I love disco music. Rush Limbaugh hates it.

[David__77]

I absolutely love disco. It's not nostalgia, because I'm too young to have experienced it first-hand. I go through cycles, but right now I listen to it all the time: Chic, Sister Sledge, Sylvester, and numerous one-hit wonders and studio efforts the name of which doesn't matter. Maybe it's because I'm gay.

I think there's some racial fears implicit in much anti-disco criticism. Disco represented racial integration: Black and white dancing together--which was a newer thing certainly. A lot of the yearning to return to rock seemed like a fear of the white male being displaced by the Black diva. Disco represented gay freedom, which certainly fueled the anti-disco backlash. More generally, it represented sexual freedom for all, gay or straight.

Rush Limbaugh hates disco--he said it on his show. He thought it was hedonism and represented the wrong ethic for America. I disagree. It represents a unity ethic. Multi-racial, multi-sexual orientation--people just having a "Good Time," as the Chic song says.

I don't think it was a coincidence that 1980 was the year of the "death of disco." Reactionary forces were trying to gird the country for war with the Soviet Union. Racists were rallying against "reverse discrimination." Jerry Falwell formed his "Moral Majority." And, of course, a rather backward man became president. Disco flew in the face of that agenda.

Thoughts?

[bif]

1. I hate to admit it

But I'm with Rush on this one.The only forms of music I don't like are disco, country and rap.

[Abe Linkman]

3. You have my deepest sympathy.

How unfortunate for you that you are unable to appreciate the honesty and fine sounds of country and western music.

"If You Ain't Country, You Ain't S---"

[Iris]

2. He knows he would look bad in disco clothes.

[bif]

4. I'd look like shit in disco clothes

I'll admit it.

[Iris]

6. most people did!

Remember, those were the days before strenght training - just doing a lot of aerobics doesn't exactly make for great form!

[kwolf68]

5. I love music, but hate disco

Disco was synthetic and thats why most musicians hated it. A group like Chic being an exception of course (with the brilliant Niles Rogers), at the end of the day disco was nothing more than an accompaniment to dancing.

When I hear music I want 1-Good or interesting musicianship, 2-Good lyrics...Disco had neither.

it had a beat, but so did Earth, Wind and Fire and Parliment...Funk banks who held so much more cred. At the end of the day, disco was a menance for this reason.

ANOTHER reason disco is often hated by people is because it attracted a very diverse group of people, blacks, whites, homesexuals, etc...

Obviously, THIS WAS one of the few good things of disco, it broke down the musical segregation once again erected after the intergrated 1960s.

But as far as musical merit...disco was a complete waste of time.

[David__77]

7. You're right and wrong...

Much, even most of disco produced was pretty crappy. This also was a factor in its demise, with things like "The Ethel Merman Disco Album" coming out in 1979. That was ridiculous. But you made an exception fro Chic, but that's my favorite disco group of all, together with their productions of others like Sister Sledge, Diana Ross' number one album ("I'm Coming Out" and "Upside Down"), French singer Sheila and others. Of course they also later produced Madonna and David Bowie and others.

My argument is that there is good disco music in there. There are others, like Change (which had Luther Vandross) and related productions. I tend to like stuff from this end of dance music rather than the things most people think of when they hear the word "disco."

Village People, Bee Gees and the type are not my thing...

[tishaLA]

15. Don't forget Chic's other contribution

Debbie Harry's KooKoo album.

[David__77]

16. "Backfired" is good from that album, can't find it on CD.

Yes, I won't forget that one. I'm keeping my eye out for more as well.

[Droopy]

8. One thing Rush and I agree on. Not for the same reasons, though

I just don't like the sound and I don't like to dance. Unlike Rush, I don't see anything worng with people getting into disco. It's just a personal thing.

[11 Bravo]

9. And Hitler loved dogs.

Hell, even Pigboy is bound to be right once in a while.

[catzies]

10. He said it and it's true? Just like that? With what we know now?

Rush hates disco because he said so??? :wtf:

[BigBigBear]

11. Disco had some influence

Blondie and the Rolling Stones did some great work with disco underpinnings.

[Speck Tater]

12. 100 years from now...

... the high-brow classical music stations and concert halls will be playing Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and the BeeGees.

Disco is timeless, although it will take another generation for that to become obvious.

The world's only truly horrible music is Tibetan music and Balanese music.

[commander bunnypants]

13. Well Duh

Limpballs hates everything


DDQM

[Cat Atomic]

14. The BeeGee's rule all. The Village People are fun. Apart from them..

Just say "no" to Disco.

[Spintronic]

17. I think his problem is just that he's not into the right drugs.

N/T

[joeybee12]

18. I Beethoven were alive, he'd be composing disco music!

It's the greatest musical genre of our times!

So there!

[arwalden]

19. I Love Disco Too!! I'm Not Ashamed To Admit It...

... and I'm not ashamed that part of it is nostalgia. Rush isn't 'happy' unless he's got someone to target, someone to hate, some group or person to feed to his pack-o-wolves audience.

-- Allen

[jumptheshadow]

20. Disco is fun. And it can be sensual.

I spent some of my happiest hours in the 70s in gay discos and had one of my most fun nights at a place in the East Village called The Saint. It was so phantasmagoric that you quickly lost sense of time. You spent what seemed to be two and half hours in there and then emerged at 4 a.m. to dine at one of the little Ukrainian breakfast places nearby.

The partner and I keep several disco compilations. Once or twice a year we move the furniture out of the way, turn the volume up high, and just lose ourselves without a care in the world.

[DBoon]

21. Yeah right

I did live through it. Had little to do with racial integration, just a bunch of white appropriating black folks culture (again)

People who were into disco had money, nice clothes, nice cars, and smooth sociable personalities. I had none at the time. Disco seemed like crass commercialism. The begining of the Reagan era.

I recall a song that spoofed the whole disco scene at the time, about a guy who lived in his Datsun Z because it cost so much he couldn't afford to live anywhere else. The he discovered rock-n-roll and melted down all his gold jewelry into a Led Zepplin belt buckle ...

[Bob3]

22. As I remember the Disco scene

It was all about having money and being beautiful - and shallow as hell. A preview of the money is the only thing that is important 80's.

That the music was dull as well was just icing on the cake.

[LTR]

23. Funny

He came out of a break a few weeks ago with "Good Times" by Chic and talked about how much he liked the song.

Must have been the Oxycontin speaking.

I'm not crazy about disco (too synthetic and crude) but Earth Wind and Fire was one helluva band! Same goes for Chic and P-Funk.

[Character Assassin]

25. Boy, you are skating on goddamn thin ice....

Disco was disco, for what it was worth.

But EWF, Chic and P-Funk were utterly, completely and totally different. Sure, Chic contributed to the universal disco lexicon with Freak Out, I Want Your Love, etc.... But they themselves were not a product of disco.

It's all about the funk, my friend, and nuthin' but the funk.

Next to that, disco just pales.

[bluestateguy]

24. Most whitemaleconservatives do

They don't like anything that promotes racial ethnic harmony. Football is about as close to that as they will get, and of course we know how Rush thinks of black people in leadership positions in that sport.

[NightTrain]

26. I hated disco during the 1970s...

...not so much because of the music itself, but because disco was EVERYWHERE during the latter half of the Me Decade. It seemed like I couldn't turn on the radio, or go anywhere, without encountering disco. If it wasn't the music, it was some yahoo in disco clothes. Since I dislike having anything shoved down my throat (either literally or figuratively), I developed a strong antipathy toward the disco phenomenon.

Fast froward a decade-plus.

At the dawn of the '90s, disco compilations started coming out on CD. I'd look at the track listings and see titles that I not only remembered, but in some cases actually had liked (but wouldn't admit it to anyone). So, just for the hell of it, I bought a couple of those disco comps and came to realize, hey, some of this music was pretty good!

At this point, I can say without embarrassment that generally speaking, I do like disco music. And I don't give a damn who disapproves!