Don't miss the accompanying Spotify playlist of the genre with no name.

The article mentions how MTV didn't play Black music in the early years. Fun fact: the first rap video played on MTV was by Blondie in 1981. It wasn't until 1984 that the first rap / hip hop video by a Black artist appeared on MTV, Rock Box by Run-DMC — they were able to crossover because they rapped over a rock beat instead of a hip hop one.

Ok, perhaps this shouldn't have been a Quick Link. Still thinking about this paragraph:

The early 1980s for Black artists were not a blissful respite from the eyes and ears of culture vultures, a safe space, like the proverbial barbecue, with no one there but the fam and perhaps a white friend or two ... maybe Teena, or Bobby, or Darryl & John. This wasn't some act of creative choice. This was a sonic apartheid coordinated by record executives, radio programmers, artist managers, and promoters. "Not pop" or "too Black" were their perennial, weekly, daily mantras. It rendered a tilted marketplace in which white artists did not have to compete with Black artists for eyes and ears. It was, in effect, nothing short of racketeering.

Really well-written and eye-opening article. I was in my twenties in the late 70's and early 80's, and as my main musical interests were rock and jazz-oriented, I was not a fan of disco. Howevah! I lived and worked in the D.C. area in the early 80's, and had a lot of exposure to the "nameless" genre the author describes...and it was very good.

On a related but somewhat random note, I heard "Play That Funky Music White Boy" in the grocery store today, and was kind of, um, enjoying it. All that says to me is that any music that takes you back to your 20's is allllll right.

Super curious why the author considers R&B like a predecessor to disco, when R&B was still going, still transforming throughout the 80s and 90s and beyond. To me, this all fits under the R&B umbrella.