naturalplastic wrote:
I was in college during the disco era. Folks my age were all polarized into the two tribes:disco fans and rock fans. Both groups hated the other. I was in the rock tribe. But..secretely kinda liked some examples of disco..even then. A girl even taught me to do the hustle and a party ...it was fun.
I was in college from 1975-1979 the height of it. From what I remember the hate was mostly a one way street rock fans towards disco music and fans. Everyone that I knew that liked disco liked rock.
Except for one or two songs I hated disco at the time. The music and the whole scene was more mature then I was. Now that I am older and the music is not ubiquitous I like a lot of disco songs.
It was tribal. Rock fans wanted nothing to do with anything related to disco. Seeing Saturday Night Fever was considered being a traitor. I felt that way also. I did not see it until the 90s. While parts of it are misogynistic it is far from the lightweight piece of trash I thought it was. And as mentioned earlier the rock tribe was white males. It was pre political correctness people were quite open about calling it n****r music or fa***t music.
To say not liking disco was all about bigotry is just as wrong as denying bigotry had anything to do with the anti disco backlash.
There was the decline in quality, the silliness from record companies knowing they could put out anything “disco” and it would sell.
The idea of non live music produced by machines was new. People thought music made by synths was “plastic” and that did not mean natural
.
Besides prejudice, there was another parallel to today. Disco was thought of as elitist. It was symbolized by the doorman at Studio 54 keeping out the rabble only letting in celebrities and those dressed in certain ways. Acts named Evelyn “Champaign” King and “Chic” added to that impression.
Funny you should mention a girl. Discos had the reputation of being where the hottest women went. Guys were jealous that the “effeminate” looking guys were getting the action they were not. I knew a few guys that said they did not like disco music but went to discos because that was where the hot women went, or so they claimed.
Sweetleaf was not yet born during the disco era and thus came to like disco music on its merits without any of the f****d up baby boomer cultural baggage. That is how it should be.
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DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
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Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 24 May 2023, 3:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.