MUSI 2540 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: The Roots, Modern Dance, Alternative Rock
9 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Rewriting Dance Music History
Key Takeaways from Bruce’s work on Pride
● Changing the world is about changing behavior
● Social movements have…
○ An ultimate goal
○ Strategies
○ Collective action tactics
● Music, as public celebration, is an important tool for identity movements, where cultural
equality is the goal.
Linking Bruce and Garcia
● Where Pride celebrations take over public spaces, spaces for dance music were
intentionally insulated from wider society.
● Celebration should not be an end, in itself, but a means to advance social justice.
Rewriting Dance Music History
● The roots of electronic music are racially and sexually diverse.
● Your task:
○ Together with a partner, trace the global history of dance music, as outline by
Garcia.
○ What were the major sounds and scenes like in the following locales?
○ Add at least one entry to the dance music timeline on the board.
■ New York
■ Chicago
● mixing older disco with Italo disco, funk, hip-hop and European
electro pop.
■ Detroit
■ UK (Manchester, London)
■ Paris
■ Johannesburg
■ Los Angeles
Appropriation/Rejection
● White, straight dJs and club-goers appropriated the sounds of dance music, largely
without acknowledging and accepting its queer creators.
● Anti-disco sentiment was a rejection of queer culture
● Many of the founders of modern dance music were triple minorities: faced tremendous
obstacles to full participation in public life, as queer, poor, people of color.
How can we do bettter?
● We can offer up alternative music histories, that acknowledge the contributions of people
of color, women, and LGBTQ+ creators and fans.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Changing the world is about changing behavior. Music, as public celebration, is an important tool for identity movements, where cultural equality is the goal. Where pride celebrations take over public spaces, spaces for dance music were intentionally insulated from wider society. Celebration should not be an end, in itself, but a means to advance social justice. The roots of electronic music are racially and sexually diverse. Together with a partner, trace the global history of dance music, as outline by. Add at least one entry to the dance music timeline on the board. Mixing older disco with italo disco, funk, hip-hop and european electro pop. White, straight djs and club-goers appropriated the sounds of dance music, largely without acknowledging and accepting its queer creators. Anti-disco sentiment was a rejection of queer culture. Many of the founders of modern dance music were triple minorities: faced tremendous obstacles to full participation in public life, as queer, poor, people of color.
