Disco music ruled the charts from 1973 to 1979 with slick songs that were catchy, mindless, and self-indulgent. But aside from its musical impact, disco was a driving force of social change for gays, women, and blacks. In "Hot Stuff," Alice Echols chronicles the disco phenomenon, from its origins in 1960's soul through its lasting influence 30 years later- not just on wedding receptions, but on today's music and artists like Madonna and Lady Gaga. Echols and Larry Mantle boogie down and talk about an era when the tunes and the clothes were equally synthetic.
Guest:
Alice Echols, author of Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture (W. W. Norton). She is a professor of English and gender studies at USC. Echols is a former disco deejay, and the author of the biography of Janis Joplin, Scars of Sweet Paradise.