Lasting Impacts of Funk and Disco

Music is an outlet to all aspects of life and culture is a significant way of forming people and the way they live. Although not always seen directly culture has an overbearing influence on the music that is produced and made popular. The political Climate of the early seventies was full of fire with issues such as Vietnam and constant protest throughout the county. Later in the 70’s the end of the Vietnamese conflict brought the rise of the Watergate scandal and Iran Contra. These issues swept headlines and ingrained people’s thoughts. Social issues also played a big role in the developing culture of the seventies. Protests and constant outbreaks about gay rights and women’s rights seemed to

While Steve Dahl and his followers felt out of place, the more important disruption was not white rock fans who were fearful that their music and culture were under siege. It was the Black, Latinx, and LGBT communities who saw the white-washing and erasure of their sexual identities to appease dominant white audiences that were enthralled with this faux version of disco. And once the economic profitability of disco was discovered, it swiftly arose and transformed to accommodate white, heteronormative ideologies for mainstream music and pop culture spaces that ignored the implications of white-washing and heterosexist undercurrents. There was no turning back. Disco was extremely lucrative in above-ground spaces and because of its profitability,

The Sixties were an exciting revolutionary period of time with great social and technological change. Some people called it the “decade of discontent” because of the race riots in Detroit and La, and the demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Other people called it the decade of “peace, love, and harmony”. It was called this because of the peace movement and the emergence of the flower children. (Britannica) The sixties were about assassination, unforgettable fashion, new styles of music, civil rights, gay and women’s liberation, Vietnam, Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, peace marches, sexual freedom, drug experimentation, and Woodstock. All of these components caused a revolutionary change in the world of popular Music.

Rock and roll helped break many people out of the pre-war mindset and into a new, fresh one. Although many adults detested rock, the younger generation felt that it symbolized a break from the war and the “age of anxiety” that the previous World War had caused. In addition, it promoted a promiscuous lifestyle that celebrated sex and drugs. Rock and roll seemed to be associated with this because many of the “rock stars” endorsed in a loose and laidback standard of living. Because many of the performers practiced recreational drug use, followers felt compelled to do so as well, feeling that that way of life was acceptable. Rock and roll was thought to be outlandish, primarily because of the performers’ gyrating and grinding of their hips, their suggestive lyrics, and rebellious undertones that provoked erotic senses in teenagers and upset parents. Rock and roll was said to establish a sense of identity and power in teenagers, mostly because of the new energy that came from the new style of music. Rock music was seen as satanic by the older generation because it seemed to lead to the

In the 1960’s music had a lot of influences on everyone not only adults but teens too. Starting from RnB music to blues to rock n roll to even folk music it all had an impact on the people that listened to it. Rnb music around this time was thought of as the heart of music it originated from different genres. It started to have more of a gospel sound in the 60’s with artists such as Sam Cooke, James Brown and Ray Charles. And as years passed a new style of music came about and it

The music of the sixties went through tremendous change. It shaped mush of the music we hear today. From New Orleans came Jazz, from the East Coast came rock, from the West Coast came Psychedelic rock, and from England came the Invasion.

Popular music is often one of the best lenses we have through which to view our own cultural orientation. Many of the artistic and experimental shifts in popular music have mirrored changes in our own society. For instance, the emergence of Elvis Presley as a public figure would signal the start of a sexual revolution and the growth in visibility of a rebellious youth culture. Similarly, the folk and psychedelic music of the 1960s was closely entangled with the Civil Rights, anti-war and social protest movements. In this regard, we can view popular music as an artifact through which to better understand the time and place in which it is produced. In light of this, the state of popular music today may suggest troubling things about our society.

“The rise of rock ‘n’ roll and the reception of it, in fact, can tell us a lot about the culture and values of the United States in the 1950s. According to historians James Gilbert, there was a struggle throughout the decade ‘over the uses of popular culture to determine who would speak to what audience, and for what purpose”. At the center of that struggle, rock ‘n’ roll unsettled a nation had been “living in an ‘age of anxiety’” since 1945” (p.15). Altschuler talks about how music and race interlock with one another. Rock had become a “highly visible and contested arena for struggles over racial identity and cultural and economic empowerment in the United States” (p.35). Other chapters within the book state the battles involving sexuality, generational conflicts, as well as other social issues. The author states ideas that are somewhat problematic. For example, he states that there is a myth that rock ‘n’ roll went into a “lull” following the payola hearings (the practice of record promoters paying DJs or radio programmers to play their labels ' songs) of 1959 and did not come about again until the arrival of the Beatles in 1964.

Rock and roll was born in the 1950's and has influenced our pop culture and music for the last six decades ever since its creation from blues, rhythm and blues, country, and gospel music. It has since then created a large variety of genres of rock such as folk rock, country rock, southern rock, corporate rock, art rock, heavy metal, glam rock and many more (Larson). Many of the genres created by Rock and Roll are still listened to this day and has also influenced other types of music and artists. The large amount of variety of music that is present today is due to the fragmentation of rock and roll and what the audience wanted to hear. This lead to the creation of a large variety of genres of rock to please every rock listener in the world.

Where Saturday Night Fever went wrong was separating disco’s popular, Bee Gee-fied image with its roots based in relief from oppression. Disco became everything, and with no guiding light besides the ever-present beast of American consumerism, disco sold out, changing how music and the scene that accompanied it would be marketed to the rest of the country (Curtis 295). Disco was all over the television, the radio, the shops, the streets - it is easy to understand why people felt smothered. The only goal of the consumerist disco was to sell more, which was open season for advertising agencies when they found that adding a disco background to their commercials could boost the profits of just about anything. Disco became an advertising and public

The pop culture of the 1960s was unique and unlike anything the world had seen before. The 1960s revolutionized the world with stunning colors and new ideas of society. Three of the most important trends of the ‘60s, were new music, stunning fashion, and family favorite toys. First of all, the music of the 1960s was different than anything the world had heard before with new genres such as Pop Gospel and Jazz, and new bands like the Beatles. In 1963, “Pop Gospel enjoyed very brief popularity on cafes and on albums, but after a few months the religious music was gone from nightclubs,” (retrowaste.com).

These people hated disco and all it stood for. Many protests to stop disco were held in major cities around the country, to try and get disco out of the American culture. “The Day the Disco Died” occurred on July 12, 1979. This was a campaign held by the Chicago White Sox, and would be a disco demolition night; everything from records to anything else disco would be destroyed. This was organised by Steve Dahl, a former DJ at a radio station which became

The 1970’s: An Era of Change Sex, drugs, and rock n roll - the 1970’s were a crazy time for the culture of America. From the war in Vietnam coming to a close, to a completely revolutionized genre of music, the year 1970 caused a great change in society. The most important parts of 1970 that shaped America is the start of the push for gay marriage, new music styles and technology, fashion, and the Apollo 13 incident. One pivotal event that occurred in 1970 was the beginning of the push for marriage equality.

The term disco often brings to mind, images of polyester suits, coordinated choreography and flashy disco balls. John Badham’s 1977 cinematic classic Saturday Night Fever capitalized on those images to help mainstream society relate to this growing subculture. John Travolta’s portrayal of Tony Manero, a down on his luck heterosexual male, who uses disco as a means of escape from his everyday life, helps to demonstrate Hollywood’s encroachment on this growing cultural phenomenon. What Badham’s film fails to explore is the history of disco; the influence that it had on underground society in the United States. The story of Tony Manero lacks the colourful history of this musical tradition. For example, the film does not explore the

Disco music gained popularity during the 1970’s. Most famous disco artists were not connected to their music and didn’t feel it was necessary to take artistic control over their recordings. With this and the corporate drive to make money, performers garnered much public attention while producers worked behind the scenes to develop the “disco sound.” Along with its catchy beat and syncopated bass line, disco thrived and soon gained mainstream success that would create an enormous cultural impact on the music industry as we see it today.