Post-disco

Post-disco is a genre of electronically progressive rhythm and blues music formulated in the late 1970s but is more commonly used as a term to describe an aftermath in popular music history c. 1979–1986, imprecisely beginning with an unprecedented backlash against disco music in the United States, leading to civil unrest and a riot in Chicago known as the Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979, and indistinctly ending with the mainstream appearance of house music in the late 1980s.^[1] Disco during its dying stage displayed an increasingly electronic character that soon served as a stepping stone to new wave, hip-hop, euro disco, and was succeeded by an underground club music called hi-NRG, which was its direct continuation.

An underground movement of disco music, "stripped-down," and featuring "radically different sounds"^[2] took place on the East Coast that "was neither disco and neither R&B,"^[3] This scene known as post-disco^{[nb 1]} catering to New York metropolitan area, was initially led by urban contemporary artists partially in response to over-commercialization and artistic downfall of disco culture. Developed from the rhythm and blues sound as perfected by Parliament-Funkadelic,^[6] the electronic side of disco, dub music techniques, and other genres. Post-disco was typified by New York City music groups like "D" Train^[3] and Unlimited Touch^[3] who followed a more urban approach while others, like Material^[7] and ESG,^[8] a more experimental one. Post-disco was, like disco, singles-driven market^[2] controlled mostly by independent record companies that generated a cross-over chart success all through the early-to-mid eighties decade. Most creative control was in the hands of record producers and club DJs^[2] which was a trend that outlived the dance-pop era.

Other musical styles that emerged in the post-disco era include dance-pop,^[9][10] boogie,^[2] and Italo disco and led to the development of the early alternative dance,^[2] club-centered house,^{[9][11][12][13]} and techno music.^{[12][14][15][16][17]}

Characteristics

Synthesizers played a crucial part in the development of post-disco.

Drum machines, synthesizers, sequencers were either partly or entirely dominant in a composition or mixed up with various acoustic instruments, depending on the artist.

Darryl Payne arguing about the minimal approach of post-disco

Producers are using a lot more sounds and a lot less instruments: the 'Forget Me Nots' and 'Don't Make Me Wait Tracks' are really empty, but there's a sophistication people can get into.^[18]

The main force in post-disco was mainly the 12" single format and short-lived collaborations (many of them one-hit wonders) while indie record producers were instrumental in the musical direction of what the scene was headed to. The music that mostly catered to dance and urban audiences later managed to influence more popular and mainstream acts like Madonna, New Order or Pet Shop Boys.^[1]

Musical elements

The music tended to be technology-centric, keyboard-laden, melodic, with funk-oriented bass lines (often performed on a Minimoog), synth riffs, dub music aesthetics, and background jazzy or blues-y piano layers.^{[1][2][19][20][21]} For strings and brass sections, synthesizer sounds were preferred to the lush orchestration heard on many disco tracks, although such arrangements would later resurface in some house music. Soulful female vocals, however, remained an essence of post-disco.

Term usage

Bridging the so-called death of disco and the birth of house, all this early-to-mid-'80s music lacks a name beyond drably functional and neutral terms like "dance" or "club music.”
          – Simon Reynolds, SPIN magazine^[22]

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."^[23] New York Magazine used the word in an article appearing 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."^[24] "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.^[2]

History

Background events

Disco music backlash had started around 1977.

America

Midwesterners didn't want that intimidating [disco] style shoved down their throats^[25]  — Steve Dahl

Shortly after the "Disco Sucks" movement of disco bashing throughout the United States, American radio stations began to pay attention to other popular formats of music such as reggae, punk rock and/or New Wave while top mainstream labels and record companies like Casablanca, TK Records or 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.^[26][1][25] The last one is closely associated with post-disco more than any other offshoots of post-disco.^[27][28]

Brazilian record producer and fusion jazz pioneer Eumir Deodato, well aware of current trends in American underground music, turned around the career of a failing funk music group Kool & the Gang by adopting and pursuing a light pop–post-disco sound that not only revitalized the band's image but also turned out to be the most successful hits in their entire career.^[21] B. B. & Q. Band (Capitol) and Change (Atlantic) acts' creator Jacques Fred Petrus, an overseas hi-NRG Italo disco music record producer, reflects on his decision to shift from conventional disco music to post-disco "[our] sound changed to more of a funky dance/R&B style to reflect the times."^[29] French-born songwriting duo Henri Belolo and Jacques Morali, creators of the successful Village People act, moved their former disco act Ritchie Family to RCA Victor to release their next album co-produced by funk musician Fonzi Thornton and Petrus, I'll Do My Best, which mirrors their radical musical shift.^[29] On the West Coast, especially in California, a different approach lead to a different sound. Dick Griffey and Leon Sylvers III of SOLAR Records, who pioneered their own signature sound, produced Ohio-based group Lakeside's album Rough Riders which already displayed these new trends and, "instrumentally demonstrates economic arrangements (featuring brass, keyboards and guitar)," as noted by Billboard, praising the album.^[30] 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.^[31]

Other examples of early American artists drawing from post-disco are Rick James, Change and Teena Marie.^[18]

Europe

Disco in Europe remained relatively untouched by the events in the U.S., decreasing only on Britain, but this was mostly because of the emergence of the "New Wave" and "New Romantic" movements,^[32] and continued to flourish within the Italo disco scene although the interest for electronic music in general was indeed growing.

United Kingdom

Unlike in the United States, where anti-disco backlash generated prominent effect on general perception of disco music, in Britain, the "New Music" movement initially drew heavily from disco music (although this association would be airbrushed out by the end of 1979) and took many elements from American post-disco and other genres, thus creating a characteristic scene.^[18] M's 1979 "Pop Muzik" was a prime example of this, topping the charts at both sides of the Atlantic that year. 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 generated musicians like Chaz Jankel, Central Line or Imagination.

1980s: Golden age

This section summary shows commercially successful records (mostly R&B/pop-oriented) from the post-disco movement.

Compare "Open Sesame" (1976) with "Celebration" (1980) by Kool & The Gang, "Boogie Wonderland" (1979) with "Let's Groove" (1981) by Earth, Wind & Fire, "Shame" (1978) with "Love Come Down" (1981) by Evelyn "Champagne" King and "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" (1976) with "Give It Up" (1982) by KC & the Sunshine Band.

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.^[52] Another artist, Les Rythmes Digitales, released a post-disco/electro-influenced album, Darkdancer.^[53] Canadian music group Chromeo debuted in 2004 with the album She's in Control.^[54] Similar Los Angeles-based musician Dâm-Funk recorded Toeachizown, a boogie- and electro-influenced album released in 2009.^[55] Another band called Escort, who hails from New York City, surfaced on the post-disco and post-punk revival scenes around 2006. The story about Escort appeared on New York Times in November 2011.^[56]

Contemporary compilation albums featuring post-disco and electro artists (e.g. Imagination, Level 42, Afrika Bambaataa) include The Perfect Beats series (volume 1–4).^[57] Another compilation series are Nighttime Lovers (volume 1-10) and the mixed-up album titled The Boogie Back: Post Disco Club Jams.

Pioneers and followers

"Thanks To You" and "Don't Make Me Wait" came out and started the whole dub thing in disco.^[58] — Shep Pettibone

Particular psychedelic soul artists like Sly and the Family Stone liked to push the boundaries of conventional music by employing what was to be a precursor to synthesizer, electronic organ. Multi-instrumentalist Stevie Wonder was one of early artists venturing into the realms of analog synthesizer after impressed by the work of T.O.N.T.O. Expanding Head Band, an influential multinational electronic music duo of sound designers: "How great it is at a time when technology and the science of music is at its highest point of evolution, to have the reintroduction of two of the most prominent forefathers in this music be heard again. It can be said of this work that it parallels with good wine. As it ages it only gets better with time. A toast to greatness... a toast to Zero Time... forever." With an increasing growth of personalized synthesizers on the market they were becoming more commercially available and easy-to-use, especially those produced by Roland Corporation. One of their first users was an cutting-edge artist George Clinton and his Parliament-Funkadelic collective project. Funk rhythms, psychedelic guitars, synthetic bass-rich lines, the particularly melodic endeavor and music minimalism of P-Funk. Brooklyn Transit Express member Kashif, noted for his use of bass synthesizer^[59] during the group's tour, later went solo as a record producer and began crafting funk-influenced songs for Evelyn "Champagne" King that shown a minimalism-akin approach, the disregard of disco music arrangements, and affiliation to the method of "one-man band" previously paved through by Wonder.^[59] Other spheres of influence include the move from pioneering DJs and record producers to release alternative mixes on the same single, so-called dub mixes. DJ Larry Levan implemented elements of dub music in his productions and mixes for various post-disco artists, including his own group The Peech Boys. Musically, there was a search for out-of-mainstream music to derive new ideas from, most commonly blues, and other styles like reggae, etc. were also incorporated.

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.^[60][61]

The new post-disco sound was flourishing among predominately New York City record companies, including West End Records, Prelude Records, Tommy Boy Records, SAM Records, and others.^[61][62] Most of them were independently owned and had their own distribution^[63] but some particular mainstream labels, notably RCA Records,^[29] were too, responsible for popularizing and capitalizing on the new sound.

Timeline

	Earth, Wind & Fire - Let's Groove (1981) (sample) Short sample of "Let's Groove", originally released in 1981 by Earth, Wind & Fire.[nb 2]
Problems playing this file? See media help.

	Michael Jackson - Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (1983) (sample) Short sample of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", a song that appeared on Michael Jackson's album Thriller.[nb 3]
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Although there is no exact point when post-disco started, many synthpop and electronic musicians of that time continued to enhance the raw minimalist sound, while focusing on synthesizers, and keyboard instruments. As noted by Payne, drum machines also played an important part in the urban-oriented music in general.^[18]

Legacy

Michael Jackson and Madonna are the most successful artists of post-disco.

The 1980s post-disco sounds also inspired many Norwegian dance music producers.^[72] Some rappers such as Ice Cube or EPMD built their careers on funk-oriented post-disco music (they were inspired for example by dance-floor favorites like Zapp and Cameo).^[73] Also Sean "Puffy" Combs has been influenced by R&B-oriented post-disco music in an indirect way.^[74]

In popular culture

• The word "post-disco" has been implicitly mentioned in a 1989 novel named Crazy Love by Elías Miguel Muñoz.^[75]
• 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.^[76]

Related genres

Boogie

Boogie (or electro-funk)^[61][77] is a post-disco subgenre with way more funk influences that had a minor exposure in the early to mid-1980s. Sean P. described it as "largely been ignored, or regarded as disco's poor cousin — too slow, too electronic, too R&B... too black, even."^[78]

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."^[79] and artists like Liquid Liquid, Polyrock,^[80] Dinosaur L, and Disco Not Disco [2000] compilation album.^[81][82] 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."^[83] Campbell also cited Robert Christgau, who described dance-oriented rock (or DOR) as umbrella term used by various DJs in the 1980s.^[84]

Dance-pop

Dance-pop is a dance-oriented pop music that appeared slightly after the demise of disco and the first appearance of "stripped-down" post-disco. One of the first dance-pop songs were "Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life" by Indeep and "Love Come Down" by Evelyn "Champagne" King, whereas the latter crossed over to Billboard charts including Adult Contemporary, while peaking at number 17 on the pop chart in 1982.^[85] Another crossover post-disco song was "Juicy Fruit" by Mtume, peaking at number 45 on the Hot 100 in 1983.^[86] Same year also saw the release of Madonna's eponymous album that incorporated post-disco, urban and club sounds. British variation of dance-pop, pioneered by Stock Aitken Waterman, was more influenced by house and hi-NRG and sometimes was labeled as "eurobeat".^[87]

Italo disco

Italo disco is a disco subgenre, influenced by post-disco, hi-NRG, electronic rock, and European music. Originally music mostly played by Italian musicians, but it soon made its way to Canada and United States. One of the earliest post–disco-oriented groups were Klein + M.B.O. and Kano, while New York-based Bobby Orlando was located abroad.^[2]

Non-exhaustive list of artists

Prominent record labels

Compilations

See also

• List of post-disco artists and songs

Notes

1. ↑ Various terms to describe the sound of what seemed to be post-disco were introduced, such as, but not limited to, "dance," "club music," "R&B," and "disco." The last however become undesirable to associate with mostly from social and commercial reasons hence the increasing use of "dance"^[4][5] vis-à-vis the word "disco."
2. ↑ Compare to the 1979 "traditionally"-sounding disco song "Boogie Wonderland" with string and horn sections arranged by Benjamin Wright.
3. ↑ Demonstrates using horn section and drum machine rhythm at the same time.

References