It’s obvious to the most
casual acquaintance that I like music, and my tastes gravitate toward rock and
roll. Heck, I was raised on it alongside a sprinkling of Dad’s preferred Johnny
Cash or The Oak Ridge Boys, some of Mom’s golden oldies thrown in for good
measure. Hearing The Man in Black covering a Nine Inch Nails tune still makes
me delirious with joy.
Disco, on the other hand,
curdles my blood. Always has. I don’t denigrate the talent of its performers,
but please do not make me listen. When my favorite podcasters Josh Clark and
Chuck Bryant covered the topic on Stuff You Should Know I struggled a little not
to shut it off when they sampled the music. And my eyes glazed over hearing the
litany of mostly unfamiliar artists’ names (not a good thing when you’re
driving, I might add).
I did learn some interesting
facts, of course, about the history and whatnot. For example, during that era the
number of disparate artists across vastly different genres trying their hand at
the campy style blew my mind.
Really, Dolly? How could you?
My favorite part was learning
about the so-called death of disco in Chicago,
Illinois. I was ten years old at
the time and never heard a peep. You can bet I would have cheered at that
tender age had I known. However, flinging vinyl at peoples’ heads and tearing
up a baseball field were egregious acts.
You can watch the clip if
you’re interested. It’s not terribly long and quite fascinating.
Had you heard about this
raucous event in 1979? Would you have attended?
