{"id":3170,"date":"2019-11-15T10:25:11","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T09:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hucbald.nl\/?p=3170"},"modified":"2021-12-21T16:05:34","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T15:05:34","slug":"discovering-identity-the-contribution-of-disco-to-experiences-of-queerness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/2019\/11\/15\/discovering-identity-the-contribution-of-disco-to-experiences-of-queerness\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering Identity: the Contribution of Disco to Experiences of Queerness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Discovering Identity: the Contribution of Disco to Experiences of Queerness<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Subcultures: Music, Identity, Media<br \/>\nMoira de Kok<br \/>\nApril 2, 2019<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Since its inception, disco music has been connected to queer communities.<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> It enjoyed its heyday during the mid- to late 1970s, yet it has seen a resurgence in popularity from the mid-1990s onwards. Its influence on songs such as Blur\u2019s \u201cGirls and Boys\u201d,<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a> Madonna\u2019s \u201cHung Up\u201d,<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> and Daft Punk\u2019s \u201cGet Lucky\u201d, co-written by disco guitarist Nile Rodgers,<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a> confirm its lasting relevance. It is also still popular with queer communities, as it is for example well represented in Radio 2\u2019s Homo 100, broadcast in 2016.<a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a> To examine disco\u2019s contribution to the experience of queer identity, especially in the 1970s, I will analyse the anthemic \u201cYou Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)\u201d by Sylvester. Thereafter, I will trace the decline of disco music at the end of the 1970s and its replacement by house music, using this switch to uncover how music contributes to experiences of queer identity, belonging to a queer community and a sense of place in society.<\/p>\n<p>Disco originated in the early 1970s in New York clubs with primarily queer, African-American and Latino audiences as a music specifically meant for dancing. It incorporated elements from many different (African-American) genres, including funk, soul and gospel. It is characterised rhythmically by a four-on-the-floor bass drum (where every beat in the 4\/4 measure is accented by the bass drum) and syncopation, and instrumentally by its frequent use of Latin percussion, orchestral instruments, especially strings, and synthesisers. Typically, DJs would string together the long disco recordings (sometimes occupying an entire side of a record) in a continuous stream, providing an unrelenting beat for the dance floor.<a href=\"#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref6\">[6]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Its origins in queer dance clubs clarifies disco\u2019s connection to queer communities. In the music, the connection becomes clear through the presence of \u201cresidual signs of otherness\u201d. Musicologist and gender-sexuality theorist Nadine Hubbs points out that these, once understood by the audience, \u201cinspire identification on the basis of experienced marginalisation\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref7\">[7]<\/a> These signs are present in many disco classics, including Sylvester\u2019s \u201cYou Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn8\" name=\"_ftnref8\">[8]<\/a> I chose this song because of Sylvester\u2019s close connection to queer and African-American communities, which were central to the disco movement, as he was a gay black man who often dressed in drag.<a href=\"#_ftn9\" name=\"_ftnref9\">[9]<\/a> This specific song has many musical elements that signify otherness, which I will discuss later to discover how they provide a means of identification among queer communities.<\/p>\n<p>However, it is important to decide which musical parameters are important for the analysis of disco music, as Robert Walser did in his analysis of heavy metal. Firstly, Walser explains how Western music has mostly been studied as a printed text, rather than sound or social practice. Walser feels that this focus has led to the ignoring of the musical meaning in pop songs, with disproportionate attention given to lyrics, and names several musical parameters important to heavy metal music.<a href=\"#_ftn10\" name=\"_ftnref10\">[10]<\/a> Several of these are also central to the analysis of disco music, especially vocal timbre, rhythm (connected to danceability) and mode and harmony. To these parameters I would like to add two more: structure (connected to song length) and lyrics.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, one of the most striking elements in \u201cYou Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)\u201d is Sylvester\u2019s continuous falsetto voice. In her article \u201cFakin&#8217; It\/Makin&#8217; It: Falsetto&#8217;s Bid for Transcendence in 1970s Disco Highs\u201d, Anne-Lise Fran\u00e7ois explains how the \u201cartificial\u201d falsetto transcends gender. She argues that the falsetto voice does not belong to any gender because of its supernatural register; it does not fit into most men\u2019s tessitura, but also does not sound like a woman\u2019s voice at the same pitch.<a href=\"#_ftn11\" name=\"_ftnref11\">[11]<\/a> Sylvester clearly uses falsetto as a \u201cgender-bending device\u201d, cutting his voice loose from gender and disembodying the falsetto. This disembodiment, then, removes markers of \u201crace\u201d and gender, creating an atmosphere where singers and audience dare to be vulnerable towards and intimate with one another, and forget their differences.<a href=\"#_ftn12\" name=\"_ftnref12\">[12]<\/a> Falsetto simultaneously signifies the rootlessness of many members of queer communities, cast out from their families, and \u201ctransforms this image of loneliness and imprisonment into one of refuge and freedom.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn13\" name=\"_ftnref13\">[13]<\/a> Like in many subcultures, the disco movement acknowledges the need for a home, but denies it (at least in its traditional shape) at the same time, pretending the subculture can independently sustain its members.<a href=\"#_ftn14\" name=\"_ftnref14\">[14]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Fran\u00e7ois notes in her text that the profoundly human and risky falsetto timbre is in direct opposition to disco\u2019s metronomical beats.<a href=\"#_ftn15\" name=\"_ftnref15\">[15]<\/a> \u201cYou Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)\u201d indeed features a very steady four-on-the-floor beat at about 130 beats per minute, with a snare on every second and fourth beat of the measure, and a hi-hat on every second eighth of a beat. Additional Latin-flavoured percussion plays a relatively loose rhythm over this basis, but this rhythm repeats every measure, giving the overall rhythmic component of the song a rigid, repetitive and indeed metronomical character. However, while it is musically opposed to the freedom of the falsetto, the mechanical rhythm has a function of uniting the audience on the dance floor. Disco music is not just a musical text, but also a social practice, after all. Disco originated in dance clubs and thus danceability is one of its most important values. The steady, up-tempo rhythm which accents every beat, yet still has enough interest due to auxiliary percussion, excites the crowd and stimulates dance. Dancing together, feeling like everyone is on the same beat, creates a sense of unity, temporarily rooting (queer) audiences to the refuge of the dance floor.<a href=\"#_ftn16\" name=\"_ftnref16\">[16]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Like its rhythm, the harmony of \u201cYou Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)\u201d is composed of only a few, repeating elements. The introduction, pre-chorus and bridge are all largely comprised of a static harmony on F (which leans towards major, but is not clearly stated as such). The verses have their own chord progression, shown in figure 1 below, as do the choruses, whose chord progression in figure 2 is also used for the extended outro. The thick lines represent divisions between measures; the thin lines indicate the beats within a measure. Below the chords, I have indicated their functions in Roman numerals.<a href=\"#_ftn17\" name=\"_ftnref17\">[17]<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3172 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Essay-uitgelicht-1-figuur.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"859\" height=\"378\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Essay-uitgelicht-1-figuur.png 859w, https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Essay-uitgelicht-1-figuur-300x132.png 300w, https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Essay-uitgelicht-1-figuur-768x338.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 859px) 100vw, 859px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The verses are in d minor, quite obviously indicated by the V(+)-i movement after every two bars. The choruses, however, are more harmonically ambiguous. Neither d minor nor the relative major key of F provide satisfying answers to the chord progression of the chorus; rather, it seems like F is the tonal centre which uses chords from both its minor and major modes, namely the iv7 and VII from the minor and the I from major, which results in an interesting case of modal mixture. As Walser mentioned in his chapter, modes carry specific emotional meaning for the listener.<a href=\"#_ftn18\" name=\"_ftnref18\">[18]<\/a> The major (or Ionian) mode is generally perceived as joyful, while the minor (or Aeolian) mode has connotations of sorrow. Thus, the move from an f minor to F major harmony in the chorus can be read as an overcoming of hardship, an emotional release or a moment of transcendence.<\/p>\n<p>However, most of the song is in the minor mode, despite its exuberant character. As Hubbs theorises in her article, this casting of upbeat songs in the minor mode is a way of differing disco from its musical \u201cenemy\u201d of 1970s album-oriented rock.<a href=\"#_ftn19\" name=\"_ftnref19\">[19]<\/a> Of course, it is always the question whether the songwriter consciously chose to do this. Nevertheless, it is quite plausible that these chords were chosen to simply sound new, exciting, and <em>different <\/em>(not necessarily from rock music, even), without attention to the chords\u2019 function and the song\u2019s modality. The harmony of \u201cYou Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)\u201d thus undermines conventional expectations.<a href=\"#_ftn20\" name=\"_ftnref20\">[20]<\/a> This can be read as incongruity, one of the three elements of camp. Major and minor, joy and sorrow, are incongruent: they are not usually meant to go together. This juxtaposition in camp helps queer communities to manage their difficult identity and alienation.<a href=\"#_ftn21\" name=\"_ftnref21\">[21]<\/a> Consciously or unconsciously, the harmony symbolises the identity of queer communities: undermining conventions and living as a \u201cminor-ity\u201d (as Hubbs writes), though able to overcome these hardships, through camp, when the chorus defies all expectations and turns major.<\/p>\n<p>The same undermining of pop music conventions takes place in the song\u2019s structure; while it starts out with a traditional verse-chorus structure, like most disco songs its extended edition incorporates an exceptionally long bridge and outro section. This indicates the function of disco music as music for the dance club; the repetitive sections provide enough room for DJs to blend the song into the next one, creating a continuous beat that keeps the audience dancing. Together with the rhythmic aspects I described a few paragraphs earlier, this has a uniting function, never shocking the audience out of their ecstasy with silence or jagged transitions. Thus, it might also create a sort of utopia, where the dance floor is the only known reality and one never has to return to the outside world. Essentially, dancing to disco becomes an immersive experience, where the audience becomes lost in the music, resisting the call to conform to the real world.<a href=\"#_ftn22\" name=\"_ftnref22\">[22]<\/a> This escapism is characteristic of disco and exhibits Roland Barthes\u2019 concept of <em>jouissance<\/em>, as Hubbs quotes from John Gill; \u201c\u2026that is, rapture, bliss, or transcendence.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn23\" name=\"_ftnref23\">[23]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally, the lyrics of \u201cYou Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)\u201d also carry significant meaning. While in the verses Sylvester sings about his passionate romance with a partner he met on the dance floor, the choruses are \u2013 like many other parameters \u2013 repetitive, reiterating the song\u2019s title over and over. These lyrics show the underlying function of disco music:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It served not just to provide contact, safety and acceptance, but crucially to <em>confirm queer persons&#8217; very existence<\/em> and intact survival in a world that would make of them, if not monsters, then walking ghosts, nonentities.<a href=\"#_ftn24\" name=\"_ftnref24\">[24]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The concept of \u201cfeeling real\u201d \u2013 physically, emotionally \u2013 transfers onto its audience a sense of validated existence and queer consciousness, especially since the line \u201cyou make me feel mighty real\u201d is the song\u2019s sing-along hook, providing an opportunity for actively performing that \u201cfeeling real\u201d. This is perhaps the \u201ctheatricality\u201d element of camp, exuberantly singing the lyrics to an incongruent harmony.<a href=\"#_ftn25\" name=\"_ftnref25\">[25]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>All of these musical parameters have shown that disco music provides a hold on queer identity; whether through symbolising the hardships of queer communities (rootlessness, marginalisation), overcoming these hardships, uniting the audience, or shaping queer identity. However, changes in disco also changed its relationship to queer communities. The release of <em>Saturday Night Fever <\/em>and the opening of Studio 54 in 1977 marked the increasing commercialisation, white-washing, heterosexualisation and association with celebrity culture and drug use of the genre.<a href=\"#_ftn26\" name=\"_ftnref26\">[26]<\/a> Thus, in the 1980s, disco was replaced by a similar music: house. House music has similar origins and functions as disco; many of its musical parameters, including tempo, metre and song length are also shared. The undergroundness of house music satisfied queer communities\u2019 need for a more exclusive, persistent subcultural music, denying the more fluid entry of (white) heterosexual outsiders which had corrupted the disco movement, while also connecting to the communities\u2019 history through its continuity with disco music.<a href=\"#_ftn27\" name=\"_ftnref27\">[27]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The case study I have shown here is just one of countless examples of a subculture, in this case queer subcultures, transforming over time to fit its needs. This is often characterised by a mainstreaming of the music (or another aspect) of the subculture and the subsequent search for a new music. The subculture\u2019s identity is a process, rather than a static concept. Processes of in- and exclusion and the insider\/outsider divide are central to this: the subculture wants to protect itself from contamination by the mainstream in order to safeguard its identity, but paradoxically has to change its identity to accomplish this. Of course, I have not been able to examine all identity-shaping aspects of disco music specifically and queer music in general; the dimension of \u201crace\u201d and ethnicity and the impact of the AIDS crisis, to name but a few, require further investigation. However, I have shown through my analysis that not only disco\u2019s musical parameters, but disco as a social phenomenon shape queer identity, laid bare \u2013 perhaps ironically \u2013 by its corruption and subsequent transformation into house music. This ultimately shows that for queer people, music is crucial in contributing to their identity, belonging to a community and claiming their place in society.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Bibliography<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Brackett, David. \u201cDisco.\u201d In <em>Grove Music Online, <\/em>edited by Deane Root et al. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001-2019. Article published January 1, 2001. http:\/\/www.oxfordmusiconline.com\/grovemusic\/view\/10.1093\/gmo\/9781561592630.001.0001\/omo-9781561592630-e-0000046627.<\/p>\n<p>Currid, Brian. \u201c\u2018We Are Family\u2019: House Music and Queer Performativity.\u201d In <em>Cruising the Performative: Interventions into the Representation of Ethnicity, Nationality, and Sexuality<\/em>, edited by Sue-Ellen Case, Philip Brett and Susan Leigh Foster, 165-196. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.<\/p>\n<p>Fran\u00e7ois, Anne-Lise. \u201cFakin&#8217; It\/Makin&#8217; It: Falsetto&#8217;s Bid for Transcendence in 1970s Disco Highs.\u201d <em>Perspectives of New Music<\/em> 33, no. 1\/2 (winter \u2013 summer 1995): 442-457.<\/p>\n<p>Gelder, Ken. \u201cBar Scenes and Club Cultures.\u201d Chap. 3 in <em>Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice<\/em>. New York: Routledge, 2007.<\/p>\n<p>Gelder, Ken. \u201cFans, Networks, Pirates.\u201d Chap. 8 in <em>Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice<\/em>. New York: Routledge, 2007.<\/p>\n<p>Hubbs, Nadine. \u201c\u2018I Will Survive\u2019: Musical Mappings of Queer Social Space in a Disco Anthem.\u201d <em>Popular Music<\/em> 26, no. 2 (May 2007): 231-244.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald, Chris. \u201cExploring Modal Subversions in Alternative Music.\u201d <em>Popular Music <\/em>19, no. 3 (October 2000): 355-363.<\/p>\n<p>NPO Radio 2. \u201cDe Homo 100 van 2016.\u201d Published August 5, 2016. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nporadio2.nl\/nieuws\/12539\/de-homo-100-van-2016\">https:\/\/www.nporadio2.nl\/nieuws\/12539\/de-homo-100-van-2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Walser, Robert. \u201cBeyond the Vocals: Toward the Analysis of Popular Musical Discourses.\u201d Chap. 2 in<em> Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music<\/em>. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2013.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Discography<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Blur. \u00a0\u201cGirls and Boys.\u201d Parlophone Records, 2012, Spotify.<\/p>\n<p>Madonna. \u201cHung Up.\u201d Warner Bros. Records, 2005, Spotify.<\/p>\n<p>Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams. \u201cGet Lucky.\u201d Columbia Records, 2013, Spotify.<\/p>\n<p>Sylvester. \u201cYou Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).\u201d Concord, 2009, Spotify.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Audiovisual sources<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Murray, Nick, dir. <em>RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race. <\/em>Season 8, episode 8, \u201cRuPaul Book Ball.\u201d Broadcast on April 25, 2016, on Logo TV. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/browse?jbv=70187741&amp;jbp=0&amp;jbr=2\">https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/browse?jbv=70187741&amp;jbp=0&amp;jbr=2<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Footnotes<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> I will be referring to \u201cqueer communities\u201d (plural) rather than \u201cthe gay\/LGBT community\u201d (singular) to prevent the exclusion of marginalised groups other than (white) gay men. This has been a longstanding problem in disco scholarship, and it is important that we acknowledge the involvement of other queer and ethnic or \u201cracial\u201d groups in disco\u2019s success. See also: Nadine Hubbs, \u201c\u2018I Will Survive\u2019: Musical Mappings of Queer Social Space in a Disco Anthem,\u201d <em>Popular Music<\/em> 26, no. 2 (May 2007): 232.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> \u201cGirls and Boys \u2013 2012 Remaster,\u201d Spotify, track 1 on Blur, <em>Parklife<\/em>, Parlophone Records, 2012. The original album was released on Food Records in 1994.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> \u201cHung Up,\u201d Spotify, track 1 on Madonna, <em>Confessions on a Dance Floor<\/em>, Warner Bros. Records, 2005.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\">[4]<\/a> \u201cGet Lucky,\u201d featuring Pharrell Williams, Spotify, track 8 on Daft Punk, <em>Random Access Memories<\/em>, Columbia Records, 2013.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> \u201cDe Homo 100 van 2016,\u201d NPO Radio 2, published August 5, 2016, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nporadio2.nl\/nieuws\/12539\/de-homo-100-van-2016\">https:\/\/www.nporadio2.nl\/nieuws\/12539\/de-homo-100-van-2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" name=\"_ftn6\">[6]<\/a> David Brackett, \u201cDisco,\u201d in <em>Grove Music Online, <\/em>ed. Deane Root et al. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001-2019), published January 1, 2001. http:\/\/www.oxfordmusiconline.com\/grovemusic\/view\/10.1093\/gmo\/9781561592630.001.0001\/omo-9781561592630-e-0000046627.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" name=\"_ftn7\">[7]<\/a> Hubbs, \u201c\u2018I Will Survive\u2019,\u201d 233-234.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref8\" name=\"_ftn8\">[8]<\/a> \u201cYou Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),\u201d Spotify, track 1 on Sylvester, <em>Step II<\/em>, Concord, 2009. The original album was released on Fantasy Records in 1978.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref9\" name=\"_ftn9\">[9]<\/a> Anne-Lise Fran\u00e7ois, \u201cFakin&#8217; It\/Makin&#8217; It: Falsetto&#8217;s Bid for Transcendence in 1970s Disco Highs,\u201d <em>Perspectives of New Music<\/em> 33, no. 1\/2 (winter \u2013 summer 1995): 446.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref10\" name=\"_ftn10\">[10]<\/a> Robert Walser, \u201cBeyond the Vocals: Toward the Analysis of Popular Musical Discourses,\u201d chap. 2 in<em> Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music<\/em> (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2013), 56-66.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref11\" name=\"_ftn11\">[11]<\/a> Fran\u00e7ois, \u201cFakin&#8217; It\/Makin&#8217; It,\u201d 443.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref12\" name=\"_ftn12\">[12]<\/a> Fran\u00e7ois, \u201cFakin&#8217; It\/Makin&#8217; It,\u201d 445-447.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref13\" name=\"_ftn13\">[13]<\/a> Ibid., 447.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref14\" name=\"_ftn14\">[14]<\/a> Ibid., 448.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref15\" name=\"_ftn15\">[15]<\/a> Ibid., 447.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref16\" name=\"_ftn16\">[16]<\/a> Brian Currid, \u201c\u2018We Are Family\u2019: House Music and Queer Performativity,\u201d in <em>Cruising the Performative: Interventions into the Representation of Ethnicity, Nationality, and Sexuality<\/em>, ed. Sue-Ellen Case, Philip Brett and Susan Leigh Foster (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995), 183.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref17\" name=\"_ftn17\">[17]<\/a> All transcriptions are the author\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref18\" name=\"_ftn18\">[18]<\/a> Walser, \u201cBeyond the Vocals,\u201d 62-63.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref19\" name=\"_ftn19\">[19]<\/a> Hubbs, \u201c\u2019I Will Survive\u2019,\u201d 234-235.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref20\" name=\"_ftn20\">[20]<\/a> Chris McDonald, \u201cExploring Modal Subversions in Alternative Music,\u201d <em>Popular Music <\/em>19, no. 3 (October 2000): 361-362. Although McDonald applied this theory to alternative music in the 1990s, I feel that this sentiment applies to many analyses of popular music, including disco.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref21\" name=\"_ftn21\">[21]<\/a> \u201cKen Gelder, \u201cBar Scenes and Club Cultures,\u201d chap. 3 in <em>Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice<\/em> (New York: Routledge, 2007), 56-57.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref22\" name=\"_ftn22\">[22]<\/a> Ken Gelder, \u201cFans, Networks, Pirates,\u201d chap. 8 in <em>Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice<\/em> (New York: Routledge, 2007), 141-142.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref23\" name=\"_ftn23\">[23]<\/a> Hubbs, \u201c\u2019I Will Survive\u2019,\u201d 235.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref24\" name=\"_ftn24\">[24]<\/a> Ibid., 233. Italics have been added by the author.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref25\" name=\"_ftn25\">[25]<\/a> Gelder, \u201cBar Scenes and Club Cultures,\u201d 56-57. While I have not detected camp\u2019s third element, humour, in this particular recording of the song, \u201cYou Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)\u201d can be performed humorously. A good example of this is shown in <em>RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race, <\/em>season 8, episode 8, \u201cRuPaul Book Ball,\u201d directed by Nick Murray, broadcast on April 25, 2016, on Logo TV, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/browse?jbv=70187741&amp;jbp=0&amp;jbr=2\">https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/browse?jbv=70187741&amp;jbp=0&amp;jbr=2<\/a>. The sequence in the episode featuring the performance of \u201cYou Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)\u201d starts at 54:22.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref26\" name=\"_ftn26\">[26]<\/a> Gelder, \u201cBar Scenes and Club Cultures,\u201d 60-61.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref27\" name=\"_ftn27\">[27]<\/a> Currid, \u201c\u2018We Are Family\u2019,\u201d 170-174.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discovering Identity: the Contribution of Disco to Experiences of Queerness Subcultures: Music, Identity, Media Moira de Kok April 2, 2019 &nbsp; Since its inception, disco music has been connected to queer communities.[1] It enjoyed its heyday during the mid- to late 1970s, yet it has seen a resurgence in popularity from the mid-1990s onwards. Its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"slim_seo":{"title":"Discovering Identity: the Contribution of Disco to Experiences of Queerness - Studievereniging Hucbald","description":"Discovering Identity: the Contribution of Disco to Experiences of Queerness Subcultures: Music, Identity, Media Moira de Kok April 2, 2019 &nbsp; Since its ince"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-publications","category-essay-uitgelicht"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hucbald.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}