Post-disco
| Post-disco |
| Stylistic origins |
Electronic music, urban music, disco, experimental music, dub |
| Cultural origins |
New York, Miami, Montreal, London; late 1970s – early 1980s |
| Typical instruments |
Synthesizers, drum machines, sequencers, vocals, keyboards, samplers |
| Mainstream popularity |
High in 1980s, see the chart; mostly underground |
| Derivative forms |
Italo-disco, house, alternative dance, techno, dance-rock, dance-pop, freestyle |
| Subgenres |
| Boogie |
| Other topics |
| Artists, rare groove, electro, garage house, Chicago house, post-punk, Disco Demolition Night |
Post-disco (sometimes called as club music or dance[1]) refers to a historically significant period in popular music history beginning with the commercial death of disco music in the late 1970s and ending with the mainstream appearance of house music in late 1980s.[2][3]
The stripped-down musical trends followed from the DJ- and producer-driven, increasingly electronic and experimental side of disco,[4] and were typified by the styles of dance-pop,[1][5] boogie,[4] italo disco and the early alternative dance.[4]
Techno and house music are both rooted in post-disco.[1][6][7][8][9][10]
Characteristics
Unlike disco music, post-disco usually lacks the typical shuffling hi-hat driven beat, walking basslines and/or string orchestration; it more features drum machines, synthesizers, sequencers and 4/4 time. Soulful vocals, however, "stayed" in this new disco music. Post-disco is not underground music at all — Madonna, New Order, Pet Shop Boys have built their careers on new ideas of the disco electronic "reincarnation".[3]
Term usage
The term "post-disco" was used as early as 1984 by Cadence Magazine when defining post-disco soul as disco without the loud bass-drum thump.[11] New York Magazine used the word in an article appeared in the December 1985 issue; it was Gregory Hines's introduction of post-disco and electronic funk to Russian-American dance choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov "who has never heard this kind of music."[12] "Post-disco" is also an Allmusic editorial contributor's attempt to isolate a music genre in the era between the indistinct "end" of disco music and the equally indistinct emergence of house music.[4]
History
Background events
America
| “ |
"Thanks To You" and "Don't Make Me Wait" came out and started the whole dub thing in disco.[13] — Shep Pettibone |
” |
Shortly after the "Disco Sucks" movement of disco bashing throughout the United States, disco records were rejected from the airplay and its circulation literally almost had been stopped. American radio stations began to pay attention to other popular formats of music such as reggae, punk rock and/or new wave and the top mainstream labels and record companies like Casablanca, TK Records, RSO went bankrupt. Since disco music had been on the way of [its] electronic progression, it split itself into subscenes and styles like Hi-NRG, freestyle, italo-disco and boogie.[3] The last one is closely associated with post-disco more than any other offshoots of post-disco.[14][15]
A watershed album of post-disco was Michael Jackson's Off The Wall (produced by Quincy Jones), which helped establish a direction of R&B/dance music and influenced many young producers who were interested in this kind of new music.[16] Other examples of early American R&B-influenced post-disco artists are Skyy, Rick James, Change and Teena Marie.[17]
Parliament-Funkadelic, a funk band, also set the tone for many post-disco and post-punk bands of the 1980s and 1990s.[18]
United Kingdom
According to Billboard, American post-disco was merely a crossover of different genres while focusing on the electronic and R&B overtones, whereas jazz-funk was a crucial element of the British post-disco scene that produced musicians like Chaz Jankel, Central Line or Imagination. Unlike in the United States, where anti-disco backlash generated prominent effect on general perception of disco music, British musicians continued to produce both "old-fashioned" disco music and the new music coming from America, thus creating a characteristic scene.[17]
Pioneers and followers
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, DJ Larry Levan was one of the first artists who implemented dub techniques in his productions and mixes for various post-disco artists, including his own group The Peech Boys. Sinnamon's "Thanks To You", D-Train's "You're the One for Me", The Peech Boys' "Don't Make Me Wait" — all these songs and its attributes and trends of post-disco later influenced a new "never-before-heard" music style. The House music.[19][20]
DJs, mixers, producers who were experimenting with the new sounds are for example Leroy Burgess, Nick Martinelli, John "Jellybean" Benitez, Arthur Baker,François Kevorkian, Larry Levan, Ron Hardy, Frankie Knuckles, Tom Moulton, Shep Pettibone, Kashif.[21][22][20][23]
Example of pop rock, electronic and R&B musicians who followed/contributed to the post-disco wave include Earth, Wind & Fire, Black Devil, Telex, D. Train, Patrice Rushen, Freeez, Mtume, Nick Straker Band, Skyy, Unlimited Touch, Kurtis Blow, Was (Not Was), Material, Liquid Liquid, Imagination, Bobby O, Shannon, Cheryl Lynn, Stacy Lattisaw, Central Line, Chas Jankel, Aurra, B. B. & Q. Band, Level 42, The Limit, Timex Social Club, The Deele, Dayton, The SOS Band, Shalamar, Shakatak, Instant Funk, The Whispers and many others.[24][21][25][26][21][26]
Albums featuring the new sound include New York Cake (1981) by Kano, Thriller (1982) by Michael Jackson,[27] Straight from the Heart (1982) by Patrice Rushen and Madonna (1983) by Madonna.
The new post-disco and especially boogie sound was flourishing along many mainstream independent record companies, including West End Records, Prelude Records, Tommy Boy Records, SAM Records, and others.[28][20]
1980s: Golden age
Successful records (mostly R&B/pop-oriented) from the post-disco movement include:
2000s: Post-disco "revival"
During the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, electronic and, especially, house musicians were influenced by post-disco. Some of these musicians are: Daft Punk, a French house music group, adopted elements of post-disco, disco and synthpop into Discovery,[40] Another artist Les Rythmes Digitales released a post-disco/electro-influenced album Darkdancer.[41] Canadian music group Chromeo debuted in 2004 with the album She's in Control.[42] Similar Los Angeles-based musician Dâm-Funk recorded Toeachizown, a boogie- and electro-influenced album released in 2009.[43] Compilation albums featuring post-disco artists (e.g. Imagination, Level 42, Afrika Bambaataa) include The Perfect Beats series (volume 1–4).[44] Another compilation series are Nighttime Lovers (volume 1-10) and the mixed-up album titled The Boogie Back: Post Disco Club Jams.
Legacy
The 1980s post-disco sounds also inspired many Norwegian dance music producers.[45] Some rappers such as Ice Cube or EPMD built their careers on post-disco funk music (they were inspired for example by dance-floor favorites like Zapp and Cameo).[46] Also Sean "Puffy" Combs has been influenced by post-disco R&B in an indirect way.[47]
In popular culture
- The word "post-disco" has been implicitly mentioned in a 1989 novel named Crazy Love by Elías Miguel Muñoz.[48]
- American satirical magazine Spy featured the words "post-punk" and "post-disco" in their Spy's Rock Critic-o-Matic article, whereas spoofing various music reviews published by Rolling Stone, The Village Voice and Spin.[49]
Related genres
Boogie
Main article:
Boogie (genre)Boogie (or electro-funk)[20][50] is an electronic/R&B movement of post-disco that was popular in the early to mid 80's.
- Artists include Evelyn "Champagne" King, Kashif, D-Train, Vicky D, Rockers Revenge, Freeez, Imagination.
Dance-rock
Another post-disco movement is merely connected with post-punk/no wave genres with fewer R&B/funk influences. An example of this "post-disco" is Gina X's "No G.D.M."[51] and artists like Liquid Liquid, Polyrock,[52] Dinosaur L, and Disco Not Disco [2000] compilation album.[53][54] This movement also connects with dance-oriented rock; Michael Campbell, in his book Popular Music in America defines that genre as "post-punk/post-disco fusion."[55] Campbell also cited Robert Christgau, who described dance-oriented rock (or DOR) as umbrella term used by various DJs in 1980s.
- Post-disco/no wave-oriented artists include Ian Dury, Liquid Liquid, Arthur Russell, Loose Joints, Was (Not Was), Material, ESG.
- AMG-defined dance-rock acts include Devo, New Order, Eurythmics, Hall & Oates.[56]
Prominent record labels
Compilations
See also
Notes
References
- ^ a b c Slant Magazine | Music | 100 Greatest Dance Songs. Retrieved on 2-2-2009
- ^ "Though it makes sense to classify any form of dance music made since disco as post-disco, each successive movement has had its own characteristics to make it significantly different from the initial post-disco era, whether it's dance-pop or techno or trance." — Allmusic
- ^ a b c Reynolds, Simon (2009) Grunge's Long Shadow - In praise of "in-between" periods in pop history (Slate, MUSIC BOX). Retrieved on 2-2-2009"
- ^ a b c d "Explore music…Genre: Post-disco/Dance rock". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d13417. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
- ^ Smay, David & Cooper, Kim (2001). Bubblegum Music Is the Naked Truth: The Dark History of Prepubescent Pop, from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears: "... think about Stock-Aitken-Waterman and Kylie Minogue. Dance pop, that's what they call it now — Post-Disco, post-new wave and incorporating elements of both." Feral House: Publisher, p. 327. ISBN 0922915695.
- ^ Haggerty, George E. (2000). Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 256. ISBN 0815318804. "House music is a form of post-disco dance music made popular in the mid 1980s in Chicago clubs…""
- ^ Demers, Joanna (2006). "Dancing Machines: 'Dance Dance Revolution', Cybernetic Dance, and Musical Taste". Popular Music (Cambridge Univ Press) 25 (3): 25, 401–414. doi:10.1017/S0261143006001012. ""In terms of its song repertoire, DDR is rooted in disco and post-disco forms such as techno and house. But DDR can be read as the ultimate postmodern dance experience because the game displays various forms of dance imagery without stylistic or historical continuity (Harvey 1990, p. 62,…)"
- ^ Campbell, Michael (2008). Popular Music in America. Cengage Learning. p. 352. ISBN 0495505307. "Glossary: techno – post-disco dance music in which most or all of the sounds are electronically generated"
- ^ AllMusic - explore music... House: "House music grew out of the post-disco dance club culture of the early '80s." Retrieved on 12-27-2009
- ^ St. John, Graham (2004), Rave Culture and Religion, p. 50, ISBN 0415314496, "[sic] house music. As a post-disco party music, house features a repetitive 4/4 beat and a speed of 120 or more beats per minute..."
- ^ Cadence Magazine 10: 56. 1984.
- ^ New York Magazine (New York Media, LLC) 18: 121. 2 Dec 1985. ISSN 0028-7369.
- ^ Tech Noir - Disco > Shep Pettibone: Shep Pettibone in an interview with Steven Harvey. Retrieved on 12 26 2009
- ^ Serwer, Jesse (2009) XLR8R: Jesse Serwer in a interview with Dam-Funk. Retrieved on 2-2-2010.
- ^ Webber, Stephen (2007). DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing and Scratching. Focal Press, 2007. p. 25. ISBN 0240520696.
- ^ http://www.danceclassics.net/producers.htm
- ^ a b Billboard (magazine) (Nielsen Business Media, Inc) (94). 19 Jun 1982. ISSN 0006-2510. "The Music Steps Beyond Disco: Where The Beat Meets The Street/Danceable Rock Generates First Bevy of Crossover Stars"
- ^ Parliament/Funkadelic. (2009). In Student's Encyclopædia: "Combining funk rhythms, psychedelic guitar, and group harmonies with jazzed-up horns, Clinton and his ever-evolving bands set the tone for many post-disco and post-punk groups of the 1980s and 1990s.". Retrieved August 15, 2009, from Britannica Student Encyclopædia.
- ^ Cheeseman, Phil (1989). The History of House music. fantazia.org.uk | Artandpopculture. Retrieved on 2-19-2010
- ^ a b c d Reynolds, Simon (Jul 16, 1999). Generation ecstasy: into the world of techno and rave culture. Taylor & Francis. p. 35. ISBN 0415923735. ""The band's -Peech Boys- ambient-tinged post-disco epics like "Don't Make Me Wait" and "Life is Something Special" are notable for their cavernous reverberance and dub-deep bass. Peech Boys were on the cutting edge of the early-eighties New York electro-funk sound like D-Train, Vicky D, Rocker's Revenge, Frances [sic] Joli, and Sharon Redd, labels like West End and Prelude, and producers like Arthur Baker, Francois Kevorkian, and John "Jellybean" Benitez."
- ^ a b c [Post-disco at Allmusic "Explore music…Top Artists (under Post-disco)"]. Allmusic. Post-disco at Allmusic. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
- ^ Pitchfork Album Reviews: VA -Trax Records: 20th Anniversary Collection. Retrieved on 1-4-2010
- ^ Broughton, Frank & Brewster, Bill (2000). Larry Levan's Paradise Garage | DJhistory.com - Disco's revenge: "[sic] But by the turn of the eighties, he was experimenting with drum machines and synthesizers and, like François Kevorkian around the same time, forging a new electronic, post-disco sound". Retrieved on 1-4-2010.
- ^ [Post-disco at Allmusic allmusic] > ((( Bobby Orlando - Overview ))): "Genre: Electronic, Styles: Hi-NRG, Club/Dance, R&B, Post-disco". Retrieved on 12-27-2009.
- ^ Toop, David (1984). The Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip-Hop. Pluto Press. p. 93. "Kurtis Blow may not have been 100 per cent proof Bronx hip hop, but his early records helped set the style in post-disco dance music."
- ^ a b Bogdanov, Vladimir (2003). All Music Guide to Soul: The Definitive Guide to R&B and Soul. p. 709. ISBN 9780879307448. "[Unlimited Touch] weren't disco, and they weren't exactly straight-up R&B; like their Prelude labelmates D Train, Unlimited Touch combined the two forms into what is often referred to as post-disco."
- ^ Heyliger, M., Music - Help - Web - Review - A State-of-the-Art Pop Album (Thriller by Michael Jackson): "Not many artists could pull off such a variety of styles (funk, post-disco, rock, easy listening, ballads) back then...". Retrieved on August 12, 2009
- ^ "Electro Funk Roots: The Building Blocks of Boogie (history)". electrofunkroots.co.uk. http://www.electrofunkroots.co.uk/articles/the_building_blocks_of_boogie.html. Retrieved August 11, 2009.
- ^ a b c d Kool & the Gang: Billboard Singles • David Bowie: Billboard Singles • SOS Band: Billboard Singles • Indeep: Billboard Singles • Earth, Wind & Fire: Billboard Singles • Michael Jackson: Billboard Singles by Allmusic. Retrieved on August 11, 2009.
- ^ Search song on EveryHit.com database
- ^ [1]. Songfacts.com about Kool & The Gang trivia informations. Retrieved on 5. 5. 2009
- ^ Soul > LP > Earth Wind & Fire: Raise!: Earth Wind & Fire hits the 80s -- and never misses a beat! Turns out that the group's older style of jazzy funk was a perfect fit for the boogie-styled rhythms of the post-disco era". Dusty Groove America.com. Retrieved on August 12, 2009.
- ^ Grow, Kory (May 2008). Revolver Magazine article: Why The Most Dangerous Band Of The Decade, True Norwegian, Black Metallers, Gorgoroth, Turned On Itself - "When the post-disco classic "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" by early-'80s New York crew Indeep comes on, King asks what the singer means by the bizarre titular statement.". No. 68. ISSN 1527-408X.
- ^ [2]. 70disco.com web. Re-retrieved on August 1, 2009
- ^ ShowArtist: Evelyn "Champagne" King. Disco-funk.co.uk. Retrieved on August 10, 2009.
- ^ Hoffmann, W. Frank & Ferstler, Howard (2005). Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound (Publication no. 2): "He [Harry Casey] briefly returned to the public eye billed as KC with the release of KC Ten (Meca 8301; 1984: #93), featuring the post-disco single 'Give It Up' (Meca 1001; 1984; #18), before fading back into obscurity". p. 566. ISBN 041593835X
- ^ a b The Eighties Club: The Politics and Pop Culture of the 1980s: "On the dance floor, David Bowie's "Let's Dance" and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" defined the post-disco beat." Retrieved on August 11, 2009.
- ^ One Hit Wonder Center - One-Hit Wonder Music of the 50's~90's: "There are also tracks to represent the rise of post-disco club/dance trend, such as Laid Back's "White Horse", New Edition's "Cool It Now", and Timex Social Club's " Rumors" ". Retrieved on August 12, 2009.
- ^ a b Morales, Ed (2002). Living in Spanglish: the search for Latino identity in America: ""With their group, Miami Sound Machine, ... "Doctor Beat," manages to fuse elements of Latin percussion with the electric hass heats of the post-disco era". p. 244. ISBN 0312262329.
- ^ (2001) CMJ New Music Monthly - Best New Music - Daft Punk (Discovery): "Although it's only fair to credit Chicago with the post-disco dance style's paternal rights, the French [Daft Punk] have (at the very least) earned covered weekend privilegies." Publisher: CMJ Network, Inc. No. 93. p. 71. ISSN 1074-6978
- ^ Paoletta, Michael (1999). Billboard Magazine: Reviews & Previews: Spotlight (Les Rythmes Digitales - Darkdancer): "[about funky and British synth-pop] two musical styles steeped in the post-disco/electro scene of New York in the early '80s". p. 30. ISSN 0006-2510
- ^ Juzwiak, Rich (2004). "Reviews >>> Chromeo - She's In Control". CMJ New Music Monthly 64 (120): 50. ISSN 1074-6978.
- ^ MacPherson, Alex (2009-11-26). "Dam Funk - Toeachizown (review)". London: Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/26/dam-funk-toeachizown. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
- ^ [Post-disco at Allmusic The Perfect Beats, Vol. 1] by Allmusic. Retrieved on 1-28-2010
- ^ Ham, Anthony & Roddis, Miles and Lundgren, Kari (2008). Norway: Discover Norway - (The Culture) Interview with Bernt Erik Pedersen, music editor, Dagsavisen: "A lot of current dance music producers are influenced by the post-disco sound of the early 80s". Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications. p. 53. ISBN 1741045797.
- ^ Light, Alan (november, 1993). V I B E - Funk Masters article: "It's no wonder that rappers such as EPMD and Ice Cube, striving for that perfect mind-body fusion, have built careers out of fragments from these fathers of funk (as well as the post-disco wave they inspired - dance-floor favourites like Zapp and Cameo)". p. 51?, ISSN 1070-4701
- ^ Schoonmaker, Trevor (2003). Fela: from West Africa to West Broadway: "Puffy's consistent pilfering of pop coffers from a certain time period shows undoubtedly that he is influenced by the post-disco R&B bounce of the late 1970s and early 1980s". Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 4. ISBN 1403962103.
- ^
- Julian: "Now we're going American. What's the name they've given this new thing we're doing?
- Joe: "Post-punk-post-new-wave-post-disco. . ."
- Roli: "post-country -post-rapping - post-post- post-Beatles."
- Lucho: "Post-Elvis-post-Simon-and-Garfunkel-post-Billy-Idol-post-British-Invasion-post-Cyndi-Lauper-post-Blues-post-Soul-post-Michael-Jackson-post-Hustle-post-Donna-Summer-post-Gloria-Gaynor-post-Prince-post-Madonna."
- ^ Spy (Sussex Publishers, LLC): 33. May 1992. ISSN 0890-1759. "That's the Way (Uh-huh, Uh-huh) I Like It - introducing SPY'S ROCK-CRITIC-o-MATIC (by David Bourgeois): "In their first album since their eponymous effort of last year, Donald and the Vulgarians, without a doubt one of the best post-punk groups of the 1980s, return with their latest release, I Who Have Nothing and Other Songs for the Nineties. Filled with self-absorbed Trinidadian soca, the album screams post-punk/post-disco art-school pop with its use of guitar riff sawing"."
- ^ "DJ Spinna: The Boogie Back: Post Disco Club Jams (by Andrew Martin)". Popmatters. http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/118560-dj-spinna-the-boogie-back-post-disco-club-jams. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
- ^ The Fader (University of Michigan): 38. 2002. URL. "[the] classic post-disco track "No GDM" by Gina X"
- ^ Fink, Robert (2005). Repeating Ourselves: American Minimal Music As Cultural Practice. University of California Press. p. 26. ISBN 0520245504.
- ^ Albums "Disco Not Disco [2000"]. Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r560174 Albums. Retrieved 2009-08-10.
- ^ Battaglia, Andy (2008). "Album Reviews: VA - Disco Not Disco (Post-Punk, Electro & Leftfield Disco Classics)". Pitchfork Media. http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11055-disco-not-disco-post-punk-electro-leftfield-disco-classics-1974-1986. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
- ^ Campbell, Michael (2008). Popular Music in America: And the Beat Goes On. Cengage Learning. p. 359. ISBN 0495505307.
- ^ "Explore music… Genre: Dance-Rock". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/explore/style/d13748. Retrieved 2009-08-12.