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Location: Michigan | i went thru that disco era and i gotta tell you i hated it. :mad: if you did want to get a girl to take away with you , you had to dance and man did the dancing style change overnight. it went from the hitch hike and the twist to this very well orchestrated disco crap . if you missed a beat in the rock and roll you could make it up but if you missed a move on the disco you screwed up you and your partner . i look back and laugh :D about how i used to go out and put on a leasure suit and go to the bar . i would only ask a girl to dance if it was a slow song not involving me in a dance routine. awe shit did i hate that era , :mad: but what about some of you ???? were any of you people disco freaks or john travolta's :confused: it is time to fess up about it.GWB |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | They keep changing the name to convince people that it ain't that same ol' trash, but
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| I lived in a rural area where everyone I knew laughed it disco type people, dancing in general and the squealing, castrati falsetto of bands like the bee gees.
For us it was southern rock, going to jam sessions, tons of beer, touring the side-roads and going to field parties...lol |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | I went to Woodstock. |
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Location: Massachusetts | Never owned a leasure suit, but we did play Stayin' Alive. A terrible era in musical history. |
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Location: Flahdaw | Wait!??? Leisure suits went out of style? |
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Location: Cicero, NY | That's just a nasty rumor, dB. Stay true to your style.
Several of us depend on that. |
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Location: Orlando, FL | Spent my teenage years in the 70's.
Hated disco, owned and wore a leisure suit on special occasions, drove a Gremlin, got an Ovation, had a lava lamp, went streaking, never owned a CB radio, listened to Dark Side of the Moon stoned about a thousand times, read Creem magazine and Rolling Stone, discovered Hunter S. Thompson, etc...
I was a true individual, just like the the millions of other kids exactly like me. |
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Location: Michigan | just saw db last week he was still in style. GWB
http://ts1.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=1544307086400&id=ba8... |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Well I had to do some research on this. May sound silly, but somehow I didn't really "notice" Disco.
Not growing up in a large town, It was just pop music on the radio for the most part. Now remember in the mid 70's pop music radio was just that, anything popular. So while you might hear KC and Sunshine Band, the next tune could have been Lynyrd Skynyrd, Elton John, or the Eagles.
I didn't know what a club was until '74 when I got my license, but the drinking age was 18 so going to a "bar" was rare. I was big into CB Radio and playing guitar. I had my own electronics repair company I ran out of my bedroom hot-rodding CB radio's and fixing guitar amps. I also had a regular job at a Printing Company. Nope, I didn't get out much. When I did, I was looking for girls into cars, guns, and motorcycles, not the general disco-going crowd from what I can tell. I graduated in '76 and worked the summer before doing my 1st two and only semesters of college in '77.
I was an On Air DJ at the Radio Station in College and there was no disco being played. My show opened with Don't Fear The Reaper and usually ended with Layla, that was my schtick. Just about anything in between was fair game.
I joined the Navy in November of '77 and Saturday Night Fever came out in December while I was in Boot Camp. In Florida during January and February there were no "dance" clubs as such, just clubs with bands, and they were all Rock'n Roll. Again, those Disco tunes were only heard on the Radio.
By August of 78 I was in the Philippines and riding ships around Southeast Asia. Ports like Hong Kong had a European influence so "disco" only meant "no band." The clubs in the Philippines I went to were all Rock'N Roll.
By 1980 I was in Hawaii and it was Rock or New Wave. I remember that Toto's Africa album swept the Grammy's that year yet no one really knew Toto had a new album in Hawaii. One band I knew did a great cover of All Us Boys from their Hydra album which was readily available, but Africa wasn't in any of the stores until months later. Certainly not disco, but just describing the landscape. The closest I got to Disco was going to a Romeo Void concert at The Wave Waikiki. (for those that know what Romeo Void is, you can giggle now).
I did see Saturday Night Fever eventually, and of course there were variety shows that had disco tunes, but it didn't really sink in that it was such a phenom until many years later.
I'm not sure if I should feel lucky or not. I feel like I missed out on something that I should have been right in the middle of. |
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Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | Miles,
That's crazy. Right up to the point where you joined the Navy, that could have been my story. BTW, thanks for your service. I worked at a small market top-40 FM station and I experienced the same thing, The Bee Gee's might be followed by Yes. I never saw a disco club, and I gave myself plenty of opportunities to. So, I guess I contributed to the disco phenomenon, but I didn't know it existed. |
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Location: Upper Left USA | In my junior and senior years (77-78) I was a Bouncer at our newly opened "HB's Disco! The owner started with an under 21 dance joint and in a more metropolitan area it would have worked.
and when I say Bouncer what it really meant was ticket taker and maintenance... for the real bouncing I just let in a few buddies that enjoyed the fighting to take care of the others.
I never quite bonded with the disco but I do wish I had put away some of those Demo records that came our way... Commodores and such before they were famous.
Ah, youth... |
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| Originally posted by Mr. Ovation:
(for those that know what Romeo Void is, you can giggle now). I got dragged to one of their concerts at some hole in the wall club in Toronto. Fortunately, I don't remember very much about it. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Nothing to confess here. I graduated from a Western Kansas high school in 71 and Kansas State in 75. We were always a bit behind the times. From 75 on I was too busy in law school and starting a new job out here to do anything more than wretch at the whole disco thing. We had an office photo album at the time and one of my senior partners had his picture of him in his leisure suit with his large family.
I still retain the visual of our first trip to visit my parents in Washington and watching them practice for their disco class to the Bee Gees being played on their big stereo console with an 8 track. |
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Location: Flahdaw | Yeah, I disco danced to get girls. All the girls wore their tube tops, short skirts, panty hose or fishnets, and had lots of hair. I'm not ashamed to admit it....I went after those girls. (But I NEVER played that crap on my 8 track) |
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Location: sitting at my computer | Sorry GWB no disco-nfessions here either - I couldn't dance worth $#@!... wasn't comfortable in a suit... preferred singer/songwriters and rock&rollers over discotheque glitz groups... but I will admit I was entranced by Olivia Newton John in Xanadu (or anything else). Spent much of the 70's stationed (USAF) in Charleston, SC... don't recall disco making much impression there.
Drove a '72 Ford Pinto, then a '76 Triumph Spitfire, then a '73 Jensen Healey, wrenched on all of 'em over at the base Auto Hobby Shop, had a CB radio (listening for them "smokey the bear" speed trap alerts), bought my first elect. guitar at the Base Exchange - a burgundy Ibanez SG... later traded it in for a white Fender Strat that I used while playing in a band with three other Air Force buddies. We played a hodgepodge of Elvis, Beatles, 50's-60's Rock, and whatever else we could figure out (no disco). Played at a couple local yokel bars over a few months before the lead singer got reassigned overseas. Eventually traded in the Strat on the Ovation Legend that I still have today.... and plan on keepin'!!! |
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| man I was born too late, I got to be teen in the 90s :) ... Dad kept feeding me Pink Floyd, Beatles, Queen and rock n roll... think I might've actually enjoyed disco dancing... |
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Location: Massachusetts | Leasure suit?.. I meant leisure suit. That just goes to show you.. what the hell was disco all about?
dark bar, you disco danced, just to get the girls? Very clever.. |
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Location: Orlando, FL | Originally posted by dark bar:
Yeah, I disco danced to get girls. Funny, that's part of the reason I played guitar. It worked too, I met my wife 34 years ago at band practice. |
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Location: Michigan | I was a "dancin fool" |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I'm the same age as Beal and disco was just slightly after my time, although if you wanted to date (slightly) younger women, you had to get up on the dance floor so I did have the moves. I had a few leisure suits and zip up boots in the 70's, too, but never the white shoes. For me, the 70's were the worst decade for fashion, cars, motorcycles, and lots of other things defining pop culture. |
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Location: closely held secret | I didn't dance. I was the guy sitting at the bar buying the girls scotch between dances. That worked pretty well, too. |
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Location: San Antonio, TX | I do own Van Halen 2.
Does that count?
:) |
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Location: Tennessee | bobbo don't dance
Let's see ... about that time I had my choice of two paths -- going to discos or places like Madame Wong's. The BeeGees or The Ramones? KC & The Sunshine Band or EC & The Attractions? The Hustle or The Sultans of Swing? Shake Your Booty or Sheik Yerbouti? Le Freak or Psycho Killer? We Are Family or Excitable Boy?
Girls, schmirls. Sheena is a punk rocker. |
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Location: Northwest Arkansas | We started playing records right out of high school. 1976. We ended up playing that stuff for a while. Then I realized we were taking jobs away from real musicians. I quit and learned how to play guitar. Disco is short for discomfort. |
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Location: NW of Philadelphia | Yes... I had the white leisure suit, open black silk shirt with big collar, black shoes and the hair style to go with it. Did I have the moves? Hell no. |
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| You haven't LIVED until you had to sing a seven minute medley of Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls" in her key in front of 500 navy guys stomping on the floor and chanting "Disco Sucks" at the top of their lungs through the entire thing. Hey, it was the first set, and we worked up to the Zeppelin and the Bowie and James Gang in the last set. SOME people in nightclubs actually liked to dance. Silly us, with Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo, we thought "Hot Stuff" was rock. And this was 1980.
Other than that, the disco years were okay. Girls liked it.
Dues. It's all dues. |
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Location: GATLINBURG TENNESSEE :) | I'm not tellin' |
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Location: Surrey, BC, Canada | Never got into it too much, being not even in my teens in the 70's. But I'm going through this retro thing recently for 60's and 70's music.
Some disco songs are fun to play "chicka-chicka" funk grooves over top of when messing around at home, but afraid I can't dance well enough to it ;) |
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Location: Michigan | this is how much some of our generation hated disco music. it was a great publicity stunt for steve dahl but rock & rollers did not like disco and this was a way to prove it . i do think that this had an impact on letting radio stations know it to . you did not have to many stations playing disco much longer after this . once again the common people do have a say in what goes on in the world . GWB yes to the people . :p
http://youtu.be/-dRVQfOnl6A |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | So one begs the question (that one would be me)..
Why does Disco Suck? I mean it's not like it's Country :) LOL... no seriously.. It's just pop music, but I can't think of any other genre of music that stirs the negativity against itself like Disco. Sure there are people that don't like Country, Rock, Hip Hop, Rap, Funk, Punk, Jazz, etc, but I've never heard as much mainstream global dislike as what comes when Disco is mentioned.
What confuses me more is that Disco seems to get a simple "Disco Sucks." I've never really heard a rant about how Disco Sucks like I have heard about other genre, but still... the crown of "music that sucks the most" seems to go to Disco.
Personally, while I missed the movement, the songs were just pop tunes with a distinct beat. The attire looks like fun for the most part, but the gals for the most part, just looked plain HOT. The clubs looked like they cost a bit of coin to put together and I'm guessing the sound systems had to be pretty awesome cause it wasn't just Boom-Sis or Boom-VaBoom like some other types of music, but there was a lot of full range music... LOUD..
So to summarize... Pop music, great clubs, hot women and loud music and while not everyone's cup'o tea... the fashion was interesting. So what's there to suck about? I could see not liking... just like I'm not into hip hop so I don't go to places that have hip hop, but frankly Hip Hop is more into our culture and I think the attire is a whole lot weirder and kinda ugly compared to anything I see as from the Disco years.
Please shed some light... even if it from a mirror ball, which lets face it... is pretty cool. |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Okay... Hip Hop and Rap also really suck. REALLY.
But I think that it was the media of the times.
At the time, most radio was Top 40 radio... And there was a lot of Disco on that format.
That was back when all the good radio was college FM.
There were no iPods, or internet radio, and very little cable TV.
So back then disco was forced on people by the corporate media...
Just like Rap and Urban Country and the current fads of the moment.
But like you said...
There are a lot of different Kinds of music that people choose not to like.
But very few kinds of music that people actually HATE... except Disco.
Rockers hate Disco, Punkers hate Disco, Cowboys hate Disco, Frat Rats hated Disco, Blues people hate Disco, even the Rappers of the day hated Disco.
There must be a reason.
just sayin'... :p |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Originally posted by Old Man Arthur:
There are a lot of different Kinds of music that people choose not to like.
But very few kinds of music that people actually HATE... except Disco.
Rockers hate Disco, Punkers hate Disco, Cowboys hate Disco, Frat Rats hated Disco, Blues people hate Disco, even the Rappers of the day hated Disco.
There must be a reason. +1 That really is shorter way to the point. Thanks..
I may have a harder time grasping the "suck factor" as while there are artists I don't like, I think I like music in just about every category.. But why is Disco as a category, pretty much disliked by everyone?? I think this needs 'esplain'n |
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Location: Flahdaw | Men (by and large) HATE to dance, and disco was entirely about dancing. No one sat and just listened to disco music....it's purpose was to get you up "shaking your booty." Rock and Roll, Folk, Blues, you could go to a bar and just LISTEN to the band and have a good time. Now all of a sudden there was pressure on men to perform. Disco bars were soon AVOIDED at all costs. Fewer women "hate" disco music, men HATE disco.
I remember the disco bars were at least 2 to 1 females over males. If you COULD dance, you had it made. |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I never hated the music and don't hate it today. I just didn't much care for the clothes, cars, colors and much of the rest of the pop culture of the 70's, and nothing reminds me more of the 70's than the pop music of the day. |
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Location: Michigan | the whole disco thing was just a staged type of performance for clubbers back then.you had to dress the style you did not have live bands it was all d.j.'s and like db said you didn't fit in just to go and listen to the music.you would stick out like a sore di#k if you were to try and get into a disco wearing a pair of jeans and a tee shirt nobody would give you the time of day
( the women ).it was just an act and if you didn't dress the dress or dance the dance you were not accepted into their crowd.it was just like the movie saturday nite fever.ahhhh i hated those years. im getting sick just thinking about those days.GWB |
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Location: south east Michigan | I'd say the early to mid seventies were an all time a high point for music. Afterwhich everything pretty much went all to hell.
As far as colors and fashions, given some time they all look silly eventually.
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Whenever Saturday Night Fever was released, THAT'S the day the music died.
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I had seen some memorable Rod Stewart concerts in the 70's.
It was sad to see him sell out to the disco sound. I guess he, like all of us, needs a paycheck. |
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Location: Orlando, FL | What's funny for me is that as much as I hated disco back in the 70's, some of it is fun to listen to now.
I think part of the reason a lot of people hated disco is that it knocked a lot of rock and roll off the radio at the time.
Also you could get away with flailing around like an idiot when you danced to rock. But with disco, you had to actually learn the dances. |
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Location: New Jersey | for me, disco was invented as a "hook-up" facilitator. and a really good one. |
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Location: big island | it was all about dancin' and girls. i thoroughly enjoyed those times and took full advantage of them. waikiki discos were the bomb. they featured gorgeous, vacationing women from all over the world. a man that i did private-duty nursing care for owned several waikiki discos and i would chauffer him around in his cadillac each night to the various venues. what a blast! any music that makes you want to move with it is okay by me. |
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Location: south east Michigan | Laniki!!!!
Good to hear from you Randy!! |
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Location: Flahdaw | Lanaki was attracted by all the talk of dancing and girls. (He had a polyester Hawaiian print leisure suit and platform flip flops) |
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Location: big island | Originally posted by dark bar:
Lanaki was attracted by all the talk of dancing and girls. (He had a polyester Hawaiian print leisure suit and platform flip flops) now that's sumthin' cap'n lovehandles should draw...if he could ever find time away from his ukulele and saw playing.
hey slippery kid! |
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| Yeah, but those disco babes were hot! |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | and what`s so good about " modern stuff " I do n`t even know what mainstream t`day is called..
Vic
.. I just stick with Em7add11.. |
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Originally posted by FlicKreno aka Solid Top:
and what`s so good about " modern stuff " I do n`t even know what mainstream t`day is called..
Vic
.. I just stick with Em7add11.. Well I am both really excited and really annoyed about music today. There is more music available today than any other time in history, and there is more music available today than any time in history.
If all you do is listen to the radio, then you are not only missing out on "some" of the music as in the past, but based on how much is out there, you are not even listening to any or like .00000001 % of the music out there.
Is it easy to find? NO.
Do you have to sift through hours and hours of stuff you probably don't like or think is utter crap? YES
I guess growing up when I did, and how I did I was either blessed or cursed with not understanding a few things. Music categories are hard for me to navigate. At one time I only used music categories to find "my" genre of music, but now at most categories only apply to the extreme examples of each genre. Everything else is just music.
I even challenge those who say "there hasn't been any good music since (insert date here)" as the biggest offenders of not looking for it. YOUR music is likely STILL being made today and possibly by the artists that you loved in the first place, but every music style, regardless if they have a name for it, is being represented today, recording music, somewhere.
I'm just say'n. It's just so exciting and so annoying ain't it? |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | I check Craigslist regularly to see if anyone is looking for someone else to play oldies from the 60s and 70s. Out of hundreds of ads, I've seen 2 or 3 that match what I like to play, but they didn't work out for other reasons, like my lack of time.
Last week I saw an ad for an "acoustic duo" partner, wanting someone older to play the old classics. I thought it sounded perfect until he or listed the groups that fit his definitions of "classics" and I realized that he thought an old person was someone in his 30s.
I agree there is some good stuff out there and it wasn't all good back in our era, but if the percentage of good vs. bad is still the same between then and now, then there's a ton of bad stuff out there. Personally, I put rap, most hip hop, screaming and anything with "core" in it, in the bad category and none of those existed in my era. Disco is great compared to that stuff. |
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fess up if you were one of them disco people