CHATTER AWAY: Overnight Open Thread

Noting that her only disco album, released in 1979, was one of her rare flops, Billboard Magazine weighs in on Aretha Franklin’s influence on house music:

House music was just beginning its rise in the late ’70s and early ’80s, getting play at soon-to-be iconic venues like The Loft and Paradise Garage in Manhattan and The Warehouse in Chicago.

It was in these clubs where producers — many of them young, black, gay and raised on church music — were forming the house sound, using emerging synth and drum machine technology to create the tracks and beat patterns that served as house music’s skeletal structure.

DJs like David Mancuso, Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles didn’t sing, but they had deep and impeccable taste and access to technology that allowed them to remix tracks by almost any recorded artist. Given the choice, they went with the best: Aretha.

You’ll likely enjoy the full article.