Oh no.......Disco

Rick Garrett · From: Tyler, Texas

I was in hopes that we'd all seen the last of Disco. For the last couple of days I've heard a radio station advertising Disco Dancing Lessons. Say it ain't so! Maybe this is just a freak occurence. Anybody else hearing about disco in your area?

Rick

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Compared with rap and hip-hop, I would welcome disco.

Webb Kline · From: Orangeville, PA

One great thing happened because of disco. When Saturday Night Fever came out and the disco craze took over, our band was forced to play the garbage or quit. We quit and I started playing country, bought my first steel, dobro, mandolin and banjo and haven't looked back.

The only sour spot was when they started line dancing, which, in my opin, was tantamount to disc and it seriously denegrated the quality of a lot of country music to which it has not fully recovered.

History has proven that the masses will inadverantly take something good and reduce it to the least common denominator. Disco was nothing but the dumbing down of great music like Earth, Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, etc.

80's hairband rock was the dumbing down of the music from bands like Steely Dan, Yes, Kansas, Boston, ELP of the 70's era.

Let's face it, the industry can't find enough great, innovative talent to keep the fires of their collective greed burning.

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

John McGann · From: Boston, Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.

arf!!!

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http://www.johnmcgann.com
Info for musicians, transcribers, technique tips and fun stuff. Joaquin Murphey transcription book, Rhythm Tuneup DVD and more...

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Ah yes, that old Cirone drum beat,
pounding my head to mush circa 1982.

DISCO : a lack of talent overlaying a basic production premise.
Not to say some weren't reading the market very well, especially lyric wise.

Still ;
We Are Family, I Will Survive, Night Fever, You're The One That I Want (Grease)
are STILL on regualr rotation on Nostaglie Radio here.

Odd as it may seem, John Travolta, of all people,
has had the longest most sustained career bounce off of disco of anyone...

Who'd a thunk it!

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 28 April 2005 at 08:46 AM.]

Webb Kline · From: Orangeville, PA

Here's a scary thought: What will happen when they dumb down today's music?

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Les Anderson · From: The Great White North

Is Disco any worse than rap? Neither one of them have any melody to follow or play.

I am learning to play the Beatles, "Hey Jude" on the steel and so far, it sounds not that bad at all. (it also helps to be going deaf )

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(I am not right all of the time but I sure like to think I am!)

Glenn Austin · From: Montreal, Canada

Like it or hate it, the disco era of the 70's was one of the last styles of music that employed lots of real musicians together on a stage to be played convincingly. Everything began to downsize after that, Popular music started becoming about technology and electronic gadgetry.

Interestingly, about the disco lessons. I brought my girlfriend to a disco club here in Montreal about a month ago. The place was jam packed with hot babes in low cut tops and tight jeans. Most of them were sweating, with lots of supple skin to be seen. I could think of worse ways to spend an evening. What us guys have to do to please our girlfriends.

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Disco has no melody? A lot of it does/did. I was playing fulltime in the '70's, played in all kinds of bands from light jazz to soul, pop, and country. We had no trouble playing the disco hits of the times with bass, drums, a B-3, guitar and a horn or two and there were plenty of working bands playing 4-6 nights a week with no time off unless you wanted it.

How 'bout now? How many places can you name that have live music 5 and 6 nights a week?

Where can you even start to try and play a hip-hop tune? Let's see, there's a drum beat, we can set the drumbox for that, and then a few more loops of odd noises, maybe a bass loop playing one lick over and over. What can a musician do with that? Sure there are a few hip-hop bands with real musicians, what I've heard most of them are the drum-loop, a couple samples from somewhere and a guy rapping.

I was there with the "Disco Sucks" bumper sticker too, but as Glenn said, at least it employed real musicians, and some of the music wasn't really all that bad or at least wasn't any worse than a lot of the junk out now.

And disco didn't kill live music. Stiff drunk-driving laws did, leading to Karaoke bars and DJ clubs. The club-owners have seen that people come flocking into the place for Karaoke and DJ's, so why go back to paying for a band.

I hate to sound like I'm defending disco.... but I think compared to a lot of the new stuff, it's the pot calling the kettle. Brittney Spears' songs sure don't have any melody... many others the same, a 3 or 4-note "melody". Disco wasn't any worse.... come to think of it, it wasn't that much different.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 28 April 2005 at 03:10 PM.]

Leslie Ehrlich · From: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Disco never died. The so-called 'dance' music of the 1990s was another incarnation of disco. The pulsating 'thump thump thump' of the bass drum was perfect for all the sexy young chicks to gyrate to.

Archie Nicol R.I.P. · From: Ayrshire, Scotland

Every year I listen to popular music and think; It can't get any worse, but without fail, it does.
Don't get me wrong! there are plenty of decent artists coming through, but, the boy band, girl band, nice to look at corporate creations that inhabit the airwaves show up the modern pop music industry for what it is; An exploitative sham.
The obsession with celebrity has overtaken the music. I am depressed.
Keep it real, Arch.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

I'm with Leslie on this. In this college town, most of the 'dance-mix' stuff, which permeates the larger, more popular clubs, is basically disco. It did dim some, but it's been back in spades for at least 10 years. That said, I never cared for it. To me, the beat is robotic and without soul, ironic since it was pretty much an outgrowth of 60s and 70s soul and R&B. I lived in Detroit in the 70s when a local DJ had a well-publicized disco-record-smashing party at Tiger Stadium.

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Yep, they just souped it up a bit and changed the name to Dance, or Techno. I think the old stuff from the '70's actually had more music in it, and we hated it back then. At least, a lot of it had full orchestras playing, now it's just a guy with a synth.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 28 April 2005 at 04:27 PM.]

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Thank you Dave, very well-put.

Webb Kline · From: Orangeville, PA

Yes Dave, you're right about that, I suppose. Of course, when you look at the track record of so many successful artists, one can almost (yes, I said almost) sympathize with the record industry for doing what they do these days. After all, it is a lot easier and more profitable to clone dumbed-down music than it is to babysit a bunch of drug-addicted, alcoholic, psychotic, egocentric artists who lack the self-discipline to remain responsible, creative and sellable once they've hit the big-time.

If Pearl Jam and Hootie and the Blowfish could have somehow patented their styles, they would have been way bigger than the Beatles. Just think of all the one or two bands those groups spawned. And the record label were wise enough by then to drop them before they had to eat a bunch of record flops. Nosir, as much as I hate the music scene the way it is, you can't blame it all on the record companies.