According to a 2018 BBC article, fashion during the disco era was all about glamor and luxury, designed specifically for the dance floor. The opulent hedonism of this club, famous bacchanalia-like parties, attracted celebrities as diverse as Andy Warhol and Michael Jackson. Currently completing a PhD at the University of East Anglia, his thesis Rock’n’Roll Rimbaud examines the influence of Arthur Rimbaud on twentieth-century American music, from the Beat poets to punk.
Texas case. Realising sensibly that the stage name of Brenda Greene might not have the desired effect, she took her middle name and began a dancefloor-facing career.
For many queer individuals, it redefined social interaction, allowing for freedom from societal judgment and restrictions.
Sexual Liberation and Eroticism in Disco
The disco movement also sparked a wave of sexual liberation and eroticism, fundamentally reshaping the cultural landscape. Anyway, whip your top off, grab the poppers and finger your hole as I guide you through some of the key big ones.
Agents Aren’t Aeroplanes – ‘The Upstroke’
Composed of sisters Julie and Diana Seabrook, Agents Aren’t Aeroplanes’ ‘The Upstroke’ was a novelty cash-in on the success of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Relax’, even down to the cover art.
The year 1977 proved another watershed for gay people. Autism affects social interaction…
On July 12, 1979 disco was assassinated by the American people. This response often had racist and homophobic undertones.
On July 12, 1979, the Chicago White Sox hosted the Detroit Tigers.
Its influence persisted, giving rise to new electronic genres like house, techno, and Eurodance in the 1980s. A unifying mechanic propulsion that musically sounded like a production line. There was also Kraftwerk, whose music not only served as a backdrop for patrons of places such as Blitz to stand around icily smoking fags to, but also also became important as early electro and hip hop started to make new out of old.
New technology put an end to the multi-membered outfits – or in the case of Kool & The Gang, caused them to diversify into appealing to pop audiences – and the sleek, stripped down sound of electronics were the driving force behind gems such as D-Train’s ‘You’re The One For Me’ and Evelyn Champagne King’s solid ‘Love Come Down’.
These genres, with their infectious dance rhythms, laid the groundwork for what would later become known as disco music. This growing conservatism arose in reaction to the civil rights victories of the 1960s and the rise of identity politics in the 1970s, ultimately culminating in Ronald Reagan's election in 1980. This shift away from heteronormative dance created an inclusive environment where people of different races, genders, and sexual orientations could connect, driven by the music rather than societal expectations.
Cross-Genre DJing and Crowd Synergy: Another key aspect of disco’s queerness was the DJ's ability to blend genres and create sets that responded to the crowd's energy.
Budget-free and tasteless, it was inevitable that his ‘brand’ should be extended into popular music. Barbosa had created the tune which was indebted to his heroes Arthur Baker and John Robie, and the gating of Roland TR-808 drum machine was seen as quite revolutionary, as was its syncing to a Roland TB-03 bassline, which was reverbed and gated again to create what was then a whole new development in music.
The struggles of Vietnam, the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, the Watergate Scandal, and rising crime across American cities, most notably New York’s transformation into ‘Fear City,’ contributed to this. Much of this was drawn from Progressive Soul, with artists like Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield.
Meanwhile, synths were altering the eurodisco landscape away from the campy Seaside Special end of things towards a more stripped down approach, a similar sound echoed in the early work of Bobby Orlando in New York.
Disco’s roots lay in gay culture, and as the 1980s wore on, it was becoming evident that not only had the culture mutated into something new, records were increasingly made for gay audiences, leaving behind the appropriated cuts that gay clubbers would dance to – early club charts would feature Yazoo, Yello, Kid Creole and various Euro hits.
The term "discotheque" initially referred to a library of phonograph records, but during World War II, these Parisian nightclubs played jazz records when live performances became impossible due to the war.
In the years following, new musical genres like R&B, soul, funk, and go-go began to take shape, evolving from African American musical traditions.
But it wasn’t just about the aesthetics. Despite their differences, all played music which allowed the club-goers, often from the most marginalized groups of society, to lose themselves in the groove.