Popular music/culture with no "Saturday Night Fever"

TheOtherSasquatch

Banned
Say that the movie is never dreamed up or written. Is it true that disco would have become a little-known and short-lived fad, or would it have broken out into the mainstream anyway? Would rock continue to be the dominant genre of popular music until the present day, or were electronic instrumentation and four-on-the-floor dance beats unstoppable? Could John Travolta still be a star and could the Bee Gees still engineer a comeback?
 

AltSptHst

Thread

I started a thread about this a few years ago:

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=211295

Good replies there.

A reply that I had dealt with Patrick Swayze.

He was in Skatetown, U.S.A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB8gxBIDKEM

If there was no SNF, it probably butterflies away the roller disco fad at the end of the 70's, and this movie probably doesn't get made.

I think that this was Swayze's first movie. If he doesn't star in this, I wonder how his career would have been affected.
 

Torqumada

The Bee Gees were already on the comeback trail with two highly successful albums before Saturday Night Fever came out. In fact, some of the music on the album was written and produced before movie was even worked on. "You Should be Dancing" and "Jive Talking", for example, had been on previous Bee Gees albums and had been hits on their own. They probably wouldn't have been as big without the SNF album, but they might not of had as big of a backlash against their music either.

Torqumada
 

phx1138

IMO, disco will end up a fad that dies off pretty soon. Bear in mind, it's already been around 4-5yr already, with the first disco record AIUI being Andy Kim's "Rock Me Gently" (tho I wouldn't count that disco, myself).

A couple of good things would come out of it: "Xanadu" isn't made, & Olivia never cuts "Physical".:cool::cool:

Travolta's career is probably pretty sunk. He might, just, get "Urban Cowboy" anyhow.

This also means Valerie Landsburg never makes "TGIF".:( That means she might not get cast for "Fame" in '83.:(:( (I loved Doris, & Valerie's got a lovely voice.) It also means Donna Summer never gets a Grammy for the theme.

Swayze, who started on stage, IMO would still get his "M*A*S*H" role, & could still go from that to "The Outsiders". I wonder, tho, if this butterflies his career enough he misses "Dirty Dancing".:eek: Or at least keeps him out of some of the dogs he made in between that, "Road House" (which wasn't unbearably awful:p), & "Point Break". (Can he get an action star role in there somewhere? Some low-budget actioner nobody expects to go anywhere, where he can fight, & end up in a hit film?)
 
The Walkman

The Walkman

The would-be listeners of disco would probably be drawn to R&B or funk.

Ideally, '70s rock music would get more popular because of no disco, but that's probably just wishful thinking on my part. :)
 

AltSptHst

phx1138 said:
IMO, disco will end up a fad that dies off pretty soon. Bear in mind, it's already been around 4-5yr already, with the first disco record AIUI being Andy Kim's "Rock Me Gently" (tho I wouldn't count that disco, myself).

A couple of good things would come out of it: "Xanadu" isn't made, & Olivia never cuts "Physical".:cool::cool:

Travolta's career is probably pretty sunk. He might, just, get "Urban Cowboy" anyhow.

This also means Valerie Landsburg never makes "TGIF".:( That means she might not get cast for "Fame" in '83.:(:( (I loved Doris, & Valerie's got a lovely voice.) It also means Donna Summer never gets a Grammy for the theme.

Swayze, who started on stage, IMO would still get his "M*A*S*H" role, & could still go from that to "The Outsiders". I wonder, tho, if this butterflies his career enough he misses "Dirty Dancing".:eek: Or at least keeps him out of some of the dogs he made in between that, "Road House" (which wasn't unbearably awful:p), & "Point Break". (Can he get an action star role in there somewhere? Some low-budget actioner nobody expects to go anywhere, where he can fight, & end up in a hit film?)
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Travolta was already cast on Grease before SNF made it big. He still probably has a good career because of that and his role on Welcome Back, Kotter. In fact, he may have not had as much of a downturn in the mid-80's because he wouldn't have been affiliated with a disco movie.
 
Heavy

Heavy

Banned
New Romantic bands from England could experience a more immediate breakthrough in America when they hit the scene a couple of years later; if disco goes into decline following the failure of Saturday Night Fever, there has to be something to fill the void.

Bands like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet were influenced by disco, which was (and is) less an object of ridicule in Europe than it was (and sometimes is) in America. There's got to be some kind of dance music; the most popular music has always been what you can dance to, regardless of what shape it takes.
 

MatthewFirth

YMCA would probably been introduced in the electronic 80's, not by the Village People though. The orchestra would die out early, and Donna Summer would not be major star.
 

phx1138

The Walkman said:
Not to mention the effects on Debra Winger's and (to a lesser degree) Jeff Goldblum's careers. They also appeared in that film.
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The question really is, "What do they do instead?" What didn't they get to do because they were committed to "TGIF"?
 
Heavy

Heavy

Banned
Maybe disco will have a quieter decline, with no Disco Demolition Night, which could salvage its reputation for future generations.
 
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