THE EMERGENCE OF DISCO IN NEW YORK CITY IN THE 1970S

This essay is about the rise of disco music and subculture in the 1970s. It intends to provide an insight of how discriminatory laws and societal prejudices pushed marginalised minorities underground, creating a counterculture to the dominance of rock music. This assignment examines why discrimination sparked riots among the LGBT, black, and Hispanic communities. It also aims to give an understanding of how new technologies emerged such as the music format evolution; how the modern DJ was created; how heteronormative conventional dancing in modern nightclubs was challenged and evolved; and to a dancefloor packed with raving people wanting to express themselves. Disco gave inspiration to develop today’s musical genres, by providing the four to the floor beat, and giving DJs the freedom to be creative and start to remix and produce the records, as they knew that would work on their dancers in the nightclubs. This essay will also look at the backlash against disco music, and possibly why a genre of music could spark riots and protest. The information has been attained by research from interviews in several books and internet articles, and video interviews.

Disco is a fusion of musical influences such as funk, soul, Motown, salsa and meringue music. It was created by African American and Latino musicians in the early 1970s (World atlas, 2016). Popularised mostly by gay DJs and a gay audience who were ostracised from mainstream society (Rockwell, 1990). Although a term not used at the time, the word “disco” was derived from France meaning, “discotheque”, a literal translation of disco means “Nightclub”. The style can be typified by a four by four beat pattern, funky syncopated basslines.

Arguably, disco first arose at the Sanctuary nightclub in Central Park South in 1968. It gave birth to the pioneering modern DJ “Francis Grasso” from Brooklyn, in New York. He was known as the person credited to have invented the technique of beat matching (Shapiro, P, 2009; p17). Grasso also introduced the art of ‘slip cuing’ in clubs, (Shapiro, P. 2009; p17), which had been previously used in radio stations, and he was the first DJ to require headphones as part of his set up (Stokes, n.d).

Before Grasso, the DJ was regarded as a ‘duke box’ (Brewster, 2006; p138). People were there to hear the artists, and the clubs that could not afford live bands used a DJ. Grasso changed all this and set the precedent for the model all future DJs would take. New York City had a cabaret law from 1926 which prohibited establishments in the prohibition period to sell alcohol, and stopped people dancing who were the same sex (Brigante, 2013). The laws were misused and regularly, black, Hispanic and LGBT communities were targeted with often violent crackdowns and fines. On June 28th, 1969 a riot broke out, outside the Stonewall Inn, in New York City, USA. This was a violent protest that became known as the Stonewall Riots. This began an era of rebellion, with people dancing in crowds, instead of opposite sex pairings. This changed the dynamics of the dancefloor, and the need for music and technology to evolve (Stokes, n.d).

The Stonewall Riots sparked activism in America beginning the gay rights movement (History, 2017). In the 1950s and 1960s, homosexuality was illegal. People received heavy fines or imprisonment and were subjected to violence and discrimination. Rockwell (1970) describes how Mafia owned the Stonewall Inn and bribed the police to ignore their activities. This was in order to keep prices high and to extort and threaten to ‘out’ their patrons, by exposing their sexuality to their families and employers. Despite Mafia bribes, the Police regularly raided the Stonewall Inn, and other gay bars. Trans and other non-gender conforming people were arrested for not wearing appropriate clothing. June 28th, 1969, the police raided the bar to make arrests of staff and patrons leading to rioting outside. the angry mob had turned into thousands and the riots lasted until July the first. The Stonewall Riots were the start of the modern gay liberation movement which attracted other people with different gender or sexual orientation. The following one-year anniversary of the riots on June 28th, 1970, they organised the first gay pride parade. Today, cities around the country, and even the world, still hold a parade on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

From the riots and a new sense of defiance and freedom, a series of bars and clubs opened in New York City. Disco music was counter culture against the dominance of rock music (Rockwell, 1990) and the stigmatisation of dance music. Disco establishments created a safe place from the authorities for the marginalised minorities such as Homosexuals, African Americans, Hispanics, and women. One of the first such clubs was run by DJ David Mancuso, who championed the popular “By Invitation Only” parties in New York City. In 1970, this club night became known as “The Loft”. Many people believed this to be one of New York’s first underground nights (Shapiro, 2009; p20), and a response to the Cabaret law of 1926 which forbade gay patrons to be sold alcohol or dance together (Holland, 2019).

Mancuso did not need a NYC cabaret licence as he was not selling food or beverages to the public. He went through a lengthy trial with the New York City department of consumer affairs to be able to continue and hired a lawyer to work as door staff (Advisor, n.d.). This successfully laid the groundwork for other famous underground discos such as the Gallery in February 1973, and the Paradise Garage in 1977, to follow a similar trajectory and format of a dancing only policy (Advisor, n.d.). Mancuso did not mix records but was a believer of “taking the crowd on a journey” (Advisor, n.d.) with pre-planned DJ sets, playing the record from beginning to the end, then playing the next record (Grimes, 2016).

Because of Mancuso’s influence, Nicky Siano opened The Gallery at the age of 18 in 1973 (Haider, 2018). After visiting the Loft, he was inspired to somewhat recreate David Mancuso’s model and make it more commercial (Brewster, 2006; p161). This brought disco out of the fringes of gay and black culture and into the mainstream, with the Stonewall riots having been the starting point for Siano starting his own disco.

A worker known as Frankie Knuckles was hired by Nicky Siano to blow up balloons and spike the punch (Brewster, 2006; p165). Knuckles told Siano about his friend from the Bronx, Larry Levan, who then hired Levan as a decorator. Levan and Knuckles learned the art of DJing, working in the disco scene. Siano was arguably one of the architects of the commercialisation of dance music. He was one of the first people to use three turntables to add effects alongside two records in the mix (Brewster, 2006; p162) and he also commissioned the first custom built sound systems for club use, including the first bass horn and tweeters that could be adjusted separately with EQ control (Shapiro, 2009). Siano brought fashion into disco and his customers wore the clothes associated with disco fashion. Many fashion designers visited his establishment. After the Gallery closed due to Siano having a drug overdose, the Paradise Garage would open and continue the underground scene all through the 1980s.

There were several key people involved with Paradise Garage, which opened in 1977. Mel Cheren, who was nicknamed the “Godfather of disco”, opened the club (Brigante, 2013). To do so, Cheren financially backed his partner Michael Brody to be the sole proprietor and owner of the Club. He used his knowledge of the music industry to work his way up through the ranks at ABC-Paramount Records, going from salesman in 1959, to overseeing production by 1964 (Brigante, 2013). In 1976, Mel Cheren and Ed Kushins founded West End Records (Brigante, 2013). Mel Cheren employed Larry Levan as a ten-year resident DJ from 1977 to 1987. Cheren created the 12-inch record which extended playing time and invented the B-side instrumental. Mel Cheren was crucial in the evolution of dance music (Brigante, 2013).

As previously discussed, Larry Levan was another key figure at Paradise Garage. He evolved as a one of the most prominent disco DJs of the era and was the first ‘celebrity DJ’ (Richards, 2016). His ten-year residency at the Paradise Garage left a legacy that set the blueprint for today’s DJ and producers. Expanding into music production, he created his own style, and therefore started making his own remixes to play in the club. These were club classics such as Taana Gardner – Heartbeat. Levan was asked to be the DJ at the Warehouse in Chicago, a club where Frankie Knuckles was to be the first DJ. Clubbers would ask “where can I find that warehouse music” that Knuckles plays (Mixed in key, n.d). This is how the descriptive term ‘House music’ originated. However, Levan turned the offer down to continue the disco scene.

The major record and film companies wanted to commercialise the underground disco scene. Disco by 1978 was outselling rock music backed by small independent music labels. (Stokes, n.d). They made films such as “Saturday Night Fever” in 1977, and “Thank God Its Friday” in 1978. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack by the Bee Gees has sold approximately 40 million copies and ranks in the top 10 in the best-selling albums of all time (Thomas, 2018). In the film, John Travolta’s character, Tony Manero, wins a dance competition solely because he’s white. According to an analysis of the film by Nathan Rabin in Vanity Fair (2017) and with it, reflecting on the reality of the times, Hispanic and black dancers could have been viewed as more deserving of the win, yet the judges awarded Manero as a white character (Rabin, 2017). The Saturday Night Fever plot and characters were created because of a 1976 article written by British rock journalist Nick Cohn in the New York Magazine, called Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night (Shapiro, 2009; Rabin, 2017).

There was an attempt to destroy disco music and arguably had homophobic and racist undertones. The ‘Disco Sucks’ campaign in 1979 was started by a radio DJ from Detroit called Steve Dahl, who was fired from his job at WDAI radio station now changing to a disco format. Dahl partnered up with ex-guitarist Steve Veek and they created a protest at Comiskey Park (Brewster, 2006). This was the home of the Chicago White Sox and Veek’s father was the owner. Dahl announced cheap tickets to the game if patrons brought a disco record. After the first game, ten thousand records were blown up within a container on the pitch (Brewster, 2006). The crowd invaded the field, setting fires suspending the second game. The Disco Sucks campaign appeared to work initially because sales figures of disco records were dropping. However, it was more likely that culture was changing, with disco moving from the mainstream back to the underground. It evolved as House music, Hip Hop, and Techno.

In summary, this essay has looked at the historical and societal background which led to the beginnings of disco music. This includes the cabaret law which prohibited two people of the same sex people to dance or drink alcohol, pushing gay patrons to seek underground establishments to be able to dance, and be away from much of the intolerant mainstream in society. It has also shown how gay counterculture was targeted by authorities sparking riots and the birth of gay pride and triggering social change, in relation to the music scene and clubs. It caused new clubs to flourish with new found freedoms and sound systems designed to give a better customer experience. It has shown how the 12” record was invented for better sound quality and longer playing time, as well as how the instrumental was made to loop and extend the same track. It has also looked at how the DJ became the superstar, and produced his own records and remixes tailored to the dancefloor through having a better understanding of what the patrons reacted to. Disco had become so successful in its prime that the big film and music corporations wanted in. Finally, it has shown how the commercialisation of disco in order to reach a bigger audience changed how the music was made, so it became suitable for pop culture, represented by films such as ‘Saturday Night Fever.’