Letters to the Editor
-
Trite?
Exactly why should we care about Paglia's lame preferences in trite music?
Trite, labradog? I'd hardly call The Undisputed Truth's funk freakout on "Ball of Confusion", or Moroder's hypnotic, technologically unprecedented "I Feel Love", or The Bee Gee's nihilistic social commentary "Stayin' Alive" trite. By any pop standard all of those tracks - and many others on Paglia's list - were anything but trite. In fact they were all quite sophisticated and unique at the time of their release, and like many tracks on Paglia's list they remain iconic to this day.
You can criticize disco in general for a lot of things - crappy lyrics and a slew of copycat records for starters - but the same largely holds true for any other popular form of pop music. I'm familiar with many of the tracks on Paglia's list though, and most of them were either entirely novel at the time of release ("Shaft") or exceedingly well executed examples of contemporary dance music (Madonna's "Vogue").
Like Debbie Harry, I've never been able to understand the animosity rock fans feel toward disco. I could see not caring for it, but the hate and derision I don't get, especially from fans of a genre that strains out sound-alike excrement like Creed or Hootie and the Blowfish.
Most good disco, like most good rock, exhibits high standards of musicianship and production. In fact disco records were routinely recorded using the very best players in the business, and with exceptionally talented producers (Quincy Jones, Moroder, Barry Gibb, Nile Rogers). From a technical standpoint they eclipse any genre save perhaps jazz and classical. Many disco records also feature stunning, memorable melodic content, from the sweeping strings of Love Unlimited Orchestra's iconic "Love's Theme", to ABBA's country-esque harmonies on "Dancing Queen", Yvonne Elliman's airy, Bee Gees-penned "If I Can't Have You", and especially the soaring choruses of Pet Shop Boys songs like "What Have I Done To Deserve This" and "Domino Dancing", made all the more dramatic by the comparatively unmelodic, rap-inspired verses from which they take flight.
These tracks may not rival Joni Mitchell when it comes to their lyrics (although Pet Shop Boys occasionally come pretty damn close), but then again neither does much rock. And most rock is rhythmically infantile in comparison to disco - not that it prevents me from enjoying plenty of rock music in spite of the fact. After all, it isn't always about the rhythm any more than it's always about the lyric.
Maybe the disco haters all just moved like dorks out on the dance floor, and got tired of being wallflowers.