single-phile: Take a Ride on the Disco Shtick

"LoveGame" finds Gaga dipping further into club territory than ever before: lots of echo effects, a relentless beat and a looping structure that makes it feel like it's going to continue indefinitely. On top of that are thinly veiled barely-euphemisms like "I want to take a ride on your disco stick." And the Lady Gaga style -- let's call it the Disco Stick Effect, or perhaps the Disco Shtick? -- is catching.

Also climbing the charts this week is the Pussycat Dolls remix "Hush Hush; Hush Hush," a song that evolves from the initial rather abysmal slow-jam opener (is it just me, or has Nicole been gratingly over-pronouncing her lyrics even more since she became "Featuring Nicole Scherzinger?") to a frenetically fierce club jam to a mini-cover of "I Will Survive."

Like the PCD, the Gossip are also ready to get on the floor and dance some more. Their four-infectiously-on-the-floor single "Heavy Cross" is only out disco-fied by its fabulously gold lame-themed video:

And then we have Kristinia DeBarge, whose "Goodbye" bites Steam's late '60s hit "Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" and sounds more like present-day Rihanna than Lady Gaga. BUT she is the daughter of James DeBarge, of late '70s/early '80s pop-soul, post-disco act DeBarge. OK, so that one's a reach, but even Rihanna is (maybe?) getting in on the disco schtick, with a new single, "Silly Boy," that (might?) feature Lady Gaga.

If you listen to the critics, this new (renewed?) penchant for relentless dance beats, a long-play-conducive cyclical aesthetic and two-snaps-and-a-fierce attitude has arrived just in time for a little much-needed diversion from the crappy economy and all our problems. The Guardian labeled Lady Gaga's album "not particularly clever" but sure to be big, while Entertainment Weekly described it as "high-times escapism" that suits the national mood. (And it goes without saying that the Dolls will get slammed for similar reasons.).

It's a compelling analysis -- and a familiar one. Similar proclamations (and worse) were made about disco the first time around: it was portrayed as mindless, relentless, escapist and interested only in self-serving fun, versus "serious" music or politics, for instance. And why? Among other more insidious (and often racist) accusations, disco's biggest crime seemed to be that it hinged on a pervasive beat that one felt compelled to dance to -- a beat that was associated with everything from inauthenticity to a mind-numbing device of capitalism.

The "disco sucks!" mindset proved overly simplistic then: many people (and in particular queer people and people of color) found opportunities for creativity, community and even power on the disco dancefloor -- which, after all, was only "inauthentic" compared to a subjective definition of rock. I wonder if the same is true now. Like the original dancing queens, Lady Gaga and her fellow disco schtickers are divas who have close associations with gay culture: "Hush Hush; Hush Hush" was made for a drag queen routine (and, come on, the Dolls themselves -- like all burlesquers -- are pretty much female drag queens). And I don't know about you, but when I hear "LoveGame," visions of shirtless, sweaty, sexy gay men dance in my head (which might explain why Gaga has a huge gay following. Well, that and her whacked-out, fiercer than Rupaul's Drag Race fashion).

I don't want to go as far as saying that people doubt or disparage the neo-divas for homophobic reasons. But at the very least, we need to stop and reconsider why we so often immediately add "four on the floor" to diva and come up with "mindless." "Just Dance" isn't necessarily synonymous with "just stop thinking."