Popular Artists During The Disco Era example essay topic

Christopher Edge Ms. Gali peau 1/31/02 Final Paper 1 What happened to Disco? Bellbottom, afros, music, sex and drugs can best describe the Disco Era. The Disco Era was a care-free time in which there were no rules. People danced the nights away.

Most of the people of the Disco Era lived normal lives, working nine to five jobs during the week, but when the weekend rolled around they put on their bellbottom's and dancing shoes and hit up the Disco Clubs. This is an era that will never be forgotten but will probably never be relived. Disco is said to have begun in the gay nightclubs of New York City in the mid 1960's. At these clubs Deejays played records from little known black artists and quickly and accidentally began channeling underground music to the population. This quickly caught the attention of major record production companies. Up until this point in time, deejays didn't get very much respect for their profession.

Disk Jockeys began to play a major role, and soon they became celebrities, in the entertainment world. The whole idea to 'Disco Music' was mixing recorded music with other forms of music. This included mixing it with live music as well as mixing it with other recorded tracks. As this type of sound became very popular, recording artists started mixing different types of music in the recording studio. There were so many popular artists during the Disco Era, and much of their music is still listened to today.

One particular group that gained much fame during this era was the Bee Gees. When the Bee Gees first came out their popularity skyrocketed. They were said by many to be the next Beatles only with a different type of music. Those who did characterize them as the next Beatles were exactly right.

They produced number one hits one after the other. Some of their biggest hits were placed on the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, which became the biggest selling album in history up to that point. Saturday Night Fever, starring John Travolta, was a movie based on the life of Disco. John Travolta became a cultural Icon to young males during the 70's. Every guy dressed like him and wanted to live like him, and every female wanted to date him.

This movie became one of the biggest influences on disco goers of this era. Before this movie came out, disco was very popular. After the release of the movie though, the Disco was brought to a new extreme. On the female end of the spectrum Donna Summers was seen as the Queen of Disco.

She was idealized by every young African American girl in the 70's. She produced number one hits one after the other and became a social icon. The era was full of alcohol, drugs, dancing, and of course sex. At this point in time people smoked pot and drank and that's about it. All of the sudden this white powdery substance burst upon the scene. It was cocaine, straight from Columbia.

Cocaine exploded on the scene and there was no looking back for many people. Cocaine was accepted by actors and musicians and soon accepted by everyone else. Everyone was doing Cocaine without a second thought. Cocaine was a new drug and no one knew the bad side effects of it.

It made people feel as though they were invincible and they could party all night long and it did. Cocaine of the 70's can sort of be compared to Ecstasy of the 90's in the fact that everyone was doing Cocaine because no one knew of the horrible side effects that will occur to the body of an addict. Sex also burst upon the scene with a fury. Sex wasn't seen in the same way anymore.

People were having sex with anyone and everyone without a thought of remorse. It went from being very hidden and not talked about in society to being everywhere that one looked. Fashion had a lot to do with that. Women were wearing tight jeans and skimpy shirts along with go-go boots. I believe that fashion played a huge role in the way that sex began to be accepted. Unfortunately, sexually transmitted diseases burst upon the scene as well.

AIDS, as well as many other diseases ruined people's fun. AIDS was said to have started in the gay community, a community in which the Disco Era also began. A person's whole life could be changed from one crazy night of sex with someone that they had just met and they would regret it for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, the Disco era never could have survived itself. What I mean by this is that the whole idea of Disco just got so popular so fast that it ended up playing itself out. Unfortunately for Disco, over saturation ended up killing the Disco Era.

Everyone in the entertainment world wanted a piece of the disco craze, but it just was not possible. Artists such as The Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart even tried to release Disco records, yet failed miserably. Those were two very popular musicians that already had their own type of sound to them, but attempted to put out disco records in order to keep up with the growing trend. Musicians that had been around for a very long time tried to produce disco records and it started to get ridiculous. Unfortunately for disco, the era got so popular that naturally, there were those people that protested and found things wrong with what the Disco goers of the 70's were doing. At one point a radio personality in Chicago organized a huge group of people that hated the whole idea of the Disco era.

The plan of this radio personality was to blow up disco records in protest after a Chicago White Sox game. The whole thing went overboard as a riot broke out and some of Comiskey Park was destroyed. In my opinion there was no need for such a riot to occur. Disco goers were all about peace and love. They never wanted to hurt anyone. They were against war of all types.

Unfortunately for them at the time that they were preaching for peace and love the United States was trying to gain support from the citizens to enter the war in Vietnam. The United States government constantly stopped their protests and would not give them the time of day. The population of the United States was torn between loving the Disco Era and hating the Disco Era. Half of society was directly related to the popularity of the era because they were the ones going to Discos, doing drugs, having sex and basically living a carefree life.

The other half of the population was concentrating on getting rid of the Disco Era. These people saw Disco corrupting the United States, and they had every reason to feel this way. Hard drugs and careless sex suddenly played a major role in the lives of many Americans. People were overdosing on Cocaine and getting STD's from careless and overzealous drug use as well as sex. The population that hated the era ended up winning out. Disco, slowly but surely, went away.

Personally, if I could go back in time and experience another era, it would have to be the disco era, even if it were only for one night. The whole idea of the era appeals to me intimately. It was such an era of change for the United States and I wish that I could have been there to experience these changes in person. The nights at the clubs allowed for people to forget about there everyday problems and just go out to the clubs and live carefree on the weekends. This is what made Disco so popular so quickly. People that were living the 'Disco' life had a lot of fun because they acted like themselves.

They didn't feel as though they had to be 'Politically Correct' anymore. They went out and did what they wanted to do, when they wanted to do it, including, the chronic drug use and the careless sex. The sad thing about the Disco era is, although it will always be a part of our culture as a nation but it will never make a comeback. Sure, people still wear bellbottom's, and there are still hippies and disco music is still very popular, but the United States has become too modernized for the disco era to ever make a comeback.

Personally, I think that it would be very cool if it were to make a comeback. I think that it would be fun to wear bellbottom's and crazy shirts, but I'm sure that I would get sick of it very quickly and go back to the way that I am used to living. First of all, the music industry would never allow for new disco acts to burst upon the scene. The music industry is what got the era going in the first place.

Secondly, the United States government would never allow for such an era to occur again. The Disco Era will always play a very important role in the history of the United States and will forever live on in spirit..