Stuff You Should Know - SYSK Selects: How Disco Works

Episode Date: July 29, 2017

In today's SYSK Select episode, fly, robin, fly indeed. No musical genre has risen and burned out as quickly as disco, and historians are still trying to unravel the animosity aimed at it. Join Chuck and Josh as they dig into disco's underground roots and its sashay into the mainstream. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're gonna use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass

and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, ya everybody, about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say. Bye, bye, bye.

Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey there, it's me, Josh. And for this week's SYS Case Selects, I chose How Disco Works, which is one of my favorite, all-time favorite episodes. And you'll know what I'm talking about in a second

when I say that I feel like if we all band together, we could still get Chuck to do that How To video on the hustle. Also, don't miss Chuck's big presentation after his first trip to Max Funkon instead of listener mail. It's a very special treat at the end of this episode, which was first released in July of 2012.

Enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Getting on down with his bad self. Get on down, Mexican.

Doing the hustle. Oh, oh, is that what you're doing? Ah, sure. I actually looked up the hustle because I wasn't quite sure what it was, specifically. And uh... Yeah, because no one who does it now knows what they're doing.

Yeah, but then I saw it and I was like, oh yeah, sure, it felt like sort of the Boogie Nights dance they did was close. Didn't there like a hand rolling? Yeah, there's a little step up, little step back, little like side 360, clap, clap, little John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever hand action, little hand roll, the little, what do you call that?

This would be much better visually. I'll tell you what, why don't we get you doing just a quick how-to video and we'll post it. Sound good? Yeah, sure. Okay, well, you'll be held to that. I know. I'll do it.

That's great. I'm gonna go start looking for clothes right after this. So Chuck, you're doing well? Yes. You're feeling invigorated by the presidential executive orders episode? Yeah, I mean. Are you ready for this?

Fires me up for disco. So for disco, let's start at the end. I thought that Molly did a very good job with this. I agree. It was the Molly Edmonds Jam. Oh, really? Yeah. There was a night in 1979, it was July 12th in Chicago

and it was the White Sox playing the Tigers and both of them were lousy at the time. Yeah. The night before there had been 15,000 people for the Tiger Sox, there's a doubleheader today and they expected something like 6,000, right? I guess the owners of the White Sox had started to create these promotions and one of them that night

on July 12th had been created by a rock DJ named Steve Dahl. He was a Chicago DJ. Yeah, it looked him up actually. He was fired, this is why he was so angry. He was fired by a station that switched to disco. Oh. He got a job at the competing rock station, WLUP98FM, which is why it was 98 cents.

The lup. That was the lup, actually. The lup. Yeah, not the lup, the lup. The lup. Okay. Yeah, so yeah, anyway, he got fired and said, down with disco.

Well, he said disco sucks. Yeah. The whole movement against disco. T-shirts that said disco sucks is before memes. Yeah. This was the real, you had to run out of your house, go across the street to a neighbor's house, tell them disco sucks.

They had to run out of their house, maybe a couple blocks over to their friends. That's how things spread back then. And this thing was virulent, right? I miss those times. On this night, even with this disco demolition night is what they called it. They were expecting like 6,000 people,

but they were gonna put on a heck of a show. In between the two games, Dahl was going to take all the records that people brought. If you brought a disco record, you'd get in for 98 cents, because that was a 98 point something. Yeah. The lup.

This before was point. This was when it was just 98 on your dial. Oh, okay. I mean, technically it was, but it wasn't digital, so no one knew. Oh, God, do you know what I'm saying? And 90,000 people showed up. 90,000, the stadium held like 52,000.

So there's like 38,000 people outside the gates. When you have 38,000 people who are there for to see something destroyed, which Dahl was going to do, these records in between games, they don't usually stay outside at gates. Fences don't usually contain people in that state in that many larger number.

They broke through the apparently players on both teams put on their batting helmets because the crowd was getting crazy. Well, they were throwing the records like Frisbees. They were... That's dangerous. Smoking weed in the stadium. Like Harry Carey, you know,

a younger Harry Carey announced that, you know, like he smelled marijuana in his broadcast booth. Wow. And they got loaded. And because they were mad, so angry about a form of music. Right. So the first game ends,

and I guess what you would call half time comes, and Johnny Fever, I mean, Steve Dahl, compiles 10,000 and estimated 10,000 disco records and sets them on fire. Well, he exploded them first. Oh, he did. Which took out like a chunk of the field. Yeah, I was wondering how they did that.

Yeah, they were, he was hooked up to pyrotechnics and there was a big explosion and... 10,000 disco records went boom. Yeah, pretty much. And a little fire started. People went crazy. Yeah. They trashed the place.

Yeah, they stormed the field. And the socks had to forfeit the second game to the Tigers because they couldn't play. The field was just too trashed. And that was the night, July 12th, 1979, that most people point to when they say, disco died right then. Yeah, chance of disco sucks.

Yeah, people smoking weed in front of Harry Carey. Yeah. And consequently, that was the last forfeited Major League Baseball game in the American League. Oh, is that right? The most recent, that is. That is an amazing story. Yeah.

But, and it makes a lot of sense. You can find video of this on YouTube, by the way. There was, that's awesome. There was definitely, even I knew, like there was an anti-disco, disco sucks sentiment. I remember it. That's how old I am. Well, I remember it too.

Yeah, I was like eight years old when this happened. I was like three. Yeah. Yeah, I was three. I was actually, this was three days before my third birthday. This all went down. Look at that.

I don't remember this happening, but like I knew people said disco sucks, like an airplane. When the planes like making that crazy landing, they knock out a tower, where the DJ's like saying, where disco lives forever, right? I knew people hated disco.

But now, reading this and figuring out that the disco was this amazing cultural phenomenon. And unpacking like the story behind it and the motives of hating it and all that. It's really, really interesting. It's not as cut and dry as like, you know, Ted Nugent thinks disco sucks. So disco sucks.

Maybe Ted Nugent is a homophobe. Huh? That's what cultural critics would say now. And we'll get into that. We will. Not Ted Nugent specifically, but anyone who thought disco sucks, it's not so cut and dry as just the music.

The music. It was Ted Nugent. Yeah, I figured. You know what I would like in this too? What? Zoot suits. Oh yeah, good one. The interesting history of,

then it turns out there was like racial and misogynistic, well, not misogynistic in Zoot suits, but in the case of disco, yes. Yeah. Homophobic. Misogynistic, homophobic. Basically, the straight white establishment does not like flashy dressing.

Yeah, and they don't like them New Yorkers. Yeah, well. And their bars where they dance with their shirts off. Yes. That kind of thing. E.G. gay clubs. Yeah. All right.

So let's get into the music. And then we'll get into the politics. Oh, OK. So, Wola's Chuck, the first disco record, do you think? Disco duck? No? No. Dolly Parton?

No. Disco Dolly? No. No, she actually did some disco-tinged stuff. I know. So did the Grateful Dead. Everybody did. It sucked everyone.

Yeah. Carol King, Barbara Streisand. It's amazing the people that got caught up in this disco wave. Disco Christmas? Disco Star Wars? Oh, dude. Yeah. Yeah, disco was huge from when?

From what? 1970? 74 to 79. Oh, well, yeah. It was when it was huge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But some trace of beginnings of disco to the early parties in New York thrown by David Mancuso, these invitation-only

parties that he had at his place called The Loft. Yep. A legendary first party called Love Saves a Day. They were themed. LSD. Yeah. And then there was a store in the East Village called Love Saves a Day.

I don't know if it's still there. OK. It's like brick a brick. Everything's coated in acid, though. Kind of like junkmans here in Atlanta. Gotcha. That kind of thing. So a lot of people trace it to Mancuso

and in those early parties, which later on was sort of the precursor to what raves would be. Right. That's exactly right. Yeah. And Mancuso kind of created this foundation that would become kind of the basis of disco, which was it was DJ-driven. Yeah.

And the DJ didn't just like one song didn't just fade out. And they're like, OK, it's time for the next one and put on another record. Mancuso actually dropped a bunch of money on a sound system that allowed him to cut back and forth between records. And he also liked to basically just use all sorts of different music and create this whole really cool set. The music never stopped, basically.

No, it didn't. And so that was kind of this basis that you'll see turn up later in hip hop. But first, it appears in disco. But yeah, he started throwing these parties in 1970. But I've read sources that say it goes back even further than that. Oh, really?

1960, La Club was opened in New York. And 1965, Arthur was opened. These are dance clubs? They were because they were DJ-driven. And that's one of the bases of disco is the DJ. And there's this guy named Terry Noel. And he went off. He became probably the first DJ.

I know that name, don't I? Or do I? Maybe. I mean, he's pretty big. I mean, he's like the godfather of DJing. I might know him. I don't know DJ so much, though. But so that he branched off.

And he started working at gay clubs. And gay clubs is where disco really started to emerge. So if you go back far enough, at about the same time that Mancuso was throwing his parties, the gay clubs had DJs playing Philly Soul. Yeah, in New York City, specifically. Yeah, which is where they think that disco originally came from is probably Philadelphia Soul.

Yeah, Philadelphia Soul, if you listen to works by, like some people claim that things like Barry Whites can't get enough of your love babe. Or his love theme from 1973. Yeah, those very much sound like disco, even though they were R&B soul singers. The same with Isaac Hayes. Right, but that is funk, clear and simple, right?

Isaac Hayes is definitely funk. Sure. And a lot of people rightly attribute the death of funk to disco. Like they both had this moment and disco just won out. Yeah. It's easier to dance to for one reason. Should we listen to the Barry White?

Yeah. Which one? This is Love's theme from 1973. And you can hear like the big orchestral sound with like the four on the floor beat. So people say that that may be the first disco one. Another one is Jerry Butler's One Night Affair. And this guy, this song really shows

that disco hybridized out of Philadelphia Soul. If that's true, then this is the purest evidence of it. And then one more, do you mind? No, no. So this one is, this is from Cameroon, a guy named Manu DeBango. From the island of Cameroon? Is it an island?

No, it's not. It's a landlocked. Well, you know, if it was surrounded by water, it'd be an island. Right. Yeah. But it's just Cameroon we're going with. His name is Manu DeBango.

And he released a track called Soul Makasa. And Soul Makasa is noteworthy because a lot of people say it's the first disco song. Well, it's here. So you hear it's like very clearly Cameroonian, very African, it's got that tribal beat. But it's also disco-y. The reason why people point to that song, which

was released in 1972, is because a year later, a Rolling Stone rock critic, or music critic, named Vinciletti, put a pen to paper and described that the reason behind this obscure Cameroonian song's popularity is because of this new thing that's going on out in Queens and the Bronx, and all the hip kids are doing it. And we don't know what it's called.

So let's just call it disco. And that was the first mention. He coined the term disco as applied to this music. And it was the first written description of disco. Vinciletti, 1973. So I think we failed to mention that disco obviously is short for discotech, which is the French term for night club.

For a night club where you listen to canned music rather than a live band. And you still hear that. And see that when you go all over Europe, you still hear like disco-thick. Yes? Right, right. Guys trying to get you in there, you know?

Yeah. It's pretty great. That was a pretty good impression. Some nameless country. I don't even know what that was. Eastern Bloc. Let's just go with that. I would have guessed like Morocco.

Oh, OK. Whatever it sounded like, that's what I was doing. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it. And now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it.

It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and nonstop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting Frosted Tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up

sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper, because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it, and popping it back in, as we take you back to the 90s.

Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s, called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Ah, OK, I see what you're doing.

Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place, because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh, god. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS,

because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so will my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that, Michael. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life, step by step. Oh, not another one.

Kids, relationships, life in general, can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody, about my new podcast, and make sure to listen, so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

MUSIC So the, the, um, you just kind of said something very important. That a disco tech, one of us just said it, that a disco tech is a dance club where there's no band. Yeah. And this flew in the face of the rock establishment at the time. Oh, sure.

They were still like very much entrenched in the 60s. They were Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin and like. You went and saw them. Yeah. That was the point. Like you went and saw their show, and when, when they weren't touring, you listened to their records at home,

and, and sat on beanbag chairs. Yeah, and worshiped at their feet. Exactly. Disco was different. And the reason disco is different is because nobody cared. They didn't want to hear your live band. They went to go see the DJ. Yeah, and that had a big impact on record sales

because people weren't, you know, it was one hit wonder after one hit wonder. Exactly. For the most part, there were, you know, quite a few that had multiple hits. But on the summer. But they were still like. Few and far between.

Yeah. And they were confined to the disco era. Right. Not, not too many lasted beyond unless they were like crossing over to begin with. Right. Like Dolly Partner, Carol King. Great.

Gotcha. Uh, Barbara Streisand. But you will hear, you know, since 1974 with Rock the Boat by the Hughes Corporation, which speaking of one hit wonder. A lot of people say that's when it really, really took off. La Chic. I'm sorry. La Freak by Chic.

And Good Times by Chic. Good Times. Oh, did they do that? Mm-hmm. I will survive, of course, the classic anthem by Glory Gaynor. Funky Town, Casey and the Sunshine Band with their multiple hits. Yeah, they were another group, disco group. Get Down Tonight, Shake Your Booty, classic songs.

I'm your boogie man. Play that funky music. Wild Cherry. I hate that song. I do too. I hate that song. No, I really do too. That's up there with Bad to the Bone for me.

Hey man, George Therogood is a-okay. There's nothing that guy did that stunk. Except for that. God, play that funky music. I told you George Therogood worked out with me at the YMCA in Hollywood. Yeah. Like, not with me. The last time we had this argument, you told me.

Oh, really? Yeah. And you still maintain that he stinks, even though he- No, I don't maintain these things. I think George Therogood's awesome. But you still maintain he's good. That's what I meant. Yeah.

Okay. What are you wrong? Philadelphia Soul Josh is where it was born. We talked about that. I know. And Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Well, yeah. So like, you didn't have groups, generally, that people followed

or whose records they bought. You had one hit wonders. So singles were kind of big. And you had DJs. People went to specific clubs to see specific DJs. And you had producers. People would get-would find out like what song a producer was making. And then they go see-they go listen to that.

Right. Like Gamble and Huff. Right. You can't remember the name of their company. But it was Philadelphia something. And it was all about Philadelphia Soul. It started in the Philadelphia Soul movement like previous in the 60s. And pretty much dwarfed Motown for a little while.

Yeah. Which was a big, big, big deal at the time. Yeah. Yeah. Motown was too huge. Yeah. Barry Gordy and Motown took a hit when Disco came around. There was also a Giorgio Moroder. He was huge.

He was a huge Disco guy. He actually produced Donna Summers. And then the K's, they created Saw Soul Records. Which is a pretty big Disco label. Well, Gamble and Huff, you know their work if you don't know their names. And they wrote songs like Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now. That's a good one. Love Train.

That's a great one. And The Sound of Philadelphia, TSOP, which you might not recognize by title, but you might recognize by the fact that it is also the Soul Train theme. That is a very, very good song. Very good song. That's surprisingly good. I remember Fresh Air played that when Don Cornelius died. Oh yeah.

I bet. R.I.P. So, and also, can I just interject one thing? Yeah, yeah. If you're bored right now, or I should say, of course you're not bored right now, friends. After the podcast, if you find yourself bored, go check out Moonshoes Boogie Land. I think those four words are actually just two words on YouTube. And you will be treated to an awesome new, I guess acid Disco track over just laid perfectly

over the Soul Train, like the march, the procession thing, the lines they did, just clip after clip of that. And you will be surprised to see a young rerun in the first couple of minutes. I think I've seen that clip. I think you have too. I've seen him on Soul Train. Yeah, or he just falls on his butt. Yeah.

Man, that stuff was good. I mean, how do you move like that? I couldn't do any of those moves. No, I couldn't either. Moonshoes Boogie Land. Yeah, and you know what? So if you're a little young, but you're a Star Wars fan, you don't remember the Mech-o Star Wars and other galactic funk.

Go check that out. It's on YouTube. It's pretty amazing to hear the Star Wars score orchestral arrangement to Disco. And it was a big, big hit. Well, that's not the only one. Arthur Fiedler from the Boston Pops. He did a night on Bald Mountain to Disco. There was, I can't remember who made it, but it's on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack,

5th of Beethoven. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sure. People love to take classical stuff and Disco fight. They Disco fight everything. Like you said, Dolly Parton, Star Wars, Disco duck, Sesame Street had not one, but two Disco albums, Disco Christmas albums, Disco is everywhere.

And even if you do say Disco sucks, you cannot say that musically Disco sucks. Musically speaking, Disco does not suck. It is difficult to play. It includes generally tough orchestral arrangements. And while it may be repetitive, and if you went and saw your favorite Disco performer play in a club, they were just lip syncing, it's still, initially, it was difficult to make. Yeah.

I think where Disco takes the biggest knock from rock music fans is lyrically. Right. And for good reason. Sure. So Disco, we were saying it was, it flew in the face of rock, the rock scene in Manhattan at the time. In part, because it was out in the Bronx, out in Queens, it was very popular among the working class Latinos, Latinos, Italians, it's spread out of the gay clubs.

So white gay dudes in underground clubs dancing to music created by black people, black groups, and then mixed in with working class Italians and Latinos in that same club. That was Disco. And that is not what the rich kids in Manhattan were doing at the time rocking out. Well, yeah. And that's a point that a lot of people, a lot of people were misguided in saying at one point that Disco was of the bourgeois because Studio 54 transformed from a dance club of the people to a dance club of the elite.

And everyone started grooming, over-grooming and dressing to the nines and spineless money. And that's not... Well, they did before. Yeah, but... But once the rich people got involved, it was like, you can't keep up with that. Yeah. But it started out as very much a music of the people. And like we said, Disco Fever was like, they were doing the hustle in retirement homes.

Like Disco classes. My parents took Disco dance lessons. Yeah. And Dad does not take Disco dance lessons, yet he did. That's pretty interesting. Like, that's how big it was. Well, I mean, if you go back and watch like Sarah and I, Fever, for example, that's some pretty good dancing in there.

Yeah. Oh, of course. I'll bet your dad was like 80% sexier when he was taking Disco lessons. He probably was. So we've got this thing, and it's weird. I think it bears repeating, Chuck. Like, when you think of Disco these days, you think of Studio 54, you think of cocaine, which is, they were symbiotic.

Yeah. Quailudes. Yeah. You think of the beautiful and the rich in Manhattan. Yes. Right? But like you said, that's not how it started out. It was working class across ethnic lines, gays were involved, and it basically was co-opted

and usurped. And then all of a sudden, now there's a division between it. And the people who were criticizing it before really started to speak up, meaning the rockers. And they really had a point. Like you said, the lyrics, fly, rob, and fly, who cares? And the other part of the problem was Disco was meant for escape. Like it was set in this time of economic hardship, New York City was hit particularly hard. It was about getting out there and dancing your frustrations out.

And forgetting everything. The problem is, is while you're dancing, politicians don't dance. And while everybody else is dancing, they're just doing whatever they want and no one's paying attention because they're dancing. So especially once it crossed over to the rich and became like divided by class, rockers really started to have some ground to stand on by saying Disco's vapid and politically and apolitical and it sucks for those reasons. It started to become true after that point.

Right. Right. Have you ever seen Summer of Sam? No. Good one. Yeah, that's the Spike Lee one about The Son of Sam Killings, but beyond, it's more a movie about that time and period in New York City in that summer than it is about the, I mean, Summer of Sam figures or Son of Sam figures in, like huge, but it really just captures

that time period. I'll have to check it out. Nicely, it's good. And plus that John Linguizamo. Saturday Night Fever changed everything, Josh, 1977. Great, great movie. Did you read the article? Yeah, I read the article and I've seen the movie probably five or six times.

So I read the article recently, like yesterday. It's called The Tribal Rights of the New Saturday Night. It was written in 1976 by a guy named Nick Cohn and it was the cover story of New York Magazine, right? He made it up. Oh, really? Did you know that? No.

Apparently in 1994, he came out to The Guardian and said like, I fabricated everything, Tony didn't exist. Wow. I mean, no, Vincent, the main guy, didn't exist. He said he made up practically the whole thing, like he'd just gotten to New York and like just started hanging out and just wrote the thing. Wow. I can't believe he made it all up.

He did? Crazy. Great movie though and famous for not only the dancing, great story, coming of age story and the suit. The white suit. With the black shirt. The black shirt. It didn't pop nearly as much without that black shirt.

No, no, no. In the white vest, which Gene Siskel owned for a while. Really? Yeah. It's now at a museum of music and I think New York. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, Siskel cleaned up on it.

He bought it in 78 because he was such a huge fan of the movie. Bought it for two grand, sold it in 1995 for $145,000. Nice. Yes. That fat cat. And he's no longer with us. I know. Okay.

But the clothing was a huge deal. The fashion of disco was arguably as important as it was just all a part of the scene. It was all intermingled. Yeah. The polyester, the spandex, the tight clothes, revealing as much skin as you can, jewelry, leopard prints. It was like out of control. Yeah.

And it's kind of come back, of course, like all fashion does. Yeah. Well, especially with that early 80s throwback that's going on or that was going on. Yeah. Now I think we've reached mid to late 80s, like the, the Fresh Prince years. Okay. What does it take 20 years supposedly or something like that? Supposedly.

So Grunge's next, I guess, we'll be flying the flannel soon. I am not looking forward to that. I still got my flannel. I'll be covered. You're like, hey, you talked about Studio 54, which is now still called Studio 54, but it's a theater. Another popular club. If you live in New York, you might be walking by these places and not even realize it.

Yeah. Like the Sanctuary, which became Limelight, made famous in Party Monster. It's now like a church that you can shop in. Well, Paradise Garage, very famous on King Street in New York, very famous discotheque is now Verizon. Mm-hmm. Is it really? Yeah.

Man. Xenon on West 43rd. Xenon was a huge discotheque and it is now the Stephen Sondheim Theater. Okay. You can do worse than that. Exactly. So if you're walking around New York and you see these places, just remember there was a lot of drugs and sex and dancing going on there.

Yeah. 30 plus years ago. People forgetting their economic turmoil troubles. That's right. Stop. If you know. Stop. Stop.

You shouldn't know. No. Stop. If you know. Stop. Stop. You shouldn't know. Stop.

You shouldn't know. Stop. You shouldn't know. Stop. You shouldn't know. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show Hey Dude bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and

dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and non-stop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Is that a cereal?

No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL instant messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road. Ah, okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This I promise you.

Oh god. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh man. And so will my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step.

Not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

So we said that, well, you said that the record industry kind of took a hit because of disco. Yeah. People weren't out buying their albums by their favorite artists because there were no favorite artists. No. It was like, it took a little while for the effects to show up, but from like 1978 to 1982 record sales dropped by like 200 million units. Yeah.

That's a lot. That is a lot. And so the record industry turned on disco eventually. This thing that had created this kind of vapid, very quick, very attractive, sexy movement or helped promote it and push it out into the mainstream and shoved down everybody's throats were the ones that turned their back on it. I don't think people were quite ready to yet, but the record industry was. And that probably more than anything led to Disco's demise, more than this Kamiski

Park thing. I mean, that's like a... It was symbolic. It was very symbolic. But if the record industry is no longer agreeing to produce disco records, there's no disco records and it doesn't matter if people want it or not. And you know, looking back, it was bound to be a fad. It's not a lasting thing, although it's come back around now with stuff like Scissor Sisters

and... Well, not just that. New disco. The reason why the title of this episode is in present tense is because maybe the name died, but that four on the floor beat and then what now accompanied with electronic music that never went away. No, you're right. It may have faded in the background.

Now it's like all over the radio. Like Katy Perry stuff and Britney Spears stuff, I'm told. They use the same stuff. It's just disco. It's just a different name for it. Yeah. At its peak, Josh, 1979 disco was a $4 billion industry and they claim more than 15,000 discos in the United States.

That's a lot. So they spread from the cities clearly to the Bible Belt, the Rust Belt, the Heartland. And as we'll get into now, it wasn't very accepted by the white male establishment, aka rock and roll fans. Exactly. And people just kind of on the surface, it's just because disco and rock, they don't go together, you know? But there's a lot of, like we said at the beginning, cultural critics who say, you know, people

who are into disco didn't think about rock, they didn't care about rock. No, they were high and dancing. People who are into rock hated disco. Yeah. Why? It was a threat they claim and they were probably very right to their, what they thought were good American values. They didn't like gay people.

Yeah. Didn't probably like black people and Latinos. Or women, divas hogging the spotlight. Yep, because rock and roll in the 19, unless your name is like Patty Smith, it wasn't a big haven for female singers. Right, or like Grace Slick. She was backed up by an all male band. Yeah.

You know, it was like very rare for like a female lead and even then, it was like the one girl in a guy band, you know? Yeah, unless they're the runaways, I guess. Right. Which is like, they made a movie about them, it was such a big deal. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. That's a good point, Chuck.

In the most part, Disco represented everything that was a threat to the white straight establishment. That's right. And that's why a lot of people think that this whole Disco Sucks movement came about. Yeah. So if you are one of those people who's just like, Disco sucks, maybe you re-evaluate exactly why you think Disco sucks. Is it really just the music? And if it is, hey man, like I'm sure that's the case, but there's probably a lot of people

out there who think Disco sucks and don't even know that Disco is pretty gay and maybe that's why you don't like it. Or Disco is pretty black and maybe that's why you don't like it. Or maybe you just hate women. Maybe you should go work on your relationship with your mother and then take another listen to Disco and see if it sounds any sweeter. Well, it was the whole lifestyle. It was hedonistic.

You had the village people as sort of the cartoonish face of the gay movement at the same time dressing up and it was not accepted in these rock and roll circles in the Midwest and the South and it just was not cool. But even in New York or London or wherever, like you got punk, punk people hated Disco, but at least for the most part had a legitimate leg to stand on, which was punk was intended to be political and Disco was not political at all. Like Mark Mother's Ball, is it Mother's Ball or Mother's Ball? Mother's Ball.

Okay. He apparently went to Studio 54 and had a crazy experience on PCP. But he said that Disco was like a dumb girl with good looks and good body. Which is kind of like, it's an app description I guess of Disco in a way. Yeah, that makes sense. So this guy who wrote this book, what's it called? His name is Peter Shapiro, he wrote Turn the Beat Around, Colin, The Secret History of Disco.

Yeah, he argues and he makes a pretty good point that Disco was the most democratic musical form ever in the history of music. Yeah. Yeah, he said it's the most democratic form of popular music ever conceived and it really brought about the gay culture into the mainstream. Even though it wasn't super accepted in all circles, it was the first time it was like in your face, out in the open, we're dancing and here's the village people. Exactly.

Who I used to draw pictures of. I still have one. Did you really? Yeah, I still have this crayon photo or photo, crayon drawing that I did of the village people and I wore that album out and I'm sure my parents are like, what's going on here? Especially like Stone Mountain, Georgia in like 1975. You're like, can I just like a leather daddy for Halloween this year? I thought the biker guy was the coolest one.

I was like, he's so tough. Yeah, look at that mustache. I know. Oh boy, it's funny that it was such an innocent time, you know, for me at least. Yeah, it was. That was a good time to grow up on a layer. That was great. Because you could just love Disco.

You didn't know they're on cocaine and quailudes and doing all that stuff. Exactly. What else you got? Oh, I think we should, we'd be remiss in mentioning Disco's role in hip hop, like we said earlier. You may have noticed that that whole DJing thing kind of crossed over. And if you doubt Disco as a foundation for hip hop and rap, you need to look no further than what 1983, the Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight, that's almost all chic's good times. Disco, Anthem.

That's right. You were a dead right, sir. And then of course it's influence on, like we said, all dance music to come really. Yeah. Electronica. It never stopped. Yeah. You can't stop the music.

And I imagine it's going on now, like there's probably some very cool underground parties that you and I will never, ever, ever, ever know exist that are basically just doing the same thing. Yeah. You know what else is there, sisters? I mentioned them. I know there's a lot more bands, but they're really like riffing on that old Disco thing. Very cool.

Yeah. Hercules and Love Affair. That's a good one. I don't know them. They're, uh, it's, uh, Antony and the, uh, Antony and the Johnson's? Yeah. His side project. Oh, really?

Yeah, it's pretty, it's very Disco. I love that guy. Um, boy, he does such like Morose orchestral downbeat stuff. Not like that. Really? Yeah. It's like his other and different, he's got to get out his happiness so we can go do the Antony and the Johnson's thing.

I'm trying to imagine him happy. That'd be so weird. Yeah. Anyway, I'm a fan of his. I'll check that out. Yeah. New Disco. It's all over the place.

It is. Um, if you want to. Oh, wait, quickly. We should say RIP because we lost to Disco legends recently to cancer. Oh, yeah. Let's hear it. Donna Summer and Robin Gidd, both passed within the past like a month. Oh, yeah.

And, uh, who will be the third? Yeah. The Disco third. Number four, not Disco, but four musicians with cancer in like the span of six weeks was sad. Who? Well, um, Adam Mealkin and leave on helm. Oh, yeah.

Donna Summer and Robin Gidd. It was like, bam, four in a row. So then who will be the other two? Yes. Geez. I hope nobody. I hope not to. Yeah.

Um, so we're, we're done with Disco. We are the Knights on Broadway and we are done with Disco. Very nice. Um, I didn't like the music. You didn't like Disco music? No, it's not, you know, I was, I was listening to rock and roll pretty early on. I like it. I like, I like it all, but then also I was listening to the Smith's death, death of

a Disco dancer today. Great song. It's a great song. Um, and it makes you wonder like exactly why did that Disco dancer die? That's right. Huh. Um, if you want to learn more about Disco, you can type that in surprisingly enough to the search bar how stuff works and it will bring up this article and, uh, let's see,

since I said article, uh, it's time for Chuck's presentation. Yeah, Josh, in lieu of listener mail, uh, I just got back from maxfuncon, and I'm going to do a little presentation called maxfunplug because great people are involved and we need to give them their due. Okay. Uh, firstly, want to thank Jesse Thorn and recognize Jesse Thorn, friend of stuff you should know. The Godfather.

Great guy. Uh, he has a, an empire out there in California, um, a podcasting empire and you can podcasting and knock off wallets. Yeah. He's a fashion icon. Uh, Jesse, you can go to maximumfun.org to look up his bag. He, uh, it used to be the sound of young America. Now his main show is called bullseye, it's an interview show.

It's really great. We've been on it. Yeah. We talked about Mexican wrestling on it. Was that on bullseye? Yeah, it was. Wasn't it? I thought it might have been on Jordan Jesse go.

Oh man. Okay. Well, Jordan Jesse go, since I mentioned it is one of his other shows with his partner Jordan in there. That's a funnier one, although they're all funny, uh, but thanks to Jesse, he, he has this, um, concept that he's, he's built the maximum fun empire on called new sincerity. And it's just great. It's nice people.

It's, it, it issues, uh, cynicism, um, and this ironic crap that everyone does and it's, it's called new sincerity. It really says it all. Did he found new sincerity? Is it like, like a lightning ball or a light bulb that he had? Yeah. That's cool. So it's called new sincerity and it comes up as Jesse Thorne's mantra.

I'm going to start taking him more as more sincere than I always assumed he was making fun of me. No, of course not. He's a very sincere guy and, uh, his wife Teresa and little, little baby Simon were all there and they're all doing great and they're wonderful people. So, uh, Riftrex was in the house. Yes. Formerly mystery science theater, 3000, Josh's heroes, uh, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett,

uh, Tom Servo and Crotty robot. Yeah. People, they are fans of stuff you should know. Yeah. And I flipped out email Josh and, uh, beyond that, they are literally the two nicest guys I've met so far in show business. You said that in the email. Yeah.

I can vouch for that. They are the nicest dudes I've ever met in show business so far. That's awesome. And that includes John Hodgman. Whoa. Hodgman is not going to like that. That's right. But maybe he'll step it up.

And I would say Hodgman will take that as a challenge. Yeah. Uh, you can go to Riftrex, R-I-F-F-T-R-A-X.com. You can buy their stuff. You can buy, uh, look out for Riftrex live. They're, uh, awesome and funny and we're supporting for sure. Yeah. Um, my brother and my brother and me, we were on their show.

The McElroy brothers, Justin, Travis and Griffin hung out with them a lot. Really super cool dudes. They had their, uh, uh, wives and girlfriends with them and, uh, they were all sweet and funny and nice and, uh, great people. And they have, um, a great podcast called my brother, my brother and me, new episodes out every Monday. You can find that at maxboomfund.org. Uh, Travis, who was the middle bro, co-host of a show also called in case of emergency,

that's very funny. Um, and then Justin and his, uh, wife, Sidney have a show called satellite dish that's about TV shows and they're both really funny. Okay. It was like literally all six of them were six of the funniest people I've hung around. That's really cool. It's like, man, Christmas must be a blast. Yeah.

They don't even get each other presents. They sit around and like, they'll like one another. Uh, Mary Roach was there, author of stiff, which we've plugged stiff, boink, spook, bonk, bonk, spook, spook and, um, hacking from Mars. Yeah. What is she like? She's all this is cool. Yeah.

I didn't meet her, but I heard her lecture. Uh, Susan Orlean lecture, lecture on sciencey authoring and cool stuff like that. Oh, so it was like a workshop. Yeah. Very cool. Uh, Susan Orlean was there. She was great. Yeah.

You know her as Meryl Streep. Yeah. Um, I did not meet her, but, uh, she was, she was great on stage as well. Uh, Josh Bierman, who I met, Joshua Bierman, he's one of Hodgeman's buddies. Yeah. He is a writer and you can find his work in Rolling Stone, Wired Harper's, This American Life, McSweeney's, HuffPo. He's like all over the place and he is genuinely one of the delightfully weirdest dudes I've

ever hung out with in my life. Like one of those guys just like, man, you are so odd and I want to hug you. Talk to you for hours. That kind of dude. Hodgeman has another friend like that named David Reese, who I met. He's next on, you met David? Yeah. Okay.

He's awesome. I have, I have a David Reese story, man. Well, let me set up who he is first. Oh, okay. Uh, David Reese is, uh, and he was formerly the, the cartoonist that you might know from Get Your War On. Yes. Great political cartoon and during the Bush years.

He is now an artisanal pencil sharpener and you heard me correctly. He sharpens pencils by hand. He goes on tour teaching this. He has a book that you can buy called How to Sharpen Pencils and you can go to artisanalpencilsharpening.com. You can send them your pencils. He will sharpen them by hand and return the pencil and the clippings and the clippings because the clippings belong to the client. And it's not a joke, but it is a joke.

It's funny, but he's really serious about it. Well, yeah. I mean, he'll really sharpen your pencils and he really wrote a book on it. I'm glad you met him. I didn't know that. He's a cool dude. He's awesome. So let's hear the story.

I, I, um, you me and I went and saw his, uh, his, I guess book tour show, um, in Brooklyn when we were there a couple of weeks ago and, uh, before the show, I was talking to him and Hodgman and we were all hanging out and, um, I was like, well, break a leg and I turned a walk away and he goes, you two, and I turned around and he was just glowering at me. Really? Yeah. He was, uh, he's a pretty cool dude. Yeah.

He was funny. He, he had his video on Reddit the other day and, uh, he was posting comments that people were making like, is this dude serious? Like, I can't tell if this is a joke or not. Yeah. But it's both. It's like funny, but he's really, really serious about pencil sharpening. I think it's just one of the things you just, no need to explain it, man.

Take it however you want. Agreed. The class was one of the most popular ones there though, actually, his pencil sharpening. Really? Was it like a bring your own pencil or did he provide them? He provided the pencils and the equipment, but you took home everything. Nice. Uh, so yeah, by David's book, how to sharpen, uh, pencils, it's excellent.

He sent, sent one to me yesterday, actually, uh, by mine. Really? Yeah. You mean I each bought one? Well, I told him I was going to plug it. You should need to work it. Yeah. Uh, Roman Mars was there.

Yeah. Did you get to meet him? Huh? I didn't. What? I couldn't find him. Um, that like the, the low point was that he, he kept missing you. Sorry.

I forgot to. That's so weird. I like, I looked around for him and I guess we just missed each other. Yeah. I emailed him the other day. Yeah. He was sad. So Roman has a design and architecture podcast called 99% invisible, which is great.

Yeah. He did a cool one about the twin towers on the anniversary and it was like, he got his hands on like a recording of the sound they made like swaying and creaking. It was really cool. And the cool thing about that show is you don't have to be into design or architecture to, to think it's an awesome show. Yeah. I just encourage you to listen to it.

Uh, and then the comedians there, uh, Maria Bamford, who's a stalwart at Max Funcon. She's great. Uh, Maria Bamford.com camera and Esposito did the morning trivia with me. She stepped up and co-hosted, um, she, uh, it sports the side mullet, which he has coined that term. It's like all shaved on one side and hangs down on the other. And she is super sweet and very funny. And I'm really rooting for her in her career.

It is the real Cameron Esposito.com, uh, W come out bell, W come out bell.com. He has an upcoming show on FX this fall, his brand new TV show premiering after Louis. Oh, wow. So he's like, he's set kind of crap in his pants right now, but, um, very exciting time for him. It was cool to meet him at the stage. And the name of a Kamal show is totally biased and, um, it premieres August 9th at 11 PM on FX.

That was a huge plug, Chuck. Yeah. Uh, Steve Agee, did you watch the Sarah Silverman show here or there? He was one of the neighbors, the two guys, the two gay guys. He was like kind of a big slovenly dude. Oh, you're thinking of, um, Steve Agee. Okay. Okay.

It was really funny and, um, like all the other comedians are doing this very like, not avant-garde. It's very interesting sort of different style of comedy. And then he gets up there and starts making like poop and marijuana jokes, which is refreshing for me. Uh, you can follow him on Twitter at Steve Agee and that's A-G-E-E or Steve Agee dot tumblr.com. Uh, Chris Fairbanks performed Chris Fairbanks.com.

He was really great. Didn't get to meet him, but he was super funny. And of course, John Hodgman. Yay. So John, at Hodgman, listen to Judge John Hodgman, you can buy his books, the areas of my expertise, more information than you require. That is all. And what's his website?

Uh, I don't know. It's not that is all. It's areasofmyexpertice.com, I believe. Okay. And John stepped up as usual and we did a fun, uh, pub trivia together and, uh, it's just a great time. You know, Hodgy. Oh yeah.

Good, good dude. He's a great dude. I'm glad you had a good time, Chuck. It was fun. And it was, uh, it wasn't quite last year with Upright Citizens Brigade and Andy Richter. Like that was huge for me just personally. This probably would have been bigger for you because of, uh, MST 3K. Yeah.

Yeah. But, um, they sent me an email and they said to say hello and that you guys are great. That is really something. Yeah. That is very nice. So support all these people, support Jesse Thorne and his empire. They're all good folks doing great work. I couldn't, couldn't support nicer people.

Yeah. The next time you see a knockoff Gucci wallet being sold on the street, just purchase it because the funds probably go to Jesse Thorne and to provide for his family. That's right. Um, let's see. I don't even know what to call for best disco song ever. Sure. How about best overlooked disco song ever?

Because yeah, man, we've all heard Fly Robin Fly and all the other ones that we, we mentioned in this episode. I have nights on Broadway is mine. Okay. So if you can tweet to us, you can, uh, well, you can treat us as a S Y S K podcast. You can join us on Facebook at facebook.com slash stuff you should know. Um, and you can, uh, send us an email, right? Right.

I'll give that email address in a second, but Chuck, I want to play us out with what I think is the greatest disco song of all time. All right. Let's hear it. The taste of honey's boogie, yogi, yogi. So you got that playing right now. Yep. You can send us an email to stuff podcast at discovery.com.

For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it. And now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever

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