NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS, HERE'S THE VILLAGE PEOPLE: By the mid-1970s, American popular music was a multi-billion-dollar industry. It was also safe, bland, and corporate, as evidenced by the top singles from 1974, 1975, and 1976. Both as art and as business, popular music seemed due for another round of revolution, and that's what it got from two divergent sources: punk and disco. On the surface, punk and disco couldn't have been more different: sleekness vs. distortion; studio production vs. garage bands; leisure suits vs. ripped T-shirts and safety pins. Yet punk and disco also shared some key qualities. Both emerged from the cultural margins, both encouraged active audience participation, and both represented reactions against the complacency of mainstream '70s pop. (In class discussions of punk and disco, I assign excerpts from Simon Frith's lamentably out-of-print Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure, and the Politics of Rock 'n' Roll, as well as clips from the useful if slanted 1995 documentary series, The History of Rock & Roll; other recommended readings include the punk oral history Please Kill Me and Peter Shapiro's Turn the Beat Around.)
Although many narratives of punk in the U.S. put the Sex Pistols front and center, American punk boasted a long prehistory, dating back to the late '60s and early '70s and featuring acts like the Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, and Richard Hell. In 1973, punk got its most famous stage, New York's CBGB, a club that welcomed bands united by little more than a refusal to conform (or, in many cases, to learn how to play their instruments). Over the next several years, the punk subculture attracted more adherents, drawn by its musical energy and "do-it-yourself" attitude. By 1977 (when the Sex Pistols finally hit the States), punk's public profile was high enough to earn Iggy Pop an improbable appearance on Dinah Shore's talk show.
Disco, too, was hardly an overnight sensation. Musically, it descended from early '70s funk and the smoothly orchestrated "Philadelphia sound"; culturally, it originated in urban discotheques (and especially black, Latino, and gay clubs), where DJs put together 20-minute "party music" medleys to keep the crowds dancing through the night. Even without major-label contracts or significant airplay, disco artists were selling tens of thousands of singles. By 1976, radio stations finally took notice, programming performers like Donna Summer, KC and the Sunshine Band, and the Village People. Of course, what really launched disco into the pop-culture stratosphere was the December 1977 release of Saturday Night Fever. The film grossed nearly $400 million (adjusted for inflation) in its first run, and the soundtrack sold 15 million copies. Within months, major labels and mainstream artists were hopping on the disco bandwagon; by 1979, some 200 radio stations had converted to an all-disco format, and disco records accounted for forty to fifty percent of the Billboard Hot 100.
By 1980, however, both punk and disco had imploded. Punk collapsed in political confusion and commercial chaos, giving way to the more stylish and accessible "new wave"; disco inspired a vicious, often racist backlash that led to a further segregation of pop music. Looking back a generation later, then, which late-'70s phenomenon do you think has had the more lasting influence on American popular culture? Try to think about "influence" both creatively and commercially: how did punk and disco reshape both the making and the marketing of popular music? (And if any ThingThrowers of a certain age -- like, um, me -- wish to share embarrassing personal punk or disco stories from their late-'70s youths, the mosh pit and dance floor are open for that, too.)
Although many narratives of punk in the U.S. put the Sex Pistols front and center, American punk boasted a long prehistory, dating back to the late '60s and early '70s and featuring acts like the Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, and Richard Hell. In 1973, punk got its most famous stage, New York's CBGB, a club that welcomed bands united by little more than a refusal to conform (or, in many cases, to learn how to play their instruments). Over the next several years, the punk subculture attracted more adherents, drawn by its musical energy and "do-it-yourself" attitude. By 1977 (when the Sex Pistols finally hit the States), punk's public profile was high enough to earn Iggy Pop an improbable appearance on Dinah Shore's talk show.
Disco, too, was hardly an overnight sensation. Musically, it descended from early '70s funk and the smoothly orchestrated "Philadelphia sound"; culturally, it originated in urban discotheques (and especially black, Latino, and gay clubs), where DJs put together 20-minute "party music" medleys to keep the crowds dancing through the night. Even without major-label contracts or significant airplay, disco artists were selling tens of thousands of singles. By 1976, radio stations finally took notice, programming performers like Donna Summer, KC and the Sunshine Band, and the Village People. Of course, what really launched disco into the pop-culture stratosphere was the December 1977 release of Saturday Night Fever. The film grossed nearly $400 million (adjusted for inflation) in its first run, and the soundtrack sold 15 million copies. Within months, major labels and mainstream artists were hopping on the disco bandwagon; by 1979, some 200 radio stations had converted to an all-disco format, and disco records accounted for forty to fifty percent of the Billboard Hot 100.
By 1980, however, both punk and disco had imploded. Punk collapsed in political confusion and commercial chaos, giving way to the more stylish and accessible "new wave"; disco inspired a vicious, often racist backlash that led to a further segregation of pop music. Looking back a generation later, then, which late-'70s phenomenon do you think has had the more lasting influence on American popular culture? Try to think about "influence" both creatively and commercially: how did punk and disco reshape both the making and the marketing of popular music? (And if any ThingThrowers of a certain age -- like, um, me -- wish to share embarrassing personal punk or disco stories from their late-'70s youths, the mosh pit and dance floor are open for that, too.)
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