On its thirtieth anniversary (boy, does that make me feel old) John Derbyshire has a long review of Saturday Night Fever.

I learned a lot about it that I hadn't known before. But then, I've never seen the movie, for two reasons. First, it had John Travolta in it. Second, it was chock full of disco, which I've long thought a tool of the devil, and did at the time. Like rap, I've never had much interest in music in which the drums (and occasionally bass) carried the melody. Also, as many have since noted, it destroyed vibrancy of the club scene for years, when it was a lot easier and cheaper to hire a deejay with his disco records than a live band. And because
of that, despite his rave review, I think I'll continue to remain an SNF virgin.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here's an endorsement:

Disco--favorite music of the deaf!

Quite true. In the second half of the 70's I put myself through college working as a certified sign lanugage interpreter for the deaf at a small community college and alter at several universities. I had a lot of deaf friends - and roomates. Contrary to what a lot of people think, most "deaf" people can hear some sound. But all "hear" through their skin and bones. As such, Disco music with that regular pulsing beat was VERY popular among these folks - especially with the bass on the stereo set to 'high'.

I once dated a woman who adored the BeeGees. It was, thankfully, not a long relationship.

What on earth is wrong with liking The Bee Gees? Perhaps you prefer them as The Brothers Gibb before they became The Bee Gees?

And three decades for Annie Hall and three decades (coming up) for that space opera flick.

It is scary to think that 60% of the people I work with were not even born when these three came out!

Fred said: ...space opera flick.

That would be Buck Rogers, right? (grin)

Keith,during the 80s I played a place that had a small community of deaf people & they liked us ( Top 40 rock) because a) we were loud & b) because I'm a very flamboyant drummer & they could watch me.

[i]an aside to that,we used to party after the gigs & one night they had a guest & I'd talk to him,then he'd turn to another guy to translate into sign language what I said.I asked "Doesn't he read lips?" & he said "He does,but only in Spanish".I laughed & proceeded to speak Spanish to him[/i]

Rand,there's no reason not to have the bass & drums carry the melody [b]if the tune calls for it[/b],but it's quite a bit more difficult to write a song that way.
I hated disco & hate rap.

CJ: "What on earth is wrong with liking The Bee Gees?"

There's nothing wrong with liking them, except insofar as it reveals tragic character flaws. The main problem is when this manifests itself in playing their music out loud.

CJ: "Perhaps you prefer them as The Brothers Gibb before they became The Bee Gees?"

I'm not familiar with their early work, and have no intention of changing that. It was a tragedy that America had to suffer that falsetto so soon after Vietnam; one disaster after another.

Frantic: I learned sign language directly from deaf people. As such the first sign language class I ever attended was one I was teaching. I had a "deaf accent" (a New English one at that) and my deaf roomates would take me to deaf clubs and pass me off as being deaf and see how long it took before they discovered I was hearing. Sometimes they never did. I did learn to lip read rather well and it is very useful now that my hearing is fading.

The other day the music died.