[img:$uid]http://www.chicagoreader.com/imager/postcards-from-disco-demolition-night/b/slideshow/4237460/867b/disco-sucks-banner-teas.jpg[/img:$uid]

It's been long said by a bunch of music industry observers that the whole 'Disco Sucks' thing (which turned 35 a few days ago) at the ballpark in 1979 had a racial/bigoted undertone to it. Do you agree? Also, in this day and age do you thing such a statement could happen and be so embraced that it would effectively wipe out (or lessen the commercial success of) a style of music?

[Edited 7/16/14 4:24am]

It was such a lame statement... Disco music actually takes more "depth" musically even though it doesn't appear like that.

Well, you had even black musicians criticizing disco even if they were incorporating some elements of it into their music (George Clinton comes to mind instantly).

The biggest problem with mainstream music then was how homogeneous the music played in the radio and in the clubs got at one point. We might "remember" the good stuff from those days, but obviously there was a lot of bad stuff around. I think something similar happened in Europe in the early 1990s with "euro techno" when for a while it seemed like music was about to die altogether here (remember 2Unlimited? Right?). I remember it was a complete nightmare as you just couldn't escape that bullshit as it was played everywhere. I'd suspect many people in the 1970s felt the same way about disco.

Tuls101 said:

it was racist if one considers that it could have never happened to the country-pop/songwriter-folk genres (unfortunately), way TOO MUCH white medium-class+redneck support behind those genres; disco was basically a celebrities+black/south-american/NYC-based genre

truth be told, I wish the USA as a whole joined forces to bring down shit-hop/shit-dance

[Edited 7/16/14 4:37am]

More homphobic than racist.

Disco music has underrated depth.Some great musicians.

JoeTyler said:

it was racist if one considers that it could have never happened to the country-pop/songwriter-folk genres (unfortunately), way TOO MUCH white medium-class+redneck support behind those genres; disco was basically a celebrities+black/south-american/NYC-based genre

truth be told, I wish the USA as a whole joined forces to bring down shit-hop/shit-dance

[Edited 7/16/14 4:37am]

They tried. They really did. And, at one point, I thought they were going to succeed. For a long time in the 80's, even black radio wouldn't play Hip-Hop music. But, the Hip/Hop community remained strong and united and kept the music/culture alive and even made it mainstream worldwide. I've never been much of a fan, but I have to give credit where credit is due!

That backlash was extremely racist and homophobic. Disco was a predominately black genre of music that was not only on black radio, but it was also all over white pop radio as well, and it was listened to by droves of young white people. It wasn't like what followed after the backlash either, where black artists could only get on pop radio unless they "whitened" it up by either going the adult contemporary route and making it bland and rhytmless such as folks like Shitney Houston or the other route of rocking it up with more guitar like Michael Jackson or Prince. It was the opposite before the backlash. During the disco era, white artists were actually "blackening" their music up to try to compete with disco. Loads of white parents were losing their minds back then. I can't count how many times I used to hear from white people back then....."All these kids listen to these days is that damn nigger disco music. It's just ridiculous and it's every damn where. All over the radio, all in the skating rinks, all over the TV. I tell ya, it just promotes interacting with the niggers. Next thing you know, they'll be encouraging the kids to date the niggers. And all that ass shaking and ass twisting. Just look at those shiny ass clothes these kids want too. Is that some queer ass looking shit or what? And just look at that damn Denny Terrio fellow that comes on TV every Saturday night. He's just as queer as a three dollar bill. Somebody ought to cut his dick off and put it in his nigger loving faggot ass mouth".

.

People like to say that the backlash occurred because disco was everywhere, was being overplayed, and putting rock on the backburner so the rock crowd lashed out. That's only partially true. True, disco was a huge part of pop radio back then but there was still loads of rock back then also and there were also stations that played strictly rock and no disco. There has always been a wider variety of white radio station formats than black radio station formats, on the other hand, which bacially all played the same format unless they were a gospel or blues station. There was no shortage of rock on the radio back then.

.

I remember three crowds of white people back then. The young white crowd that listened to both disco and rock such as myself, the white crowd that listened to rock only and hated disco and voiced their hate for it, and the white parent-aged crowd that listened to country music. After the disco backlash, the majority of that same white crowd that previously listened to disco, suddenly became part of that crowd that hated it and if you were white and continued to listen to it, or any other black form of music, other than the few black songs that remained on white radio, which by that time was extremely toned down, you were considered a "nigger lover". Radio became very segregated after the backlash. If a song by a black artist was funky or rhythmic even in the slightest, it wasn't going to get on pop radio whatsoever. A few made it onto pop radio but not many and very few white people even dared to venture over to black radio which was still going on hard and strong with the funky rhythmic format on up to 1985 when a little Miss Goodie Two Shoes came along and slowed it down, so very few white people had any knowledge of black music whatsoever except for the few little songs that had been watered down and spoonfed to them on white pop radio. And it's evident even today when you see the disco compilation CDs that started coming out in the 1990s up until today. It's not uncommon to find a song like Rick James "Super Freak", Patrice Rushen "Forget Me Nots", The Gap Band "You Dropped A Bomb On Me", or The Dazz Band "Let It Whip" on a disco compilation CD. Hello????? Disco's "death" was in 1979 so why in the hell would these songs even be considered to be placed on a "disco" compilation? It's because they're rhythmic uptempo songs by black artists and since the majority of white people only have knowledge of what was spoonfed to them on pop radio after the disco backlash, when they hear something black and rhythmic, they assume it must be disco.

.

Another example of how segregated radio was back then and this is an excellent example since this is a Prince fansite. Pop radio reflects the culture of what's popular at the time and if there's no racism involved in the backlash, then why the hell wasn't "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad" played on pop radio? The lead single "I Wanna Be Your Lover" was played on pop radio. Hell, that was my first exposure to Prince. It was right at the tail end of the disco era either right before or during the time that the backlash first started. The song even made it onto the pop chart. That backlash hit and there was no pop radio airplay for "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad". OK, so disco is "dead" now and it doesn't fit the format of the stations? Hello? It's a rock song so how the hell does it not fit the format? And it wasn't like he was just some unheard of artist who got lost in the stack of records and didn't get played. Hell, he had just been played a few months earlier and even made it onto the pop chart. And the next year, the lead single "Uptown", once again a rock record. No pop airplay though. You can't tell me that's not racist because hell, even Stevie Wonder can see that. He wasn't some unknown artist either. Hell, black radio played the hell out of him for years after the backlash and he was a big star on black radio. Hell, there was even a Prince vs. Rick James war going on on black radio. And if you ask white people what their first memory of Prince was, 90% of them will immediately say "Little Red Corvette". Not saying that they are racist themselves, but that was their first exposure to him because pop radio was basically keeping black artists off of it except for only a handful of huge named artists such as Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, The Pointer Sisters, Kool and The Gang, or Smokey Robinson.

.

Will a backlash like this ever occur again with another genre of music? I don't think so. If it were going to happen, it would have happened way back in the 1990s with shit hop. Like disco, shit hop is a prodimately black form of music listened to by masses of young white people. That's the only thing the two genres have in common though because there are huge differences. As I said before, disco had become so popular that a lot of white artists were "blackening" up their sound to compete with this rhythmic genre. Well, shit hop is the complete opposite. If you consider rhythm with "blackness" as many white people do....remember the old stereotype "All black people have rhythm".....and Lord knows, I can't tell you how many times some racist asshole used to say to me...."You're listening to that nigger jungle bunny music with all those damn drums pounding sounding like the blackest of Africa".....well, shit hop completely shatters those old stereotypes. Back in the days when it was considered either rap or "hip hop" rather than "shit hop", and it was listened to by predominately black people only, those old jams like "Planet Rock", "Egypt, Egypt", "Flamethrower Rap", "Electric Kingdom", "Jam On It", etc. would have gotten comments like that from racist white people but certainly not the rap of today which is considered "shit hop" because there's no rhythm in it whatsoever. It's just a slow ass stripped down Fisher Price beat with some "talking" over it. And it's so slow, that it's at a Lawrence Welk tempo so I actually consider it "whitened" down because it don't get no "whiter" than Lawrence Welk. These dumbasses are right where they want them, black music "whitened" down rather than white music "blackened" up. And the thug and criminal images and attitudes in the so-called music, if that's what you want to call it, racists love that too because it's basically black people "staying in their place" as someone ignorant or a criminal. And they're not worried about the violence that goes along with it though because they're listening to it from their safe suburban neighborhoods. I do however, still hear very similar comments from the older white people about shit hop that I used to hear about disco...."All these white kids are listening to that damn nigger rap music."......but if you ask them what their problem with it is other than their ignorant racist hate against it because it's black artists making it, they do have a lot of the same complaints that black people have against it such as it's extremely ignorant, it's basically a "nothing" genre of music because it's nothing but a beat and some talking over it, and it promotes violence and ignorance. However, if you listen closely to them, their complaints are because it promotes ignorance in their white children, or black violence that may occur in a public place that they may be exposed to. They rarely mention or even care that the image itself makes black people look ignorant, only the impact that it may have on white people should they be exposed to some incident that may occur in their presence. Now, if there hasn't been a backlash by now like the disco backlash, there's not going to be one. But if you ask them why the hate for disco other than their ignorant racist hate against it because black artists made it, the old "jungle bunny" responses come back up and they don't even have a leg to stand on in their arguement. I mean, what other arguement could they make because the majority of the subject of the lyrical content of disco was "shake your booty all night long", "let's have some fun", I mean real dangerous influences like that.

.

But things have changed a lot since the disco era. Both record labels and radio stations have become huge monopolies now. No matter what the arguements against shit hop may be, valid or invalid, these monopolies are not going to let it die because it's the cheapest form of music to make and it's being made by extremely ignorant artists that they can expoit, make a fool of, can rip off very easily, and can make huge amounts of money off of.

.

.

.

[Edited 7/16/14 8:38am]

Though I respect the views stated here regarding a racial and/or sexuality angle... I wonder how much of it was due to the sound becoming THE sound. People like KISS, Frankie Avalon, Donald Duck, and Donny Osmond were making disco records.

.

In a way it could be paralleled to the same generic "EDM" sound that has taken hold of radio nowadays. There are heritage/pioneering electronic music acts that are way beyond EDM, similar to icons like Moroder or Cerrone in the 70s, but also a slew of copycats and folks cashing in. Hell, I heard an EDM version of "I had the time of my life" in a resort commercial the other day, it was sickening. Maybe disco really did just suck at that point.

vainandy said:

the rap of today which is considered "shit hop" because there's no rhythm in it whatsoever. It's just a slow ass stripped down Fisher Price beat with some "talking" over it. And it's so slow, that it's at a Lawrence Welk tempo so I actually consider it "whitened" down because it don't get no "whiter" than Lawrence Welk.

the lesson from this is that when white males hated something with a passion, it can turn deadly foe everyone. when whites are in love, everything is cool. but if they hate your music this is what happens

jeidee said:

Though I respect the views stated here regarding a racial and/or sexuality angle... I wonder how much of it was due to the sound becoming THE sound. People like KISS, Frankie Avalon, Donald Duck, and Donny Osmond were making disco records.

.

In a way it could be paralleled to the same generic "EDM" sound that has taken hold of radio nowadays. There are heritage/pioneering electronic music acts that are way beyond EDM, similar to icons like Moroder or Cerrone in the 70s, but also a slew of copycats and folks cashing in. Hell, I heard an EDM version of "I had the time of my life" in a resort commercial the other day, it was sickening. Maybe disco really did just suck at that point.

I know what you mean about the copycats and loads of shitty music in a genre. Since the internet and youtube age, I've heard probably hundreds of old disco records that I've never heard before. A few of them were good and a lot of them were absolutely horrible. Extremely repititive sounding songs or songs that sound unfinished with either very few lyrics or a weak chorus or nothing unique about the beat or flow of the song to keep it interesting until you reach the end of the song. But I was extremely heavy into disco back then and there's a reason I never heard those songs. It's because the radio didn't play them. Apparently, radio was doing something right back then because the disco that was actually making it onto the radio was a variety of sounds. Donna Summer, Foxy, Chic, Anita Ward, KC and The Sunshine Band, A Taste Of Honey, The Bee Gees, each a different sound so the airwaves didn't sound repetititve. There were also funk bands like The Barkays, The Isley Brothers, and Rick James who made a disco song or two which had a different sound as well as some of the rock artists such as Kiss, Rod Stewart, The Rolling Stones, and Blondie. There were several different sounds going on in the disco records that made it onto the air and rock groups like Foreigner, Manfred Man, Nick Gilder, Boston, etc. were also sharing the same airwaves so the airwaves weren't sounding repetitive and those generic sounding disco records that I heard years later in the internet age never made it onto the airwaves.

,

After the backlash, I started hearing the pop airwaves being filled with much "lighter" sounding songs from folks like Air Supply. Hell, I can't even think of any more groups from that era right now but I remember cussing like hell back then and saying....."DAMN, this shit is boring as HELL!". They even started playing some country on pop radio after the backlash. It's like they were trying to get as far away from "black sounding" as possible. During this era, out of absolute desperation to find something that sounded good, I started going from station to station listening for a little while and moving the dial as slowly as I could to make sure I didn't miss anything. I came across a station and they were playing stuff like Mass Production "Firecracker", Fatback "Gotta Get My Hands On Some Money", The SOS Band "Take Your Time (Do It Right)", Change "A Lover's Holiday", Rick James "Come Into My Life", Prince "Sexy Dancer", etc. and I was floored by it. I was like...."Hot damn, I've done found disco again!". It wasn't disco but it was funk and you could hear the similarities to disco which I've always considered to be simply "polished up funk with glitter on it". It was black radio and it continued on at that pace and gradually changed from year to year into things like The Gap Band "Burn Rubber", a little further like The Barkays "Traffic Jammer", The Reddings "I Know You Got Another", even more into Midnight Star "Electricity". It eventually went through it's changes year to year and funk finally changed into something else completely over the years and I think disco would have done the same thing also had it continued on white radio if it had not become stamped out abruptly with the backlash.

,

,

,

[Edited 7/16/14 9:43am]

vainandy said:

That backlash was extremely racist and homophobic. Disco was a predominately black genre of music that was not only on black radio, but it was also all over white pop radio as well, and it was listened to by droves of young white people. It wasn't like what followed after the backlash either, where black artists could only get on pop radio unless they "whitened" it up by either going the adult contemporary route and making it bland and rhytmless such as folks like Shitney Houston or the other route of rocking it up with more guitar like Michael Jackson or Prince. It was the opposite before the backlash. During the disco era, white artists were actually "blackening" their music up to try to compete with disco. Loads of white parents were losing their minds back then. I can't count how many times I used to hear from white people back then....."All these kids listen to these days is that damn nigger disco music. It's just ridiculous and it's every damn where. All over the radio, all in the skating rinks, all over the TV. I tell ya, it just promotes interacting with the niggers. Next thing you know, they'll be encouraging the kids to date the niggers. And all that ass shaking and ass twisting. Just look at those shiny ass clothes these kids want too. Is that some queer ass looking shit or what? And just look at that damn Denny Terrio fellow that comes on TV every Saturday night. He's just as queer as a three dollar bill. Somebody ought to cut his dick off and put it in his nigger loving faggot ass mouth".

.

People like to say that the backlash occurred because disco was everywhere, was being overplayed, and putting rock on the backburner so the rock crowd lashed out. That's only partially true. True, disco was a huge part of pop radio back then but there was still loads of rock back then also and there were also stations that played strictly rock and no disco. There has always been a wider variety of white radio station formats than black radio station formats, on the other hand, which bacially all played the same format unless they were a gospel or blues station. There was no shortage of rock on the radio back then.

.

I remember three crowds of white people back then. The young white crowd that listened to both disco and rock such as myself, the white crowd that listened to rock only and hated disco and voiced their hate for it, and the white parent-aged crowd that listened to country music. After the disco backlash, the majority of that same white crowd that previously listened to disco, suddenly became part of that crowd that hated it and if you were white and continued to listen to it, or any other black form of music, other than the few black songs that remained on white radio, which by that time was extremely toned down, you were considered a "nigger lover". Radio became very segregated after the backlash. If a song by a black artist was funky or rhythmic even in the slightest, it wasn't going to get on pop radio whatsoever. A few made it onto pop radio but not many and very few white people even dared to venture over to black radio which was still going on hard and strong with the funky rhythmic format on up to 1985 when a little Miss Goodie Two Shoes came along and slowed it down, so very few white people had any knowledge of black music whatsoever except for the few little songs that had been watered down and spoonfed to them on white pop radio. And it's evident even today when you see the disco compilation CDs that started coming out in the 1990s up until today. It's not uncommon to find a song like Rick James "Super Freak", Patrice Rushen "Forget Me Nots", The Gap Band "You Dropped A Bomb On Me", or The Dazz Band "Let It Whip" on a disco compilation CD. Hello????? Disco's "death" was in 1979 so why in the hell would these songs even be considered to be placed on a "disco" compilation? It's because they're rhythmic uptempo songs by black artists and since the majority of white people only have knowledge of what was spoonfed to them on pop radio after the disco backlash, when they hear something black and rhythmic, they assume it must be disco.

.

Another example of how segregated radio was back then and this is an excellent example since this is a Prince fansite. Pop radio reflects the culture of what's popular at the time and if there's no racism involved in the backlash, then why the hell wasn't "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad" played on pop radio? The lead single "I Wanna Be Your Lover" was played on pop radio. Hell, that was my first exposure to Prince. It was right at the tail end of the disco era either right before or during the time that the backlash first started. The song even made it onto the pop chart. That backlash hit and there was no pop radio airplay for "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad". OK, so disco is "dead" now and it doesn't fit the format of the stations? Hello? It's a rock song so how the hell does it not fit the format? And it wasn't like he was just some unheard of artist who got lost in the stack of records and didn't get played. Hell, he had just been played a few months earlier and even made it onto the pop chart. And the next year, the lead single "Uptown", once again a rock record. No pop airplay though. You can't tell me that's not racist because hell, even Stevie Wonder can see that. He wasn't some unknown artist either. Hell, black radio played the hell out of him for years after the backlash and he was a big star on black radio. Hell, there was even a Prince vs. Rick James war going on on black radio. And if you ask white people what their first memory of Prince was, 90% of them will immediately say "Little Red Corvette". Not saying that they are racist themselves, but that was their first exposure to him because pop radio was basically keeping black artists off of it except for only a handful of huge named artists such as Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, The Pointer Sisters, Kool and The Gang, or Smokey Robinson.

.

Will a backlash like this ever occur again with another genre of music? I don't think so. If it were going to happen, it would have happened way back in the 1990s with shit hop. Like disco, shit hop is a prodimately black form of music listened to by masses of young white people. That's the only thing the two genres have in common though because there are huge differences. As I said before, disco had become so popular that a lot of white artists were "blackening" up their sound to compete with this rhythmic genre. Well, shit hop is the complete opposite. If you consider rhythm with "blackness" as many white people do....remember the old stereotype "All black people have rhythm".....and Lord knows, I can't tell you how many times some racist asshole used to say to me...."You're listening to that nigger jungle bunny music with all those damn drums pounding sounding like the blackest of Africa".....well, shit hop completely shatters those old stereotypes. Back in the days when it was considered either rap or "hip hop" rather than "shit hop", and it was listened to by predominately black people only, those old jams like "Planet Rock", "Egypt, Egypt", "Flamethrower Rap", "Electric Kingdom", "Jam On It", etc. would have gotten comments like that from racist white people but certainly not the rap of today which is considered "shit hop" because there's no rhythm in it whatsoever. It's just a slow ass stripped down Fisher Price beat with some "talking" over it. And it's so slow, that it's at a Lawrence Welk tempo so I actually consider it "whitened" down because it don't get no "whiter" than Lawrence Welk. These dumbasses are right where they want them, black music "whitened" down rather than white music "blackened" up. And the thug and criminal images and attitudes in the so-called music, if that's what you want to call it, racists love that too because it's basically black people "staying in their place" as someone ignorant or a criminal. And they're not worried about the violence that goes along with it though because they're listening to it from their safe suburban neighborhoods. I do however, still hear very similar comments from the older white people about shit hop that I used to hear about disco...."All these white kids are listening to that damn nigger rap music."......but if you ask them what their problem with it is other than their ignorant racist hate against it because it's black artists making it, they do have a lot of the same complaints that black people have against it such as it's extremely ignorant, it's basically a "nothing" genre of music because it's nothing but a beat and some talking over it, and it promotes violence and ignorance. However, if you listen closely to them, their complaints are because it promotes ignorance in their white children, or black violence that may occur in a public place that they may be exposed to. They rarely mention or even care that the image itself makes black people look ignorant, only the impact that it may have on white people should they be exposed to some incident that may occur in their presence. Now, if there hasn't been a backlash by now like the disco backlash, there's not going to be one. But if you ask them why the hate for disco other than their ignorant racist hate against it because black artists made it, the old "jungle bunny" responses come back up and they don't even have a leg to stand on in their arguement. I mean, what other arguement could they make because the majority of the subject of the lyrical content of disco was "shake your booty all night long", "let's have some fun", I mean real dangerous influences like that.

.

But things have changed a lot since the disco era. Both record labels and radio stations have become huge monopolies now. No matter what the arguements against shit hop may be, valid or invalid, these monopolies are not going to let it die because it's the cheapest form of music to make and it's being made by extremely ignorant artists that they can expoit, make a fool of, can rip off very easily, and can make huge amounts of money off of.

.

.

.

[Edited 7/16/14 8:38am]

THAT^!

And also, the disco haters should in retrospect feel pretty stupid because disco didn't exactly "died". Disco was still alive in Europe as a genre called italo disco. As for North America, disco was still alive in Chicago as a genre called house (as in the kind of music that was played in a club called the Warehouse, thanks to the late DJ Frankie Knuckies).

kitbradley said:

vainandy said:

the rap of today which is considered "shit hop" because there's no rhythm in it whatsoever. It's just a slow ass stripped down Fisher Price beat with some "talking" over it. And it's so slow, that it's at a Lawrence Welk tempo so I actually consider it "whitened" down because it don't get no "whiter" than Lawrence Welk.

On the street level it might not have had anything to do with race or sexual preference and more to do with ubiquity as someone said. I also remember reading an interesting book by a woman who said in her circles it had more to do with exclusivity and exclusion. I mean the velvet rope was invented during the disco era. But getting back to ubiquity:

[Edited 7/16/14 10:19am]

[Edited 7/16/14 10:20am]

jackson35 said:

the lesson from this is that when white males hated something with a passion, it can turn deadly foe everyone. when whites are in love, everything is cool. but if they hate your music this is what happens

Well, they haven't gotten rid of President Obama yet but they're still trying like hell though to the point of grasping straws.

TonyVanDam said:

vainandy said:

That backlash was extremely racist and homophobic. Disco was a predominately black genre of music that was not only on black radio, but it was also all over white pop radio as well, and it was listened to by droves of young white people. It wasn't like what followed after the backlash either, where black artists could only get on pop radio unless they "whitened" it up by either going the adult contemporary route and making it bland and rhytmless such as folks like Shitney Houston or the other route of rocking it up with more guitar like Michael Jackson or Prince. It was the opposite before the backlash. During the disco era, white artists were actually "blackening" their music up to try to compete with disco. Loads of white parents were losing their minds back then. I can't count how many times I used to hear from white people back then....."All these kids listen to these days is that damn nigger disco music. It's just ridiculous and it's every damn where. All over the radio, all in the skating rinks, all over the TV. I tell ya, it just promotes interacting with the niggers. Next thing you know, they'll be encouraging the kids to date the niggers. And all that ass shaking and ass twisting. Just look at those shiny ass clothes these kids want too. Is that some queer ass looking shit or what? And just look at that damn Denny Terrio fellow that comes on TV every Saturday night. He's just as queer as a three dollar bill. Somebody ought to cut his dick off and put it in his nigger loving faggot ass mouth".

.

People like to say that the backlash occurred because disco was everywhere, was being overplayed, and putting rock on the backburner so the rock crowd lashed out. That's only partially true. True, disco was a huge part of pop radio back then but there was still loads of rock back then also and there were also stations that played strictly rock and no disco. There has always been a wider variety of white radio station formats than black radio station formats, on the other hand, which bacially all played the same format unless they were a gospel or blues station. There was no shortage of rock on the radio back then.

.

I remember three crowds of white people back then. The young white crowd that listened to both disco and rock such as myself, the white crowd that listened to rock only and hated disco and voiced their hate for it, and the white parent-aged crowd that listened to country music. After the disco backlash, the majority of that same white crowd that previously listened to disco, suddenly became part of that crowd that hated it and if you were white and continued to listen to it, or any other black form of music, other than the few black songs that remained on white radio, which by that time was extremely toned down, you were considered a "nigger lover". Radio became very segregated after the backlash. If a song by a black artist was funky or rhythmic even in the slightest, it wasn't going to get on pop radio whatsoever. A few made it onto pop radio but not many and very few white people even dared to venture over to black radio which was still going on hard and strong with the funky rhythmic format on up to 1985 when a little Miss Goodie Two Shoes came along and slowed it down, so very few white people had any knowledge of black music whatsoever except for the few little songs that had been watered down and spoonfed to them on white pop radio. And it's evident even today when you see the disco compilation CDs that started coming out in the 1990s up until today. It's not uncommon to find a song like Rick James "Super Freak", Patrice Rushen "Forget Me Nots", The Gap Band "You Dropped A Bomb On Me", or The Dazz Band "Let It Whip" on a disco compilation CD. Hello????? Disco's "death" was in 1979 so why in the hell would these songs even be considered to be placed on a "disco" compilation? It's because they're rhythmic uptempo songs by black artists and since the majority of white people only have knowledge of what was spoonfed to them on pop radio after the disco backlash, when they hear something black and rhythmic, they assume it must be disco.

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Another example of how segregated radio was back then and this is an excellent example since this is a Prince fansite. Pop radio reflects the culture of what's popular at the time and if there's no racism involved in the backlash, then why the hell wasn't "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad" played on pop radio? The lead single "I Wanna Be Your Lover" was played on pop radio. Hell, that was my first exposure to Prince. It was right at the tail end of the disco era either right before or during the time that the backlash first started. The song even made it onto the pop chart. That backlash hit and there was no pop radio airplay for "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad". OK, so disco is "dead" now and it doesn't fit the format of the stations? Hello? It's a rock song so how the hell does it not fit the format? And it wasn't like he was just some unheard of artist who got lost in the stack of records and didn't get played. Hell, he had just been played a few months earlier and even made it onto the pop chart. And the next year, the lead single "Uptown", once again a rock record. No pop airplay though. You can't tell me that's not racist because hell, even Stevie Wonder can see that. He wasn't some unknown artist either. Hell, black radio played the hell out of him for years after the backlash and he was a big star on black radio. Hell, there was even a Prince vs. Rick James war going on on black radio. And if you ask white people what their first memory of Prince was, 90% of them will immediately say "Little Red Corvette". Not saying that they are racist themselves, but that was their first exposure to him because pop radio was basically keeping black artists off of it except for only a handful of huge named artists such as Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, The Pointer Sisters, Kool and The Gang, or Smokey Robinson.

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Will a backlash like this ever occur again with another genre of music? I don't think so. If it were going to happen, it would have happened way back in the 1990s with shit hop. Like disco, shit hop is a prodimately black form of music listened to by masses of young white people. That's the only thing the two genres have in common though because there are huge differences. As I said before, disco had become so popular that a lot of white artists were "blackening" up their sound to compete with this rhythmic genre. Well, shit hop is the complete opposite. If you consider rhythm with "blackness" as many white people do....remember the old stereotype "All black people have rhythm".....and Lord knows, I can't tell you how many times some racist asshole used to say to me...."You're listening to that nigger jungle bunny music with all those damn drums pounding sounding like the blackest of Africa".....well, shit hop completely shatters those old stereotypes. Back in the days when it was considered either rap or "hip hop" rather than "shit hop", and it was listened to by predominately black people only, those old jams like "Planet Rock", "Egypt, Egypt", "Flamethrower Rap", "Electric Kingdom", "Jam On It", etc. would have gotten comments like that from racist white people but certainly not the rap of today which is considered "shit hop" because there's no rhythm in it whatsoever. It's just a slow ass stripped down Fisher Price beat with some "talking" over it. And it's so slow, that it's at a Lawrence Welk tempo so I actually consider it "whitened" down because it don't get no "whiter" than Lawrence Welk. These dumbasses are right where they want them, black music "whitened" down rather than white music "blackened" up. And the thug and criminal images and attitudes in the so-called music, if that's what you want to call it, racists love that too because it's basically black people "staying in their place" as someone ignorant or a criminal. And they're not worried about the violence that goes along with it though because they're listening to it from their safe suburban neighborhoods. I do however, still hear very similar comments from the older white people about shit hop that I used to hear about disco...."All these white kids are listening to that damn nigger rap music."......but if you ask them what their problem with it is other than their ignorant racist hate against it because it's black artists making it, they do have a lot of the same complaints that black people have against it such as it's extremely ignorant, it's basically a "nothing" genre of music because it's nothing but a beat and some talking over it, and it promotes violence and ignorance. However, if you listen closely to them, their complaints are because it promotes ignorance in their white children, or black violence that may occur in a public place that they may be exposed to. They rarely mention or even care that the image itself makes black people look ignorant, only the impact that it may have on white people should they be exposed to some incident that may occur in their presence. Now, if there hasn't been a backlash by now like the disco backlash, there's not going to be one. But if you ask them why the hate for disco other than their ignorant racist hate against it because black artists made it, the old "jungle bunny" responses come back up and they don't even have a leg to stand on in their arguement. I mean, what other arguement could they make because the majority of the subject of the lyrical content of disco was "shake your booty all night long", "let's have some fun", I mean real dangerous influences like that.

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But things have changed a lot since the disco era. Both record labels and radio stations have become huge monopolies now. No matter what the arguements against shit hop may be, valid or invalid, these monopolies are not going to let it die because it's the cheapest form of music to make and it's being made by extremely ignorant artists that they can expoit, make a fool of, can rip off very easily, and can make huge amounts of money off of.

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[Edited 7/16/14 8:38am]

THAT^!

And also, the disco haters should in retrospect feel pretty stupid because disco didn't exactly "died". Disco was still alive in Europe as a genre called italo disco. As for North America, disco was still alive in Chicago as a genre called house (as in the kind of music that was played in a club called the Warehouse, thanks to the late DJ Frankie Knuckies).

It actually lived on black radio as funk because the funk that existed after the disco era is a very different sounding funk than before the disco era. It never left the gay scene either because even before house music, it lived on in the white gay clubs as what was called Hi NRG which is immediately after disco's "death".

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And look at this asshole that started the movement. It's funny his choice of words for a slogan because he looks like he could suck a mule dick.

Absolutely not. Nor was it a homophobic statement. It was plain and simple a statement by rockers that they didn't like disco. There were no ulterior motives whatsoever.

RodeoSchro said:

Absolutely not. Nor was it a homophobic statement. It was plain and simple a statement by rockers that they didn't like disco. There were no ulterior motives whatsoever.

I'm more inclined to believe Vainandy's short essay, which explains WHY they didn't like it.

Most music historians agree there was a lot of racism and homophobia involved in the disco backlash.

kitbradley said:

Most music historians agree there was a lot of racism and homophobia involved in the disco backlash.

Especially a whole stadium full I'm sure they were all hard core music fans

vainandy said:

TonyVanDam said:

THAT^!

And also, the disco haters should in retrospect feel pretty stupid because disco didn't exactly "died". Disco was still alive in Europe as a genre called italo disco. As for North America, disco was still alive in Chicago as a genre called house (as in the kind of music that was played in a club called the Warehouse, thanks to the late DJ Frankie Knuckies).

It actually lived on black radio as funk because the funk that existed after the disco era is a very different sounding funk than before the disco era. It never left the gay scene either because even before house music, it lived on in the white gay clubs as what was called Hi NRG which is immediately after disco's "death".

Everything you said on this thread makes sense.

Cinny said:

RodeoSchro said:

Absolutely not. Nor was it a homophobic statement. It was plain and simple a statement by rockers that they didn't like disco. There were no ulterior motives whatsoever.

I'm more inclined to believe Vainandy's short essay, which explains WHY they didn't like it.

Vainandy is 1000% right. I was a teenager during those years. I remember the shit the disco sucks fucktards said - I was in college with many of them....[N word snip - luv4u] music, [homophobe slur snip - luv4u] music, take your pick.

RodeoSchro said:

Absolutely not. Nor was it a homophobic statement. It was plain and simple a statement by rockers that they didn't like disco. There were no ulterior motives whatsoever.

Then why the backlash to that degree of extreme? Hell, I hate shit hop but I'm not blowing up CDs in a stadium and the reason I hate it, other than the ignorant image involved in it, is mainly because there's no funk or new genre to take it's place that is as enjoyable as funk was since shit hop took it's place. But there was no shortage of rock back then. Hell, it was played on the same stations side by side with disco and there were even full fledged all rock stations too. And if they didn't like the current state of rock back then, disco certainly had nothing to do with it because they were two completely different genres. Sure, a few rockers made a disco record but they were very few compared to the amount of other rock that was out there so it wasn't like disco was snuffing out rock altogether. When someone hates a genre to that extreme, there's usually a reason for it and the reason is, it just irked the hell out of them to hear those black sounding songs all on the radio next to their rock songs and even seeing their fellow white friends into the disco music and also seeing those flashy shiney gay looking outfits all over the place.

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[Edited 7/16/14 12:10pm]

Cinny said:

kitbradley said:

Most music historians agree there was a lot of racism and homophobia involved in the disco backlash.

Especially a whole stadium full I'm sure they were all hard core music fans

Exactly. And just where did they get their disco records from to add to the bomb fire? They had to have had them previously in order to bring them. They were encouraged to bring their disco records down there, in other words, encouraged to bring what they previously liked before they were told they shouldn't be liking it and bomb them in an act of hate. I'm telling ya, when a young white person in that day and age was accused of being a "[N word snip - luv4u] lover", they would quickly run with the crowd. And accuse them of also being a "fag", oh Lord, they'll kill to get that label off of them.

uPtoWnNY said:

Cinny said:

I'm more inclined to believe Vainandy's short essay, which explains WHY they didn't like it.

Vainandy is 1000% right. I was a teenager during those years. I remember the shit the disco sucks fucktards said - I was in college with many of them....[N word snip - luv4u] music, [homophobe slur snip - luv4u] music, take your pick.

EXACTLY! And if they were saying those things to you in your face as a black person up North, you can just IMAGINE what I was hearing as a white person down South where they COMPLETELY felt comfortable letting their hair down in front of me.