djaladdin

Why Disco Never Died

After the fiasco in Caminsky Park in Chicago where there was a "Disco Sucks" day and people came and burned their disco records, many thought that this was the end, but it wasn't. It was just the dawn of a new name... The following hopefully illustrates my point.

The most obvious of disco's continuing successes is house music. Ironically, the style was born in Chicago, the same city that served as the place of the "Disco Sucks" movement that hosted a record burning rally in Caminsky Park by burning tons of vinyl.

But former New York DJ Frankie Knuckles was determined to keep disco's flame blazing in a more positive way. At the Warehouse where he played (hence the name house music) is where he was a staple for 5 years.

Starting in 1978, Frankie Knuckles kept his crowds of dancers in a frenzy by playing up-tempo. R & B flavored songs. As Knuckles and his fellow DJ Ron Hardy fine tuned their sounds, the relentless sound of the kick drum became synonymous with this new form.

But that was hardly new: Giorgio Morodor had used it even before in "I Feel Love" and so had the Philadelhia based musicians particularly Earl Young. Young backed such known disco artists as the O'Jays and the tHree Degrees.

DJ Danny Krivit of NYC says "That house music was built from that beat. n fact most of today's dance music is based on it."

Disco and hip-hop have always been joined at the hip. The two styles evolved almost simultaneously during the 70's and both introduced the idea of the DJ as a star. The key overlap is the fact thast many early rap classics were little more than MCs rapping over proven disco dance floor hits: Most famously, Chic's "Good Times" is heard in both Sugarhills "Rappers Delight' and Grandmaster Flash's 'Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel."

Less known to many is the fact that this cross breeding has never really stopped. In the late 80's classics like Roy Ayers" Running Away" and "Don't Make Me Wait" by the Peech Boys were showing up in the Songs of a Tribe Called Quest and Queen Latifah. Later Puff Daddy would delve into the disco archives as he did with other styles of music. Diana Ross' hit " I'm Comimg Out" was seen in Notoriousd B.I.G.'S "No Money No Problems"

"I Did It For Love" by The Love Unlimited Orchestra underscored "It's All About The Benjamin's" and Unlimited Touch's " I Hear Music In The Streets" was felt in Faith Evan's 'All Night Long".

In England, the overlap was even more obvious. Disco influences are prevalent in the Human League, Soft Cell as well as some of early songs of Depeche Mode.

New Order's 1983 hit, Blue Monday, is loaded with disco references and I quote "We ripped off the arrangements from "Dirty Talk" by Klein and M.B.O." as stated by singer Bernard Summer in 2000. "We stole the best from Donna Summer's "Our Love Will Last Forever" And the bass line came from Sylvester's "Mighty Real."

All of this is not lost on one of disco's founding fathers. Although technology has evolved immensely since the Donna Summer's days, her old producer doesn't detect much variation between the music he laid down then and the music he hears today. And i quote "It's interesting to hear not just the sounds but the exact notes and rhythms I used on my albums, used now as they were 25 years ago." Moroder says with a smile "on almost every disco-dance-pop song, they used the the sounds I used for the first time in "I Feel Love."

Need i say more.

And the beat, as they say, goes on.