“Disco was the total antithesis of the rock movement”
Rockers certainly thought so, but they forgot themselves. Rock and roll was originally dance music, and never lost that essence, no in its least danceable offshoots. You didn’t see very many people dancing to, say, Black Sabbath or The Ramones, unless you count headbanging and pogoing, which you shouldn’t. But consider one of the biggest surviving rock acts of the disco era, Van Halen, and you have a perfect model for danceable hard rock. You could look back to Led Zeppelin, as well, or sideways to Aerosmith. They weren’t made exclusively for dancing, but they do in a pinch. Heck, you can even dance to AC/DC if you want.
That’s what rock is made for, is what I’m saying, even when it isn’t readily apparent.
“you had to dress up (no T-shirt and jeans rock uniform), you had to actually *learn* how to dance, you had to spend money and have all the *right* things, it was exclusive/exclusionary (the doorman and the velvet rope”
Ah, here we get to the nub of the issue. I don’t believe you needed to learn how to dance, at least not as intensively as before rock. Disco is infinitely easier to pick up than swing, big band, or more advanced line/square dancing. There was the Hustle, and you could salsa, samba, lambada, etc. all you wanted. But they weren’t necessary to get on the floor. They weren’t all Travoltas out there. Most of what they did was as free-form as hip-hop is today.
Anyway, that’s beside the point. What do all the things you mention have in common? Think about it: clothes, structured dancing, club exclusivity...women, that’s what! Women like it when you dress up, show them off on the dance floor, and not have to hang around huddled masses of sweaty guys. Disco was chick music, before it was anything else. It was also gay music, naturally, since gays as you may have noticed are basically women. You, if you were a rocker, had to play along to get you know what. Which undoubtedly frustrated a lot of rockers, having to loitter around music they hated for the sake of something else.
That, more than race, class, or anything else is what seperated disco from the rock of the day. That is, the rock that wasn’t glam, which by the way came back in a big way shortly afterwards under the name hair metal, itself meeting a backlash similar to disco in the following decade.
“And yes, it became very, very overplayed by the time of Disco Demolition in July of 1979.”
Look no further for the cause of the backlash than right here, in my opinion. Disco had limited appeal and for whatever reason, call it popular delusion and the madness of crowds, outgrew its natural fanbase. It would survive under different names: new wave, pop, r&b, hip-hop, etc., to be enjoyed by its female, gay, black, and hispanic devotees as well as the mainstream. But it wouldn’t, couldn’t dominate the mainstream forever, just as heavy metal and punk couldn’t. Because they get old too fast for those who don’t love them exclusively.
Disco has basically morphed into Techno.
“Heck, you can even dance to AC/DC if you want.”
I’ve been to a lot of parties where I’ve seen (and been among) people dancing to “You Shook Me All Night Long.”
“Rockers certainly thought so, but they forgot themselves. Rock and roll was originally dance music, and never lost that essence, no in its least danceable offshoots. You didn’t see very many people dancing to, say, Black Sabbath or The Ramones....
“That’s what rock is made for, is what I’m saying, even when it isn’t readily apparent.”
Absolutely. Real rock & roll was killed by the Beatles (hippie version, at least) and the like (any coincidence they’re British and not American?). It became less and less about dancing and having fun and more about “being cool” i.e., being current. The original ‘50s makes were largely conservative types, including DRESSING WELL, but the San Francisco hippie-drippy scene took over and it became rampantly liberal. Including looking like $#@%# and inhibitions about being fun - no dancing, just sitting around and “listening”. “Cool” started to mean absolutely no action that could make you seem like a fool. No fun.
“Disco had limited appeal and for whatever reason, call it popular delusion and the madness of crowds, outgrew its natural fanbase.”
I find that hard to believe. People must all be real fools, then, because Disco was “popular” or it wouldn’t have been on the charts so much.
Meanwhile, “rock” i.e. heavy metal and all that noisy twangy stuff, is/was really mostly underground fringe stuff. Lots of people talk about it and how they love it, but truth - didn’t make the Top 40 that much. That includes the ‘80s. (BTW, who the hell are the Ramones? It keeps coming up on the Internet but I have no clue what the hell they ever did that ever got played. Fringe. Overstated. That and “the Smiths”. Internet legends.)
Incidentally, I grew up under a metalhead (boy) and a disco queen (yes, a girl), only a year apart. Very different characters and behaviors to go with their favorite music. Of course, under the surface some of it was all the same!