Disco emerged in the late 1960s and grew rapidly popular through the 1970s, with over 15,000 discos opening across the US. Disco nights brought together diverse groups on the dance floor to dance freely to percussive music. However, disco faced a backlash from social conservatives and was further damaged by its association with marginalized groups like the gay community as the AIDS crisis unfolded. While commercially successful, disco's inclusive culture challenged social norms and it was eventually replaced by new musical styles.

1. #med332
Disco
and
dancing

2. Overview
• Defining
Disco
• Key
dates
and
figures
• Highs
and
lows
• Backlash

3. Revolu?onary
disco

4. Defining
disco
Tim
Lawrence:
disco
an
‘overburdened’
term
1. Spaces
organised
around
the
playback
of
recorded
music
by
a
DJ
–
the
discotheque
2. The
social
prac?ce
of
individual
freeform
dancing
that
was
established
within
this
context
3. The
music
genre
that
crystallised
within
this
social
seNng
1969-­‐1979

5. Seriously?
15,000+
discos
open
across
US

6. Abba
–
‘Gimme,
Gimme,
Gimme’
Madonna
–
‘Hung
Up’

7. Aiming
for
the
dance
floor

8. Poli?cal
target
• American
New
Right

9. Developing
a
model
of
diversity
and
inclusivity,
par?cipants
established
the
prac?ce
of
dancing
throughout
the
night
to
the
disorien?ng
strains
of
heavily
percussive
music
in
the
amorphous
spaces
of
the
darkened
dance
floor.
While
the
non-­‐linguis?c
prac?ces
of
these
partygoers
differed
from
the
direct
ac?on
of
their
counterpart
street
ac?vists,
they
were
similarly
commiaed
to
the
libera?on
of
the
dispossessed,
and
a
number
of
faces
could
be
spoaed
shuffling
between
the
club
and
the
street
-­‐
Lawrence
,
2006:
129

10. Stonewall
Riots
1969

11. David
Mancuso
The
Loc
647
Broadway
&
Bleeker
Lower
East
Side
‘Love
Saves
The
Day’
Invite-­‐only
Audiophile

12. The
Loc
1970+

13. Loc
classics:
1970-­‐73
• Manu
Dibango
‘Soul
Makossa’
• Barrabas
‘Woman’
• Beginning
Of
The
End
‘Funky
Nassau’
• The
Equals
‘Black
Skin
Blue
Eyed
Boys’
• Eddie
Kendricks
‘Girl
You
Need
A
Change
Of
Mind’
• War
‘City,
Country,
City’

14. Nicky
Siano,
The
Gallery
1972-­‐1977

15. Philly
Sound
• MFSB
• Harold
Melvin
and
the
Blue
Notes
• Teddy
Pendergrass
• The
O’Jays
• The
Jacksons
(co-­‐prod
w/
CBS)
• Jones
Girls
• Dexter
Wansel

16. Philadelphia
Interna?onal
Records

17. George
McRae
–
‘Rock
Your
Baby’
(1974)

18. The
dancefloor
as
a
cultural
space
where
the
usual
hierarchies
of
society
are
inverted
-­‐
Paul
Gilroy,
1991

19. The
disco
phenomena
of
the
late
1970s
thrust
dance
music
forcibly
into
discussions
of
popular
music,
but
dancing
was
most
ocen
portrayed
nega?vely
as
a
feminised
(or
demasculinised)
ac?vity
associated
with
women
and
heterosexual
courtship
rituals,
or
homosexual
display
-­‐
Wall,
2013:
264

20. Casablanca
Records
(L.A.)
• Donna
Summer
• Giorgio
Moroder
• ‘Love
to
Love
You
Baby’

21. Female/sexual
libera?on
LaBelle
-­‐
‘Lady
Marmalade’
(1975)

22. Female/sexual
libera?on?
Andrea
True
Connec?on
-­‐
‘More,
More,
More’
[Tom
Moulton
mix]
(1976)

23. Yet…

29. Success
without
industry
support

30. Highs
and
lows
• 1977
• Saturday
Night
Fever
• Studio
54

32. Notable
aaendees:
• Grace
Jones
• Mick
Jagger
• Michael
Jackson
• Grace
Jones
• John
Travolta
• Calvin
Klein
• Andy
Warhol
• Truman
Capote
• Diana
Ross

33. Excess

34. Saturday
Night
Fever
and
the
hyper-­‐heterosexual
moves
of
John
Travolta

35. Backlash
Such
a
violent
reac?on
must
seem
impossibly
dispropor?onate
to
its
object,
if
that
object
is
taken
to
be
nothing
more
than
a
style
of
popular
music.
But
there
was
more
at
work
and
at
stake
than
such
a
surface-­‐bound
reading
can
admit.
The
cultural
crusaders
of
Comiskey
were
defending
not
just
themselves
but
society
from
the
encroachment
of
the
racial
other,
of
‘foreign’
values,
and
of
‘disco
fags’
-­‐
Hubbs,
2007:
231

36. Comiskey
Park
1979

37. Diana
Ross
‘I’m
Coming
Out’
(1980)

38. HIV
Of
course
it
was
AIDS,
rather
than
the
histrionic
gestures
of
Steve
Dahl,
that
killed,
or
at
least
came
close
to
killing,
disco.
So
rampant
was
AIDS
within
the
city’s
gay
clubbing
popula?on
that
the
virus
was
ini?ally
dubbed
‘Saint’s
disease’,
acer
the
Saint,
the
biggest,
most
renowned
white
gay
venue
of
the
1980s,
where
dancers
were
dropping
in
dispropor?onate
numbers.
-­‐
Lawrence,
2006:
137

39. Summary
• Pivotal
in
expressions
of
non-­‐heteronorma?ve
sexuali?es
• Largely
inclusive
cultural
iden?ty
• Without
disco,
no
house
music

40. Images
• Brian
Talbot
(2005)
Disco
Balls
• Sebas?an
Niedlich
(2001)
Disco
• Jovino
(2010)
disco
neon
• PTGreg
(2007)
Disco
• Juska
Wendland
(2013)
Disco
sucks.