Finally watched The Bee Gees doc. I’ve always been a fan but I have new respect for their artistry.
I am *especially* glad that the doc explicitly called out the fact that the “death of disco” was pointedly homophobic and racist.
I do wish a bit more time had been spent on the fact that The Bee Gees, as hard as it was to survive the blowback, were able to do so both because of their musical & writing talent and because they were all white straight men. The latter doesn’t diminish their gifts.
But plenty of extremely talented Black and LGBTQ artists of color never survived the undermining of and blowback against (bad) disco.
Disco-and songs that are really R&B but got that commercial label-is rooted firmly in a Black tradition The Bee Gees always acknowledged.
And none of that can be separated from the attacks on it.
The scene of the Black former Comiskey Park usher is one I’ll think about for a long time. “It was a racist, homophobic book burning. That’s all it was.”
True tea, which the doc also brilliantly explored: a lot of the “disco” folks hated was actually trash bc straight white men got greedy and commercialized it beyond recognition and quality.
So a bunch of artists who were talented beyond a genre-including The Bee Gees-were harmed