A Disco Dialectic?

I've had this blog for a long time now and was so stunned by how feng shui my first post was that I just couldn't bring myself to add anything. Perhaps it's finally time to ruin the balance I had so painstakingly achieved.

Those Graduate Students in Music at the CUNY Graduate Center generously invited me to submit a paper for everyone to discuss at the upcoming conference, Locating American Popular Music: Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality, to be held on May 14th. We'll have the opportunity to work with Maureen Mahon, and two of my peers, Amanda Cannata and Alex W. Rodriguez, have submitted papers that I'm looking forward to reading. Please join us!

My paper is entitled "A Disco Dialectic: Changing Imaginaries in Physical Places and Virtual Spaces, 2007-2010," and it's based on some conversations I had with the great guy and talented blogger, Carlos Reyes. Check out his blog at clubfonograma.com.

The paper will discuss a handful of the many, many songs Carlos has so thoughtfully reviewed, and I've attached links for these here (in the order in which they appear in my paper). You'll find them downright danceable, with or without a well-developed understanding of a disco dialectic.

Teleradio Donoso
Teleradio Donoso
Os Mutantes
She's a Tease
Disco Ruido
Javiera Mena
Calle 13
Celso Piña
Adrianigual
Nortec Collective

For a less dialectical approach, consider the gainfully employed Steve Dahl: