I’m fortunate to have friends with wide taste in music. Most of them are interested in all sorts of genres from all different of time periods and all kinds of counties, and with good reason! People are really good at making music and they’ve been really good at making music for a really long time. Despite its many evolutions throughout history, humans know how to put together a tune. That’s something truly worth appreciating, if for no other reason than that so much music has influenced so much other music. A classic example is how Iron Maiden is influenced by Bach. And yet, I’m amazed that there are people who still write off entire genres of music. Freddie deBoer1 published a piece the other day in which he wrote, “Personally, I don’t listen to disco because it sounds like absolute shit.” This isn’t the crux of the essay. Rather, it was written in the context of arguing against a certain poptimist sentiment that says if you don’t like disco you must be either racist or homophobic. I, too, disagree with that sentiment. I think it’s possible to not like disco songs without being either homophobic or racist; however, I don’t think it’s possible to not like any disco songs. There’s simply way, way, way too much of it to say that. Disco, like every other major genre of music, has an impossibly dense, rich, and varied history. There’s disco disco, orchestral disco, futuristic disco, haunted futuristic disco, dub disco, country disco, post-punk disco, no wave disco, shimmering disco, gospel disco, death disco, shredding disco, Muslim disco, island disco, mutant disco, smooth disco, rough disco, hi-nrg disco, disco covers, nu disco, horror disco, French disco, South African disco, introspective disco, and a whole lot more kinds of disco including, Italo disco. Simply put, there is too much disco out in the world to not like any of it. That certainly doesn’t mean you have to like all (or even most) of it. But writing off an entire major genre is foolish. It makes you miss out on too much good music.2 Unfortunately, this is a matter where no one can change your mind but you.
For the record, I like Freddie deBoer and value his perspective on a great many topics and viewpoints. He’s a polemical writer who loves to provoke, naturally. However, I really can’t say I agree with him on this one in the slightest.
Another example of this is that I know someone who insists that all Electronic Music is just “entertainment,” as if that made sense.
Reminded me of one of my favorite articles that you should definitely read if you haven't!
https://www.npr.org/2011/04/18/135508305/the-sad-beautiful-fact-that-were-all-going-to-miss-almost-everything
Larry 4 Life!