Few pop-music genres have so dominated the charts and airwaves as disco at its height; fewer still have subsequently been so reviled. Shapiro considers disco as much more than glitzy dance music with fashion ramifications. Emerging at a time when gay sexuality and rights were exploding and African Americans were entering the "post Civil Rights" era, disco combined elements of the subcultures of both. Shapiro describes how disco grew from roots stretching from World War II, became a worldwide phenomenon, and ended in a homophobic, racist backlash. High points in passing include Shapiro's incisive disquisition on how
Saturday Night Fever had "more popular culture impact than any movie since
Gone with the Wind." Shapiro cites record producer Nile Rodgers: "Those songs are powerful . . . just as relevant and as valid . . . as when the Sex Pistols . . . Pink Floyd [or] the Beatles are delivering a message." Let the pop-culture wars begin anew, with Shapiro's deeper, more balanced take on disco vitally informing the discussion.
Mike TribbyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Pressestimmen
"Excellent. Leaves no doubt that disco lives at the heart of recent music history." --Frank Broughton and Bill Brewster, authors of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life: The History of The Disc Jockey
"Peter Shapiro not only recovers disco from unjust critical malevolence, he proves himself one of music journalism's most provocative, expansive, and engaging writers. Unearthing a story that stretches from Nazi resistance to outcast American counterculture, through artistic triumphs and unlikely crossover, and finally into a massive backlash coded in racism and homophobia, Turn The Beat Around: A Secret History of Disco is riveting, powerful, and essential." --Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation