The "You know what?" thread

[minor muppetz]

Recently, I've downloaded the entire albums Sesame Street Fever and Sesame Disco, and in listening to the albums so much, today it's made me wish that there had been a Sesame Street disco-themed special back in the 1970s, maybe to go along with one of the two albums. Heck, it would have been cool if the Muppets did a disco special.

Of course if there was a Sesame Street disco special, who knows how likely we'd be to be able to see the special, if it would have gotten an official home video release or if anybody would have recorded it (though there are people who recorded A Special Sesame Street Christmas and A Walking Tour of Sesame Street), or if it would be available at the Paley Center of Media, or if it would have gone the way of other rare Sesame Street specials like Out to Lunch or Sesame Street at Night?

And the two albums do compliment each other nicely. Both feature new disco versions of a number of classic Sesame Street songs, both have awesome opening tracks (though I feel The Happiest Street in the World would have made a better opening track than What Makes Music), and both have songs about trash (including Robin Gibbs' "Trash" which seems like an oddity for the album but is such a joy to listen to, and Oscar's "Doin' the Trash"). Not to mention both have a featured Cookie Monster song, and while Sesame Street Fever is the only one to truly have a guest star (Robin Gibbs), Sesame Disco does have Kermit, who was a regular at the time but was promoted as a special guest on this album.

 

[minor muppetz]

Another thing in regards to the two Sesame Street disco albums: Those two albums came out within a few years of each other. I don't think they did that with any other musical genre albums. There were two Sesame Street rock and roll albums that came out almost ten years apart, and I think there was only one country album, but disco got two albums within two years.

I started wondering if they somehow knew the genre would die and decided to put out two disco albums while it was still popular. Though I guess it's more likely that Sesame Street Fever sold really well (maybe even incredibly well?), leading to them putting out another one soon. Or maybe it was a case of disco just being that popular.

 

[fuzzygobo]

In the second half of the 70's (I know, I was there) disco was as commonplace as phones are today. The Bee Gees reached such a level of critical mass even your grandmother knew who they were.

For a while Saturday Night Fever was the biggest selling album of all time. So disco was everywhere.

Not that everybody liked it. Around 1980 there was a big anti-disco backlash. "Disco's Dead, Crank the Led!" became a buzz among rock stations. Once at Yankee Stadium, between innings, they took a truckload of disco albums and blew them up.

To me, the coolest fixture of the disco scene was the dance floor with the lights in it.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yes, I know, my mom always tells me how miserable she was during the 70s because she hated everything about disco: the music, the fashion, everything. Rock and roll was coming into vogue when she was a kid, so as far as she was concerned, disco was essentially anti-music.

I personally don't mind disco, but I'll agree that it comes off as terribly, terrible dated. There's certain aspects of musical genres that stand the test of time very well, like much of 60s rock, or even some of 80s pop . . . but disco is about as dated as the bell bottoms and giant afros that defined that decade.

Meanwhile, I still can't wait for skinny jeans to stop being a thing in this decade.

 

[LittleJerry92]

What's so bad about Disco music?

Ah-ah-ah-ah, stayin' alive, stayin' alive...

 

[D'Snowth]

There's always going to be genres of music that some people consider to be "non-music," and I suppose if you grew up with rock and roll when it was new, that disco would seem like such "non-music." Kind of like how some would argue rap and hip-hop are "non-music."

 

[fuzzygobo]

Musically, disco got so bland and repetitive. Four bass drum beats per bar. Boring.
Disco had its roots in black, Hispanic, and gay subcultures, but after the blockbuster success of Saturday Night Fever, it lost its street cred. Once it got to the point where the squares embraced it, its time had passed.

Frank Zappa summed it up perfectly. On YouTube, "Dancin' Fool" from his 1979 album (one of his best), "Sheik Yerbouti".
Zappa hated disco too, and made a brilliant album out of it.

 

[ConsummateVs]

One of my pet peeves is when people think funk is the same thing as disco. There's a difference, people.

 

[minor muppetz]

Sesame Street has put out a number of albums relating to different musical genres, but the Muppets haven't really done that (I guess you could argue that Muppet Beach Party is a surfer rock album). There also haven't been as many Muppet albums as there have been Sesame Street ones, whether compilations of existing tracks or all-original recordings. I wonder if the Muppets should put out rock, rap, jazz, disco, opera, classical, country, and other genre albums.

I've been noticing the "steamed hams" joke in The Simpsons has become a huge meme as of last month.... Oddly enough.

I've noticed this, too. I noticed it AFTER searching for the Simpsons clip in question.

 

[D'Snowth]

I will say that non-disco music from the 70s perhaps has one of the most instantly recognizable and distinct sounds from other genres and subgenres of music . . . most 70s music seem to have a lot of stringed instruments (violins and violas) providing the underscoring, while the melody is often carried by woodwinds (flutes and such), and more often than not, a few electric guitars thrown in for little accents here and there.

If I'm listening to an oldies station, I can almost always pick out a song from the 70s as soon as I hear the opening notes.