When it came to disco and politics, it wasn't a happy combination to start with. There were lack of rights for the gay community. It was an oppressive time and there was a lack of freedom for minorities. But over time, things did change.
Disco started in the late 60's to the early 70's and involved 4 types of people that started it up; Latin, African American, Gay and Psychedelic Communities. The style/feel it has came from the genre of Motown music with gave it that funky feel. Disco was also influenced by funk, lating and soul. Disco also was a rebellion against the take over of all the rock that was being played at the time. One of the pioneers of disco was called DJ David Mancuso. He opened a club called "The Loft" which was a member only, private only club which was in his own home.
When disco was involved with politics, it was a hard time for the audience of disco. The audience mainly consisted of African American, Gays, and Latin, all of both genders. During this time period, right were scarce when it came to other ethnicities and sexualities and even genders. But as the civil rights were initiated, a ripple effect of rights came after. The civil rights are a class of rights that protects and individual's freedom. As this was taking effect, other rights/movements were as well, such as the Women's Liberation Movement and the African-America Civil Rights Movement. These movements were 2 out of the 3 essential rights that help disco become free. The 3rd essential rights act that completely set free disco were the Gay rights or LGTB rights. These set of rights are unfortunately still going on and being discussed. In some countries, gay marriage/partnerships are completely allowed where as in other countries it is not and can even be punishable by death. In the disco times, being gay was looked at as an "illness" and was not welcomed at all.
Gay people were seriously oppressed in those days. Many where "in denial" because they had to hide the fact that they were gay, other wise they would get harassed a lot verbally or even physically. But one event that happened which pushed the offenders back was the StoneWall riots. This helped the gay community strengthen up and blossom helping all the gay people that were being oppressed have more confidence and stand up the the offenders. After all of these happened, the disco era was a happier place. This was until a backlash happened and a decline in disco popularity occurred. This happened in the late 70's because a strong anti-gay group formed among punk/rock fans and musicians especially in the USA. Slogans such as "disco sucks" and "death to disco" were chanted at a big riot to stop disco.
July 12, 1979 - "The Day Disco Died" -
The effect of disco and its function in society had many branches. Drugs, dancing, sex and fashion where fairly big parts of the disco era. The type of drugs that where very popular in those time where the types of drugs that would "enhance" the experience of dancing and flashing lights. The drugs used where usually cocaine, amyl nitrate (poppers) and other drugs that made your limbs feels "loose" or "Jelly-like". At one point at they dispersed cocaine through the sprinklers at the famous studio 54 club in new york. All the drug taking induced a lot of the sexual promiscuity that was rampant and public. In the clubs a lot of the actual sex would happen in the bathrooms, exit stairwell etc. All of these would take place in underground gatherings as well as famous disco clubs.
The reason why I think disco was popular is because it is was a big general resistance to the oppression of politics. It was a breakthrough for many types of people that had different sexualities or were a different race. So many political activites were breached because of how vast the resistance was. Besides the riots and political action, the form of expression was all in and through disco. Disco in terms of how it effected the participants, is a juxtaposition. As much as the music makers and users used music to fight against politicians, they also used it to get away from the violence. Overall disco was popular and strong enough genre to go down in history as era.
Events that occurred in the disco era also happened with punk in the UK. But in this case, the procedures were simular but the intentions/morals were the quite the opposite. Instead of a gradual rise to victory, this was a much stronger rebellion.
Punk in its self are several things such as, a genre of music, fashion sense and subculture. Punk, the genre of music, started in the USA, UK and Australia in the mid 70's. It is usually edgy and hard sounding with songs that are rebelling about politics. Punk music is related to rock because it was used as a term to describe garage rock. Over time the popularity grew and particularly in the UK and bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash help spread the sound. Like disco when Punk was mixed with politics, it was not a nice story. During the Punk era, a lot of political crisis' were happening. There was a major recession and a lot of financial problems that resulted in lack of jobs. This is what inspired/motivated the style and type of lyrics and sound punk had, because it was how they expressed themselves.
All aspects of punk rock is associated with anti-goverment, anti-establishment or "D.I.Y" ethos. This means do it yourself. One company that help motivate this way of thinking was called Punk Zine. This was a magazine company that released a monthly issue to help the audience of punk since the government was not supporting people, which is the one of the reasons why Punk was born and a key motive for the genre. This monthly issue was called "Sniffin' Glue".
When compared, Punk went through similar problems as disco but it was the punk/rock crowd that took over after disco and essential killed it through oppressive and violent behaviour. Both era's went through problems due to politics but disco when through more of a "gaining rights/independence" fight where as punk went more of a "rebellion/ Anti-establishment" fight. Disco's method was more of a political/academic way of dealing with there problems despite the rebellion of the stonewall riots. Punk was more of a violent/ loud way of fighting the oppression of the government, though their music was a form of an expression.
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