\u201cTough guys don’t dance,”<\/b> my friend used to repeat to me from the red faux-leather sofa at the edge of the dance floor while boredly sipping a watered-down gin and tonic. Every time, I would throw myself onto the dance floor, sweaty and a bit awkward with my jacket tied around my waist to save on the cloakroom fee, overwhelmed by that ancestral 4\/4 beat, while he stayed there watching me as I picked up a different girl every night… he was a real tough guy!<\/p>\n
Most ancient cultures trace the advent of life, if not the formation of the world itself, back to a sound, a rhythm, or sometimes a dance, springing from the immense imagination of some deity.<\/p>\n
From the Mongolian steppes to the Amazon rainforests, in Hindu sagas as in Aztec legends, from Greek philosophers to Carl Gustav Jung, traces of the healing, liberating, and spiritual importance of music can be found everywhere\u2014often linked to dance, a direct line to one’s self, to our most distant roots, and to that “everything” of which we are a part.<\/p>\n
Even the most skeptical and scientific minds, after endless flights of fancy, have had to trace “the beginning” back to that deafening drumbeat that was the “BIG BANG”.<\/p>\n
Considering that every human expression is a product of its time and its needs, it is reasonable to conclude that disco music is one of these collective rituals and that, in some way, it is also part of our DNA.<\/p>\n
To stop at the appearance of a strobe light would be like defining as frivolous and superficial the instinct that makes us jump for joy or stomp our feet in anger; it would be like calling Keith Haring futile and inconsistent because he drew little figures in the New York subway, or Walt Disney because the protagonist of his stories was just a mouse. It would be like degrading the Beatles to a mere media event because young girls fainted at their concerts, or not considering Italo Calvino a great writer just because he used simple language for simple subjects.<\/p>\n
For us Europeans, Disco Music was and remains today a phenomenon essentially linked to gathering, socializing, and having fun: no small feat!<\/p>\n
As a musician of twenty-five years, I do not find Disco Music to be any less cultured or intelligent than other genres that boast these attributes; on the contrary, being a well-defined genre within a rather rigid rhythmic cage, it requires great inventiveness and musical knowledge from those who produce it to escape repetitiveness or banality. The enormous variety of sounds used\u2014ranging from Barry White’s string orchestra to the stellar horns of Earth, Wind Fire, and the futuristic synths Moroder used for Donna Summer\u2014has meant that the greatest musicians of our time have been tempted to try their hand at it: from Quincy Jones, with and without Michael Jackson, to Paul McCartney (the ultimate melodist of the Fab Four), and Burt Bacharach. This has expanded the horizons of a genre that seems to have neither age nor expiration date.<\/p>\n
To this day, we cannot help but remain captivated by the bass groove of “Good Times,” whether we are professional musicians or casual Sunday night listeners. And indeed, that is the beauty of Disco Music: it is for everyone! Whatever you are looking for, you can find it. You can dance like Tony Manero or like Baloo the Bear; you do not need the voice of Gloria Gaynor to belt out “I Will Survive”!!!<\/p>\n
I also associate my first official “illegal” act with Disco Music; in fact, to get into the cinema to see “Saturday Night Fever,” which was restricted to those under 14, I armed myself with an ink pen and, by forging my ID card, I increased my age by a couple of years. The cashier looked me up and down; her experienced eyes probably turned a blind eye, unknowingly ferrying me into a world that would change me forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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