Explained: The History of Disco| Podcast
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- Опубліковано 14 кві 2024
- Music for sex, dancing, and watching the straight world go by…
The explosion of Disco provides an extraordinary window into the tumultuous world of the 1970s, with its themes of sex, drugs, race and sexuality. By the start of the 1970s, America was a nation of dystopian gloom. The radical dream of the 1960’s had dissipated, with economic decline, Vietnam and Watergate polarising and disenchanting the public. Then, at a party in New York held by the DJ David Mancuso, something new was born: Disco. An intoxicating kaleidoscope of dancing and colour with an orgasmic new sound, it united disparate groups under the banner of music. An escape from the concerns of the day, it captivated the mainstream imagination with its idealism, open drug use, self-consciously flamboyant clothes, and acceptance of race and homosexuality at a time when the Civil Rights Movement was raging and gay rights still contentious. But, with its rising orthodoxy, Disco was also attracting a dedicated base of critics and detractors. They decried its hedonism, its debasement of traditional masculinity, and, with the Aids crisis swirling, its immorality.
Join Dominic and Tom as they discuss the rise and fall of Disco, culminating in the shocking night of Disco Demolition at a White Sox game on the 12th of July 1979. Could it survive this ultimate reckoning?
The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024
Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!
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Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor
In the 90s, as a History major at South Carolina, I did a paper on Saturday Night Fever for a class.
I now feel completely validated.
The only podcast were you can listen about Oswald Mosley and disco on the same binge. wild
From Luther to Disco, now that's history!
It’s testament to these men’s knowledge that they bring any historical thing to our broken disco ears.
Really enjoyed this. As a 72 year old gay man I found it fascinating.
I just love that Tom was a fellow 90s house music partier
Looking forward to the Seattle grunge episode.
without question the best intro to date. let it be sampled on a forthcoming 12".
I wasn’t expecting this chaps! The other great love of my life! 😂❤
I was stubbornly anti-disco and pro rock and roll. As it turns out, all I did was miss the biggest party time of my life.
The rebellion against disco wasn't some right-wing racist anti-gay reaction. Punk emerged during the same time, providing an outlet for those who disliked disco. Punk was for sure not right-wing politically. There was also the cosmic cowboy movement in Country and Western music.
I lived in Chicago in the Summer of 1979 and I rememeber Disco Demolition Night well. Your assessment was pretty much spot on. Some added color: Steve Dahl was at the peak of his popularity with his "Disco Sucks" campaign. To put the baseball scene in perspective. Chicago has two teams, the Cubs and White Sox. The Cubs play at Wrigley Field, a north side ballpark [baseball stadia are generally called "ballparks"] set in a modest residential neighborood and it attracts a family-friendly white collar crowd. The White Sox then played in Comiskey Park, itself a dingy edifice set in a south side wasteland adjacent to a busy expressway [motorway to you] astride an industrial zone on one side and a crime ridden housing project on the other. While neither Chicago team played particularly well the cheeriness of Wrigley remained attractive while Comiskey was decidedly not. The Sox were playing particularly poorly, further reducing the gate. They were owned at the time by Bill Veck, a circus promoter type of character who had over the years pioneered various types of promotions such as the "exploding scoreboard" that would shoot fireworks when the home team hit a home run. But Veck was aging and running out of ideas. Along comes Dahl and pitches the idea.
The deal was to bring a disco 45 record [as in the old 45 rpm records with the big holes] and pay 98 cents admission--98 being the frequency of the station--the usual ball game tickets then were about $5. The July date proved to be a perfect storm--or more preceisely, the lack of a storm. Chicago was going through a not uncommon sweltering heat wave with high humidity. It's the weather that in particular drove the youth to find some sort of outlet to literally let off steam.
Veck and his staff were used to crowds of 2000 to 3000 at a weeknight game, possibly a few more that evening since it would be a doubleheader, meaning two full games for a single admission. They thought perhaps double that given the promotion. However, an hour before the gates opened there were already thousands waiting. The crowd got unruly and soon after the gates opened they stopped bothering to collect money. The queues were so backed up that people were climbing the walls to get in. Comiskey Park holds something like 40,000 and it was definitely full. They had long since stopped counting and they also stopped collecting the records, which is why they had "only" 10,000 to blow up.
It wasn't far into the first game before the staff, players, and umpires knew they had a problem. The surplus records that had not been collected upon entry were turned into frisbees, often landing on the field and interrupting play. The public address announcer made repeated calls for people to calm down, which just made it worse. There were discussions whether to stop the match and / or cancel the planned demolition but they realized that would likely result in a riot, so they went on as planned.
Your description of what happened next was very accurate. Dahl had the records put into a crate and during the intermission beteween games they were blown up in center field, and rest was truly history.
I was a grad student at the time, studying at home. I was aware that the Disco Demolition Night was going to take place--you couldn't escape it--ads in the papers and even billboards. But I had no interest. Then I got a call from a friend,
"You should turn on your TV and turn to the Sox game." "
"But I don't care about them,"
"You should see this"
As I tuned to the station I saw police on horseback riding across the field chasing a bunch of obviously stoned and drunk shirtless guys. The place was completely smoke filled with little fires here and there. The public address announcer was vainly shouting for people to be seated and even started singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"--how quaint. The umpires had no choice but to declare a forfeit.
It took weeks to fully repair the field. They had some games scheduled that week. One may have been postponed or forfeited as well. Balls would take strange bounces as it carommed off craters and remaning shrapnel. The outfield could have been used as a set for a Normandy Beach film.
Thank you for the excellent description. I wish I would have been there.
No hatred for disco, I hated punk and pretty much anything 90's related.
I love Chicago as a city and visited the Cubs stadium
Great story! Thanks for sharing!
Great Job! So hard to do this and get it right. Too many organic details. In short, it really evolved out of 60s loft parties, and the scene in NYCs West Village and SoHo. It was an cultural phenomenon, born out of place and time, driven by the evolution of music, i.e. Funk, evolution of the studio recording sound, evolution of the PA system which enabled loud music, (as well as the evolution of the arena concerts in the 70s), coupled with access to all kinds of new drugs, new social norms mostly born out of rock and roll like hedonism, and the need for escapism.
"Mr. Saturday Night", the Robert Stigwood Documentary does a great job of explaining the Saturday Night Fever film and Soundtrack.
I came of age in the late Disco era. I went to the Limelight in NY at one time. There was Limelight in Atlanta that I attended frequently in my college days along with other clubs. I quite enjoyed the Disco Era. I was a very good dancer back in day. It's not my favorite music to listen to, but it was great to dance to. One thing I liked about disco is that it incorporated a ton of musicians and instruments that were never heard in rock. But I have friends who despise the genre. "Love muscle" is hilarious....
I can heartily recommend a book called 'Love Saves the Day' by Tim Lawrence for debunking many of the lazy myths about the history of disco, it's fascinating stuff. The effects of the Cominsky Park incident are often overstated because it's such a good story - glad that was recognised. By the end disco had much bigger problems than self-promoting DJs, for one financially it was turning into a money pit for the labels that had jumped on the bandwagon.
Seconded.
Great Episode! Didn't know about the details of the early days in NY.
As a music-tech nerd I have a somewhat different take on the mentioned songs, although no doubt both represent the era quite well. While 'I will survive' was produced in the described (expensive) 'wall of sound' way, 'I feel love' can be regarded as the first commercial pop song made entirely with electronic instruments: synthesizers, drum machines, sequencers etc to support the vocalist. This recording again seems to have had quite some influence on the British synth pop bands shortly thereafter.
Again thanks for the great information and entertainment!
From David A. Wood: Hello there, my name is David A. Wood and I was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. I currently live in the smaller, suburban city of Kettering, Ohio. I was an fantasy-oriented, pre-adolescent in the middle 1970s when the orgiastically fun Disco Music Era, or about as orgiastically as that era could have been for me when I was all of 11-years-old, assertively and flamboyantly began for American Society around 1974 or 1975. And I was an entirely neurotic, young adult of 19-years-old when it unofficially and gradually ended somewhere around 1983. I highly enjoyed the brazenly elegant music that came out of that enjoyably eventful period and I was old enough to distinctly remember when that music was steadily climbing the Music Charts, yet I was still too young to actively participate in "the really fun stuff" that epitomized the happily frenetic Disco Era (1974-1983). But, hell, that is the way Life sometimes rolls!
What I really enjoyed about that brand of Popular Music (or Pop Music) was its decidedly flamboyant mixture of intellectual elegance and aggressively pulsating rhythm, which was a characteristic of both syncopated and danceable R&B Music and incessant, often tension filled, Caribbean-based Afro-Latin Music. Plus, like the two British narrators that were breezily moderating the video said, really great Disco Music sonically and pleasurably had "a Wall of Sound," just like the Phil Spector-produced, Pop Music hits that dramatically came out during the early and middle 1960s. Additionally, Disco Music, with its propulsively scintillating, "Beat Heavy, Four-on-the-Floor-Percussion Style" Music, brought the stylish people eagerly stepping out onto the dance floor to simply dance their elegantly well-dressed a**es off and to do nothing else! In other words, it was not meant to be pretentiously intellectual and/or solely testosterone-oriented music. By which, I mean the Mainstream 1970s Rock Music, or even early 1970s R&B Music, had been.Now onto my third paragraph, so "Buckle up for the Ride!"
Two other things that characterized Disco Music was both its attractively sartorial elegance and its heady, sexual abandon as young stylish people of both genders comfortably residing in North America, Western Europe, Japan, and some parts of South America recreationally "suited up" in what was considered their fashionably best clothes. By which I mean, silky looking, rakishly open collared and colorful Polyester Shirts, and later on, stylish three-piece suits for the men-about-town. For the equally adventurous women, there were colorful and fashionable, sometimes elegantly sexy dresses that were elegantly knee-length which either had thin shoulder straps or were entirely strapless. Last, but not least, the women also made sure to wear a pair of sexually stylish, "Retro Chic" 1940s-inspired, open-toed pumps that were equipped with seductive straps daintily wrapped around their ankles. Both genders also wore, men always and women occasionally, very expensive, very creased, and very tight, "hip-hugger" slacks that broke at their expensive footwear. As for the widespread Sexual Culture that was intrinsically part of the Disco Music Era, basically the former, multiethnically oriented and sociopolitically liberal/youthful hippies of the late 1960s and early 1970s came of age as socially active adults in their early 20s to early 30s during the highpoint of the Disco Music Era. As such, they also enthusiastically made Straight, Sexual Culture and Gay/Lesbian Sexual Culture so seemingly tolerated that it came to be considered almost Mainstream.
Another thing that characterized Disco Music was the liberal usage of Recreational Narcotics in the many dance clubs.This was especially true of the then fashionable, but still highly illegal drug of Cocaine. By this eventful time (During the late 1970s), Cocaine had started being produced on an industrial scale in South America (Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru) in order to be copiously sold to fashionably affluent and relatively young American adults/eventual American drug addicts in big American cities like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and San Francisco. But what I loved about Disco Music was not its anarchic sense of Social Abandon that came from seemingly immoral Hypersexuality and/or dangerously loose Narcotics Consumption, but its commendable sense of Social Egalitarianism. Disco Music was a form of Contemporary Music that welcomed people that had been historically disdained by Mainstream American Society (Ethnic/Religious Minorities, LGBTQ+ People, and American Women). It did not matter what your Ethnicity/Skin Color was or what your Sexual Orientation was or what your Sexual Gender was, if you were willing and could actually dance, your presence were entirely welcomed in the nightclub, that is unless you unluckily tried to enter that relentlessly obnoxious and unseemly snobbish environment of Elitist Pretentiousness known as Studio 54!
Perhaps it was that newfound sense of Social Egalitarianism that many narrow-minded Americans, particularly those Americans that were not only Sociopolitically Conservative, but also mostly resided in Middle America and the American South, hated about Disco Music. Those socially conservative Americans passionately disliked Disco Music, because the music embodied everything that they culturally hated about the USA during the late 1970s-early 1980s. That is: Ethnically Oriented, "Race Mixing" between White and non-White Men and Women; Openly/Sexually Expressed LGBTQ+ Culture; Socially Oriented Liberalism; and Occasionally Public Consumption of Narcotics, like Marijuana, Cocaine and the then fashionable depressants known as Quaaludes. And there was the form of music itself that intensely, and also unreasonably, bothered certain, socially inflexible people as they resented Disco Music not only because its hard core fanbase consisted of various demographics that Mainstream American Society deeply hated, and unfortunately still do, but also Disco Music was so musically frenetic that many people simply hated the form of music because they could not and/or would not ever learn to dance to it. Now onto my sixth paragraph.
Alas, like all really popular fads, Disco Music's time came to a gradual end. American Society became ever more Sociopolitically Conservative during the Reagan Era (1981-1989) and the AIDS Pandemic slowly, but surely began its cruel sweep throughout the USA and the rest of the Developed World as it lethally decimated many tens of thousands of LGBTQ+ Human Beings, many of whom had once pleasurably flocked to trendy, urbanized discotheques. Also, the New York City-originated form of music known as "Rap Music," which had once been an outgrowth of Disco Music, gradually began to supersede Disco Music in musical stature. Rap Music's inevitable rise began in the Autumn of 1979, which was exactly when the first Rap or "Hip-Hop" song, "Rapper's Delight" officially came out on the Radio Airwaves. Yet, even though Disco Music's heyday pretty much came to an end by the early 1980s, the music as such, happily speaking, never entirely went away as "House Music" somewhat replaced it.
Now I am at the final paragraph of my text. One other thing that I liked about the Disco Music Culture was that it liberalized Mainstream American Culture as well. For instance, Interracial Love/Sexual Relationships and LGBTQ+ Culture both began to be readonably tolerated in the USA during the Disco Music Era to the point where both ways of American Life in the early part of the 21st Century are at least widely tolerated, if not yet still wholly embraced, in the USA. Also, Disco Music played a big part in liberalizing American Women as their sense of long-sought Gender Equality also began to be also at least tolerated by Mainstream America. Now that I am the conclusion of my lengthy text, I must say that what I really loved, and still do love, about sonically listening to Disco Music was its being sensually sophisticated and brutally tough-sounding at the same time. In the present day, I often listen to arcane Disco Music Hits such as "Bon Bon Vie," "Stomp," "Ai No Corrida," etc. on my Smartphone's UA-cam site. In summation, as a man who is currently 60-years-old, the sonically glorious form of music known as "Disco Music" is still one of my favorite forms of Popular Music! Finally, Nuff Said and Peace Out from Kettering, Ohio, everybody. ☮️🇺🇲🌈😃👍
The opening made me cry with laughter (sorry) 😂
I was worried about Tom.
@@ropeburnsrussellwe're all always worried about Tom
Discteect..by to guys who condnt dance if theyr lives dependen on it:)
You’re so right: I lived in Wichita in 1970 and attended WSU until 1972; I knew nothing about the Stonewall Uprising. THEN, I moved to San Francisco in ‘72 for my first post U job and lived in town. Cool polyester shirt and striking out with a good-looking girl (even though I had that shirt on) who smirked to her girlfriend when she said “no”. Incredible culture shock of a time. I even remember some of it.
Great podcast. Disco absolutely is history
Excellent. Sometimes we need to re-explore our immediate past as well as the generally historical. It resonated.
I had to rub my eyes when I saw the subject of this podcast but to say I’m looking forward to it would be an understatement.
Continue this into contemporary “house”
So many Rock bands did the disco money grab. Some were good, and some not so much.
As you mentioned...
Rod Stewart, "If you want my body and you...."
Queen - "another one bites the dust"
Stones - "Miss You" (The Stones got it right :)
Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom
Chicago - Street Player
Grateful Dead - Shakedown Street
Led Zep - The Crunge (really more funk than disco)
Pink Floyd - The Wall
The Clash - The Magnificent Seven
Blondie - Heart of Glass and Rapture
And so on...
Well, I wasn't expecting this.
Fantastic podcast. I absolutely love disco music; in its true form. It's possibly the most misunderstood style of popular music in recent history. Unfortunately, like many trends in dance music thereafter, it fell prey to parody and commercialism. The vile cynicism of Disco Demolition Night 1979 was definitely the catalyst for the end of an era, but if you listen to much the 'dance music' of the early 1980s, it's still essentially disco. Not much changed stylistically except for the move towards using synthesizers and drum machines in favour of 70s style orchestral production. The four-to-the-floor beat is still ever present, along with the funky syncopation, octave basslines, horn stabs and soaring vocals.
Disco still lives on and has a thriving subculture in the modern era thanks to its revival as part of the 'funkier', more soulful side of house music. In fact, much of what may have previously been classed as funky house or indie-dance is now being tagged as nu-disco.
As Gloria Gaynor once said, “Disco music is alive and well and living in the hearts of music-lovers around the world. It simply changed its name to protect the innocent: Dance music.”
BRAVO! I always enjoy your podcast, and this topic was especially meaningful. Absolutely took me back to an earlier time . . .
Fascinating, thank you! As you said, there's a lot more. For example the enormous pressure, disco has put on many rock bands of that time. Thinking that they would sink in oblivion if they wouldn't adapt. This explains the release of songs like "miss you" from the stones, "do you think I'm sexy" Rod Stewart, "another one bites the dust" Queen, or "another brick in the wall" From Pink Floyd.
It is Vince Aletti. Not Alessi.
Francis Grasso, David Mancuso and Nicky Siano. A lot of the early DJs were Italian American because of the Mob. They were operating outside society and it was easier to work without trouble if you were Italian.
Moroder is when Disco went more electronic and much later on - Philadelphia International or Salsoul were the labels behind a lot of the earlier orchestral tracks. Earl Young was the original Disco drummer. Street kids could not afford coke in the early days and it was not the driving force of the scene. The plastic people at 54 later on certainly could. The Brooklyn "Bridge and Tunnel' crowd did actually exist - they would he shunned by the cooler Manhattan clubs such as Studio.
Contrast Studio 54 with Paradise Garage. To simplify the former was about posing and celebrity but the latter was about the music and dancing.
Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan were Loft Babies and friends of Nicky Siano at The Gallery. Frankie went to Chicago instead after Larry turned down the offer ad he was doing so well at Paradise Garage. House was termed Disco's Revenge.
Love Saves the Day by Tim Lawrence is an excellent book on the subject. Also Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton. They would make excellent Guests for a follow up.
I'll echo the comments on Tim Lawrence's book - it's excellent. Great anecdote about Tom at Love Muscle.
what comes before part B?
Partay!!
Another episode I belly laughed my way through. I don't know how you guys do it.
25:43 what’s cool about “I feel love” is I’d argue it’s the first known techno song.
I’m open for correction
Agreed!
There's a story that Eno took it into the studio in Berlin when David Bowie was recording the Heroes album.
Is it a sign of age that I was picking the cycle as it applies to 90’s right from the start of your description of Disco?….even down to the recession era influence? Mind you, I seem to be picking up on historical themes relating to my lived experience now.
Really interesting especially as I was a late 70's disco enthusiast in the UK. The two cultures (UK and US) were very different. For me the year 1978 - 9 was the absolute pinnacle of disco with all dayers, soul boys and girls and amphetamines as the chosen drug - so you could dance all day/night - no one could afford cocaine and probably wouldn't have taken it if we could. By 1980 it felt like it was all over although disco classic Funky Town stands out as a mainstream, but still great, song.
Tunes that still resonate for me are: Street Life by the Crusaders, There but for the Grace of God by Machine, Space Bass by Slick (indeed anything by them), Sylvester's Mighty Real, One Nation Under a Groove by Funkadelic, anything by Spyra Gyra and Shame by Evelyn Champagne King. I could go on of course!!!!
Awesome.
Is there any footage of the portable peach mobile disco outfit? I need to see that
“Quaalude” was a trade name of Methaqualone, a hypnotic sedative, that induced a deep state of relaxation in users. Prescribed as a sedative for sleep, acute insomnia, and a muscle relaxant. Like benzodiazepines (Valium), Qualuud/s sedative qualities were favored w/and after illicit cocaine use in the nightclub, music, and entertainment scene, to counteract the overstimulating, sleep deprivation effects of cocaine. Due to Qualuud’s prolific illicit use in the the mid 70’s and 80’s, as “Ludes, or Disco Biscuits” it was taken off the market in 1985. Originally mfg. by Rorer in 1965, then licensed to Lemon pharmaceuticals in 1978. Sold in various dosages the large white tablets marked w/ “Roher 714” or “Lemon 714” became a subcultural trope of the decadence of the disco era.
The Beatles did produce a "four-on-the-floor" bass drum beat. Check out the chorus to Yellow Submarine.
The Sgt Pepper Reprise track has a kind of proto-Disco beat.
53:10 In Detroit, there was also the sudden collapse of the automotive-industry manufacturing. There were a lot of disgruntled people in and around Detroit, and it was very satisfying for those people to vent their unhappiness against the falsetto voices of the B-Gees … while at the same time embracing Led Zepplin.
No mentions of Lieutenant double-yefreitor Harrier Du Bois for those who might be hoping.
If you ever happen to be in the states, please do make sure to enjoy a baseball match. Perhaps you will be able to go onto the pitch during the interlude.
Cant stand disco myself.
Still I was 10 in 1976, so i missed out on the sex, drugs and all night parties.
Noooo...please note, it's pronounced House- ton Street not Houston...thanks 😊
C'caine
Punk was a reaction to the overblown rock of bands like yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer and others.
But punk was also a reaction to disco too in both the US and Britain.
In Britain disco was seen by many of the working class as about the look and who could dance the best to insipid manufactured disco records.
It didn’t speak to working class kids who were angry and bored with society including disco.
So they went out and created punk as the opposite of disco a music form that showed the world how angry they were.
ua-cam.com/video/ojnDYiXMsio/v-deo.html 🙃
Now, I was just being born around the disco era, so it's not my time, but the boys keep mentioning what to me must be the least famous Donna SUmmer song of all of them like it's a household tune. Maybe "Love to Love You" is a bigger deal across the pond? I feel like she has a handful of songs that are more well known than that one.
Love to Love You Baby got to number 4 in the charts, even though the BBC banned it for a while. It is still a popular tune/dancefloor filler.
All disco began with The Velvet Underground. 💊
Oh dear, running out of topics are we lads? Thing is that they will make it interesting. But I'm out for this one - too many books I've never read and things I don't know.
Don't fear the unknown...
Dahl's Disco Demolition at Comiskey Park, late 70s Chicago. Bring in a disco album for reduced price at a double header, and watch all the albums get destroyed on the field between games.
Such a catastrophe they couldn't hold game 2.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night