The following is reprinted from the May - June 2007 issue of mental_floss magazine. PARDON OUR FRENCH What do D-Day and disco have in common, besides the letter D? Nazis, of course! During World War II, when the Third Reich occupied Paris, jazz clubs were closed and live music of a liberal nature was strictly verboten! But Parisians couldn't live without their jazz, so they took it underground, opening illicit cellars where they could drink booze freely and listen to pre-recorded music. One such club, on Rue de la Huchette, called itself La Discothèque - coined from the French words for "record" (disque) and "library" (bibliothèque). ALWAYS STARTIN' SOMETHIN' Many elements of what we now call disco music appeared in songs like The Jackson 5's 1969 smash "I Want You Back" and Isaac Hayes' 1971 hit "Theme from Shaft." (Actual movie tagline: "The mob wanted Harlem back. They got Shaft ... up to here.") Chubby Checker even released a song back in 1964 titled "At the Discotheque."
But most historians agree the first real disco record was 1972's "Soul Makossa" by the Cameroon-born sax player Manu Dibango. In the song, Dibango can be heard chanting Mama-se, mama-sa, mama-koo-sa. Sound familiar? It should. Michael Jackson used it 10 years later in his song "Wanna be Startin' Somethin'" BEE KEEPING Oddly enough, members of the disco super-group The Bee Gees never dug their moniker. In fact, after Robert Stigwood signed on as the band's producer in 1967, the group lobbied to change its name. But what could possibly be better than The Bee Gees? The band suggested Rupert's World. Luckily, their manager nixed the notion. Years later, singer Barry Gibb remarked, "It was like changing your name from Charlie S--t to Fred S--t." "D" IS FOR DISCO The success of "Saturday Night Fever" changed the face of disco forever. Suddenly, everyone was sporting white polyester suits - and not just Travolta wannabes. Rod Stewart, Cher, Bette Midler, The Rolling Stones, Dolly Parton, Andy Williams, David Bowie, Neil Diamond, and, yes, even Cookie Monster all donned disco-wear. (Disco Kermit via Jonathan Mc [Flickr]) HEY MISSUS DJ, PUT A RECORD ON Sometimes, bold experiments result in mundane things like polio vaccines (yawn.) But other times, they result in wild, earth-shattering breakthroughs! Case in point: 1953's birth of the DJ. That's when 24-year-old Regine Zylberberg, manager of Paris' famous Whisky a Go-Go, undertook an experiment to replace the club's jukebox with two turntables and a microphone. In no time, DJs were pumping up the jam at parties the world over, as was Zybelberg. By the 1970s, she was running 25 clubs across Europe and the Americas. In fact, you could boogie down at Regine's establishments somewhere in the world 17 out of every 24 hours - assuming you could get in. FIELD OF FLAMES Because 1970s discos were often frequented by African-Americans, homosexuals, and working-class white women, the scene was perceived as a threat to the rock 'n' roll community, which had long been a Viking ship of straight white males. Their establishment's witty, orginal slogan - "Disco Sucks" - became popular in the later part of the decade and was available for purchase wherever fine rock T-shirt were sold. (Photo: Rich.lionheart via Wikipedia) Album-oriented rock (A.O.R.) stations also fueled the anti-disco fire. On July 12, 1979, Steve Dahl, longtime DJ at Chicago's WDAI, staged Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey PArk, where the White Sox were playing a doubleheader. Fans bearing disco albums were admitted into the stadium for a mere 98 cents. Then, between games, they stormed the field to set their records ablaze. Some even detonated them with bombs. As the fires roared, the masses chanted "Disco sucks!", whipping the stadium into a chaotic frenzy so threatening, the second game of the doubleheader had to be cancelled. Fittingly, more records were broken on July 12, 1979, than on any other day in baseball history. "SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER": DISCO INFERNO OR DISCO INFURIATING?
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The article above is reprinted from Scatterbrained section of the May - June 2007 issue of mental_floss magazine. Be sure to visit mental_floss' website and blog for more fun stuff! |
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Keep in mind that a stereotype doesn't necessarily include every single person. It's all highly generalized.
Many people, including rock fans, objected to the nature of disco music knew little or cared about the scene. What they knew about disco came from the radio.
Top 40 disco seemed soul-less and mind-numbing. The media added fuel to this fire -- you should try and find the 60 Minutes segment on disco. IT is incredibly biased and based on a sample of one but it helped the "disco sucks" movement by "exposing" disco as a corporate creation. And yes, I know that is ironic.
The disco sucks movement was suburban and I believe did have some elements of racism. But African-Americans were so removed from white suburbia that this racism was secondary to the visceral reaction to the music itself and the fact that it was crowding the airwaves.
From my read of history, the most racist element of rock at the time was the urban punk/new wave movement. Lester Bangs picked up on this bad vibe and its certainly there in the oral history "Please Kill Me"...
First I heard that bit about "working class white women"...lol... But that's probably why alot of white males started frequenting discos and mainstream rock increasingly became the domain of nerds (at least in the middle class).
The whole "white male" comment is absurd when you consider the history of music in its proper context.
Anyway...
RIP Disco. Buh-bye!
Disco rules.
White rockers loved David Bowie and Queen. They also loved Chuck Berry, the blues, and R & B.
Your claims of bigotry and gay oppression really are groundless.
Long live rock!
Arena rock hick bands like Aerosmith and Guns'n'Roses are trash, and hardly rock and roll.
Rock and roll did come from black music/blues. However, it was stolen from a lot of black artists that never saw a penny of royalties for various reasons, not all of them entirely legit.
I was young during the disco era, but recall those stereotypical white boy rockers calling it "gay" or "jungle music", which is kind of nasty.
Again, that stereotype is in no way all encompassing, but it's not a stereotype for no reason at all either. I think that's the point that the post was trying to get across here. The whole "disco sucks" thing was not always about the music, but about the people associated with it.
"This way I'm sure everybody will dance."
Well that's a pathetically inflammatory statement.
News to me I was a homophobic racist.
Disco on middle of the road radio bore little if any resemblance to the stuff actually played in discos at the time.
Most things when they are "the underground" or "alternative" are worlds apart from what makes it big in Casey Kasem's universe.
As Blondie was to punk/new wave, the Bee Gees were to Disco.
And yes R&R was a straight white male bastion.
No doubt ass deep in closeted souls desperate to do the bump, the slosh and the hustle.
with regard to your comments about `white males' and rock'n'roll.
this is a total myth, that somehow, `white males' uniquely did not like disco, which was in turn the music enjoyed by gays and blacks.
A couple of things: blacks tend to be more `homophobic' (a much overused term for prejudice against homosexuals) than whites: the idea that discotheques were places where `blacks, gays, and blue collar white woman' mixed in splendid peace, before `disco sucks' white males came along and spoiled the party, has about as much foundation in facts as `the Tribal Rituals of the New Saturday Night...'
Disco became popular BECAUSE white males started to like it; rock'n'rollers fought back just because they hated the music, regardless of whom was listening to it (and bands such as the Stones, Bowie - even the Grateful Dead if you can believe it - started incorporating disco into their music).
I only started hearing about this `white males' destroyed disco' garbage years and years after disco finally died out...
Sorry about my english :-)