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Notes on video lecture:
The Backlash Against Disco
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on August 14, 2015 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
Dahl, serious, Morali, monkees, two, Elliman, club, Hustle, Travolta, promiscuity, streaming, recruiting, backlash, gay, sexual, racism, anger, homophobia, Wall, YMCA, joke, black, stamp, 1979, Stewart, White, English, dance, popular, Alive, Sunshine, sucks, Worm, hippy, Summer, Dim, punk, extended, danced, Hayes, White
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Disco
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just the word is enough to            1970s rock and rollers
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how can you get so upset about a style of popular music?
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as if you wanted to            it out
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and wish it never existed in the first place
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it was a            craze for sure
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rejects some important elements of the            aesthetic
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the reaction may have to do with the misunderstanding of black pop
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most white rock music listeners didn't know much            pop music
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they may have heard the Ohio Players Funky         
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they'd seen Curtis Mayfield on TV talking about Freddy's Dead or The Pusherman
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they'd heard Isaac            talking about Shaft or Can you Dig It
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they knew some Stevie Wonder and listened to the Average            Band
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early days
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the idea of disco was not unlike what was happening at American Bandstand
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when you went to a disco, people played records, and you             
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there might not be a guitar or a drum set or a base guitar anywhere to be found
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this sort of situation is familiar now but back in the 70s, it wasn't that way, when you went to a         , you went to see that band that was playing there, the people performing
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one reason why disco evolved the way it did
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in the        community, people who ran a gay club would want there to be music for dancing, but many bands wouldn't play those gigs
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so they were in a way forced to use records for dancing
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developed in urban areas
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people discovered that certain recordings were better for dancing
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bands began to create                  versions for dancing
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disco records began to pop up on the chart almost as novelty records at first
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1973 Barry           's Love Unlimited Orchestra
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Love's Theme
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was called a disco record but didn't get too many people upset yet
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1975 Van McCoy "The             "
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that still didn't get anyone too riled up
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it was just another one of these AM hits, who cares
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1975 KC and the                  Band
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That's the Way I Like It
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but in 1977 there's a film, "Saturday Night Fever"
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features a young John                 
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who know John Travolta could dance
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at the time he had pretty much only been a character on a television show called Welcome Back Kotter
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this film launched Disco as                music
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it became the craze in America
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1977 Saturday Night Fever, Bee Gees
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Staying           
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How Deep Is Your Love
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Night Fever
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Yvonne               
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Yvonne Elliman: If I Can't Have You
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part of the cast of the original Jesus Christ Superstar
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when the disco craze breaks, every artist was running for their disco craze hit
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Rod               
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The Rolling Stones
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even KISS
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was a return of the producers
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Jacques             
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Giorgio Moroder
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more euro disco based
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drum machine that could do the beats exactly metronomically
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artists
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Donna             
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1976 Love to Love you Baby
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patently sexual piece
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you can hear her enjoy the              act
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meant to be heard to draw you in
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1979 Bad Girls
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Disco concept album
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about ladies of the night and the various situations they get into
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songs
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Hot Stuff
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Bad Girls
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       All the Lights
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The Village People
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assembled and produced by Jacques Morali
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didn't speak much               
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brought together as a kind of gay               
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based on fantasies gay stereotypes drawn from Greenwich Village in New York City
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weren't taking it entirely serious
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most people didn't know, they just like the costumes
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had no sense that the village people had anything to do with gay culture
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a playful approach to the gay underground that for the most part went over the heads of most white, middle-class listeners
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it was so not understood, that the song YMCA (1978)
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essentially about gay guys hooking up at the YMCA
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and still isn't, if you go to a minor league baseball game, in the 7th inning stretch, they will play          over the stadium speakers
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and everybody, Mom, Dad, grandma, the kids will all stand up and sing YMCA without the slightest idea that it has anything to do with gay culture
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they still haven't gotten the          yet
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1979 "In the Navy"
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The United States Navy licensed the song for                      purposes
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on the condition that the Village People could do a video one of the Navy boats
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when they found out what the village people were doing they pulled the plug on it
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                 against disco
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rock stations start to change format from rock to disco
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the rock fans felt that their stations were being taken away
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Steve         
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shock jock
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1978 moved from Detroit to Chicago
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was fired because the station he was at changed formats from rock to disco
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went to another Chicago station
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July         : Anti-Disco Rally in Chicago
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put a big box full of disco records and blew it up
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people started                    onto the field
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the second game of the double header had to be cancelled
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spurred the "disco           " movement
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what upset rock fans so much about disco?
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disco was about finding someone to dance with and then have a one-night stand
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but when have rock fans been against promiscuity
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not a good reason
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they saw it was from the gay community
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not many people really realized this
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not a good reason
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certainly racial
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a lot of white rockers thought that disco was black music
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if so, it was not a proud moment in the history of rock and roll
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disco was a music that was fun rather than about                issues
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about the producers and not the artists
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it wasn't about artistic anything
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it was an assault on the hippy aesthetic
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1966 - 1979 Pink Floyd's The         
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it seemed to be gaining ground with radio stations changing format
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along with disco,          was arising in England in 1977 and into 1978 in America
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       musical genres rejecting the hippy aesthetic

Ideas and Concepts:

From the detested-music-genres department, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "Disco. Just the word is enough to anger 1970s rock music connoisseurs who wanted to stamp out this loathed music and wished that it had never been created in the first place. But how can people you get so upset about a style of popular music? Disco was a dance craze for sure and certainly rejects some important elements of the 1960s and 1970s Hippy aesthetic such as live performances and the striving for an intensely personal and sophisticated expression in music. Dance-hit Disco albums began to pop up on the charts almost as novelty records at first as early as 1973 with Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra's "Love's Theme" which was probably the first to be called a disco song, but it wasn't noticed significantly by most listeners. In 1975 Van McCoy "The Hustle" got people out on the dance floor American-band-stand style, but still that didn't get anyone too riled up as most saw it as just another AM radio hit. And in 1975 KC and the Sunshine Band came out with "That's the Way I Like It" which got everyone chanting "uh-huh, uh-huh" but still Disco remained below the radar. Then, in 1977, a film was produced that changed the history of American music for decades to come, the film's name was, "Saturday Night Fever" which featured a young John Travolta, who up to this point had only been a character on the television show Welcome Back Kotter, and who knew that John Travolta could dance, which made all the difference. This film became an immediate hit and launched Disco as a new popular music in a grandiose fashion, and in so doing got people out on the dance floor pointing toward the sky and the floor in a fashion from which America and the world has yet to recover."
Surreptitious gay messages in 1970s disco pop, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "The story of The Village People is a fun one to tell in the History of Rock and Roll, the band assembled and produced by Jacques Morali, a groundbreaking French Disco & Dance music singer/songwriter from Paris who didn't speak hardly any English and so had to have most of what he said and was said to him translated. In any case, Morali had the vision to create a kind of gay Monkees group based on popular gay fantasy personae drawn from real people Greenwich Village in New York City. The running joke was with this group that most main stream listeners never understood that this group was a gay fantasy group, but just liked the costumes and had no sense that the village people had anything to do with supporting gay culture in the 1970s, so the band became a kind of playful approach to the gay underground that for the most part went over the heads of most white, middle-class listeners. For instance, the song YMCA (1978), was essentially about gay guys hooking up at the YMCA, and completely not understood by mainstream audiences and still isn't, which you can see if you go to almost any minor league baseball game, in the 7th inning stretch, they will play YMCA over the stadium speakers, and everybody, Mom, Dad, Grandma, the kids and macho, obviously non-gay and probably anti-gay men, will all stand up and sing YMCA without the slightest idea that they are in effect celebrating gay culture, and they still haven't gotten the joke yet."
Things I didn't know that happened in American history, via this afternoon's History of Rock and Roll class: "THE DISCO DEMOLITION, JULY 12, 1979:This act of destroying disco records during a baseball game intermission was the worst promotion in the history of the sport, the explosion of the records itself blew a crater out in the middle of center field, and when people starting pouring into the stadium, all hell broke loose, they were ripping the field apart, people started jumping up and down on the tarp, I saw someone literally steal home plate, dug it up and took it, and I'm pretty sure I saw two people having sex behind third base."
1970s: Hippie Aesthetic, Corporate Rock, Disco, and Punk
British Blues-Based Bands and the Roots of Heavy Metal
American Blues Rock and Southern Rock
The Era of Progressive Rock
Jazz Rock in the 70s
Theatrical Rock: KISS, Bowie, and Alice Cooper
American Singer-Songwriters of the 70s
British and Canadian Singer-Songwriters
Country Rock's Influence on 1970s Music
Black Pop in the 1970s
Sly Stone and His Influence on Black Pop, Funk, and Psychedelic Soul
Motown in the 1970s
Philadelphia Sound and Soul Train
Blaxploitation Soundtracks
The Uniqueness of James Brown
Bob Marley and the Rise of Reggae
The Backlash Against Disco
1975-1980: The Rise of the Mega-Αlbum
Continuity Bands in the 1970s
Rock and Roll in the Second Half of the 1970s
U.S. Punk 1967-1975
1974-77: Punk in the UK
American New Wave 1977-80
British New Wave 1977-80
The Hippie Aesthetic: 1966-1980
The Rise of MTV
Michael Jackson: MTV's Unexpected Boon
Madonna as Disruptive Shock Artist
Prince and Janet Jackson
Other Groups Who Benefited from MTV
1980s New Traditionalists and New Wave
1980s New Acts, Old Styles and Blue-Eyed Soul
1970s Progressive Rock Adapts to the 80s
1980's Heavy Metal
1980s Heavy Metal and L.A. Hair Bands
1980s Ambitious Heavy Metal
The Beginning of Rap
1980s: Rap Crosses Over to Mainstream
Late 1980s Hard Core Rap
Punk Goes Hardcore
Late 80s Indie Rock Underground
1990s: The Rise of Alternative Rock
1990s Indie Rock and the Question of Selling Out
1990s Metal and Alternative Extensions
Hip-Hop in the 1990s
Classic Rock of the 1990s
1990s Jam Bands and Britpop
Female Singer-Songwriters of the 1990s
The Rise of Teen Idols in the 1990s
1990s Dance Music