other places in London, and still hear a good choon. Without rap music also, James Brown wouldn't have had such a resurgence in popularity that he had in the '80s, and many a disco artist wouldn't be getting royaltees for samples.Excuse me. We didn't have RAP?!?!?!?!? We loved the old early Rap records and totally embraced them. They were an integral part of any DJs playlist in the UK.
Every single disco release in the '70s was brilliant? I don't believe it for a second. There is cRap, 50 Cent et al, and there is rap like Naz, Jay Z etc. The good stuff is out there wether or not people like to accept this. Disco has been renamed Deep House among other things, but it is still essentially disco.
Advance Promo Copy [Level 3]
There was a true conspiracy to destroy disco by the late 1970's. All the "druggie" straight people into rock were determined to snuff it out. Disco was seen as "gay" music, which did in fact thrive in gay night clubs in the inner cities of this country. Disco didn't die because people "out grew" it. Drugs and free sex were part of the scene in the 1970's, but it was not interconnected with disco the way some people would insist you believe.....you didn't have to like disco, to be into promiscuous sex or recreational drugs. People who hated disco were into drugs and sex just as much if not more so.
Rap would not become trendie for several years, well into the 90's. And MTV has nothing to do with destroying a particular type of music either.
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Hey Guys....Don't get caught up in nastagic demagoguery. :o Any music genre that is bliss will create a perception of aesthectic alienation and moral strangeness. For example Jazz in the Harlem Renissance Era and Hip-Hop of today.
The post Disco era gave birth to some very creative Kats that incorperated the old with the new and came up with a sublime and philistine music genre called House, Techno, and Trance. These styles of music bang all over the world. Maybe the most admired part is the diversity of House, Techno and Trance....wheather your African, Latin, European, Japenese, and yes American and Canadian
funk-tified it to the 3rd power :) . So let us be blessed that the Disco era is responsible for this great dance music today and can stand right besides other great music genres like Jazz and Hip-Hop. Finally, without moderating influence of historical insight, connected to what some might call the humility of memory, we end up mirroring the outright repudiation of our young'uns across this world. In otherwords the past should be a fountain of wisdom an warning.
For the love of the funky stuff old and new 8)
Super D(Detroit)
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Are you blind?I just wonder how something that was so good
in so many peoples life just dissapears from one moment
to the other.
It did not disappear and it did not go anywhere!
There are still plenty of people dancing and there are still plenty of clubs and there are still plenty of 12" DJ records being released. The sound has changed and there are less vocals.
Just because it does not receive heavy media or major label attention anymore does not mean that it is no longer happening or that it is dead. Believe it or not but there are plenty of scenes occurring right now in music that are totally out of the MTV and Viacom radar. They only promote what they want to promote along with what benefits them financially.
Looks to me like you are one of their millions of brainwashed masses.
I know dozens of current DJ's right now and they all could give a damn about MTV or FM radio.
**** THE MAJORS!
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Quinny wrote;
BRAVO Quinny ! Thats it ! You've got it right to the point.Trouble was that it emerged from black music and was hi-jacked by too many non blacks who ended up with a music without an ounce of soul or funk within its grooves.
That is precisely how I feel about club music since say - 1987
onwards. Today the whole club music is completelly "electronicized". And it come to the point that ;
Club music = electronica. Which is absurd. I have always regarded club music as something intrinstically "black" or "funky" or "soulful". Since emergence of House in mid '80s,
the main momentum regarding dance music or Club music, if you prefer it better, was in the realm of computers. In last 15 years, the process of "ethnically cleansing" in club music is almost completed. We have ended with some bland, sterile,dry music scene, which increasingly lacks creativity ( hence so much sampling from back catalogues ). Yes I agree, there is still some good producers around, producing new fresh tunes.
But in the most part, it thrieves mainly because there is virtually limitless supply of young DJ's/producers- bandwagon jumpers, who all wats their part of cake.
Where is Steve Dahl now ? Ha! where has Groove gone? :evil:
Don,t get me wrong, I still love a lot of deep good House of today, but the state of modern club music is by far not soo wonderful as someone here wants us to believe!
By the way I have forgot my password, hence Guest :(
Albatros
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Soul,R&B and Funk were the building blocks of disco.It was "the" music of disco in it's infancy.Just look at any club list from 1971- 1975.As discussed in a previous thread Gamble & Huff led the way with their cast of black artists.At disco's height of 1978/79 Funk & R&B flavoured tracks would get down with the crowd.I have always regarded club music as something intrinstically "black" or "funky" or "soulful".
Different eyes see different things. Different hearts beat on different strings. But there are times for you and me when all such things agree...Rush
Chart Hit [Level 6]
What a bunch of idiots. You make up all these ridiculous reasons disco died, like "disco was highjacked by non-blacks?" The only kind of fool that would say such a thing would be someone that is not even from here (the U.S.) or someone that was not even born yet, or involved. Many of us were hoping that enough blacks would support disco to keep it going but that never happened. The only support disco had were the gays. The straights that liked it were too few and far between. No other reason!
Chart Hit [Level 6]
You never spent time in a Disco if this is how you feel.The straights that liked it were too few and far between. No other reason!
Indie Release [Level 4]
I believe that the end of disco cene was something simply coincidental.The musical evolution appearred new kinds of music like italodisco, new jack swing , acid jazz, house,trance ambient e.t.c.I dont believe that existed certain secret conspiracy aiming at the disappearance of disco. I think that the black people were the leaders in disco Th;is doesnt mean remainders did not give samples of good work Also in the end of each decade are observed a musical revolution that is often connected with social and sexual revolution, This is not in effect only for disco era.The same happened with phychedelic in the end of 60 s.
Gold Record [Level 7]
I don't know where you are from but the majority of Disco-Theque music was produced and created by Blacks (R&B), they were also strong supporters of the Discotheque concept and could be found dancing all over regular clubs during the 70's with exclusive 'Black' clubs thriving all over the place, this clubs preferred the more 'funky' sound to the pretty "Euro" Disco stuff but to me it was all Disco; As far as the Gay angle, this is a vastly exaggerated assumption popularized and promulgated by online and print revisionists whose writing are based on their own limited personal experience and ignore, distort and belittle (like you just did) any and all mention of the ‘Straight’ majority (Blacks, Latinos, Anglos) that made this period the joy that it was, the fact is that at any given time during the Disco era in the USA straight clubs and their dancing crowds out numbered Gay’s counterpart by a long margin; And outside of NYC with its great Gay population concentration and support you will find very few Gay clubs looking like "The Saint", the great majority of Gay clubs were a far cry from this and didn’t stayed open long for lack of support, believe you me, I was there, and Gay activist/revisionist can’t bull **** me with delusions of Disco grandeur …...........
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