I blame Giorgio Moroder for all of this….

He got this wild notion in his head for Disco to sound like some space-age symphony. While everyone else was rushing to put whole orchestras on a record, the half-German, half-Italian producer went light years in the opposite direction and created an orchestra of one.

Thus Euro-Disco is born. Euro-Disco would then merge with punk and voilà, you have New Wave!

Ideas are a lot like the common cold. Once it infects others, it spreads fast. Pretty soon, everybody’s got it. That also explains some of the appalling fashion trends of the Eighties.

Disco never died. It certainly didn’t die in Chicago in 1979. Like any popular fad, it lost public interest and stayed with the people who truly cared about it. Disco was just another name for something to dance to. To that end, it then became Hi-NRG. Not much of a name. Think of it as a cultural place holder.

The pieces were slowly falling into place, though. R&B and Disco permanently bonded. D-Train came out of Brooklyn with the same drive as the subway line. You’re The One For Me wasn’t House in the purest sense, but the blueprint had been established.

As a coastal city, New York was absorbing sounds brought over from visitors and its resident club DJs making record buying forays to Europe. Heavily synthesized Italian disco fit in perfectly with the American R&B dance music. Add the Latin Influence of Salsa and Merengue music, along with powerhouse female vocalists like Jocelyn Brown, Gloria Gaynor, and Martha Wash…

You see where this is heading, don’t you?

Each music form fed of the other, influencing, imitating, and replicating, like some mutated musical fetus. A beautiful, mutated, musical fetus.

Arthur Baker was a DJ and producer from Boston who soaked up the hip and electro coming out of New York. He’d been there with Afrika Bambatta, and he made the acquaintance of three young men from Manchester who were still reeling from the loss of their lead singer. He took their lyrics and set it to a four on the floor beat.

Tell me now, how should I feel…

Actually, Baker lifted the hook from another NY producer, Bobby O, better known as Bobby Orlando. Bobby O and Arthur Baker are to house what Little Richard and Elvis were to Rock. Both men were originators and innovators. Bobby O didn’t gain as much notice because most of music was unapologetically for the gay crowd. Nevertheless, he put out music at a rate that would have scared Prince.

But all wasn’t joy in the Eighties.
AIDS was claiming a vast cross section of the people within the creative scene. Paranoia over the disease, coupled with the one-two combo of Reagan and Thatcher ushered in a new Puritanical Age. “Do It ‘Til You’re Satisfied” was replaced with “Just Say No.”

Now, here’s where things get a bit tricky…Fun, but tricky…

TO BE CONTINUED…

I can’t actually say what it is for another DJ, but for me… it is some seriously powerful shit! I have been a fan of house music since the late 80s when shit was really sketchy. New York was a late bloomer when it came to House Music. NY seemed to be so wrapped up in Hip Hop that Chicago was spreading House Music and Detroit was spreading Techno Music worldwide without us really being in the know. So we didn’t start to really see any progression here until the early 90s. House was the bastard child of Disco after she had love affairs with both Funk and Soul but she didn’t really know who the father was. Some real ghetto shit, right? I know but doesn’t all really superb music start out in the hood? At least that’s how I saw it. Disco at the time had been abandoned by the mainstream and was cast into the abyss to be forgotten. The “four on the floor” thump had been watered down with cheap electronic sounds instead of 5-20 piece bands.

Every soul, jazz and R&B singer on the planet had jumped onto the bandwagon and made a “disco” track. When Johnny Mathis (and don’t get me wrong, I loves me some Johnny Mathis) makes a disco song, you are headed down a dark path from which there may be no return. I loved my disco music from the 60s and 70s but this crap coming out in the 80s killed me. It lacked a significant amount of soul and originality. Kind of like what modern “Commercial Rap” music is seeing right now. I was first exposed to House Music at; you guessed it, a “House Party” at someone’s crib in Brooklyn, NY circa 1987. Someone had found some not-so-shitty electronic sounds and made them sound really, really good! I can’t even remember the song but I kept my ears open for the sound at every party and it began to increase more and more. There was the Hip Hop, the R&B, the Reggae and then a little House segment. The house segment was always the most intense part. The B-Boys/B-Girls seemed to dig it more than they dug dancing to Hip Hop. It caught on like wildfire on the underground because you know they wouldn’t play it on the radio. You had to be at your crib, a party or a club to get some good house music. In the U.S. the same holds true to date as far as I’m concerned. Occasionally you’ll catch a 2 a.m. dope House Music mix somewhere in the US but rarely is it long enough to suit a house head’s taste. Anyway, in NY I saw House begin to integrate itself into other underground formats and gave rise to the likes of Hip-House, Trance, Jungle, Tech-house and a myriad of other styles with the same 4-bump kick drum root. It was pretty incredible by the early 90s how it became integrated into everything, even the mainstream. The marvelous thing about House Music is that it split into so many sub-genres that it has been able to accommodate the most discriminating underground House head in the ghettos of Brooklyn to the most uppity Ivy League graduate from the suburbs of Minneapolis.

Knowing and having been able to experience all of that history allows me to soak up all of the wonders of spinning some Deep, Soulful and Classic House. Watching the incredible timeless bodies that are well into their 60s and the newbies in their 20s all share the dance floor define what it is for me. Spinning House Music is beyond magical. The only thing I love more than spinning it is dancing to it. Yes, you will find me on the dance floor cutting some serious rug! Watching the looks on people’s faces when they are dancing is amazing. Most of them don’t seem to care about anything else except for the song that is on and the way it makes them feel on that crowded or even a not so crowded dance floor. It is solidarity and unity at the same time. Bodies gyrating, sweat, smiles, frowns when a hard baseline comes on, the way everyone bounces at the same time when the music drops out and just the drums and percussion kick in, the hands clapping, the whistles blowing, the random tambourine that someone brings out… Nothing touches watching this. Nothing can come close to the exhilaration of knowing that you are guiding the joys of these people. Teasing the crowd with lead-ins to a really popular song and feeling the heat in the room swell and then letting them have it at just the right moment…Boom! The release! That is what it is to spin house music. Most people will never know what it feels like. I feel really sorry for them.

-DJ BooshWheelz

http://DJBooshWheelz.com

http://DjBooshWheelz.bandcamp.com

http://soundcloud.com/djbooshwheelz

Click here to visit DJBooshWheelz.com and Download Housetastic Vol 2 FREE!

Swedish House Mafia checked into their Masquerade Motel with a sensational opening at Pacha!

As one of the first to arrive at the opening of Swedish House Mafia’s Masquerade Motel at Pacha, I got a chance to see the club in all its glory as it slowly filled up. By 1.30am the dance floor was heaving with a mixture of die-hard SHM fans, rich and glam Pacha VIPs and house hungry revellers.

Pacha’s grand entrance, high ceilings and antique aesthetics perfectly suited the SHM second stint at their Masquerade motel theme. Just like last year their personalised SHM chandelier hung with pride from the centre of the ceiling, which, alongside a glass wall platform in the main room, added to the ostentatious theme and also created an air of mystery as to what it was there for.

Pacha Resident of nine years Andy Baxter had the challenge of warming up the night with a two hour set and although the upper level and terrace were busy with the early birds the main room was still pretty quiet and chilled yet he provided a strong set with a mixture of deep tech house to more uplifting house tunes with some Spanish flavour.

Now by this point I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Swedish House Mafia especially after catching them at their pre party set at Mambo earlier in the evening, where their feel good vibe had already begun. With 2 hours to go until the infamous trio began their fourth season in Ibiza, Pacha needed to pull something special out of the bag to control the crowd’s excitement, and they did…

Up stepped Alesso, who Sebastian Ingrosso has pioneered under his own record label ‘Refune’, The crowds hands immediately went in the air as the slightly nervous 18 year old gave what seemed to be the set of his career and remixed classics such as ‘Roxanne’ by Sting and The Police. Mainly smashing out progressive tech house from the speakers the Swedish rising star made it clear the party had began.

4am had arrived and Swedish House Mafia finally entered the booth, and although they were worth the wait, four hours was a long time to be counting down the seconds. Now the main room’s hysteria reached a new high with the trio introducing themselves and opening their residency, which will be at Pacha until 26^thSeptember.

With the huge success of their debut album ´Until One´, documentary and 2010 Ibiza season, SHM have a huge fan base and high expectations to live up to, and it was obvious from the start that they love what they do and were as psyched as we were to be checking into the Masquerade Motel.

Influenced by Daft Punk at the start of their career they once again showed their love for the French duo by dropping One More Time and Around the World. Also, keeping with the current charts they mixed Adele’s ‘Rolling in the deep’ and even pulled out a performance of their newest release ‘Save the world’ with a live PA from vocalist Paul Martin. With each track played creating a surge of frenzy through the crowd, their set simply got better as the night went on. Similar to last year there was confetti, horns, explosions and flame throwing and rather scary (perhaps sexy to some) dancers, all of which mostly took place in the DJ booth. The trio even took the time to read people’s messages on their phones and take picture of themselves with their cameras.

The positioning of the DJ booth added to the parties intimate feel and made the whole night feel like a private event. Admittedly their popularity has its downside as it took sheer determination to get to the bar, the toilet or anywhere else. But SHM didn´t disappoint as they wowed the crowd with´Teenage Crime´, ´Rise´, ´Miami to Ibiza´, ´One´ and ´Leave the World Behind’.

You can pre-order your tickets now online at http://www.ticketsdisco.com/ ! See you there party people!!!!

Here’s the full line up (subject to change) for the summer 2011 season :

06 JUN | Axwell, Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, Alesso
13 JUN | Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, Third Party, SPECIAL GUEST Tinie Tempah
20 JUN | Sebastian Ingrosso, STEVE ANGELLO, ARNO COST
27 JUN | AN21, Max Vangeli, KIM FAI – PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
04 JUL | Axwell, Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, Alesso
11 JUL | Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, Calvin Harris, Alex Metric
18 JUL | Axwell, Steve Angello, Dirty South, Third Party
25 JUL | Sebastian Ingrosso, AXWELL, Benny Benassi, David Tort
01 AUG | Steve Angello, AXWELL, Sebastian Ingrosso, AN21, Max Vangeli
08 AUG | Axwell, Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, Norman Doray
15 AUG | Sebastian Ingrosso, Axwell, Steve Angello, Thomas Gold
22 AUG | Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, Armand Van Helden, Third Party
29 AUG | Axwell, Steve Angello, Dirty South, AN21, SPECIAL GUEST Example
05 SEP | Sebastian Ingrosso, AXWELL, A-Trak
12 SEP | Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso, NORMAN DORAY
19 SEP | Sebastian INGROSSO, AXWELL, Benny Benassi
26 SEP | Steve Angello, SEBASTIAN INGROSSO, AXWELL

Now in it’s 12th season Judgment Sundays has become an institution in Ibiza. Taking place at Eden, San Antonio’s biggest super club, it is one of Ibiza’s busiest and most notorious nights. Beginning June 5th with a sixteen week run until the closing party on September 18th, the walls of Eden will be filled with an all star lineup and a packed crowd dancing until the early hours of the morning.

Judgement Sundays will be headlined by none other than the Ibiza icon himself Judge Jules in the main room with some of trance’s biggest names alongside such as Sander van Doorn, Eddie Halliwell, Cosmic Gate, Richard Durand, Marco V, Simon Patterson. Legends John O’Callagan and Ferry Corsten also return in 2011. Woody Van Eyden & Alex M.O.R.P.H. will also be featured, bringing with them Germany’s #1 electronic music station Sunshine Radio; broadcasting live from Ibiza. Judgement Sundays also continues to showcase new talent with sets from breakout artists Jordan Suckley, Mat Zo, and Arty as well as the world’s #1 female DJ Claudia Cazacu.

In addition to a stellar lineup in the main room, the theme continues in the second room with regulars Micky Slim, Alex Ellenger, Tristan Ingram, Krafty Kuts and JS favorite Howard Donald. Other names stacking up the line ups include talented pairing The Squatters, The Gallery’s Gavyn Mytchel, Dumb Blonde, Jonty Skruff, Tom Koenig, plus dubstep’s youngest sensation Jacob Plant.

New to Judgement Sundays in 2011 is the “Dub n Bass” theme in the third room, which is one of the only places in Ibiza you can hear a collision of dubstep and drum n bass with a unique Ibiza spin.

Date: Saturday 11th June 2011
Venue: Gatecrasher Birmingham »
Location: Birmingham
Doors: 22:00 til 04:00

http://www.skiddle.com/events/11478284/

Natalie Howard provides the story to the hype.

This had to be the opening of 2011 that everyone was talking about. The rumours had been circulating for weeks that the hotel wasn’t going to be finished on time. But boy did they prove us wrong! Not only was it finished, it was unlike anything I had seen before in Ibiza!

Walking through the colossal carved doors and into the main pool area, we all just stopped and stared. Gobsmacked. I had seen a few pictures beforehand but nothing could have prepared me for this. At one end was the stage, where the Cadenza DJ’s Reboot and Robert Dietz were already pumping out the tunes. But this was not just any stage, it was a stage worthy of any festival or concert arena. Then there was the enormous pool, with dancers being carried on men’s shoulders to their podiums in the middle (where a few were writhing around in super-sized Veuve Cliquot buckets!). With a 5000 person capacity you can imagine the sheer size of this place.

There were people everywhere! The main dance floor was already packed full of early bird party-goers, and the crowd had spread past the pool and the VIP beds all the way to the bar at the back. Ushuaia have managed to create a space that everyone can enjoy; with many different levels and zones, you don’t need to worry about not being able to see the stage or being too far from the party. If you’ve booked a room you have the luxury of looking over the crowd from your balcony (which must have been incredible), or even getting your own personal dance space if you’re on the ground floor.

It took us about 15 minutes just to take it all in before realizing that we should probably eat something prior to indulging in any mojitos. Luckily we were able to get a table in the Beach Club restaurant, which while being rather expensive, did not disappoint. The tuna was delicious and the ‘Ushuaia Burger’ on the table next door looked mouthwatering. However, a quick word of warning; do not expect a quiet lunch on the beach during pool parties, the music was just as loud in the restaurant as it was by the stage. While this did make it rather difficult to engage in conversation it did mean I was able to watch all the TV reporters filming. I have to say that I have never seen so much press at an opening as I did that day. There were cameramen, photographers and presenters EVERYWHERE (a medal to anyone who managed to avoid being filmed or having their photo taken).

With our tummies now full it was time to get involved in the party. As the sun began to set, Ushuaia took on a whole other atmosphere. It had transformed from day time pool party to full on nightclub style, open air, club. The high tech lighting display behind the DJ booth was now in all its glory and the pool and water fountains were glowing with different colours. We weaved our way to the main dance floor and remained there for 3 hours. No toilet breaks, no drink breaks, nothing. It was so good that you just didn’t want to miss out on anything.

I have to admit that I didn’t quite understand why Ushuaia had called it the unexpected opening party. I had seen the rather random frog, pig and crocodile statues but that couldn’t possibly warrant it the name ‘unexpected’. This was until I turned around to see gigantic air filled marshmallow men walking through the crowds, dancing to the music and cheering everyone. That was definitely unexpected!

The Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel Opening, has to be one of, if not the best parties I have been to in Ibiza in a long time. It has brought back the open air clubbing that Ibiza has been missing for some time. The next pool party is on the 12th of June and you would be mad to miss it!

The award winning Creamfields is the world’s leading dance music festival. The original and best, Creamfields set out to provide the clubbing world with a bespoke large scale outdoor event and has gone on to become the most popular and renowned open air electronic music festivals in the world.

Creamfields is famous for many things not least its heritage but also its consistent delivery of world class line ups, value for money and unbeatable atmosphere!

Creamfields 2011 takes place on Friday 26th, Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th August Bank Holiday Weekend

Official Website

http://www.creamfields.com/

1980.

Disco is now a dirty word in America. Ronald Reagan is about to take office and send the world into a nationalistic, evangelical Dark Age. Strange times are ahead…

The haters were confident that Disco, their sworn enemy, was finally, and permanently dead, consigned to the musical and cultural scrap-heap. No longer would red-blooded, heterosexual, American men feel the need to dress up in garish polyester shirts, tight, crotch-hugging gabardine slacks, platform shoes, and engage in mindless casual sex and Himalayan mountain ranges of cocaine.

America was once again safe.

To be fair, Disco hadn’t done itself any favours. Like some of its loyal followers, Disco hadn’t been selective about mating partners. Like any musical revolution, once the popular market got its grimy hands all over the scene, doom was written on the cards.
Pop music is a cultural vampire. It latches on to whatever is hot at the time, sucks all the available creative juices, until all that is left is a dried out husk.

When Disco first started, the music was inspired, passionate, delightfully and deliriously over the top. Artists like Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band brought back 1930′s big band swing with disco hips. Silver Connection dropped a disco bomb in the middle of a classical orchestra, straight outta Munich. Even credible rock acts like Blondie, Rod Stewart, and The Electric Light Orchestra were getting in on the act.

Then Nile Rodgers got turned away by Steve Rubell at the doors of Studio 54. Chic started a revolution. When Le Freak dropped, it was the Never Mind The Bollocks of disco.

Of course, no musical revolution is complete without mind-altering chemicals. Jazz had marijuana. Psychedelic rock had LSD. Disco had COCAINE.

Lots and lots and lots of cocaine. Pure, white, fluffy, tasty….I’m sorry, where was I?

Cocaine was everywhere during the Golden Age of Disco. It was a cool time. You had to figure there would be snow…

Of course, the good times couldn’t last. By the late 70′s the musical output had deteriorated so much, Hollywood stars like Ethel Merman were making disco records. Google her, kids. She was a big star back in the day, trust me.

It would be hard to take a musical style seriously that didn’t take its shelf life into consideration. Disco wanted to live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse.

Well, two out of three ain’t bad (Thanks, Meat Loaf!).

Previously, I quoted the first Law of Thermodynamics. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only become another energy form.

That law can also be applied to music. Music is a form of energy. Sound energy, to be precise. Vibrating waves that hit the eardrum, causing it to vibrate.

…And the beat goes on.

Disco was the amphibian taking its first steps on land. It was never meant to remain static.

It was as if everyone had forgotten that caterpillars form a cocoon. After a dormant period, a butterfly emerges.

Let’s hop into the DeLorean, shall we? (Sidebar: I love the fact that the DeLorean is such a cultural icon. Who else but a guy who funded his company dealing coke could come up with the idea of building a car out of stainless steel? You can’t make this stuff up, people!)

Fast forward five years to 1985. I’ll fill you in on the way…

People still wanted to dance. They just wanted to wear different stupid clothing.

Disco wasn’t the only casualty of the time. Rock had become a bloated carcass of 60′s bands getting rich and insanely high off of past glory. Punk emerged, a lean, mean predator that burned out even faster than Disco. It was meant to. Strangely enough, without either culture knowing it, Punk and Disco, which had flirted occasionally (See Heart Of Glass, by Blondie), now rutted with a savage intensity.

New York and London witnessed the carnage, first hand. In impoverished neighborhoods, where gang violence was rife, a gang leader named Afrika Bambatta heard a DJ spinning Trans Europe Express, by Kraftwerk, a German group of four men and their synthesizers. Around the same time, Martin Gore and Vince Clark were in Basildon, Essex, listening to German electronic music.

Although neither of the parties realized it, but they would go on to become pioneers in their respective genres, and also sow the seeds for another great musical leap forward.

New Wave and Hip Hop. Disco’s bastard offspring. Five lads in Birmingham were digging David Bowie and Roxy Music. Their bass player had an affinity for Chic, in particular, Bernard Edwards, the bassist.

Some eyeliner, and a few puffy sleeves later, Duran Duran was born.

Three guys and a DJ got together in New York, and started rapping over a break from Good Times by Chic (them again!)

Rapper’s Delight, by The Sugarhill Gang.

1985. Larry Levan was a DJ at The Garage, a nightclub in New York. Derek May was a DJ in Detroit. Frankie Knuckles had just arrived in Chicago. He would get a job as a DJ at a nightclub called the Warehouse.

And now, the fun begins…
TO BE CONTINUED…

In House Volume 4 Mixed By N.B (Style @ Post Mix) by BsidesOnline

This is the Style @ Post Mix

Inbox me or email naughtybeats@hotmail.co.uk for N.B’s £5 guestlist (b4 11:30pm)

Event details:

Style @ Post (Formally Club Chocolate Next to Mailbox)

Classy Clientele, Credible DJ’s, Sophisticated Atmosphere, Fresh House-R&B
Celebrate in Style

DJ’s
Bsides’
Kaos (K.Bsides)
Vibez
NB
Wazza

Plus….
Dan Kelly (Capital FM)
VIP (Hott2Deff)
Shox (Cherry Lips)
Charli C (Cherry Lips)
Sunny Mandez (Sobar)
K-Kassanova (Le Bleau Fontaine)
Jack Nasty (Silk City FM)

Entry
VIP Style
Booths are starting at just £200 minimum bar spend including £150 of your preferred beverages, plus FREE admission for up to eight of your selected friends, VIP also includes waitress service and queue jump
There is only seven booths available so reserve yours before it’s to late

Guest List
It’s only £5 on the Guest List before 11:30

Standard
From £10

Dress Code:
Wikipedia
Style may refer to:
Fashion, a prevailing mode of expression, e.g., clothing
so make an effort!

Check out the Style website
www.stylebirmingham.net

plus to hear the latest mixes/FREE downloads via Bsides check out

http://soundcloud.com/bsidesonline

I hope to see you on the dance floor from early on the 25th
Celebrate in Style

Thursday, July 12, 1979. That should be an important date to you from now on.

Why, do ask, should that date be significant?

Well, allow me to elaborate…

Thursday, July 12, 1979 was Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park, in Chicago, Illinois. The promotion had been organized by Steve Dahl, an on-air personality (a contradiction in terms).
Dahl had been fired by radio station WDAI, which changed its programming format from rock to disco. Hired by market rival radio station WLUP, Dahl concocted Disco Demolition Night as a way to retaliate against his former employers.

Held during a doubleheader baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers, Disco Demolition Night would consist of fans bringing their unwanted disco records to the game in exchange for reduced admission. The offending records would then be brought to middle of a field, where they would be placed in a crate which was then to be blown up with explosives by Steve Dahl.

I won’t go into details here, suffice to say the American appetite for destruction hasn’t changed much over the years. Disco was just collateral damage along the way, cultural road kill for a country seeking its identity.

Okay, opinionated social commentary notwithstanding…

This event is significant, in the fact that, in the words of writer Malcolm Gladwell, this would be considered a “Tipping Point.”
If there had been no Disco Demolition Night, there might never have been House Music.

Okay, maybe eventually House Music would have come to pass, but when?

This single event, which is lost to its participants in a beer-soaked, disco-hating, testosterone-laden, cathartic haze, was a blip on the cultural radar, but this was the Boston Tea Party of House.

Perhaps the funniest thing about that night, and by funny, I mean in an ironic, ha-ha, futility of your actions, kinda way, Steve Dahl accomplished NOTHING that night. In his mind, to this day, he thinks he is single-handedly responsible for the death of Disco.

In order to properly put this all in context, I’m going to veer off on a slight tangent here. I am not demonizing, nor am I demagoguing. I’m a big picture type of personality, and I want you to see the big picture with me.

America, like many countries before it, was founded on ideas. They were noble ones, as all ideas are when they start out. Naïve and idealistic, the people and ideas, hand in hand, side by side.
The problem with ideas, is they have a nasty habit of running smack dab into Reality. It’s almost always messy, and it almost never ends well.

America believes itself to be a country of rugged, independent people. In particular, the men. They have guns, they drink beer, they occasionally use said guns to kill animals or people. The idea of the rugged American Male was, and still is a strong selling point. Davy Crockett, John Wayne, the Marlboro Man, Sylvester Stallone as Rocky/Rambo…take your pick.

The problem with that image is, most American men aren’t that, and that image is almost always, Caucasian, single-minded, extremely masculine, conservative in ideology, and unambiguous in sexuality.

See where I’m going with this?

Anything that doesn’t fit with that image of the American Male is violent rejected, suppressed ridiculed, or destroyed. It is a threat that the cultural white cells must purge from the body politic.

Which brings us to here.

The image of the American male is an illusion, one cultivated and created to provide a safe, acceptable image, an ideal to aspire to.

Disco, at the time was not only an affront to the American Male image, it was tantamount to blasphemy. It was, by its very existence, the total antithesis of that image.

A music form born out of homegrown music styles from Black American culture, Disco takes the danceability of Funk, the seductive elements of Rhythm and Blues, the hard backbeat of Rock and Roll, the free-form musical anarchy of Jazz.

Disco, like its root music sources, was celebratory in nature. Its sole intention was to make you forget your daily drudgery. For three minutes, you weren’t your job, your gender, your race, your bank account, your upward mobility. You were part of a utopian experience, euphoric, hedonistic, social and sexual anarchy with a four on the floor beat.

No surprise that the Black and Gay communities shaped the culture. Songs about surviving and being yourself found common ground in social groups used to being oppressed and pushed to the margins of society.

It was empowerment in music form. Disco celebrated WHO you were, not WHAT you were. Not without irony that women were at the epicentre of Disco.

The First Law of Thermodynamics says that energy under normal conditions cannot be created or destroyed, simply transformed from one type of energy to another.

Steve Dahl saw that Thursday as the end of an era.

He had no idea what was about to begin…
TO BE CONTINUED.