Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco

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.

Amazing. Unbelievable connections between subcultures that formed the disco music. Every chapter describes a world of its own, and as a reader you must try to make up the whole picture out of the collage of that experiences and influences.And now? Where's now a history about how dance music was experienced in each decade -describing the construction of each social ritual of parties as meeting places, sounds and moves? Jazz, swing, rhythm and blues, rock'n'roll, soul, funk, punk, electro, hip-hop, raves, music and places to free your mind and let your body go.... It's strange that disco was also re-encarnation of that spirit, still discredited today, though a lot of samples and inspiration in contemporary dance music come from that tracks (Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams, for instance). Long live the seventies...

Great gift for any disco diva

Great!

Good

I have read this book several times. A great analysis of disco, exploring the whole history of the genre and moving into the modern era and disco's influence on house and pop. The discography has given me endless records to search out- listening on YouTube then trying to find vinyl copies. Shapiro is an intelligent and perceptive writer. I especially liked his description of the backlash against disco and the 'disco sucks' movement. If you want to really understand disco and its impact and aftermath, buy this book. It's brilliant.

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.

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.