| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
xxvi, 338 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Introduction. Plastic fantastic : The disco years -- I hear a symphony : black masculinity and the disco turn -- More, more, more : one and oneness in gay disco -- Ladies' night : women and disco -- The homo superiors : disco and the rise of gay macho -- Saturday night fever : the little disco movie -- One nation under a thump? : disco and its discontents -- Epilogue. Do it again. |
| Summary |
Only nominally about the watered-down funk music that was disco, Echols? history instead focuses on disco?s social effects, particularly the rise of gay consciousness and the mainstreaming of the gay rights movement. Echols proclaims that she likes disco and thinks if others gave it half a chance, they would, too. Be that as it may, she knows her dancin?-fool stuff. She makes a convincing case for disco?s far-reaching cultural legacies, and her discussion of the career arc of the Village People is an excellent vehicle for examining the phenomenon of much of mainstream America embracing disco while blithely ignoring the gay subtext of scads of disco songs. Her dissections of the trials and tribulations of disco artists in general and Donna Summer in particular are telling and well presented. All in all, if one feels the need to be knowledgeable about the rise and fall of the disco lifestyle and how elements of the once-reviled music genre still act upon American culture today?this is the goods--Booklist. |
| Subject |
Disco music -- United States -- History and criticism.
|
|
Popular culture -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
|
|
Music -- Social aspects.
|
| ISBN |
9780393066753 hardcover |
|
0393066754 hardcover |
|
