What I thought about after reading When Rock Met Disco by Steven Blush

This is a short book but it gave me a lot of things to think about. I will usually play music found in the rock genre when I look around for something to listen to. Disco gave the world some great songs. The book breaks down Disco into sub genres: pop disco, eurodisco, Broadway Disco and rock disco. There were great songs and bad songs in each category. The appendices in the book had lists of songs to look for if you want to understand each sub genre. Most songs I knew, but I also discovered some new songs.

So if there were good songs and bad songs and this music genre only lasted a few years, why are we talking about it?

Let’s talk music. The book said, rock won the battles, but Disco won the war. Punk later incorporated Disco and became New Wave. Rolling Stones “Miss You” is a classic. Rock bands from Manchester England in the 1990s included a deejay.

In the late 1970s, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was inescapable. Radio stations changed formats to play Disco. They used Disco melodies in commercials. By 1981, Disco was over. The book posits, what if it didn’t?

Rock bands had Disco songs. Those sell outs! Except….Rolling Stones started by playing blues, they changed to hard rock, folk, Soul and a touch of reggae. Disco wasn’t out of their reach.

“Don’t You Think I’m Sexy” by Rod Stewart continues the themes and melodies from “Tonight’s The Night.” Steve Miller’s “Macho City” came after the synth opening of “Fly Like An Eagle.” Hard Rock fans love that song “I Was Made for Loving You” by Kiss. It’s a typical Kiss song less a guitar solo.

There were terrible ideas for rock-disco matches. Heart were great at folk, “Dreamboat Annie.” They shouldn’t have done disco with “Strange Euphoria.”

To just say “Disco Sucks” misses out on good and bad.