Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American CultureDisco thumps back to life in this pulsating exploration of the culture and politics of the glitterball world. In the 1970s, as the disco tsunami engulfed America, the once-innocent question, “Do you wanna dance?” became divisive, even explosive. What was it about this much-maligned music that made it such hot stuff? In this incisive history, Alice Echols captures the felt experience of the Disco Years—on dance floors both fabulous and tacky, at the movies, in the streets, and beneath the sheets.Disco may have presented itself as shallow and disposable—the platforms, polyester, and plastic vibe of it all—but Echols shows that it was inseparable from the emergence of “gay macho,” a rising black middle class, and a growing, if equivocal, openness about female sexuality. The disco scene carved out a haven for gay men who reclaimed their sexuality on dance floors where they had once been surveilled and harassed; it thrust black women onto center stage as some of the genre’s most prominent stars; and it paved the way for the opening of Studio 54 and the viral popularity of the shoestring-budget Saturday Night Fever, a movie that challenged traditional notions of masculinity, even for heterosexuals. As it provides a window onto the cultural milieu of the times, Hot Stuff never loses sight of the era’s defining soundtrack, which propelled popular music into new sonic territory, influencing everything from rap and rock to techno and trance. Throughout, Echols spotlights the work of precursors James Brown and Isaac Hayes, dazzling divas Donna Summer and the women of Labelle, and some of disco’s lesser known but no less illustrious performers such as Sylvester. After turning the final page of this fascinating account of the music you thought you hated but can’t stop dancing to, you can rest assured that you’ll never say “disco sucks” again. |
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African American album argued artists band Barry White Bay Ridge Beatles became Bee Gees began British Chaka Khan Chic Christgau club club’s Cohn Cohn’s critic culture dance floor dance music dancers Dave Marsh deejays disco hit disco records discophobia divas Donna Summer falsetto fans female feminism feminist film first funk gay bars gay disco gay liberation gay macho Hayes Hayes’s Hendryx heterosexual homosexual HOT STUFF I-I-IOIN SSIGV‘I HOT Ibid idMII‘II-I-I interview james Brown Kopkind Labelle Lawrence lesbians Love Saves male masculinity Mel Cheren Moroder Motown movie musicians played political pop music producer punk queer quoted racial radio recalls remix rock rockers Rodgers Rolling Stone Rubaiyat Saturday Night Fever seemed seventies sexual Shapiro singer singing sixties song soul soul music sound SSIGV‘I HOT STUFF Stevie Wonder Stigwood Stonewall straight Studio style Sylvester Tony Tony’s track Travolta Turn the Beat Village Vince Aletti vocal woman York York’s