MUSC 2019- Class 7
Disco & Punk Rock
Disco Culture
• Music Style, performance site, mode of participation
• Discotheque: DJ’s play records, not live music
• Origins in Europe- French discotheque
• NYC 1970 private loft parties
• Safe spaces for gays
• 1969 Stonewall Riot
• 1970 First Gay pride parade in NYC
• African American and Latino clubs
• records linked in long sequences = non-stop groove
• 12” single discs
• Dancing all night in clubs
• Popularized through film Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Characteristics of Disco
• Combines Funk and Latino Dance influences
• Use of orchestral sounds: Strings, Brass & Percussion
• layering of sounds and rhythms- Accretion
• steady disco beat: “4 on the floor”
• Prominent disco bass lines - Funk music
• Innovative use of recording technology:
• Producer Giorgio Moroder
• First completely electronic popular music - Kraftwerk
Disco is Diverse
The Village People
Then there’s the mainstream…
The Bee Gees
Soul Train
• Syndicated TV program showcasing Black
Soul music (1971-2006)
• African American owned and operated
• Don Cornelius- Host & Producer
• Providing exposure for black artists:
• James Brown, Michael Jackson, Stevie
Wonder, Isaac Hayes etc.
• [LISTENING EXAMPLE 1]: Theme song
“TSOP” originally composed by Kenneth
Gamble and Leon Huff
• The Sound of Philadelphia- Philly Soul
Soul Train
VIDEO LINK 1: Soul Train introduction
VIDEO LINK 2: Soul Train Line Dance
Disco Divas:
Donna Summer
“Queen of Disco”
Collaboration with Italian producer and
composer Giorgio Moroder
Accretion- Building texture through addition
or subtraction of musical layers. Creating
Climax
[LISTENING EXAMPLE 2]: “Love to Love You”
(1975)-
16 minutes long
Also released in 7” and 12” single format
Disco Drag Queens
Sylvester (1947-1988)- Vocalist,
Songwriter
Late 60s San Fransisco Drag scene
Launches solo career in 1978
[LISTENING EXAMPLE 3]: Sylvester-
“You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”
Falsetto vocals
The Bee Gees
• Barry, Maurice & Robin Gibb
• Australian teen pop sensation- (1960s)
• “Blue-eyed Soul”- (1970s)
• Disco- (1975)
• Saturday Night Fever (1977)
• [LISTENING EXAMPLE 4]: The Bee Gees- “Stayin
Alive”
[VIDEO LINK 3]:
Studio 54, 1977-79
Steve Rubell & Ian Schrager Owners
[VIDEO LINK 4]: Disco Demolition, Chicago 1979
Why hate Disco?
Punk Characteristics
• rejecting pretentiousness and decadence of Rock music
• Long boring solos
• Bloated personalities
• stripped-down textures, repetitive rhythms
• Extremely accessible musical language
• DIY aesthetic- Primal Art
• Fashion as well as music and dance
• short songs, nostalgia for 60s rock’n’roll
• Punk is a philosophy— something you live
• Disenfranchised youth, Grim economic outlook “No Future”
Velvet Underground
(1965-1973)
• Lou Reed- Vocals & Guitar
• Influential proto- punk group
• Combines Rock with
Experimental musics
• Provocative and Nihilistic
• Produced by Andy Warhol
• [LISTENING EXAMPLE 5]:
“Heroin” (1967)
American Punk Rock
• CBGB’s (1970s)- NYC Club
at the heart of punk
explosion “Only Original
Music”
• Television, Patti Smith &
Richard Hell
• The Ramones- Joey, Dee
Dee, Johnny, Tommy Ramone
• Extremely influential- Define
USA Punk sound
[LISTENING EXAMPLE 6]:
The Ramones, “Blitzkrieg Bop,” 1976
at CBGB’s
Hey ho, let's go! Hey ho, let's go! Hey ho, let's go
Hey ho, let's go! Hey ho, let's go! Shoot 'em in the back now
What they want, I don't know
They're forming in straight line They're all revved up and ready to go
They're going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds They're forming in straight line
The blitzkrieg bop They're going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds
They're piling in the back seat The blitzkrieg bop
They're generating steam heat
Pulsating to the back beat They're piling in the back seat
The blitzkrieg bop They're generating steam heat
Pulsating to the back beat
The blitzkrieg bop
United Kingdom Punk
Rock
• Malcolm McLaren- Artist,
fashion designer, manager
• Works with New York Dolls
in USA
• 1974- Opens “SEX” store in UK
selling records and fetish fashion
• 1975- Manages the Sex Pistols
• Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious
• [VIDEO LINK 5]
[LISTENING EXAMPLE 7]:
The Sex Pistols, “God Save the Queen,” 1977
God save the queen
The fascist regime
They made you a moron
A potential H bomb
God save the queen
'Cause tourists are money
God save the queen
And our figurehead
She's not a human being
Is not what she seems
and There's no future
And England's dreaming
Oh God save history
God save your mad parade
Don't be told what you want
Oh Lord God have mercy
Don't be told what you need
All crimes are paid
There's no future
No future
Oh when there's no future
No future for you
How can there be sin
We're the flowers
God save the queen
In the dustbin
We mean it man
We're the poison
We love our queen
In your human machine
God saves
We're the future…
[VIDEO LINK 6]:
Women in Punk Rock
The Slits
(1976-1982)
• UK’s first all female Punk Rock
band [1976]
• Ari Up- Vocals
• Viv Albertine- Guitar
• Tessa Pollitt- Bass
• Palmolive- Drums
• [LISTENING EXAMPLE 8]: The
Slits- “Typical Girls”
Don't create
Don't create
Don't rebel
Don't rebel
Have intuition
Have intution
Can't decide
Don't drive well
Typical girls get upset too quickly
Typical girls try to be
Typical girls cannot control themselves
Typical girls very well
Typical girls are so confusing
Typical girls you can always tell
Can't decide what clothes to wear
Typical girls don't think too clearly
Typical girls are sensitive
Typical girls are unpredictable (predictable)
Typical girls are emotional
Typical girls are cruel and bewitching
Typical girls try to be
She's a femme fatale
Typical girls very well
Typical girls stand by their man
Typical girls are really swell
Typical girls are looking for something
Typical girls learn how to act shocked
Typical girls fall under spells
Typical girls don't rebel
Typical girls buy magazines
Typical girls feel like hell
Who invented the typical girl?
Typical girls worry about spots, fat, and natural smells
Who's bringing out the new improved model?
Sneaky fake smells
And there's another marketing ploy
Typical girls try to be
Typical girl gets the typical boy
Typical girls very well
The typical boy gets the typical girl
The typical girl gets the typical boy
Are emotional
