NYC's 70's Disco Subculture

The publics' perception of disco largely consists of futuristic glittery clothing, disco balls, and Studio 54. Often, disco is seen as a mostly white dominated genre meshing with popular music and culture, especially in the late 70's. John Travolta's "Saturday Night Fever" perfectly captures the public's' perception of disco's whiteness with mostly white crowds and a straight white protagonist. However nothing could be farther from reality.

David Mancuso was known to have a magic touch. The music he played in The Loft was the foundation of early disco music. David Mancuso was also known to be a talented DJ who knew how to spin and transition records in just the right way to get everyone on their feet, dancing their hearts away. Mancuso also played around with the settings in his club. He often changed the contrast, intensity, color, etc of the lighting, very frequently and quickly, creating a feeling of suspense and excitement. One time, Mancuso turned of all the lights except one desk lamp in the whole club, sending roars of cheering and excitement through the crowd. Mancuso would even mess with the temperature settings in The Loft, always surprising the crowd, keeping everyone on their feet. According to many, drug use at The Loft wasn't particularly high due to the fact that the music and environment felt like a drug, and you didn't need drugs to dance all night long because you had the music for that.

• Early disco was largely influenced by African American musical genres such as jazz, funk, gospel, soul, R&B etc.
• You saw lots of jazz influence in disco. There was a-lot of high pitched trumpet and saxophones powering through a background in the midst of other electronic melodies. Also another component borrowed from African American jazz was the beat scheme derived from jazz drumming. Disco music largely used a 4 on floor beat pioneered by African American Jazz artists like Max Roach, giving disco a fast steady beat that made you want to get on your feet and dance away.
• You also had several electronic features of disco. One of those was lush strings. Lush strings could be described as soft soothing violin music but with an electronic hinge to it. Often to create a more electronic noise, you would often take regular instrument music and run it through a decompressor to change and alter the pitch, creating a more electronic sound.
• Bass and chicken scratch guitars are common in disco music as well. Bass guitars help create a lower pitch to help offset the higher pitch created by jazz music and lush strings. Guitars were also often ran through a decompressor and a wah wah pedal to create a distinct electronic noise. Guitars were also played in the chicken scratch style where the neck of the guitar was choked, and strings were strung percussively to create a distinct riff noise. Chicken scratch was pioneered by African American Funk artist Jimmy Nolan
• Electronic piano was also common in the background adding to disco's more electronic noise.
• "Love is the Message" by MFSB is great example of early disco music which emphasizes many of the components listed above

The vocals of disco music was largely derived from African American music. Disco vocals could be seen as a mix of African American gospel combined with soul and R&B. Gloria Gaynor is an excellent example of a disco artist who emphasized the soul and feel of disco with her hit "Never Can Say Goodbye".

• Cubans and and Puerto Ricans were the primary latino demographic of the NYC disco subculture
• The 4 on floor beat which defined disco was also prominent in many Latin style beats and Latin styled percussion. Latin percussion was emphasized by a Dominican meringue rhythm. Other rhythm styles like rhumba, samba and cha-cha-cha are prominent in disco. Often times, these rhythms would be overlaid with Dominican meringue.
• Latinos also helped define disco dancing with partnered touch dancing. Partnered dancing was largely abandoned in American popular culture in the 60s. However Latinos kept it alive as it was seen as masculine for Latino men to partner dance. Latino partnered dancing largely consisted of Latinized 1950s rock and roll swing, where elements of salsa dancing were incorporated.

One of the most influential and successful disco labels, Salsoul, was founded by three latino brothers, Joseph Cayre, Kenneth Cayre, and Stanley Cayre. The Label went on to record many famous and successful disco hits. An example can be "Love Sensation" by Loleatta Holloway which also formed the basis of future house music.

If you listen carefully to the song you can hear several latin styled beats like Dominican merengue and Samba especially near the beginning of the song.

David Mancuso would often search through record stores trying to find the perfect records to play at The Loft. One record he found, "Soul Makossa" ,by Manu Dibango, would change disco's musical style in many ways. First of all "Soul Makossa" introduced a more electronic sound not seen in previous disco music. Early disco music often sounded more like an electronic outgrowth of soul and funk. However "Soul Makossa" changed all of that. "Soul Makossa" had 3 traits which set it apart from early disco. First was the use of a repetitious motif with no melody line. Next was the deemphasis from telling a story or a message to focusing on just producing pleasurable and enjoyable music people would want to dance to. Lastly was a very electronic dance beat. Combining the 3 components of "Soul Makossa" with funk and soul dominated disco helped produce the more electronic and distinct disco music we are familiar with today.

Disco through its popularization has been associated with whiteness. In many popular disco movies for example most of the crowd in discotheques are white along with the protagonists. Few people tend to know the diverse history of disco before its popularization. My main goal with this project is to help bring light to how African Americans, gays, and Latinos were the communities who formed the overwhelming majority of the disco subculture for the majority of disco's history. Also much of disco music is attributed to Latino and African American music. That is why studying the history of disco is so important. Failing to do so results in "Erasure"; the erasing of contributions of minority groups like African Americans, Hispanics, and gays to one of the most iconic and important musical genres. By ignoring disco history and its development, we place the credit of disco's creation and development in the hands of the white majority, who joined the disco culture in its latest days.

Bibliography

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Petridis, Alexis. “The Legacy of David Mancuso: 'His Dancefloor Was a Kind of Egalitarian Utopia'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 Nov. 2016, www.theguardian.com/music/2016/nov/15/david-mancuso-the-loft-egalitarian-utopia.

Raymer, Miles. “Paradise Garage: The Oral History of NYC's Greatest Club.” Time Out New York, Time Out, 21 Aug. 2018, www.timeout.com/newyork/nightlife/paradise-garage-the-oral-history-of-nycs-greatest-club

"The ingrediants of a classic house track" , directed by VOX, 2007. Youtube, Google, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHXAYddPLsM. Accessed 16 Dec. 2019.