It took me 20 years to get into Disco. This lackadaisical process wasn’t the result of a passive listening lifestyle or growing up in a non-musical family (I consider myself a pretty serious consumer of music / my mother is a cellist, my father is a Post-Punk aficionado, my brother started his own record label). Rather, I suspect something far more sinister.
Looking back I realize that I had always been taught that Disco was a “funny” or “weird” art form. Everybody (my siblings, parents, friends, et cetera) presented it to me as cultural comedy. I’m sure we’ve all experienced this – just think back to your early encounters with the art: I guarantee that Disco was only ever “taught” to you through its (admittedly eccentric) customs, media presence, drug culture, pant styles, and hairdos. Can any of you honestly remember a time when you deeply contemplated the Disco music itself between the ages of 5 and 15?
I wasn’t upset upon first identifying this musical void; I just thought that I’d come to the party late like anybody getting into any older genre or band. That all changed when I took a music course last term that included a two-week section on Disco music. It was a listening-based class and thus I spent a lot of time deeply contemplating the form, production traits, songwriting styles, and cultural influence of Disco songs. Upon emerging from this segment, I was astonished by the (seemingly-infinite) well of music that had been written off by society throughout my whole life. These tracks were revolutionary in their envelope-pushing studio techniques (just listen to those hi-hats!), inspiring in their harmonic artistry (many Disco bass lines border on profound), and just so positive in nature that I couldn’t believe they’d been obscured from me and my peers for so long.
I brought this concern up to my professor (as well as a few friends, a few online forums, and my not-so-sympathetic father (Glenn Mercer is a real Disco denier)), and he backed up the following theory: that Disco has been discounted because of its predominantly gay and black history. The taste-making straight, white population of this country has spent the last 30 years focusing on their inability to dance, their “serious” haircuts, and their khaki pants in order to ignore the bounty of musical excellence that the Disco movement brought to this planet.
Don’t believe me? Here are five theses that unveil the racial and sexual tensions that I believe lie at the heart of Disco criticism. Every time you encounter any sort of anti-Disco sentiment, try to see if the author has somehow escaped these pitfalls (my bet is that they haven’t):
- People who say that Disco is repetitive are ignoring the creative melodic contours and revolutionary harmonic choices that the form was founded upon.
- People who say it has corny lyrics are ignoring their own favorite corny (but still wonderful) lyrics (ex. “Highway to Hell,” “Money for Nothing”… most songs).
- People who say it ruined the club scene and music industry (the idea is that Disco patrons were too high to drink booze (the lifeblood of clubs) and that Disco culture wasn’t dependent on live music (the most lucrative way to raise money off of signing bands)) need to understand that those changes would’ve happened anyways (the 1970s rise of the hard drug market was inevitable, as was the decline of ticket sales in the face of hi-fi sound systems and releases).
- People who say that it wasn’t influential are ignoring all of hip-hop / any great bass line this side of the year 2000 (slight exaggerations).
- People who think that Disco was culturally exclusive (indeed it sometimes was) should realize that this was all more than 30 years ago: it’s time to grow up.
I honestly believe that removing these five factors leaves you with nothing but the age-old problem of cultural insecurity: Disco was seen as threatening to the status quo of straight, white Americans and thus it was (consciously or unconsciously) marginalized. Yes, Disco could be culturally exclusive through its all-encompassing culture; yes, bar tabs and ticket sales dropped; yes, it’s hard to dance well. Still, those aren’t reasons to continue this now decades-long tradition of reducing a vibrant, influential, and life-affirming artistic medium to the ephemera (hairstyles, pants, et cetera) of its culture. Do you want to join me in fighting the good fight and ushering in a new era of Disco appreciation? Here, in no particular order, is a 10-track starting point:
- Love And Kisses – “I’ve Found Love (Now That I’ve Found You)” – Honestly, the harp intro and the fake ending still surprise me every time.
- Gino Soccio – “Dancer” – You can thank this track for everything from your favorite LCD Soundsystem jam to the soundtrack for Drive.
- Diana Ross – “MacArthur Park Suite” – 18 minutes of bliss. I don’t know how Ms. Ross keeps the momentum up for this long! The recurring syncopated brass theme is one of the greatest musical motifs in Disco.
- Cheryl Lynn – “Got to Be Real” – Play this at your next party. The positive vibes and excellent bass line are contagious. Also, it’s shorter than most Disco tracks and starts off at full speed so you don’t need to worry about killing the vibe.
- Pino D’Angió – “Ma quale idea” – Disco was a truly international movement. This track is Italy’s greatest contribution (even though the bass line was lifted from a McFadden & Whitehead track).
- D-Train – “Keep On” – Proof that 80s synthesizers and 70s song forms went together perfectly.
- Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes – “Bad Luck” – The opening riff is good enough just by itself, the syncopated hi-hat is a marvel, and the outro is inspiring. This is the first Disco track that I ever loved.
- Sister Sledge – “He’s The Greatest Dancer” – This list wouldn’t be complete without a contribution from the most influential rhythm guitarist of the 70s: Nile Rodgers. He pioneered this distinctive sort of guitar playing (you might recognize him from his contributions to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories).
- Ashford & Simpson – “Bourgie Bourgie” – Disco is repetitive? The Fender Rhodes keyboard on this track says otherwise… also I have no idea what the title means.
- Diana Ross – “I’m Coming Out” – I’d come to Ebony II this year if this track made an appearance. It’s definitely one of the happiest pieces of music that I’ve ever heard.