Disco emerged in the late 1960s and grew rapidly popular through the 1970s, with over 15,000 discos opening across the US. Disco nights brought together diverse groups on the dance floor to dance freely to percussive music. However, disco faced a backlash from social conservatives and was further damaged by its association with marginalized groups like the gay community as the AIDS crisis unfolded. While commercially successful, disco's inclusive culture challenged social norms and it was eventually replaced by new musical styles.
4. Defining
disco
Tim
Lawrence:
disco
an
‘overburdened’
term
1. Spaces
organised
around
the
playback
of
recorded
music
by
a
DJ
–
the
discotheque
2. The
social
prac?ce
of
individual
freeform
dancing
that
was
established
within
this
context
3. The
music
genre
that
crystallised
within
this
social
seNng
1969-‐1979
9. Developing
a
model
of
diversity
and
inclusivity,
par?cipants
established
the
prac?ce
of
dancing
throughout
the
night
to
the
disorien?ng
strains
of
heavily
percussive
music
in
the
amorphous
spaces
of
the
darkened
dance
floor.
While
the
non-‐linguis?c
prac?ces
of
these
partygoers
differed
from
the
direct
ac?on
of
their
counterpart
street
ac?vists,
they
were
similarly
commiaed
to
the
libera?on
of
the
dispossessed,
and
a
number
of
faces
could
be
spoaed
shuffling
between
the
club
and
the
street
-‐
Lawrence
,
2006:
129
13. Loc
classics:
1970-‐73
• Manu
Dibango
‘Soul
Makossa’
• Barrabas
‘Woman’
• Beginning
Of
The
End
‘Funky
Nassau’
• The
Equals
‘Black
Skin
Blue
Eyed
Boys’
• Eddie
Kendricks
‘Girl
You
Need
A
Change
Of
Mind’
• War
‘City,
Country,
City’
15. Philly
Sound
• MFSB
• Harold
Melvin
and
the
Blue
Notes
• Teddy
Pendergrass
• The
O’Jays
• The
Jacksons
(co-‐prod
w/
CBS)
• Jones
Girls
• Dexter
Wansel
18. The
dancefloor
as
a
cultural
space
where
the
usual
hierarchies
of
society
are
inverted
-‐
Paul
Gilroy,
1991
19. The
disco
phenomena
of
the
late
1970s
thrust
dance
music
forcibly
into
discussions
of
popular
music,
but
dancing
was
most
ocen
portrayed
nega?vely
as
a
feminised
(or
demasculinised)
ac?vity
associated
with
women
and
heterosexual
courtship
rituals,
or
homosexual
display
-‐
Wall,
2013:
264
30. Highs
and
lows
• 1977
• Saturday
Night
Fever
• Studio
54
31.
32. Notable
aaendees:
• Grace
Jones
• Mick
Jagger
• Michael
Jackson
• Grace
Jones
• John
Travolta
• Calvin
Klein
• Andy
Warhol
• Truman
Capote
• Diana
Ross
35. Backlash
Such
a
violent
reac?on
must
seem
impossibly
dispropor?onate
to
its
object,
if
that
object
is
taken
to
be
nothing
more
than
a
style
of
popular
music.
But
there
was
more
at
work
and
at
stake
than
such
a
surface-‐bound
reading
can
admit.
The
cultural
crusaders
of
Comiskey
were
defending
not
just
themselves
but
society
from
the
encroachment
of
the
racial
other,
of
‘foreign’
values,
and
of
‘disco
fags’
-‐
Hubbs,
2007:
231
38. HIV
Of
course
it
was
AIDS,
rather
than
the
histrionic
gestures
of
Steve
Dahl,
that
killed,
or
at
least
came
close
to
killing,
disco.
So
rampant
was
AIDS
within
the
city’s
gay
clubbing
popula?on
that
the
virus
was
ini?ally
dubbed
‘Saint’s
disease’,
acer
the
Saint,
the
biggest,
most
renowned
white
gay
venue
of
the
1980s,
where
dancers
were
dropping
in
dispropor?onate
numbers.
-‐
Lawrence,
2006:
137
39. Summary
• Pivotal
in
expressions
of
non-‐heteronorma?ve
sexuali?es
• Largely
inclusive
cultural
iden?ty
• Without
disco,
no
house
music
40. Images
• Brian
Talbot
(2005)
Disco
Balls
• Sebas?an
Niedlich
(2001)
Disco
• Jovino
(2010)
disco
neon
• PTGreg
(2007)
Disco
• Juska
Wendland
(2013)
Disco
sucks.