Disco was a very fun and interesting American Roots Music topic to research. The syncretism of Disco is much more diverse than I had realized. It started during the 1970s and had a slow, yet rapid decline in the early 1980s. The Disco genre was created in the 1970s to add a little bit more fun through music with dance and electronic instruments to combat the melancholy times in the earlier years of being in the Cold War, the Space Race, President John F Kennedy assassination, and Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act being signed. The genre of Disco did not begin in the U.S., it began in Germany with the influence of the Nazis. The nightclub scene was extremely popular, even though live music was banned from performing. The use of phonograph records began in Germany, then it spread into the French countries. The French-speaking people used the word “discotheque” which means library of phonograph records. When "discotheque" traveled across the water, the people of the United States abbreviated the word to “disco”.
The multiple cultures that spilled into the Disco genre were Italian Americans, African Americans, and Latinos. Disco is also a spinoff of the music genres R&B and Funk from the late 1960s and early 1970s. The R&B scene influenced the use of many electronic instruments and the popular use of a synthesizer. The synthesizer was used to produce artificial sound of acoustic instruments. The string synthesizer was the most popular kind of a synthesizer used during the period of Disco. It was developed to be a cheaper alternative and a more portable synthesizer to the more expensive type of synthesizer. Also, the string synthesizer was created sounds similar to a string orchestra, so that a string band would have to be used for a song or album.
With the nightclub scene being prominent in America and the United Kingdom, and Disco being nicknamed “dance music”, DJs and the drug culture had a huge impact on the music and the atmosphere inside the nightclubs. The most popular drugs that people were addicted to were cocaine and quaaludes, they were nicknamed the “disco biscuits”. The mixture of music from the DJs, and the nightclub-goers being under the influence made the experience of dancing more enjoyable. The DJs became extremely popular because remixes of songs that were used on radios, nightclubs, and at other events.
The characteristics of the songs were very distinct during the disco period. These four characteristics are syncopation, 4-on-the-floor beats, instruments, and repetitive vocals. The syncopation in the most famous disco songs fills the “empty space” between beats and verses, the definition of syncopation is a beat in-between beats or the “off-beat”. The 4-on-the-floor beat is similar to a heartbeat rhythm, with four quarter notes in a meter. The most used instruments of the disco period were horns, strings, flutes, the electronic piano, and the electric guitar. The vocals and lyrics of a song did not change too much throughout the songs because there was more of a focus on the beats and weird sounds than the words.
The lyrics were very repetitive and straightforward with no deep meaning. The song meanings in disco were very surface and did not have an underlying message like music of nowadays and of earlier periods. The normal topics of the songs would be about love, encouragement, happiness, unifying the world, and sexual liberation. The songs were used of ways to escape the ideas of war, gang violence, and rising social and economic issues. The most prominent artists of the 1970s are people that we grew up listening to from our parents, or people who are continued to be played on radio stations. These artists are Stevie Wonder, Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, Earth, Wind and Fire, Diana Ross, and The Jacksons. The some of the most popular songs from disco are “We Are Family”, “I Will Survive”, “I Feel Love”, “ABC”, “Stayin’ Alive”, and “Disco Inferno”.
This is the well-know singer Stevie Wonder!
This is the wonderful Gloria Gaynor!
Donna Summer who was known as Queen of Disco
This the band Earth, Wind, and Fire
This a more recent photo of Diana Ross
This a photo of the band The Jacksons
The popularity of Disco increased when film “Saturday Night Fever” was released with the main character being played by John Travolta. This movie aided the music into famous. These songs would be “Stayin Alive”, “Night Fever”, “If I Can’t Have You”, “Boogie Shoes”, etc.
The period of disco has also influenced many shows and movies to encourage people of now to enjoy disco music. For example, the musical show “Glee” had a full episode dedicated to disco. In the episode, the characters had a competition to get a white polyester suit resembling the one in “Saturday Night Fever” worn by John Travolta. The characters sang different disco songs and danced in 1970s clothes.
The decrease of disco popularity began with the event Demolition Night and continued through the 1980s. Demolition Night was a event promoted by the Major League Baseball organization for people to attend games. The people would bring a disco record to be burned, or destroyed in any kind of way in between games. The disco records would give the attendants a discount on tickets and they would only cost 98cents. The Demolition Night event sideways and ended in a riot over a homophobic situation. However, disco kept its popularity in Italy, India, and anywhere over the Middle East.
Citations
“Disco Characteristics - Elena's Music Genres in Context.” Google Sites, sites.google.com/site/elenasgenres/home/disco-extracts/disci-influences/disco-practitioners/disco-characteristics.
“Disco.”Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Mar. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco.
There have been many things that I have thought were interesting in class that we have not discussed in detail. All three of my topics are from each culture that we have talked over in class.
1. Native American Church
In class, we did not discuss much about the Native American Church except for the peyote song that we listened to. And I wanted to know more of the behind the scenes and where the Native American Church began. It was first recognized as a religion in 1885 when the Kiowa and Comanche tribes spread the word to other tribes about their rituals and songs. The religion is monotheistic with a god called Supreme God or Great Spirit. This Supreme God, in a similar way of Christianity with the God, Holy Ghost and Jesus, connects with people with various other spirits that they call waterbird or thunderbird. The peyote music in the Native American Church is closely related with healing rituals, wakes, births, other important life events. The rituals and services are normally conducted in a tepee and the time period of sunset until dawn and end with breakfast. The rituals have four core songs and that are repeated four time in a row. These songs are called "The Opening Song", "The Midnight Water Song", "The Sunrise Song", and "The Closing Song".
This is the" Opening Song"
This is "The Midnight Water Song"
This is "The Sunrise Song"
This is "The Closing Song"
2. Renata Flores
In our class discussion on the Andean culture, we talked about the growing importance of the Quechuan language. We reflected on the singer, songwriter Renata Flores who covered American songs into the Quechuan language. I wanted to know more about her and her life as she has grown in her fame in Peru. As a child, she has always had the love of music as it was instilled into her from her grandparents introducing cumia, rock, electronic, and folklore music into her life. As a young lady at the age of fourteen, she competed in a reality talent show, named "La Voz Kids Peru", and though she did not win the competition it continued to jumpstart her singing career. She then began she YouTube account and started posting cover songs to popular American music that had reached people globally. Her first song that made a important impact for her was the cover she did of Micheal Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel". Through the cover songs that she post on Youtube, she wants the people of Peru and other South America countries to notice how important the Quechuan language is to their culture. She explained to he interviewers at Refinery29 that many of youth are not taught the Quechuan language due to the older generations' fear of being ridiculed, discriminated against, and the feeling of being inferior to others that speak Spanish. As of now, being a 19 year old woman, she has started writing her own music. The newest song that she has came out with is "Mirando a la misma luna", which translates to looking at the same moon. This is song is about the persecution suffering of the Quechuan youth because of the hardships of learning Spanish.
This video of Renata Flores' cover of Michel Jackson.
This video is of Renata's original song "Mirando a la misma luna".
3. Sona and the Gambian Academy
As we all know from past Thursday class time, Sona Jobarteh has a huge impact on the culture of Gambia, and specifically on the youth. The Gambian Academy is one of her ways of improving the Gambian future with the kids who will build it. She has conducted many ways of research to find the best way for the kids of Gambia to enjoy school and learn in school. She has said that her inspiration for the Gambian Academy was to stress importance of education in Gambia and throughout the continent of Africa. She believes that the education system for children has been overlooked and needs to focus on educating the next generations. At the beginning of creating the Gambian Academy, she was stressing the importance of improving the education curriculum and involving music. Now that she has completed that mission, she having the struggle of finding the best environment for the kids to learn because as of right now they are enclosed in four walls with no roof. She is hoping that through the education at the Gambian Academy the students with learn self-worth, empowerment, social responsibility, and confidence.
Works Cited
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Native American Church. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Native-American-Church
Barrientos, B. (n.d.). Renata Flores & Her Music are an act of indigenous resistance. Renata Flores Quechua Rap Music Is An Act Of Resistance. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/10/10036118/renata-flores-peru-quechuan-music-indigineous-culture
Sona Jobarteh | The Gambia Academy - youtube. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFe3Ipkj3Zs
Sona Jobarteh. (n.d.). The Gambia Academy. Sona Jobarteh. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://sonajobarteh.com/the-gambia-academy
This is the well-know singer Stevie Wonder!
Donna Summer who was known as Queen of Disco
This a more recent photo of Diana Ross
