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Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture
by
Alice Echols
Disco 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...more
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...more
Hardcover, 338 pages
Published
March 29th 2010
by W. W. Norton & Company
(first published March 1st 2010)
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Granted I know everyone loves to hate disco for all the things it isn't, "authentic", "novel" blah blah blah...but danged if folks don't need to have fun and just shake it.
Author makes good points about how no one bothers to "hate" disco anymore because so many of the points people who hated disco back in the day have become commonplace in present-day dance, rap, rock music that the point is moot. Everyone samples, and remixes to the 12" market, repetition has pretty much supplanted "creative ly...more
Author makes good points about how no one bothers to "hate" disco anymore because so many of the points people who hated disco back in the day have become commonplace in present-day dance, rap, rock music that the point is moot. Everyone samples, and remixes to the 12" market, repetition has pretty much supplanted "creative ly...more
This was good, but not as good as I expected it to be. Maybe I set too high a standard for Ms. Echols, but probably I want something different than this book really is. If you're looking for a fairly academic review of the disco period with detailed information on specific artists and songs, this is your book. If you also want nuanced discussion that places disco in its own sociocultural milieu and offers detailed analysis of its impact (both past and future) and of what the rise and fall (to ri...more
Definitely a "for work" book. Now that I'm teaching the history of popular music, I find that I need to negotiate the social sciences perspective of the music along with the musicology perspective, which is by turns enlightening and frustrating. Very true in this book. Alice Echols has some credibility as a musician, having been a disco DJ during graduate school, but I sometimes wanted more detail on *what* this music actually is--what are the stylistic, rather than the social conventions of dis...more
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Disco. A guilty pleasure as I grew up when disco was BIG. Favorite memories of disco: college spring break in Sun Valley, ID, skiing all day and dancing all night to disco with men, women, whomever. This book is somewhat academic and traces the roots of disco from beginning to end (though some think it hasn't ended). Author gives a unique point of view as she was a DJ for many years. I learned that the famous "Disco Break" (the break in the music before you whip the dance crowd back into a frenz...more
Excellent book. I only wish it were longer, and had come with a soundtrack! (I found myself looking up different artists on youtube, and I recommend reading this book with a computer nearby. Interestingly, there is a playlist included, but it's at the back of the book.)
Echols, a professor of American Studies at Rutgers University, is also the author of "Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America 1967-1975," which is in my collection. Apparently she was also a disco dj for a time. I knew she...more
Echols, a professor of American Studies at Rutgers University, is also the author of "Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America 1967-1975," which is in my collection. Apparently she was also a disco dj for a time. I knew she...more
This is a great telling of the history that surrounds disco, which several times gets marginalized by American history as pastiche. Alice Echols did a remarkable job of covering the different sides of disco with a sociological lean. I also love that this is a tome to add to the canon of American gay history. The one fault I give the book is the ending—where the rest of the book seems greatly researched and thorough, the end quickly falls flat seeming rushed and limiting with it's attempt of cove...more
Who would have guessed that the rise and fall of disco makes a great story? Whether you were there (I was) or you weren’t, this book is a lot of fun to read, and it’s thoroughly researched—this writer knows her pop music and pop culture. The story of disco has several strands (both musical and cultural), which the author elucidates with considerable flourish, while successfully regenerating the feel of the era. Moreover, she convincingly places disco in the context of broader social and politica...more
I think this book is really good. It taught me a lot about disco and the culture of the 1970s, as well as having a pretty rocking playlist. I do think, however, that Echols needed to have a broader range of knowledge regarding what trends were popular in the discotheques. All of her statements are meant for New York, but she makes it sound like all of America was acting that way. Several people have told me that when they read this, they noticed that San Francisco was not the way she described a...more
A historian's examination of disco's impact on American society and culture, particularly how it affected both black men and women, women in general, and gay men. I found the beginning very slooooow - the parts about the music technology were a snooze for me - but then it became very interesting. As someone who lived through the era, but was a clueless teenager at the time, this was eye-opening and engrossing.
excellent excellent book. if all you know if disco is travolta pointing to the sky and "do the hustle" you don't know anything. this book is an absolute joy to read from start to stop with fascinating insights and anecdotes.
Interesting. Some reviewers have found the book academic, but I found it quite accessible. It is, after all, a non-fiction book and not a bit of fluff in People magazine.
An interesting examination of '70s culture!
It's an entertaining read, but maybe could have gone a little
deeper in it's look at trends and long-lasting effects and evolution of the
disco "lifestyle".
It's an entertaining read, but maybe could have gone a little
deeper in it's look at trends and long-lasting effects and evolution of the
disco "lifestyle".
Slight. But it does put Disco into historical perspective and explains how it empowered marginalized groups and brought them into the mainstream.
Interesting, but I agree with one of the readers below who said it was a bit like reading a textbook. Props to the author for having an encyclopedic knowledge of her subject though.
I dug it.
Dec 27, 2012
Lana
added it
Tom Moulton - The Sandpiper, Fire Island, New York, USA - 1974
https://soundcloud.com/r_co/tom-moult...
https://soundcloud.com/r_co/tom-moult...
This would have gotten three stars from me just for mentioning The Electrifying Mojo and the Nectarine Ballroom, but in addition, it was a good work of cultural history.
Very interesting but I was moving through it slowly so putting it aside for now.
A social/musical/business history of the 1970s, highlighting how Disco, as it became mainstream, moved financial and creative power into the hands of marginalized players (ethnic women, gay men, record producers), even if mainstream culture was willfully blind. And that, in retrospect, no one seems to have actually payed attention to what the plot of Saturday Night Fever was about.
A unique and enlightening analysis of an easily dismissed element of the 1970s and beyond. Having spent my teenage years during this period, I was familiar with most of the music and artists discussed, although I never gave much thought to the social evolution underway. The detail included in this book can feel overwhelming, but even a cursory review yield worthwhile information.
This proved to be a fascinating look at disco and its effect on African-American, gay, and feminist thinking in the 1970s. Echols may overreach in some of her analysis, but I thought most of her arguments were convincing, and the writing was more engaging than I have come to expect from professional historians.
I felt like I was reading a college textbook (its written by a professor at Rutgers so this is not surprising)- I learned a few good trivia items but it just didnt interest me enough to finish it.
Apr 20, 2013
Velanche
marked it as to-read
Apr 12, 2013
Gregory
marked it as to-read
Apr 05, 2013
Peter
marked it as to-read
Feb 28, 2013
M.J.
marked it as to-read
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Alice Echols is a cultural critic and historian. A specialist of the 1960s, Echols is a professor at the University of Southern California.
Associate Professor of English, Gender Studies and History
More about Alice Echols...
Associate Professor of English, Gender Studies and History
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