Did Disco really suck?

[exitseven]

I thought the music in the 70s was the best. The Stones, CSN&Y, James Taylor, Elton John and Aerosmith. I always wondered that amid all that great music, why did anyone want to listen to disco? Or maybe it is just me.

[Lliam]

When I got to jr. high and high school, the cutting edge music was stuff like Dylan, electric folk, psychedelic, and then stuff like Steppenwolf, the Doors, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the whole Woodstock thing, etc. And it started moving into harder rock with bands like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, etc.

I was a good guitarist by my first year of high school in 1970, and hard rock became my jam.

I also liked the 60s, hippie values of peace, love, save the planet, down with commercialism, fuck the man. I dressed like a hippie.

I didn't notice Disco until the movie Saturday Night Fever was released in 1977. Before that, I thought disco was about as hip as Wayne Newton, Niel Diamond and Barbara Streisand.

But Saturday Night Fever was a hit and ushered in disco's popularity.
John Travolta's persona, clothes, hair, the way he walked, and that dance thing were the most revolting things I could imagine. It was like low rider culture had taken over. Naturally, the song Stayin' Alive with the falsetto vocals made my skin crawl.

All that was antithetical to my values.

When I met my future wife in 1994, I found out that she had been a disco girl. She loved getting dressed up, wearing big hair, going to clubs and dancing back in the day.

By the late 90s, my priggish attitude softened and I began to appreciate some disco music. I even like I Will Survive and Stayin' Alive now. Although some of that stuff still reminds me of gay bars and drag queen lip sinc acts.

[Lliam]

Thanks for the MHO, bro.

[abc3643]

Because disco didn't evolve overnight. Disco existed before it was called disco since it was an extension of funk and Motown. The music wasn't all that bad, but I thought the fashion was.

Disco was also born out of a bad decade. The 1970s was not a good time for many people. They needed an opiate. So, mindless jiggly TV was born, the blockbuster movie was born, and disco came to the fore because it was about going out and having fun instead of worrying about all the shit going on in the world. Look at it like this: You like "All In The Family" and likely the other Norman Lear sitcoms which were primarily on CBS although "Sanford and Son" was on NBC. "All In The Family" was a hit, but it was also a reminder of reality. So, by the mid-1970s, ABC fought back with mindless entertainment and NBC wasn't even that good. These shows were hits to illustrating the escapism that people wanted. Disco was the musical version of that and really took off after Saturday Night Fever which was a cultural milestone.

[abc3643]

This song was the real reason disco became "a thing". It's "The Hustle" by Van McCoy and The Soul City Symphony. It was an enormous musical hit in the summer of 1975... the year after Nixon resigned... months after the Viet Nam War ended... during the malaise of the Ford Administration and inflation.

Probably more than any single event, "The Hustle" did more to advance disco then anything else - even more than "Saturday Night Fever" in 1977. Without "The Hustle", "Saturday Night Fever" doesn't happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFzMs2SN--s

Other songs around that time helped too like those of KC and the Sunshine Band.
KC and the Sunshine Band really illustrated the transition from funk to disco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yupPvZF6oBw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ee3C2m3OXE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUMk0RbZDZY

Yeah, 1975 was really the on-switch for disco...

If you can, you should do two things:
1. Analyze the AT40 lists from the 1970s and watch how the Motown/funk hits gave way to disco.
2. Watch some episodes of "Soul Train", the "Black American Bandstand" hosted by the ever-so-cool late, great Don Cornelius.
'For instance, here's "Jungle Boogie", a hit from 1973, being performed on "Soul Train".
That's a good example of a funk song yet, with the operative word "boogie" (as in dancing), disco was coming and "Jungle Boogie" could also be considered a disco song.

[DubiousIntentions]

I think there was some good disco songs from back then.
https://youtu.be/xFrGuyw1V8s?si=FhC3_S-R1cq40On9

[abc3643]

@DubiousIntentions I wouldn't consider "Dancing Queen" a disco song, really, although it was from 1976/7ish during the growing disco era. It's more of a pop song and definitely an ABBA song, of course, because it has so many signatures of being an ABBA song. Given that the song is about dancing, that's why it's included in disco.

Here's a song from 1986 and it, too, is about dancing, but no one would think of it as a disco song even if it had been released 10 years earlier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plnVbaoF0nQ

[abc3643]

Oh, I see I forgot to include the "Jungle Boogie" song from Soul Train...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lODBVM802H8

[Anonymous]

I was at a concert around 1980 and one of the people I was with unfolded a large bedsheet with “Disco Sucks” and “Bomb Iran”. These were common sentiments at the time. Disco was a different set if people, dancing types, trying to be glamorous vs rockers who were more down to earth and beer drinkers vs Cocktail drinkers.

It was a threat to our Rock music. It wasn’t going to be allowed to evolve into the next thing as it was repetitious and had plastic fans. So it was a struggle the future of music.

[TrueConfection]

Disco was before I was old enough to appreciate music. The 70s is my least favorite decade of music.

I suppose disco was the 70s version of techno?

[exitseven]

That is one way to look at it. Techno sucks too.

[TrueConfection]

Definitely!

[OlderAndWiser]

Before disco, electronic music was extremely rare. Listening to music with synthesizers and a techno beat made people feel that they were part of the future!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/yEbaeLv-aOo

[matchrestore]

Like any genre, there was bad and good. There was some that was overplayed and over commercialized, and there are lesser known gems. Disco's influence on modern music is also undeniable.

[FunkyMonkee]

Yes, it DID suck and it still does!!
Most of those people you mentioned were from the early `70's. a good bit of that era was pretty good but, by `74, music went to shit for about 4 years until new wave came along and it got good again,. for the most part, unless they, also, decided to go disco! (Pink Floyd, Devo, Kiss, Utopia, The 4 Seasons, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, etc.).

[AviatorTom]

Disco was okay, glad that it only lasted a few years though. Music from the 60s and early 70s was much better.

[lightbulb27]

Disco was fun as a kid. flyshy overhead bulbs, swanky music, The Bee Gees, "disco Duck"... what's not to like?

I didn't care for some of the lyrics.

[exitseven]

I remember Disco Duck. that was okay. The Bee Gees were good in the early 70s but during their disco period they sucked. I do not blame them because they made a ton of money.

[NathanDavis]

no it doesn't...

but there's always a time and point in which later music of any genre that gets popular does start to suck and become annoying... lol

but the great ones are still great... always

[Nikki1989]

From what I heard, it certainly did. However, it was still better than the pop, rap/hip-hop garbage that is around today. At least it was played by real musicians and had some merit.

[Sparkie460]

Some of it was good. I like the freestyle music. Stevie B had some good music

[FutanariEnjoyer]

It's pretty hard to beat moaning ASMR.

[exitseven]

Who did that?

[Jamie05rhs]

Lmfao

[Massageman]

If it did, it was a lot less than the current crud they call "music".

[douride2]

From what I have heard disco sucked.

[exitseven]

I have a cousin who is ten years older than me and he used to say that all the time.

[Jamie05rhs]

It was certainly better than James Taylor.

[exitseven]

I like James Taylor.

[Jamie05rhs]

I know. 😆

[Jamie05rhs]

Thanks for the like. Lol

[OfDeath]

I don't know. This was before my time. Can you give an example of disco?

[BLP11520]

Actually it did not, people were to into rock and roll

[Jmmmfi4]

LUCKILY IT WAS BEFORE MY TIME

[exitseven]

it was not a pretty sight.

[DubiousIntentions]

They had some good music.

[exitseven]

@DubiousIntentions The BeeGees were good before they found disco.

[DubiousIntentions]

They only went with it because someone told them "Dis Goes here!" They thought, Disco is here? and went with it.

[exitseven]

@DubiousIntentions they were sort of a rock rock act but really embraced disco in a big way. I imagine they made a ton of money from Saturdey Night Fever

[DubiousIntentions]

And then Andy died.

[Inconsequential]

Many sucked but there were some pretty cool tunes too

[888theGreat]

No, I actually liked that music

[IknowthatIdontKnow09]

Was good music better than many music of today

[msc545]

It definitely sucks and it is not missed.

[TheGuyYouCrave]

DO YOU suck?