Title: Hot stuff : disco and the remaking of American culture /
Authors: Echols, Alice.
Publisher: W. W. Norton,
Year: 2010
Subjects: Disco music United States History and criticism.; Popular culture United States History; Music Social aspects
Abstract: American studies scholar and former deejay Alice Echols captures the experience of the Disco Years--on dance floors, at the movies, in the streets, and beneath the sheets. Disco may have presented itself as shallow and disposable--the platforms, polyester, and plastic vibe of it all--but the disco scene carved out a haven for gay men who reclaimed their sexuality on dance floors where they had once been surveilled and harassed; it thrust black women onto center stage as some of the genre's most prominent stars; and it paved the way for the opening of Studio 54 and the viral popularity of the shoestring-budget Saturday Night Fever, a movie that challenged traditional notions of masculinity, even for heterosexuals. But while exploring the cultural milieu, Echols never loses sight of the era's defining soundtrack, which propelled popular music into new sonic territory, influencing everything from rap and rock to techno and trance.--From publisher description.
Contents: I hear a symphony : black masculinity and the disco turn -- More, more, more : one and oneness in gay disco -- Ladies' night : women and disco -- The homo superiors : disco and the rise of gay macho -- Saturday night fever : the little disco movie -- One nation under a thump? : disco and its discontents.