Jump to content

Disco Sucks!


Recommended Posts

  • Members

Hell all.

 

I’m the artistic director of a presentation in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in a few weeks called Funk: The Evolution Of A Revolution.

http://www.nyuad-artscenter.org/en_US/events/2016/funk-evolution-of-a-revolution-2/

 

I’ve been doing exhaustive research on the birth of the genre (James Brown) and the subsequent iterations.

In the course of this research I’m reminded of the “Disco Sucks” period that had the fervor of a violent Trump supporter.

 

I’d like to hear my HC brothers and sisters’.

 

  1. Do you think disco sucked?
  2. What sucked about it?
  3. Name 10 disco acts/artists

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

lol.

 

1) yes and no

2) It will cost you drinks and damage your hearing for the trouble.

3) not a one.

 

One disco in particular sucks. The the dance area crowds the pool table so they store the table sometimes twice weekly but weekly nonetheless. Besides the DJ draws nobody, pool tables are like pianos. They don't like to be moved. So right there ; the quintessential disco issue. Not much music, much hearing damage, and encroachment on personal liberties. And in this case all for one friend of the bar to make some cash.

 

Yeah it sucks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Not if you're on sell. I don't mind EDM at listening at home levels. Still I can't see diggin on music that if you keep skipping around it's mostly the same 4 bars. And to reiterate my un - useful opinion, it's injuriously loud live and in addition, if the experience is profitable to the entrepreneur, the experience to the participants will be at best, dangerous. Not bad for entertainment I'd say. lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Hell all.

 

I’m the artistic director of a presentation in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in a few weeks called Funk: The Evolution Of A Revolution.

http://www.nyuad-artscenter.org/en_US/events/2016/funk-evolution-of-a-revolution-2/

 

I’ve been doing exhaustive research on the birth of the genre (James Brown) and the subsequent iterations.

In the course of this research I’m reminded of the “Disco Sucks” period that had the fervor of a violent Trump supporter.

 

I’d like to hear my HC brothers and sisters’.

 

  1. Do you think disco sucked?
  2. What sucked about it?
  3. Name 10 disco acts/artists

 

 

I have no idea what you two were talking about...

 

1) No, disco didn't suck. It wasn't my favorite. It had some good elements and some bad. The good was some very fun get up and move your body sounds!

 

2) The bad mostly was the image.

 

3) Bee Gees, KC and The Sunshine Bad, Donna Summer, ...funny I thought I knew more bands but without doing a Google search they are not coming to mind.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Thanks for your thoughtful response. Just to clarify, the title 'Disco Sucks' isn't my opinion, but rather the restatement of a long-standing sentiment of some people.

 

1) No, disco didn't suck. It wasn't my favorite. It had some good elements and some bad. The good was some very fun get up and move your body sounds!

 

--Agreed

 

2) The bad mostly was the image.

 

--This could likely be said for any artist that was around at the time

 

3) Bee Gees, KC and The Sunshine Bad, Donna Summer, ...funny I thought I knew more bands but without doing a Google search they are not coming to mind.

 

--None of the three were actually created as a “disco” act. They all existed before “the craze” swept America. Listen to early Donna Summer (http://www.allmusic.com/album/lady-of-the-night-mw0000740625).

I point this out to attempt to clarify how the genre became so despised by many.

 

Here’s the short version (w/o the benefit of detail).

Because of the success of danceable Black music, many small to mid-sized live concert venues were being converted to discothèques. Similarly, because of the huge ad revenue associated with the growing trend, lots of struggling (and some already profitable) radio stations began to convert to dance music programming.

The disappearing venues created an economic threat to the livelihoods of touring artists. Which in many cases resulted in less shows for the fans, which then resulted in the fans blaming disco instead of the venue owners for making a decisions that were beneficial to themselves.

The changing of radio formats enraged rock fans to no end. Imagine your clock-radio alarm blasting ‘Staying Alive’ instead of some thing by The Dead! Again, the fans blamed the music and not the station owners. There were public disco record burnings but few (if any) blamed the station owners. (

)

 

We’re the fans mad at disco or capitalism?

Is there something familiar about this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Your title is intriguing at best - It takes me back to a time when this phrase "Disco Sucks" was being thrown around almost daily. The "KISS" fans of the world thought that Disco was dragging music into the toilet. Looking back now, who would have thought that "Staying Alive" (BeeGees) would have come back to live in a cartoon movie with minions.

 

I didn't think Disco sucked. I think is was part of the natural progression to 80's music.

 

 

Ring My Bell - Anita Ward

Disco Duck - Rick Deez

McAurther Park - Donna Summer

ABBA - SOS

Turn the Beat Around - Vicki Sue Robinson

Give Talkin - BeeGees

I'm Your Boogie Man - KC and The Sunshine Band

Boogie Oogie Oogie - A Taste of Honey

Macho Man - Village People

Rapture - Blondie (also accredited with being the first Rap song every)

You Dropped a Bomb on Me - The Gap Band

Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? Rod Stewart

Copacabana - Barry Manilow

 

I know, more than 10 but I was on a roll!

 

D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Ah, Hardgroove...I see you are not sufficiently versed in 1001gear's absurdist sense of humor, which is one of the fun parts about Sound, Studio, and Stage. You need to read his posts as if he's smiling, not talking through clenched teeth. And although I know you were looking for a serious answer about the music, he has a valid point that much of it was about the experience, as is currently the case with EDM. Frankly, I never thought about the pool table angle :)

 

But to answer your original question...I think if you take any form of music roughly 85% of it isn't worth a second listen, 10% is "well, okay..." and 5% is cool. So the problem is this. Suppose you have someone who's never heard of rock music (maybe they're from Mars). So they listen to a rock radio station and come to the conclusion that rock music sucks. Or they go pick out 10 CDs at random from the shelves of Wal-Mart. Given the percentages I quoted above, the odds are 2:1 against one of those CDs being cool.

 

I know people who think they should check out EDM so they go to a club. The odds of finding a really top-notch producer-style DJ are remote. If they DO hit that great DJ, they'll come out of the club thinking "Wow, this EDM thing is great!!" Otherwise they won't. The first time I saw someone playing turntables it was just the stereotyped wiki-wiki meaningless scratching. Wrote off the genre completely. Then I saw someone who was a master of the wheels of steel. My jaw dropped, it was like seeing Eddie Van Halen for the first time...and then I grasped what it was all about.

 

As to disco, disco never went away, it just mutated (as does all dance music). If I never hear "Boogie Oogie Oogie" ever again it will be too soon for me. But I'd turn up the volume if the Trammps "Body Contact" started playing on the radio.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hell all.

 

I’m the artistic director of a presentation in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in a few weeks called Funk: The Evolution Of A Revolution.

http://www.nyuad-artscenter.org/en_US/events/2016/funk-evolution-of-a-revolution-2/

 

I’ve been doing exhaustive research on the birth of the genre (James Brown) and the subsequent iterations.

In the course of this research I’m reminded of the “Disco Sucks” period that had the fervor of a violent Trump supporter.

 

I’d like to hear my HC brothers and sisters’.

 

  1. Do you think disco sucked?
  2. What sucked about it?
  3. Name 10 disco acts/artists

 

 

I was never a fan of Disco. I have to admit to being the worst dancer in the history of all humankind... but Funk is a whole different matter! Is there a distinction? To some, maybe not... but there is to me. I can't stand Donna Summer's Let's Dance, but put on War's Slipping Into Darkness or Sly & The Family Stone's If You Want Me To Stay and you'll have my undivided attention.

 

I think it's the same beef that modern dance and EDM gets accused of - non-stop four on the floor repetition. It's an oversimplification of course, but there's some truth to it.

 

KC and the Sunshine Band, Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, Van McCoy, The Bee Gees, Kool & the Gang, Andy Gibb, The Hues Corporation... of course, it wasn't just Disco artists - everyone and their uncle was releasing Disco influenced songs during that era.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I think perhaps this discussion/thread begs the question;

What is disco?

That is to say,what defines any particular piece of music as such?

 

On a personal level, when Disco was really taking off, I was coming out of a Southern Rock stage and entering a Fusion stage. So while I didn't really hold any personal avarice towards Disco music, I was so far removed from it taste wise and socially as to have really been completely ignorant of it's real movers and shakers.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...