What groups could have overshadowed Disco in the 70's?

What rock groups could have overshadowed Disco in the mid-late 70's and pushed it out of the limelight?

I was watching Behind the Music about Grand Funk Railroad, and someone said that they should have kept going after 1976 and killed disco. What other rock groups could have overshadowed it?

Some thoughts.

This is a bit of an apples and oranges question.

First, look at the demographics. Disco arose from the American R & B market, the Northern soul demographics in the UK, gay and urban culture, European club culture, and the like. Above all, it was dance music. The core groups buying this music are not buying all that much Led Zep, Grand Funk, or Emerson Lake & Palaver. For a music to replace to disco, it would have to fill the role disco filled and heavy metal, prog, or stadium rock do not do it. The music would have to be club music and urban. Punk and "new wave" (a term allegedly used by Sire Records' marketing people to avoid the stigma of the punk label) sorta aimed at dance music but really was focused at different purpose than Disco.

Prior to disco many who would be in the disco demographic are buying other forms of urban dance music--from artists such as Smokey Robinson, Arthur Conley, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, etc. R & B music of the Motown variety and the grittier Stax/Atlantic was huge in Europe and in the states--and very influential. Later, the Philadephia sound came is even more dance oriented. You have these American sound copied by UK based groups such as Hot Chocolate and David Bowie. Indeed, Bowie's Young Americans is a homage to the Philly soul sound, which he combined with his glam-rock. Young Americans has a number of danceable songs, some of which receive play on radio in stations featuring predominantly "urban" (black) music, including the proto-disco hit Fame, with an obscure Anglo-Irishman by the name of John Lennon on backing vocals.

Punk culture, like disco, placed a heavy emphasis on dancing. This is like the roots of rock, as early rock was dance music. However, punk dancing, unlike disco, was not what would be considered romantic dancing. Rather, punk pogo dancing and the like were more an involvement of the individual involved actively in the musical event. Still, is considerably different that say reverentially passively being be at the event as a mere audience member.

Record labels such as Stiff Records mocked the reverence of "Art Rock," as prog rock was then often called. Stiff sold t-shirts that were emblazoned, "Fuck Art, Let's Dance." (Another indie label, in turned mocked Stiff, with a t-shirt emblazoned, "Let Art Dance, Let's Fuck.") Stiff offered what might be termed power pop today, with artists such E. Costello, Nick Lowe, and the Yachts, as well as the punks The Damned. Some of this could be dance music. So to supercede disco, I think you would have needed something danceable and acceptable to Disco's core audience.

Groups that attempted to provide this included any number of "new wave" groups such as The Talking Heads, who had a big club hit with their cover of Take Me To The River, the B-52s, Blondie, and the previously mentioned David Bowie. This, of course, is a very white bunch of folks. The appeal of such music was probably rather limited to an important demographic segment of the disco market--African-Americans, who tended to favor more culturally relevant music. The African-American R & B greats often easily transitioned to disco type material. Marvin Gaye, for example had a big hit with Got to Give Up.

So for a music to replace disco, you would need something that appeals to its demographic, and neither Prog Rock nor metal are it. These are primarily white, suburban music. Possibly reggae/ska would fill the role, as it is danceable and might have had some appeal across racial lines.

(And don't even begin to consider the role of Krautrock & Kraftwerk on this mess.)
 
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Punk R&B. Basically the scenario is that you get a mixed-race group of urban working class kids that decide to go and see a Ramones concert when they are touring. Inspired by this music but also big fans of old-fashioned R&B the friends make a band that combines the raw sound of punk with the many hooks or R&B and go on to be a sensation.
 
I like most of what Phil wrote, however I only survived the late 70s, by clinging to my homage to THE WHO, ELP [that’s Palmer ], and Yes plus Pink Floyd etc. However the basic point is made. Most people wanted dance tunes and most of the harder rock Zeppelin etc was not the average dance music. I actually liked the Bee Gees in their earlier aussi pre disco incarnation.

No matter what the musical innovation and rebellion, the music industry will always try to cash in, absorb, process, censure, purify and then mass-produce as many clones as possible. They have to make it acceptable for the society and corporate world. This was one of the main things I realized about how much I hated Disco....mind you it WAS the dance music to pic up girls at the clubs.

Maybe if a POD had Michael Jackson had born a few years earlier, he might have helped to steer the dance music away from 'grease' type dance music.

They say that ‘video killed the musical star’ which help MTV to kick off the wide spread appeal of “new wave” at the start of a new decade, when combined with the outrageous glam rock & Bowie clones. Maybe an earlier development of VCR could lead to such a change?
 

If you are going down the "2-tone" Route, then what about groups such as Madness, The Selecter, & later on, UB40...?
As for esl's argument, about VCR's launched in the U.S earlier than Sony's Betamax in 1975-1976, a debugged Cartrivision Mk 2, or maybe Philips heavily promoting their N1500 series, (launched in Europe during 1972-1973), in the U.S, under the Magnavox, rather than the Norelco brand...?
 
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Popular music in the seventies was very dominated by the Top 40 with its high turnover play lists. When disco got its foothold in 1974, there was no dominant alternative available. By 1976, there was. Blondie began recording that year, but not until disco waned in 1979 did they become popular.

Rather than try to butterfly away disco, maybe we can shorten its reign. Punk rock had a slow start because its artists had a reputation for violent theatrics in the studio and on stage. The term "new wave" emerged to market the music style without the violence and broken chairs. Instead of converting the Bee Gees to disco, suppose Robert Stigwood took them to punk rock instead. Their relatively benign reputation would improve public acceptance. Saturday Night Fever would have been a very different movie with different music. Instead of breathing two more years of life into disco, punk rock (and punk R&B) would be popular in late 1977. Disco would fade as a three year fad and the Village People might never see the charts.
 
The Beatles don't break up in 1970

So what happens if, for whatever reason, the Beatles don't break up in 1970 and remain a tightly nit band. I think the most likely thing they do is, with psychedelic on the down and punk and rock on the rise, they shift more into 'noise' (the music genre) as it sees alot of combination of the two.

Just another question to think about that I don't think is worth it's own thread.
 
So what happens if, for whatever reason, the Beatles don't break up in 1970 and remain a tightly nit band. I think the most likely thing they do is, with psychedelic on the down and punk and rock on the rise, they shift more into 'noise' (the music genre) as it sees alot of combination of the two.

Just another question to think about that I don't think is worth it's own thread.

During the making of the Anthology trilogy in the mid 1990s it was suggested that John Lennon, in the 1970s, had said that if the Beatles had survived into the 70s, they would have perhaps sounded more like ELO. Big epic productions which were a combination of progressive rock and classical influences. ELO were a very inventive band and had an original sound; Jeff Lynne has gone on record to say this was the perhaps the biggest compliment of his career. I could perhaps see this happening, as the Beatles may have become more prog-rock as the 70s wore on. The music critic Paul Morley (I think it was him anyway) said that Sgt. Pepper was perhaps the first prog-rock album with it's use of diverse musical styles and advanced song structure (A Day in the Life) and it's use artwork to give it an almost theatrical feel. Much the same as what ELO, Jethro Tull, Yes and Genesis were doing a few years later.
 
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stereotypres are only true for 75% of the population

"What would gay men have listened to if not for disco?"...

Well, granted they did listen to it a lot. But all you straight people should thank gay men the next time you see one for giving the Seventies any party at all. If it weren't for gay/disco culture and the clubs that played it, it never would have crossed over to the straight community, and all people might have indeed spent the whole 70's home on a Saturday night. Straight people pretty much adopt anything that the gays do anyway and then try to kick us out. Don't believe me? go to any gay club on a Saturday night and see how many straight metrosexuals and hipsters there are.

Personally, I think disco sucks, as does techno and house music, and I'm 100% gay. I'd like to think that glam and many of my fav's like Bowie, Queen, T-Rex, etc. would have fused with my metal and punk fav's from the late 70's into something new had Disco not come about. That would have been fun, imagine a harder-edge glam with punk and metal sensibilities. Kinda like Peaches or the Presets but 30 years earlier.

BTW, even Bowie and Queen got pretty darn lame in the 80's. Bowie cause he wanted more coke and money, Queen cause Freddie couldn't get enough coke and dick.

But I digress...

As it stands though, disco was a pretty big party at a time when America was in need of one (Vietnam, race riots, Watergate, etc.) So a lot of those singer-songwriters found their protest music falling on deaf ears, people just wanted to party, do drugs, screw and not care about big issues. Too bad some of the things we got from that party stuck with us, like AIDS and dance music (just about as evil, IMHO).

:eek:

PRETTY COOL TO SEE A NON-SEALION AH!!!
 
People, disco can only be subverted by other pop music, maybe perhaps glam rock. Just because the punks declared themselves to be a response to disco doesn't mean that punk can actually displace disco.

G.Fieendish said:
If you are going down the "2-tone" Route, then what about groups such as Madness, The Selecter, & later on, UB40...?

I'm afraid that the natural replacement for disco might be earlier new romantics...
 
As it stands though, disco was a pretty big party at a time when America was in need of one (Vietnam, race riots, Watergate, etc.) So a lot of those singer-songwriters found their protest music falling on deaf ears, people just wanted to party, do drugs, screw and not care about big issues. Too bad some of the things we got from that party stuck with us, like AIDS and dance music (just about as evil, IMHO).

The protest music was completely past tense when disco emerged. The draft ended in mid-1973. We left Vietnam completely in mid 1975. Watergate was done and resolved in the fall of 1974, around the time disco was becoming organized. Disco hit its first peak in 1976.
 
1974

The protest music was completely past tense when disco emerged. The draft ended in mid-1973. We left Vietnam completely in mid 1975. Watergate was done and resolved in the fall of 1974, around the time disco was becoming organized. Disco hit its first peak in 1976.

Yes, 1974 was the year when Rock the Boat from Hues corporation came out, and also when KC and the Sunshine Band started recording with Stone Records in Florida. They recorded the song Rock Your Baby, but they didn't think that it worked for them, so they gave it to George McCrae, and he made it into a hit.

BTW, what does the VCR coming out earlier have to do with Disco?
 
People, disco can only be subverted by other pop music, maybe perhaps glam rock. Just because the punks declared themselves to be a response to disco doesn't mean that punk can actually displace disco.



I'm afraid that the natural replacement for disco might be earlier new romantics...

Intresting, but does this mean bands such as the more experimental Island era Ultravox!, & not the later Chrysalis-era "dumbed down" but more commercially sucessful, version of Ultravox that Midge Ure fronted, gets more exposure...?
As for the earlier VCR introduction, one effect might be that the concept of Music Videos selling a band/artist arrives earlier, & the idea of a compilation Disco video, featuring artists/groups such as Donna Summer, & Sister Sledge etc becomes commercially viable...?
 
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