THE STORY OF DISCO

I'll begin with some good news.  Miss USA R'Bonney Gabriel was Saturday night crowned the 71st Miss Universe 2022 in New Orleans.  Yes, this is 2023, but...  She was the first Filipino American to ever win Miss USA.

Interestingly enough, we were watching the Hawaii Miss Universe 2023 contest on television because one of the competitors, Kawai Crisostomo, is on the 15 Craigside staff.  She did not win but was the highest scoring swimsuit contestant.  The new Hawaii representative will be Savannah Gankiewicz of Maui.  She will participate later this year in the Grand USA Finale at the Grand Sierra Resort, Reno, Nevada.

Donald Trump owned the pageant from 1996 to 2015, and he had a few incidents.   He was forced to sell because of his CREEPINESS.  Now being run by a group from Thailand.

I woke up today to disco music, so thought, why not post on The Story of Disco.

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  Of course, there are those who absolutely hate disco music, as for example, Matt Damon in The Martian.
• My world travels began in the 70's, and throughout the world, night life was disco time.  While the craze peaked in 1979 with perhaps 20,000 disco nightclubs just in the USA, Asia in particular expanded the genre into the 80s and even 90s.  Something about just being in a crowd with flashing lights and thumping music is eternally memorable.

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  The term itself goes back to the dance halls of Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II, where live music was banned, so phonograph records were used...thus, discotheque.

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  Then in the 60s, dance clubs opened in the U.S. using records rather than bands.  Discotheque was shortened to disco.
• American disco had varying origins beginning in the late 1960s.
• Philadelphia's R&B scene featuring African-American and Latino songs.
• The underground gay community of New York.

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  That disco ball?  Invented by Louis Bernard Woester as the Myriad Reflector...in 1917.
• Stevie Wonder and The O'Jays were perhaps among the first performers.
• By the mid-70s Gloria Gaynor (I Will Survive) and Donna Summer (I Feel Love) were topping the Billboard 100 with disco hits.  How broad can you get when Barry Manilow's Copacabana became popular?  He co-wrote that song.  Here is an interesting re-mix.  There was also Disco Duck by Rick Dees.

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  One reason for the popularity is that the dancing was sort of hang loose and freestyle where you could just about do anything without any experience.  In time there developed the Bump, Boogaloo, Robot and various Hustles.

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  There were marathons, and Sacramento Disco King Dale Roberts holds the Guinness Recond for dancing 205 hours, the equivalent of 8.5 days.
• What did you wear?  Anything, but there were disco fashions, tight and loose, skimpy, shiny, bold colors, whatever, and leisure suits with bell bottoms came into prominence.  Freedom of movement was important.

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  Billboard created the Disco Action Top 30 on 28August1976, and the first #1 was You Should Be Dancing, by the Bee Gees.
• Disco clubs in major cities supported a drug subculture (cocaine and quaaludes), leading to some promiscuity, the sexual revolution and a hedonistic culture.  Donna Summer's Love to Love You Baby (this is the 17-minute version) and I Feel Love evoked orgasms.
• Saturday Night Fever in 1977 and Thank God It's Friday in 1978 did well at the box office.  SNF was the best (although only 83/71 scores on Rotten Tomatoes) and the 1980 Can't Stop the Music, the autobiography of The Village People, perhaps the worst. (18/37 on RT).  Quote from Alonso Duralde: In the pantheon of so-bad-you-can't-tear-away-your-eyes cinematic train wrecks, the film is absolutely a must-view.

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  Rolling Stone named their top ten disco hits.  Soul Tracks provided a top 100 list, and had Shame by Evelyn "Champagne" King at #1, Last Dance by Donna Summer at #2 and Le Freak by Chic at #3.
• Disco evolved into electronic dance music, hip hop and the range of waves leading to what we have today.

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  Some say disco will never go away, for there have been revivals, and the latest into today, BTS Dynamite being definitely of the right beat.  Also Dua Lipa with Don't Start Now.   Yes, disco still survives.

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