Discotheques

This article portrays rock discotheques in rural areas of northern germany in the 1970s and 1980s. It is argued that institutions like these played a crucial role in spreading new subjectivities of flexible, individualistic, open and experience orientated personalities into the general westgerman society.

Cosa è stata l’era della disco-music? Un’epoca di annebbiamento collettivo o il periodo in cui si è consumata una rivoluzione più segreta e profonda?
Tra gli annI Settanta e i primi anni Ottanta all’interno dei locali il sabato sera era un po’ come essere a Woodstock: tutte le razze, le religioni, le sessualità, i ceti sociali si riunivano in una sorta di messa pagana. Si può affermare, quindi, che sulla pista di faceva “politica”: è lì che si parlava di libertà, di individualismo, di anticonformismo.
Una politica di sinistra? Probabilmente sì.
La discomusic è riuscita a diffondere questo messaggio sociale conquistando in pochi anni i mercati musicali del mondo.
In Italia per gli intellettuali il costume che gravita attorno ad essa è solo una «multinazionale del rimbecillimento di massa» senza riuscire a scorgere la doppia vita che scorreva sotto la pista da ballo: il proletario, di giorno operaio, di notte ballerino.
Le discoteche italiane erano affollate da una generazione che non ne poteva più della violenza, delle bombe, delle sprangate, delle cariche e delle manifestazioni. Ma anche dei cantautori impegnati, dei profughi cileni, delle canzoni di lotta.

La expansión de la música electrónica y las fiestas para bailar durante
largas horas ha sido un fenómeno cultural muy significativo en el cambio de siglo. Varios estudios se han referido a estas prácticas de baile y
a sus diferentes escenas. Sin embargo, la figura del Dj en tanto músico,
junto a sus sucesivas transformaciones durante el proceso de legitimación social de la electrónica dance, se encuentra escasamente problematizado. Este trabajo se propone hacer una aproximación a los diferentes momentos que atravesó la figura del músico/pinchadiscos desde su
aparición en el contexto local como musicalizador y Disc jockey hasta el
reconocimiento del Dj como artista y su incorporación al espacio de la
producción musical.

EINFÜHRUNG Das historische Phänomen der ländlichen Rockdiskothek der 1970er Jahre in Nordwestdeutschland wurde bislang in der Musikforschung noch wenig the-matisiert. Zwar gibt es bereits eine Reihe lokalhistorischer Veröffentlichun-gen (siehe dazu den Abschnitt Die ländliche Rockdiskothek), jedoch ist dort wenig darüber zu erfahren, wie die konkrete Musiknutzung aussah. Um hierzu Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen, werden in diesem Beitrag sozialwissenschaftlich-empirische Verfahren, Quellenstudium und Musikanalyse verbunden, dies ge-schieht in Form von Interviews, teilnehmender Beobachtung, der Auswertung von Literatur und Musikfolgenanalyse. Ziel ist es, über das individuelle Mu-sik-Erleben typische Musiknutzungen und ihre soziale Rahmung aufzude-cken. Handelt es sich dabei um spezifische Formen der Nutzung populärer Musik, für die der Begriff der Aneignung angemessen ist? Um eine Grundlage für die Beantwortung dieser Frage zu schaffen, werden dem Beitrag in Form eines Prologs einige theoretische Überlegungen zum Begriff der Aneignung und seiner Verwendung in empirischen Studien vorangestellt. Im Fazit wer-den die Erkenntnisse aus der empirischen Forschung an diese Überlegungen rückgebunden. An den Prolog schließt eine kurze Einführung zur Diskothe-kenforschung an, und der analytische Begriff der Diskothek wird geschärft. Daraufhin erfolgt der Einstieg ins Phänomen der ländlichen Rockdiskothek über ihren historischen Ort, von dort aus nähern wir uns über die Musikfolgen immer mehr dem Musik-Erleben. Dabei wird sich zeigen, dass dem Tanz eine besondere und sehr spezifische Bedeutung zukommt.

The discussion addresses the nightclub as a private venue that offers dancing to music. Historically also known as a ‘discotheque’, ‘dance hall,’ or ‘dancing’, the nightclub initially developed in an urban nocturnal setting, as a members’ club that can legally conduct its business of entertainment during opening times that may differ from public venues. As a contained cultural space, the nightclub is a venue in which music and alternative night-time identities play central roles, providing a sense of escape from the everyday.

For the entire period of state socialism in Czechoslovakia, the authorities viewed all cultural – and especially musical – influences from the West as suspicious if not downright dangerous. Popular new Western music was generally condemned and banned and its fans were sometimes even persecuted. In contrast, disco music was received positively by musicians and critics. Moreover, from the time it was first heard in Czechoslovak discos, it was tolerated by the authorities, who saw it as a kind of controlled diversion with an educational purpose.
In this chapter, I set out to show why disco was so readily accepted by the authorities and Czechoslovak society alike and what its role was in the late socialist period. At the same time, I explore the meanings that disco took on and how they were negotiated among the authorities, musicians and young, enthusiastic crowds of dancers and listeners.

The expansion of electronic music and long-hour dance parties hours has been a very prominent cultural phenomenon as the century changed. Different studies have referred to these dance practices and their different scenes. However, the DJ / musician, with his/her successive transformations during the process of social legitimation of electronic dance music, is rarely problematized. This paper intends to make an approach to the different moments that the musician/DJ went through, since his/her appearance in the local context as music selector and disc jockey to the recognition as an artist and his/her incorporation in the space of music production.