When Rock Met Disco

by Steven Blush

Disco began as a gay, black, and brown underground New York City party music scene, which alone was enough to ward off most rockers. The difference between rock and disco was as sociological as it was aesthetic. At its best, disco was galvanizing and affirmative. Its hypnotic power to uplift a broad spectrum of the populace made it the ubiquitous music of the late '70s. Disco was a primal and gaudy fanfare for the apocalypse, a rage for exhibitionism, free of moralizing. Disco was an exclamatory musical passageway into the future. 1978 was the apex of the record industry. Rock music, commercially and artistically, had never been more successful. At the same time, disco was responsible for roughly 40% of the records on Billboard's Hot 100, thanks to the largest-selling soundtrack of all time in Saturday Night Fever. The craze for this music by The Bee Gees revived The Hustle and dance studios across America. For all its apparent excesses and ritual zealotry, disco was a conservative realm, with obsolete rules like formal dress code and dance floor etiquette. When most '70s artists "went disco," it was the relatively few daring rockers who had the most impact, bringing their intensity and personality to a faceless phenomenon. Rock stars who "went disco" crossed a musical rubicon and forever smashed cultural conformity. The ongoing dance-rock phenomenon demonstrates the impact of this unique place and time. The disco crossover forever changed rock.

Genres: Music, Audiobook, Sexuality, New York, LGBT, Cultural, Art

298 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2023

About the author

Steven Blush is an American author, publisher and promoter.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I don't hold strong feelings against disco music. (Those Barry White songs were unbelievable.) The sounds and the arrangements, and the playing were incredible. To me, disco was all about the scene. I was new to New York City when disco was trendy and accepted. I remember going to Studio 54, and it was absolutely exciting." -- renowned session drummer / percussionist Anton Fig, page 157

The subtitle of this brief book is "The Story of How The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, KISS, Queen, Blondie and More Got Their Groove On in the 'Me Decade'" but, dear reader, that accounts for a mere twenty pages in a 200-page book. I should also add that the final 50 or so of said pages are basically a laundry list of 'rock-disco classics,' 'disco-rock crossovers,' and 'anti-disco punk' songs. (Queen - although listed on the cover along with a Freddie Mercury pic in the collage - rates only a solitary paragraph, of course mentioning their unique tune 'Another One Bites the Dust.') So what is When Rock Met Disco really about? The majority of the text offers a succinct if often boilerplate history of the dance music genre which held sway in the U.S. from roughly 1974 to 1980. There are also a fair amount of archival quotes (courtesy of then-reigning disco stars like Chic, Donna Summer and The Bee Gees, but also by a slew of established rock musicians) interspersed throughout. Oddly, just when it seemed like the tone would stay terminally lukewarm the narrative unexpectedly comes to life near the conclusion with the detailed retelling of the infamous 'Disco Demolition Night' debacle on a July 1979 evening at Chicago's Comiskey Park during an otherwise routine White Sox / Tigers doubleheader. While I ultimately and disappointingly found this book to be just okay, I can imagine a more thorough version (possibly two or three times longer) would really make the mirror ball spin.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/14 there were a few truly great moments in this book. The many interviews and songs quoted were just superb. Toward the end hmm I’m going to say 20% ish it’s nothing but breakout crossover songs with the producers, how well they did on the charts, why they were in this book and such, but then the index is a music lover’s dream. I’m glad I don’t have to page through the book to finish my Spotify list. I really loved learning the history of a singular influential music craze that honestly I still listen to. Sorry but like any other style of music disco had some seriously true gems. I workout to some disco songs. The truly upbeat get you dancing on the treadmill.



6/30 so I noticed this book is taking a beating in the ratings. I’m not that far in the book and there is a slight layout issue the way the proofreading copy uses pics and quotes, but that comes with the territory. Overall I am truly enjoying this book. I’ve even started building a Spotify list of the songs mentioned and am listening to it now. It’s about 5hours long right now. There have been a handful of songs I can’t seem to locate. I digress. So I was born right around the end of the me generation and I remember these songs from childhood, dancing to the Saturday night fever soundtrack, Andy gibb omg so good looking even at the age of about 8 I knew there was something different about how I looked at pics of him vs other men. Shadow dancing wow. I remember the discotheque in the little city/town where I went to school and how I wanted my mom to take me because the lights against the foggy glass windows were so pretty. If I’m being honest I really don’t think that there is any music craze that truly goes out of style, that dies. Really y’all think about it. Hair bands are all over the country right now in their revival tour buses. Yes so maybe Vince Neal will be AI but i don’t think he’s exactly stage prepared right now in life. And he’s had a sad life. Willie Nelson is still performing for god sake! We need Willie to share some stage time with Keith Richard and Cher it’ll be the immortals tour. We can throw twinkies around the audience. Maybe I’m just a fool. But music has a hold on my heart. I cannot imagine my life without music and books. This past year music has saved my life a few times quite therapeutic. I even sing in the car again. Not the shower not yet. This book is headed to the fourth star for me. Just a warning


I haven’t even scratched the surface, but so far the intro is informative and engaging. I’m a beast of a music fan. Like I am a reader. Music makes me cry. Allll of the time. It’s visceral. It’s inspiring. It’s absorbing. I want my life to have its own soundtrack and I’ve actually started a personal playlist on Spotify called the spectrum. I’ve also started a personal gym playlist called f#&* around and … I’ve been going for about 4-6 weeksish? And I feel like the epitome of curvy girl ate too much cake. I digress, but what’s new? I think what I like so far is how the author is including song lyrics within paragraphs that relate. I hope that continues.

[AnnieM · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a fun book to read - I grew up outside of Detroit and listened to WDRQ ("Disco Q") every Saturday night - I was too young to be able to go to Discos but kept thinking "If only I were older!" I could still listen to the music and adopt some of the fashions - Gloria Vanderbilt Jeans, Candie's shoes, Danskin top and Faberge perfume. This book is so descriptively written that it brought me back to the smells, and feel of the fabric! This book talks about the rise of Disco and the backlash as well as rock groups getting on the disco train to produce disco like songs or records (KISS, Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart) to name a few. I had no idea that Ethel Merman made a disco album or that there is an album called Sesame Street Fever. The author also breaks down types of Disco - Soul, Euro, Body Music, Pop, Disco Rock. Some of the parts of the book I felt were particularly humorous were parts talking about health concerns -- "Disco Foot" or "Disco Finger" - finger because of snapping too much to the beat. The author also lists all of the various discos in NYC in its heyday and included a list of songs from some of the aforementioned "rockers" and others who dipped their toe into disco. There is also mention about roller skating and "roller boogie" which I remember quite well but alas I could not skate well. The book addresses the disco demolition days and anti-disco sentiments - which most likely was rooted in racist and homophobic prejudices Musicians did not like disco because it usurped live music and thus paying gigs. I still enjoy listening to disco and this book made me smile as I read it. I recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Rowman & Littlefield, Backbeat for an ARC and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.

[John Schorg · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is value here as a basic history of disco's rapid rise and fall, but the author's biases in favor of the form are apparent, and there are some astonishing statements made here, such as saying Saturday Night Fever had become the top grossing film of all time in 1978. With a few years behind us, it's easy to appreciate some of the music from back then, so the book is a helpful reminder that disco didn't suck all the time.

[James Biser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story of the progression of music in the 1970’s. It is a time when dance music known as disco was popular and dance clubs were very common. This book relates the stories of what happened historically. Some practices such as common homo- and hetero-sexual dalliances in the dance clubs are almost shocking.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Rowman & Littlefield, Backbeat for an advance copy of this book on the intersection of rock music and disco, the hits that were made, the backlash that followed, and a history of this maligned genre.

Not since the riots that followed the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring has a form of music caused so much violence, teeth gnashing, explosions at baseball games, and record burning. Disco is more than a love/hate, it is more of a love the way it makes my body feel, and hate everything about it from production, engineering and song craft. Well except for that Rolling Stones song, that was good. Or that Kiss song, that was pretty fist pumping. Or that Doobie Brothers song. And my mom really loves that Rod Stewart song, so that's ok. But the rest of disco is just awful. People always find exceptions. Unlike most musicians who hated disco, until there disco influenced song went number 1. Writer, journalist and promoter Steven Blush looks at the history of Disco music and its intermingling with rock music, and the legacy of two tastes that taste great together in When Rock Met Disco:The Story of How The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, KISS, Queen, Blondie and More Got Their Groove On in the Me Decade.

The book begins with a brief overview of rock music in the 1970's showing that most bands were hungover either from success or excess, with song making or even performing high on their lists of well highs. Into this grew a music that brought people to the dance floor, with beats and grooves that made even the squarest person want to dance, and for those who could dance this lead to more of a chance of meeting others of the opposite sex who also wanted to move and groove. Within a short period Disco was big business, with Discos opening and attracting crowds who would pay to get into a club to dance, buying drinks, which was good for the liquor industry, and the music they were hearing. Soon 12 inch singles became a thing, which made more money for the music companies, and the music slowly began to get corrupted. Into this came rock musicians, looking to take there music into new directions, hopefully to the Hot 100 Charts.

A very different look at music in the 1970's and '80's and the legacy that came from disco meeting rock music. One always reads about the singer/songwriter, and changes in the industry, but disco was the one thing that really made it all about money. The time that Disco was big surprised me, considering the legacy that it left, in music, culture, and fashion, even drugs. Blush is very good at writing about the music, the business, even the business of clubs and those ancillary business that suddenly were making lots of money from disco. Blush never goes down any holes and is very good at presenting a straight narrative, with plenty of quotes from musicians of the era and after. I enjoyed the ending pages which showed rock songs that used the disco influence, complete with producers and studio musicians and little bits of information. Also Anton Fig really got around. I never knew he played with Kiss.

A very good book of musical history, with a very good view of a era that everyone says they hated musically, but someone was buying those records. I admit to being a proud watcher of Dance Fever on Saturday nights, and Solid Gold, and having the Disco Duck album. I quite enjoyed this book, and think most music fans would also. A great Father's Day, or even Mother's Day gift, cause you know Mom loves that Rod Stewart song.

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Rock Met Disco by Steven Blush is a fun read that offers a lot of good information with some very weak analysis from the author, but still well worth reading.

One of the strengths of this book is the background leading up to the disco explosion. Like any history, there has to be context, you can't, for example, write a book about the US civil war and ignore the lead up to it. Similarly, setting the stage for how disco came to be popularized, along with some rock background, is essential to discussing the places these two genres met. So yes, the first part of the book establishes that context. Without it you would just have anecdotes and stories without any point whatsoever, though it appears some readers would prefer just such a work. Oh well.

As a walk down memory lane it was a fun book. I turned 20 in 1978 so I remember this period very well. I grew up mostly with rock, though always listened to some of everything, from my father's jazz and swing to my older sibling's early rock. Pop radio during my youth played a bit of everything and my sister was especially into artists like Wilson Pickett so while I usually bought rock albums starting with Revolver, I appreciated a wide range. Disco, for me, was something to listen to at a club, not something I bought very much of.

My biggest issue with this book is the way Blush buys into, and amplifies, the stories where the rock audiences supposedly hated disco. The most publicized comments were always the ones that seemed confrontational, and of course marketers created events that played it up, like burning albums at a baseball game. But speaking from experience, there were many more listeners who didn't like disco but also didn't have that kind of intense hatred of it either. But it doesn't make good copy, so they get ignored to make incorrect overstatements.

Coupled with questionable at best assessments of music makes his critical aspects of the book rather weak. The number of good but not spectacular songs that he hyperbolically calls an artist's most compelling and moving is just nonsense. If he had stated that he found them to be moving it wouldn't be so bad, but he states these things as if they are facts, which shows just how weak his actual music background is. There is a big difference between knowing what happened in the music world and being able to make knowledgeable assessments, and he fails miserably at the latter.

The quotes and the historical aspects of the book make it easy to recommend, with the warning that he is not actually knowledgeable in music itself, just its history. And even that relies heavily on the largely media-created hatred between music fans.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Satyros Brucato · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading Steven Blush's thoroughly enjoyable book When Rock met Disco, I've been listening to tons of classic-era disco.

And y'know what? A lot of it is really good.

When Rock Met Disco is one of those impulse-grabs from the library shelves that wound up validating that impulse. Yeah, I did the whole "disco sucks!" thing back in the late 70s and early 80s, despite enjoying quite a bit of that music a few years earlier. Later, of course, I realized how much of that frenzy (and as Blush details, "frenzy" is the right word for it) was rooted in racism and queerphobia. For better and worse, the various forms of "club culture" - Goth, EDM, rave, trance, punk, New Wave, hip-hop, freeform improv, etc. etc. etc. - owe their origins and trappings to disco, and to the blues and gay clubs where disco itself originated. The music itself was a hyper-polished take on funk and soul, wedded with the emerging esoterica that soon became techno music. And while Blush rightly describes disco as "music made by producers" rather than musicians, some of those producers had musical chops, and they hired top-shelf musicians for their studio confections.

Certain artists associated with disco - most notably Chic, Parliament, the Bee Gees, and Earth, Wind & Fire - were formidable musicians and songwriters tapping into a good thing or suddenly (as with Parliament and Earth, Wind & Fire) finding themselves at Ground Zero of The Next Big Thing by virtue of who they already were, doing what they'd been doing for years. And when disco exploded, certain established rock artists - most notably/ notoriously KISS, Blondie, and the Rolling Stones - took up "the new sound"... to huge sales but sometimes (as with Blondie and KISS) disastrous results for the band as a whole.

Thanks to both the musical chops of the singers and producers behind disco, and to the musicians they employed (or who employed disco for their own purposes), the disco classics have aged surprisingly well. I've been blasting the fuck out of them while driving, and grooving to them over my headphones while working (as I'm doing right now) or blaring them on my BluTooth speaker while housecleaning or fixing meals. Yeah, the crap is still crap; as Gene Simmons said, there's also bad jazz and bad rock. (Gene should know about the latter...) There IS a valid criticism to be made about the superficial content and often "soulless" sheen of most disco, and Blush addresses that element of the music and the culture surrounding it. That culture sounds enticing and appalling in equal measure, and book doesn't shy away from the well-established abuses of disco culture. Even so, speaking as someone who loves to dance (and who wound up dancing for the first time in ages in our kitchen last night, though not to disco at the time), I understand the allure disco must have had to people who were old enough to indulge in it. I wasn't one of those people at the time, but I AM old enough to remember disco in its heyday, and it kinda sounded like fun despite the drugs, exploitation, and grotesque selfishness involved.

What really stands out to me, as a bass player, is how fucking TASTY the basslines for many of these songs are. "Miss You" and "Don't Leave Me This Way" are the obvious contenders, but the Bee Gees had some killer basslines underscoring their overplayed classics, and... well, BOOTSY FUCKING COLLINS. Need we say more? That element of disco went unheard when I was a kid listening to these songs on my tinny clock radio; hearing them through headphones or on our car's gloriously bass-heavy sound system has revealed a dimension I didn't even know existed until now. I wish I'd been able to hear them on the massive sound systems of their classic environment.

Unlike many authors who address disco in hindsight, Blush maintains an obvious affection for disco music and its culture balanced by an awareness of its blatant superficiality and bloated excess. He rightfully calls out the sexism, racism and homophobia inherent in the anti-disco backlash while admitting that some of that backlash was certainly earned. Disco mania DID inflict destruction on certain elements of the American music business, DID take a sickening human toll on its participants, and DID infect that already-tacky decade with some of the worst clothing and most overplayed corporate garbage imaginable. The mix of rock and disco could produce classics like "Miss You" while producing appalling crap like "What a Fool Believes." (I loathed that song even as a kid.) That backlash was even more violent than I remembered, though. Even some of its perpetrators later felt they'd gone too far.

In the end, ironically, disco won. Hip-hop, New Wave, elctronica, industrial EDM/EBM, Gothic rock, neotribal fusion, and hundreds of other genres and subgenres took up where disco left off, inspiring 40 years of dance-club cultures. In hindsight, many of the maligned disco tracks of the 70s have become classics of pop culture and popular music. The playful superficiality often darkens to a more "serious" tone, but the beat's still there. As Cruxshadows' frontman Rogue whispers at the end of their darkwave song "Dance Floor Metaphor": "It's basically disco."

As good as the first half of the book is, I suspect Blush ran out of material before he ran out of word-count, because the second half of the book gets dedicated to four appendices, an extensive bibliography, and the index.

Those appendices - "Rock-Disco Classics," "Disco-Rock Classics," "Anti-Disco Anthems," and "Anti-Disco Punk" - provide some valuable material for readers who want to search out specific instances of the fusions Blush describes. The entries themselves, however, are perfunctory at best, oddly inconsistent in terms of detail, and marked by a few glaring omissions like the Clash's "Train in Vain," ELO's "Turn to Stone," Grace Jones' classic cover "Warm Leatherette," Manfred Mann's iconic cover "Blinded By the Light," "Donna Summer's "Bad Girls (inexplicably described elsewhere in the book as "heavy metal"), " Ian Hunter's anti-disco broadside "We Gotta Get Out of Here," and Billy Idol's "White Wedding Pt. 2" (which features a likely plastered Idol declaring "Dy-no-MITE" in the biggest career embarrassment this side of naming an album "Cyberpunk" with a straight face).

(Also, while "I was Made for Loving' You" is clearly the hallmark of rock-disco crossovers by KISS, I'd argue that "Sure Know Something" and "Dirty Livin'" are better songs, and certainly more disco. Re-listening to Dynasty, I'm struck by just how VERY disco the entire album is... and by how weirdly well it holds up today.)

Overall, I really enjoyed When Rock Met Disco. Highly recommended!

[Brandon Westlake · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's some great music history and pop culture history in this book. However, if you're looking for a book solely focused on the overlap between rock music and disco, you might be surprised by the first third of the book. While the book is good, I feel like the name is a little misleading. Of course, there are a lot of references early on to rock stars and their views of disco, but the first part of the book is about disco history, along with a lot of history surrounding 1970s discos like 54. Rock stars make an appearance here and there, but they don't tend to take center stage until about half way through. There is some repetitiveness in the book, the same fact mentioned a few different times (such as key KISS songs becoming popular in certain years, or Rod Stewart's view on disco); I'm unsure if those were meant to be expanded on or simply an editing error, but it had the feeling that they were restated in order to give the book some length.

The appendixes are very interesting- I can't say for many books that I spend time on them like I did for this book. The musicology is definitive and complete.

Blush's writing style is very straightforward and readable and kept me reading. The interspersing of the narrative along with quotes and excerpts from interviews was unique, but a feature that really helped me connect his secondary work to the musicians' words

[J.J. Lair · Rating 5 out of 5]

It looks like a short book, possibly small publisher or self published. Don’t let that fool you. It is packed with a detailed analysis of music. There isn’t just disco, there is soul disco, eurodisco, body music, Broadway Disco, pop disco, disco rock.
It’s not just music, it’s a culture. It’s a culture of oddity. Dance music existed since music, but this dance music was loved and very hated. When rock concerts became too big and not about music but spectacle, this was in small clubs. Discos themselves were full of expensive clothes and drinks, but look at the working class hero of Saturday Night Live.
The best rock-disco songs were the ones that felt like the band plus. The Rolling Stones did blues, rock, soul, disco was a part of all that. Rod Stewart did a pop song but faster. Steve Miller’s “Macho City” was from the guy that opened “Fly Like An Eagle” with a synth opening. Uriah Heep were four years too early with “What’d ya say.”
The forced songs were terrible and when everyone tried a disco song, it was bad.
The anti-disco songs were funny and just as fun.
Read the analysis then look up the songs. Worthwhile experience

[Annarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a teen at the time of Saturday Night Fever and the top of the disco age. I had fun in listening to it even if I was more interested in rock music.
This a trip along long lost memory paths and the hate of rock fan of disco and supposed selling out of musician.
Today most of the hate-disco aspects are seen as homofobic as the disco was the music of gay clubs.
Now we can see how disco changed part of the rock world and how dance music became part of what a lot of people listen to even if they don't like commercial music.
A good and well researched book even if I don't always agree with the author.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

[Wendi Manning · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It’s not going to be for everyone, but the people who like this era of music will be happy. It’s not a subject that gets covered in more than a passing way. The author, although a little biased and not afraid to show it, covered a lot more than I expected.

When it comes to nonfiction, there’s a tendency to be a little dry, and that’s the case here, but I’ve read his other books and expected it. As I said, I enjoyed it, and would recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the book, all opinions are mine.

[Mary Cummins]

Thank you to Net Galley for this e copy of “ When Rock Met Disco” by Shawn Bush in exchange for an honest review.. I was born in 1965 so I was a preteen and early teen during the height of disco which ran from 1975-1979 and didn’t realize there was so much drama associated with it.This book is chock full of interesting facts including the most famous discos, the most famous songs and the rock bands who recorded disco songs sometimes much to the dismay of their fans. Sometimes chaos and riots ensued. A vey enjoyable read!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although well written and informative, I found the title and description of the book very misleading. The rock/ disco meeting that was touted, only covered one brief and rather rushed chapter while the rest was a basic oral history of the disco era. The author wrote a good book, but didn’t deliver on his theme, hence the only 3 star review.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Austin Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is more accurate than the subtitle.

The subtitle, more or less, only represents one chapter in the book.

[Mike DC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compact little history of disco (part 1) and how disco impacted rock (part 2). If you like either, it’s fairly interesting. Just don’t expect anything earth shattering.

[Martin Maenza · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Rock Met Disco by Steven Blush will be released on April 7, 2023. Rowman and Littlefield provided an early galley for review.

The heyday of disco ran from 1974 to 1980. I was still a pre-teen for most of that time period. Thus, I never set foot into an actual disco during that time. The closest I ever got was an afterschool disco dance in our middle school gym. However, I was fully fascinated by the music, the culture and the allure of it all. By the time I was old enough to go out clubbing in the early 80's, discos had evolved somewhat. But all the same aesthetics still remained - people getting dressed up to dance to rhythmic beats and to try to make those connections with others.

Blush takes the time to lay the foundations of the culture before focusing on his topic of the rock crossovers. This is important. Readers who were not there at the time need to know the whys, the hows and the wheres to get the full picture. One entire chapter is devoted to talking about several of the most famous New York City discos and how each had their own unique vibes and flavors. The back half of the book focuses on the rockers who ventured into the disco waters and then the extreme backlash that the dance genre received come 1979. Blush's writing style is engaging and creative.

I liked the added touch of quotes from folks who were part of the scene back in the day as well as song lyric snippets that are sprinkled in along the way.

[Carly Gillum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disco rocks, and if you disagree you’re a loser (and likely racist). All music genres flow into ones another, pulling influences and placing them elsewhere. Disco still exists and flows today, and for good reason.

I enjoyed this breakdown of the “dichotomy” between rock and disco, and I liked that it wasn’t excessively long.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This popped up while searching for a new audio book on the Libby app. I was hoping to find a shortish audio book that would serve as a palette-cleanser. A musician and KISS fan, the title grabbed my attention, and I gave it a shot.

I have to start by saying that my biggest criticism of this book is that the title is incredibly misleading. I thought, as the title implied, I'd be learning a lot more about the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Kiss, Queen, Blondie and more. Blush doesn't even mention any of these bands until 50% through the book. When he does, he singles out one or two songs each artist/band released that leaned more disco than rock. He might spend about 5 minutes discussing it, and then he moves on. And actually, I don't even remember him discussing Queen other than mentioning them in passing. So, if you're reading this to learn more about those bands, you might be disappointed.

However, disregarding the title, at less than 300 pages (a quick 5 hour listen) this was an engaging and interesting book! It delves deep into the origins of disco, the heavy hitters and big stars of the genre, the scene it created, its cultural explosion, the backlash against it, and then, its death. I particularly enjoyed learning about dicso's origins in gay and black/brown culture, and how some saw the backlash against disco to be rooted in (possibly subconscious) homophobia and racism. I also liked how the Blush included direct quotes from famous musicians, producers, and people in the music business through out.

Paul Bellantoni also does a great job narrating this book.

I recommend this for anyone who is interested in music history, disco in particular, and for anyone who needs a quick change of pace, or something to break up a reading/listening rut.

[Calis Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the 44th anniversary of disco demolition night at Chicago's comiskey Park approaches as well as PBS documentary series American experience is currently in the works on a documentary with the currently working title "The War Against Disco" you already know that millions of people will be striking the keyboards on their phones either denouncing the Disco sucks movement as racist and homophobic or as a response to a music form that not everyone could get behind.
As messy as that's going to be this book was a fresh breath of retrospective compromisable relief. Blush doesn't take one side of the narrative like most liberal historical writers do. This book goes over the underground origins of disco how it became mainstream to how it became oversaturated to how it died. The middle of the book explains how many well-known rock artists crossed the Disco line defuse the music with their own fattening their pockets while alienating their more hardcore base.
For anyone who is a religious PBS watcher and plans to see their upcoming documentary on Disco I would implore them to read this book before it comes out because I'm willing to bet a paycheck that the executive producers at PBS are not going to be as compromising and willing to document both points of view as Steven Blush is in this book.
Whether if you're a rock or disco fan (I myself like both) neither genre can never really die. It may take a proverbial intermission but it will come back for the second half blaring.

[Zeb Kantrowitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Between 1974 and 1980 Disco grew from an unknown start in the Gay Baths of New York until it had taken over almost every dance venue in the country. By late 1978 everyone was getting into the act with the most egregious being the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead.

But by 1980 the whole disco scene had mostly disappeared. Why, people were getting bored of the same music over and over but just repackaged with all the same banal words. The beginning of the great recession and the start of the AIDS epidemic also contributed to the end.

Like Disco, the book starts out well but before you know it it fades into fluff and repetition.

[Costa Voutsinas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this while playing the music on YouTube; was still in grade school throughout the late 70s but distinctly remember the 'disco-sucks' movement during that period. Impressive how the artists knew that this fad would not last since most of the music itself was recorded by uncredited musicians therefore their ability to earn money from touring was practically impossible.
The book started off strong but seemed to fade halfway through.

[Eric Neffke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book accessible enough to neophytes to the subject, yet insightful enough to grab those who've read quite a bit about the disco era, Blush's book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in late-70s pop culture.

[Daniel Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book about the rise and fall of disco in the 1970s. This book made me look up some disco songs cited in this book and listen to the songs.

[redacted :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook, very easy to follow, very informative. It did feel like the author preferred Disco to Rock (understandable).