Post-disco

Post-disco (sometimes called club music or dance^[1]) refers to a disco music movement characterized by the heavy use of keyboard instruments, and more specifically, to a historically significant period in popular music history beginning with the commercial death of disco music in the late 1970s and ending with the mainstream appearance of house music in late 1980s.^[2][3]

The stripped-down musical trends followed from the DJ- and producer-driven, increasingly electronic and experimental side of disco,^[4] and were typified by the styles of dance-pop,^[1][5] boogie,^[4] italo disco and the early alternative dance.^[4]

Techno and house music are both rooted in post-disco.^{[1][6][7][8][9][10]}

Characteristics

Synthesizers played a crucial part in the development of post-disco.

Unlike disco music, post-disco usually lacked the typical shuffling hi-hat driven beat, walking basslines and/or string orchestration; it more featured drum machines, synthesizers, sequencers and 4/4 time signature commonly found in rock and pop music. Soulful female vocals, however, remained a part of post-disco. The main force in post-disco were mainly one-hit wonders and short-lived collaborations, while record producers played a significant role in post-disco in general. The music that mostly catered to dance and urban audiences later managed to influence more popular and mainstream acts like Madonna, New Order or Pet Shop Boys.^[3]

Term usage

The term "post-disco" was used as early as 1984 by Cadence Magazine when defining post-disco soul as "disco without the loud bass-drum thump."^[11] New York Magazine used the word in an article appearing in the December 1985 issue; it was Gregory Hines's introduction of post-disco and electronic funk to Russian-American dance choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov "who has never heard this kind of music."^[12] "Post-disco" is also an Allmusic editorial contributor's attempt to isolate a music genre in the era between the indistinct "end" of disco music and the equally indistinct emergence of house music.^[4]

History

Background events

Disco music backlash had started around 1977.

America

Shortly after the "Disco Sucks" movement of disco bashing throughout the United States, disco records were rejected from the airplay and its circulation literally almost had been stopped. American radio stations began to pay attention to other popular formats of music such as reggae, punk rock and/or New Wave while top mainstream labels and record companies like Casablanca, TK Records or RSO went bankrupt. Since disco music had been on the way of [its] electronic progression, it split itself into subscenes and styles like Hi-NRG, freestyle, italo-disco and boogie.^[3][13] The last one is closely associated with post-disco more than any other offshoots of post-disco.^[14][15]

A watershed album of post-disco was Michael Jackson's Off The Wall, produced by Quincy Jones, which helped establish a direction of R&B/dance music and influenced many young producers who were interested in this kind of new music.^[16] Other examples of early American R&B-influenced post-disco artists are Rick James, Change and Teena Marie.^[17]

Parliament-Funkadelic, a funk band, also set the tone for many post-disco and post-punk bands of the 1980s and 1990s.^[18]

United Kingdom

According to Billboard, American post-disco was merely a crossover of different genres, while focusing on the electronic and R&B overtones, whereas jazz-funk was a crucial element of the British post-disco scene that generated musicians like Chaz Jankel, Central Line or Imagination. Unlike in the United States, where anti-disco backlash generated prominent effect on general perception of disco music, British musicians continued to produce both "old-fashioned" disco music and the new music coming from America, thus creating a characteristic scene.^[17]

1980s: Golden age

This section summary shows commercially successful records (mostly R&B/pop-oriented) from the post-disco movement.

Compare "Open Sesame" (1976) with "Celebration" (1980) by Kool & The Gang, "Boogie Wonderland" (1979) with "Let's Groove" (1981) by Earth, Wind & Fire, "Shame" (1978) with "Love Come Down" (1981) and "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" (1976) with "Give It Up" (1982) by KC & the Sunshine Band.

2000s: Post-disco revival

During the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, electronic and, especially, house musicians were influenced by post-disco. Some of these musicians are: Daft Punk, a French house music group, adopted elements of post-disco, disco and synthpop into Discovery,^[30] Another artist Les Rythmes Digitales released a post-disco/electro-influenced album Darkdancer.^[31] Canadian music group Chromeo debuted in 2004 with the album She's in Control.^[32] Similar Los Angeles-based musician Dâm-Funk recorded Toeachizown, a boogie- and electro-influenced album released in 2009.^[33] Another band called Escort, who hails from New York City, surfaced on the post-disco and post-punk revival scenes around 2006. The story about Escort appeared on New York Times in November 2011.^[34]

Contemporary compilation albums featuring post-disco and electro artists (e.g. Imagination, Level 42, Afrika Bambaataa) include The Perfect Beats series (volume 1–4).^[35] Another compilation series are Nighttime Lovers (volume 1-10) and the mixed-up album titled The Boogie Back: Post Disco Club Jams.

Pioneers and followers

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, DJ Larry Levan was one of the first artists who implemented dub techniques in his productions and mixes for various post-disco artists, including his own group The Peech Boys.

Sinnamon's "Thanks to You", D-Train's "You're the One for Me", The Peech Boys' "Don't Make Me Wait" — all these songs and its attributes and trends of post-disco later influenced a new "never-before-heard" music style. The House music.^[37][38]

The new post-disco and especially boogie sound was flourishing along many mainstream independent record companies, including West End Records, Prelude Records, Tommy Boy Records, SAM Records, and others.^[38][39]

Timeline

	Earth, Wind & Fire - Let's Groove (1981) (sample) Short sample of "Let's Groove", originally released in 1981 by Earth, Wind & Fire.[nb 1]
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	Michael Jackson - Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (1983) (sample) Short sample of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", a song that appeared on Michael Jackson's album Thriller.[nb 2]
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Although there is no exact point when post-disco started, many synthpop and electronic musicians of that time continued to enhance the raw minimalist sound, while focusing on synthesizers, and keyboard instruments. As noted by Darryl Payne, a 1980s post-disco music producer, percussion instruments also played an important part in the urban-oriented music in general.^[17]

Legacy

The most successful artists of post-disco.

The 1980s post-disco sounds also inspired many Norwegian dance music producers.^[48] Some rappers such as Ice Cube or EPMD built their careers on funk-oriented post-disco music (they were inspired for example by dance-floor favorites like Zapp and Cameo).^[49] Also Sean "Puffy" Combs has been influenced by R&B-oriented post-disco music in an indirect way.^[50]

In popular culture

• The word "post-disco" has been implicitly mentioned in a 1989 novel named Crazy Love by Elías Miguel Muñoz.^[51]
• American satirical magazine Spy featured the words "post-punk" and "post-disco" in their Spy's Rock Critic-o-Matic article, whereas spoofing various music reviews published by Rolling Stone, The Village Voice and Spin.^[52]

Related genres

Boogie

Boogie (or electro-funk)^[38][53] is a post-disco subgenre influenced by funk music that was popular in the early to mid-1980s. Sean P. described it as "[sic] disco's poor cousin — too slow, too electronic, too R&B... too black, even".^[54]

Dance-rock

Another post-disco movement is merely connected with post-punk/no wave genres with fewer R&B/funk influences. An example of this "post-disco" is Gina X's "No G.D.M."^[55] and artists like Liquid Liquid, Polyrock,^[56] Dinosaur L, and Disco Not Disco [2000] compilation album.^[57][58] This movement also connects with dance-oriented rock; Michael Campbell, in his book Popular Music in America defines that genre as "post-punk/post-disco fusion."^[59] Campbell also cited Robert Christgau, who described dance-oriented rock (or DOR) as umbrella term used by various DJs in 1980s.^[60]

Dance-pop

Dance-pop is a dance-oriented pop music that appeared slightly after the demise of disco and the first appearance of "stripped-down" post-disco. One of the first dance-pop songs were "Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life" by Indeep and "Love Come Down" by Evelyn "Champagne" King, whereas the latter crossed over to Billboard charts including Adult Contemporary, while peaking at number 17 on the pop chart in 1982.^[61] Another crossover post-disco song was "Juicy Fruit" by Mtume, peaking at number 45 on the Hot 100 in 1983.^[62] Same year also saw the release of Madonna's eponymous album that incorporated post-disco, urban and club sounds. British variation of dance-pop, pioneered by Stock Aitken Waterman, was more influenced by house and hi-NRG and sometimes was labeled as "eurobeat".^[63]

Italo-disco

Italo-disco is a disco subgenre, mainly influenced by post-disco, hi-NRG and synthpop. Originally music mostly played by Italian musicians, but it soon made its way to Canada and United States. One of the earliest post–disco-oriented groups were Klein + M.B.O. and Kano, while New York-based Bobby Orlando was located abroad.^[4]

Non-exhaustive list of artists

Prominent record labels

Compilations

See also

• new wave
• electro
• old school hip hop
• garage house
• italo-disco

Notes

1. ^ Compare to the 1979 "traditionally"-sounding disco song "Boogie Wonderland" with string and horn sections arranged by Benjamin Wright.
2. ^ Demonstrates using horn section and drum machine rhythm at the same time.

References