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Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco [Paperback]

Peter Shapiro
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Book Description

7 May 2009

Disco emerged from the fall-out of the Black Power Movement and an almost exclusively gay scene in a blaze of poppers, strobe lights, tight trousers, hysterical diva vocals and synthesized beats in the late sixties. As a genre, disco radically re-defined the sensibility of the seventies to the extent where reactionary rockers felt the need to launch a paranoid 'Disco Sucks' campaign at the end of the decade.

Featuring artists such as Chic, Sylvester, Donna Summer and Frank Grasso, Turn the Beat Around illustrates why and how disco changed the face of popular culture forever.


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Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco + Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: 100 Years of the Disc Jockey
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Product details

  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Faber and Faber; Revised edition edition (7 May 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0571219233
  • ISBN-13: 978-0571219230
  • Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 19.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 116,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

"'A complete triumph. He expertly excavates the history of one of the central genres of modern popular music.' John McTernan, Scotland on Sunday"

Book Description

A seminal popular culture book on a much maligned genre -- D.I.S.C.O!

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Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Good but opinionated 12 Nov 2005
Format:Paperback
A fair addition to "Love Saves the Day" and "Last Night A DJ Saves My Life", especially in giving credit to some of the major artists such as Kid Creole aka August Darnell; or shedding light (however perfunctory) on the glorious obscurities such as Ozo... On the minus side, however, is that the author suffers from the typical muso disease of opinionating whether anyone actually cares or not. Whereas disco history welcomes more people who take a more analytical attitude, it definitely doesn't need pseudointellectual smartarsing which forgets the sheer joy (which indeed might revel in corniness as well, if need be). Shapiro's contempt for the likes of Patrick Juvet and Dennis Parker is plain silly - they might not have been the greatest singers in the world music history but that's just not the point; they had splendid tunes with catchy arrangements and if Shapiro is unable to enjoy them, it's only due to his snobbishness. All in all, quite an enjoyable read, though.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing but wordy and opinionated 21 Aug 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
An interesting but patchy book - I'm glad I read 'Turn the Beat Around' but was tempted several times to hurl it across the room. And not just because it's written in fluent (ie wordy and somewhat self-important) muso-journalese.

A lot of hard graft has gone into it and there's some fascinating back (and side) story to the rise and fall of disco. Yet I never got the impression the author understood how disco FELT while you were on the floor - that euphoria, that release. By the end I was beginning to question how much he actually likes disco - I suspect his heart is with what he considers more 'authentic' genres like funk.

From David Mancuso on, disco was never just danceable Philly (though danceable Philly is indeed very fine). Latin percussion, orchestrated strings and European electronics weren't hokey and inauthentic bolt-ons, but all part of the mix. They were part of what made disco disco - it was a coming together of things. He disses the Eurodisco sub-genre with the usual anglophone contempt for non-Anglo music, is too dismissive of Donna Summer's talents and tries - wrongly, I think - to shoehorn the Bee Gees into the 'Eurodisco' camp when what they were doing was really blue-eyed R&B. There's also a very odd little chapter on Italo disco that fizzles out with no mention of the genre's 1980s heyday, as though the author was simply too bored to go on.

Buy it by all means. but I'd suggest you also read Tim Lawrence's 'Love Saves the Day' which is less opinionated and more readable. Afterwards dive into Andrew Holleran's 'Dancer from the Dance'. It's a gay novel, but I've never read anything that better describes the irresistible power of the dance floor.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Really brilliant 15 Mar 2011
By J. Perl
Format:Hardcover
I really loved this book. I don't really care that it's polemical at times - I just found it consistently entertaining and enlightening.

Doubling as a history of the US, the book also includes some interesting side stories such as that of Northern Soul in the UK.

I guess it helps that I already had a strong interest in but not a lot of knowledge of soul and disco.

I definitely recommend the book unreservedly.
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