History, significance of disco explored in sometimes excruitiating detail

Associated Press Writer
Published Friday, July 01, 2005


Who knew disco had so much meaning?

Beneath the relentless beat, the thumping bass and the falsetto singing, listeners can find commentaries on gay rights, black power and the 1970s drug culture.

Peter Shapiro's meticulously detailed examination behind the platform shoes and turntable-spinning DJs of the disco world, "Turn the Beat Around," makes a solid case for taking another look at, and listen to, the music of the 1970s that pulsated in discotheques around the world.

Take this explanation of what was to be found inside a typical disco: "It offered communion and ecstasy, fantasy and release."

In many ways, Shapiro argues, disco and its followers -- black, white, gay, straight -- came closer to realizing the vision of peace and unity yearned for by the 1960s than anything before or since.

He explores the rise and fall of disco, touching on civil rights, the rising gay culture, the economy of New York City, sexual promiscuity, drug use and abuse, and the celebrity culture surrounding the infamous Studio 54 and other clubs.

But in so doing he sometimes overplays his hand, barraging the reader with song titles, producers, DJs, singers and band mates, all of which leads to a throbbing head not unlike a bad disco beat.

Despite that shortcoming, the book offers plenty to learn for those whose knowledge of disco largely starts and stops with "Saturday Night Fever."

Disco-haters -- and there were plenty of those -- would be wise to pick up the book to see some of the things about the music and the era they might have missed. At the end, however, they are unlikely to be swayed to believe disco was as life-altering a force as Shapiro seems to believe it was.

Disco-lovers who haven't given up on their dreams of following John Travolta on the dance floor, however, will find ample evidence to cite when arguing the merits of their beloved scene.