what are your memories of disco?
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winterview — 11 years ago(January 11, 2015 09:17 PM)
I lived near Chicago towards the end of the 70s, there were radio stations with all disco music formats. Various discos advertised on those stations.
I remember some Friday and Saturday nights meeting up with friends and we would go to 2 or 3 places in one night. If one place seemed 'dead' or the music wasn't right that night, we'd just go to the next place.
Some had cover charges, some had better drinks.
I remember when Donna Summers I Feel Love was played for the first time. The place literally froze because the synthesizer work on the song was so different and compelling.
Years before I recall a DJ announcing Prince's first big hit, I Wanna Be Your Lover, and he stunned the crowd when he said Prine wrote the song, the music, performed the vocals, and most of the instruments.
One disco I recall would pass out play lists with the artists noted so if we wanted later we could go to the record store and buy the album if we wanted.
No internet back then, if you heard a good song and wanted the record, it could be difficult to find out the exact name and artist to look for. -
maxtshea — 11 years ago(February 01, 2015 12:23 PM)
I was eight
eight
when I saw SNF in the theater! Owing to overly permissive parents and overly permissive ticket sellers, I got to go see it with my older sisters. No harm. I didn't understand most of it. Anyway, I'd heard all those words and seen boobs in magazines before.
One of my sisters was so taken with SNF she bought as many disco records as she could, and did her best in our podunk town to imitate the styles and the mannerisms. My other sister was a hard-rocking hippie chick with a "BURN DOWN THE DISCO" sticker on her stereo set!
I didn't see the entire R-rated version again until I was all growed up. I still watch it now and again. Great movie! -
MonteCarloMan — 11 years ago(February 05, 2015 12:59 PM)
I was 4 like you, michaelward15, and I had the same impressions you did. I remembered alot of the tunes back then on 8tracks and radio that my parents played in their cars growing up but got bored with that music the older I got until I started collecting a ton of music from the era on itunes in the last ten years.
As far as the movie I would see bits and pieces of it on TV over the years but never really watched it all the way through until I picked up a used copy of the dvd and watched it. I thought it was a pretty good time capsule of the period. I also liked the VH1 documentary behind the scenes too. -
information_police — 11 years ago(February 13, 2015 11:30 AM)
I was 20 years old in 1997. Well, not specifically 20, but 19 but I would be 20 soon. Or the exact same age as Tony.
Disco sucked as far as I was concerned. I hated the monotonous music, I hated the stupid robotic group hustle dances, I hated the fake disco scene. I was happy when it died.
Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. -
YankeeDood — 11 years ago(February 16, 2015 07:22 AM)
You didn't really live in the 70's, idiot.
Disco was a lot better than doped up hippie music such as Pink Floyd.
"How can you tell your wife, with a full heart, you love her and forget to wash ya ass?"- Redd Foxx
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YankeeDood — 11 years ago(February 16, 2015 07:20 AM)
I was a kid in the 70's, but I have excellent memories of disco and the premier of SNF on ABC. My friends talked about it all week.
I also remember dancing to disco in 4th grade P.E. class.
"How can you tell your wife, with a full heart, you love her and forget to wash ya ass?"- Redd Foxx
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!!!deleted!!! (49761343) — 11 years ago(March 13, 2015 01:14 PM)
I was also four like some of the posters here, yet I remember disco so well. It was EVERYWHERE. If you weren't hearing disco on the radio nonstop, it was Barry White. "Shake Shake Shake" was my favorite song and I would sing it all the time like a crazy person. One thing I especially remember was how huge the disco Star Wars medley was. It was like it was played 24/7.
My fondest memory of this era was when my father would take me on a visit to a friend's house. In the 70s, it seemed as if every single person in the world had a disco ball hanging from their ceiling. I remember sitting in the living room of my father's best friend's living room staring up at this ball while he was blasting "Last Dance."
Emojis=
Emoticons= -
dioro — 10 years ago(May 23, 2015 09:04 PM)
Disco music had its fans, but many people despised it. In fact it was so hated that it caused a riot during a 1979 baseball match when fans stormed the field after a local DJ blew up a box of disco records in between a scheduled double header. The second game was called off due to the damage to the field caused by the fans setting a fire in center field to burn disco records in protest.
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Clyburn — 10 years ago(August 23, 2015 06:58 AM)
I was in my teens in high school when disco was big. There were many cliques and mine was the stoners. Our music was mainly (what is now considered) classic rock - plus some alternative.
Disco music was scorned in the nastiest possible terms, and the idea of actually going to a disco was beyond absurd. Watching this movie was out of the question.
In fact I am now 52 and have just watched it for the first time. It's good. 7.4 out of 10. -
KobiyashiMauru — 10 years ago(August 24, 2015 07:54 PM)
I was in college in 1977 when I first saw the film. Went to a few discos but few were like the film. Oh, and for the guy who grew up in the 80's instead of the 70's, the 80's was slightly better. I grew up during both.
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Jinx-to-Ennien — 10 years ago(December 30, 2015 11:38 AM)
I was 18 when this movie was released. I lived in south Texas so disco was not a big deal. I agree that the clothes and hair styles were tacky, but then most of the clothes from that era were pretty tacky.
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JackSparrow92 — 9 years ago(April 25, 2016 11:29 AM)
I was five in 1977. While my awareness of disco was a distant second place to my awareness of Star Wars (which basically consumed me), I was cognizant of the existence of SOMETHING musical called "disco", probably because it was occasionally referenced on Sesame Street.
I remember kids in my first grade class bringing the occasional disco records to school for show-and-tell, in particular Saturday Night Fever and the Bee Gees' "Spirits Having Flown". In the second grade, in late 1979, we were doing some kind of team-based game in music class, and we were divided into two teams: the Bee Gees and the Village People.
And then, just as suddenly, the following year it was dead, and I remember seeing and hearing the phrase "Disco Sucks". And my admittedly limited perception of what was musically current at the time shifted to early 80s heavy metal.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Klingon proverb -
HijodelCid — 9 years ago(April 25, 2016 04:05 PM)
The logical inevitable question: why was disco so enthusiastically greeted at first, and then so harshly rejected and reduced to the status of a very lame joke?
God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein) -
!!!deleted!!! (49761343) — 9 years ago(August 24, 2016 05:31 PM)
The logical inevitable question: why was disco so enthusiastically greeted at first, and then so harshly rejected and reduced to the status of a very lame joke?
I can give a few theories. First of all, it became way too overexposed. I was just a tot when disco peaked but to this day I can still remember how it seemed to be everywhere. If you weren't hearing it on the radio, it was being used in TV and movies, even TV ads. I remember how we even went through this whole novelty disco phase where everything got a disco version released eventually (Star Wars theme, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, etc.)
Another theory is that disco became so decadent that it began turning a lot of people off, either because they found it too "freakish" with the large number of gays, androgynous people and transexuals who were part of the scene or because the sex and drugs lifestyle it promoted clashed with their more traditional values.
I think these pics of Studio 54 kind of say it all about what disco eventually became: (warning:NSFW):
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/mar/14/studio-54-heady-daze-of-disco-decadence-in-pictures
One last theory is that it probably became seen as snooty and superficial, that only people with the coolest hair and duds could participate. Notice how in SNF the leisure suit that Tony picks out is so important to winning the contest. Because with disco, it started becoming more about impressing everyone with flashy clothing than it was about being just being yourself and enjoying the music.
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