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From disco's Stonewall-era beginnings to its ubiquity in the late 70's to its demonization by haters, disco comes across as the soundtrack to America's democratic interpretation of late-19th-century European decadence.
But "Disco," which was organized by Eric Weisbard, Ann Powers and Ben London, does not make these connections. It attempts to show only that disco had lofty social consequences - gay comings-out, in particular - and unlofty aesthetic ones, like nightclub pageantry and "Solid Gold" dance moves.
D. A. Miller, a Berkeley professor who has written about gay men and Broadway musicals, argued in his 2003 book "Jane Austen, or the Secret of Style," that gays and others alienated from standard love stories often find in a deliberately superficial aesthetic, an emphasis on pure style, a means by which to repudiate "substance," which is often code for domesticity and marriage. It would have been instructive to see how disco's paraphernalia, examples of which form the bulk of this show, helped the disco scene define itself against family life.
Huh.
I miss the '70s.
But "Disco," which was organized by Eric Weisbard, Ann Powers and Ben London, does not make these connections. It attempts to show only that disco had lofty social consequences - gay comings-out, in particular - and unlofty aesthetic ones, like nightclub pageantry and "Solid Gold" dance moves.
D. A. Miller, a Berkeley professor who has written about gay men and Broadway musicals, argued in his 2003 book "Jane Austen, or the Secret of Style," that gays and others alienated from standard love stories often find in a deliberately superficial aesthetic, an emphasis on pure style, a means by which to repudiate "substance," which is often code for domesticity and marriage. It would have been instructive to see how disco's paraphernalia, examples of which form the bulk of this show, helped the disco scene define itself against family life.
Huh.
I miss the '70s.
