What was so bad about Disco?

[R-Tistic]

Throughout my life, I heard people speak in a highly negative tone about Disco. It didn't matter if you were talkin to a young white girl, or an older black man..it seems as if everyone said Disco was a pure joke. I heard the million of commercial songs on random commercials, sometimes as novelty, such as "Burn baby burn" "YMCA" "Hot stuff" and all the rest.

Since I've been DJing, I've been aiming to have almost every type of black music, and I may eventually get more into Pop and Rock, but no time soon. However...I am realizing that there were a LOT of songs that were seen as Disco tracks that are classics, especially in the R&B community. When I re-organized my folders and tried to set songs between "70's and early 80's soul" "Funk" and "Disco", I had a hard time figuring if some songs were seen as Disco or Funk. Many songs had the Disco base, with the "1-2-3-4 Kick-Snare-Kick-Snare" format, but they had more of a funk feel to it.

Here's some of the tracks that are Disco, or arguably/borderline disco (they may be seen as something else), that seem to be timeless...

Gap Band - Outstanding
Slave - Watching you
Luther Vandross - Never too much
Michael Jackson - The whole Off the wall album...meaning Rock with you, PYT, Working day and night, Don't stop til you get enough, Off the wall, Get on the floor
Prince - Sexy Dancer, I wanna be your lover
George Benson - Give me the night
Kool and the gang - Get down on it, Ladies night
LTD - (Evertime I turn around) Back in love
Lakeside - Fantastic voyage
Marvin Gaye - Got to give it up
Rick James - Give it to me baby
Tanya Gardner - Heartbeat
Whispers - And the beat goes on
Vaughn Mason - Bounce, rock, skate, roll
Frankie Smith - Doubble douch bust
Earth, Wind, and Fire - In the stone, September, Let's groove tonight
Dazz Band - Brick, Let it whip
Odyssey - Inside out (Quik sampled this for Suga Free's Inside out)

So with those tracks, even though many of them seem to have more of a funk or soulful feel...I don't see what made Disco have such a terrible name. Many of these songs are still sampled to this day. I think the whole fad and culture to itis what made it corny...from the dances, to the drug culture and fashion. At the time, I think many racist whites hated it because it united Blacks and Whites after a wild ride through the 60's, because there had never been a sound that both races really enjoyed together.

[Soulful]

most of the songs u mention are really good, and those are not the songs i have in mind when i think about the disco era,i would put 80 % of those in other categories althoug i feel they had disco influences,,u feel me?just like rock can have hiphop/rap elements in it today,,its still rock music to me, and its normal that it catches influence from whats considered hot at the time

and i personally also always felt what i considered real disco generally was wack (has som good ones though), especially when there were so much good music made during that time..

this is what i consider pure disco:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/CUm6TCbEK0g&amp;hl=en" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/CUm6TCbEK0g&amp;hl=en</a>
Lipps Inc - Funkytown

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/APtTBODUfd8&amp;hl=en" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/APtTBODUfd8&amp;hl=en</a>
Chic - Le Freak

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/REElUors1pQ&amp;hl=en" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/REElUors1pQ&amp;hl=en</a>
Abba - Dancin Queen

[The Predator]

All about this disco song from Grease :

[NiCc_FrUm_ThA_nO]

I've always liked Disco music, I never understood why it was looked down on..

[No Compute]

Because most disco is repetitive mundaneness.

I'm just going to quote something that mirrors my opinion:

And this is why disco was so often soulless: it didn't stink! Disco has no smell because it is clean, a product of the deodorant movement, revelling in crystal clear white polyester, cocaine, and mirrored balls, in perfumes that mask and repress the funk in its carnal primality. Sure there is sex in disco, but it is nude, not naked, without clothes, but never exposed. It relies on the veneer of soaps on the body as much as it relies musically on the whitewashed veneer of danceability. Beats without The Beat. The sweat is not integral to the music, as it is in funk, in jazz.

http://www.birdhouse.org/words/scot/pfunk.html

[jeromechickenbone]

Some of those joints I wouldn't necessarily classify as Disco.  Disco got hated on so bad because it was looked at as popped out commercialism of jazz / r&b.  But there are many phenomenal disco joints from the 70's that heavily inspired hip hop, particularly Blondie and Chic's "Good Times".

Saturday Night Fever is a fucking classic album.  Bee Gees killed it!