How did Disco morph into New Wave and Punk???

[Taverner]

Yeah I know some of you think I'm talking crazy talk...but check out early Clash. Rock the Casbah. Pure disco beat.

Then move on to Mid-70's Iggy. Very disco-ish funky backing.

IN fact, take Echo and The Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, you name the 80's New Wave band and strip down the synths, and you have disco.

[pokerfan]

1. The disco era was surprisingly short lived

Started around 73 and by the end of the decade the backlash was in full swing. (Some of us thought it was stupid all along.) If you wanted to keep selling records, you had to adapt. Some did; some didn't.

[Bucky]

10. That's a good thumbnail history. I remember hearing it in '74 & finding it tiresome by '78

Oddly enough, today I kinda like that era's music. Songs from the 70s are so much more positive and joyous than what came after.

[mitchum]

2. "Can you imagine a kid wanting to grow up and...

play on a Donna Summer record? I can't" Lou Reed

[grace0418]

7. Oddly enough, I enjoy Donna Summer's music more than I enjoy Lou Reed's.

Could never get into his voice. And I definitely love some singers with quirky voices (Morrissey, Jonathan Richman, The Shins).

[mitchum]

9. His voice has definitely been wretched for the past 30 years...

I don't think he even tries any longer. It's a pity, because I suspect it is also connected with his seeming inability to no longer write melodies

[grace0418]

3. The first Ministry album is totally disco. I love disco and I love 80s New Wave so it

was all good with me.

[WCGreen]

4. I just thought the Sythns got easier to play and less expensive so

that pretty much anyone could make great dance music...

[mitchum]

5. That is indeed the reason...

however, I quibble with the "great" part :)

[WCGreen]

6. Well, if a slightly over weight white guy can dance to it without looking

like an idiot then it must be somewhat above droning.

[no name no slogan]

8. I'd say funk was a bigger influence on the Clash and punk in general

Disco (slickly produced studio music) was the antithesis to punk and most post-punk. "Rock The Casbah" was more of a funk song than a disco song. The bass line is pure 70s funk (as opposed to the octave/pop you get with disco, like "In the Navy") and there is a distinct lack of strings like you found on most late 70s disco.

Gang of Four and Magazine also had a strong funk influence which came through in their music, but I'd hardly call either of them disco-sounding.

The mid-70s Iggy stuff sounded like disco mainly because they recorded it at the same studios where a lot of Eurodisco was made, and used some of the same studio musicians.

Depeche Mode was influenced by disco, and freely admitted it. Echo & The Bunnymen were more influenced by Merseybeat and 60s guitar bands than disco. The only thing disco about them was their use of a drum machine before they got a real drummer. :thumbsup:

[Jetboy]

11. I'm no expert on the Clash, but it seems to me that one of 'em

(Strummer?) was in a band called the 101ers that was basically an Eddie Cochran/Gene Vincent cover band that played that great stuff harder and faster. To me, the #1 influence on punk was simply getting back to high energy straight up rock-n-roll and dropping the BS.

[Symarip]

12. Uhhh

Echo & The Bunnymen would actually sound like the Rolling Stones if you took away their strings and synths.

The Clash didn't write Rock The Casbah until the middle 80s, and by then they were hardly Punk Rock.

Depeche Mode would sould like nothing if you took away their synths because they suck.

Disco is a (lame) form of Funk and so it's very possible for many bands who Funk it up a little bit to have a Disco-y kind of thing happening. One could argue that Mr. Big Stuff from Jean Knight is either a Funk or Disco song.

[abq e streeter]

16. Was wondering if someone was going to point out that Casbah was anything but "early" Clash

[old mark]

13. Before the Clash, were the Ramones - the Ramones ,

the New York Dolls and Television.

But check the early live Ramones on youtube - Absolutely THE anti disco.


mark

[Taverner]

14. Everything comes full circle

Don't get me wrong - there is some awesome disco out there. The full version of "Disco Inferno" for example.

And every flower pollinates every flower...

[abq e streeter]

15. Agree about Disco Inferno, but that was actually recorded well before actual "disco" as we know it

and released (re-released??) during the disco era .

[abq e streeter]

17. Some types of new wave--sure.... Punk? No way

Punk was a million miles from disco until Blondie allowed Heart of Glass to be disco-ized, and by then they really weren't punk anyway. Real punk is hard hard rockin'.