G Is for Genres
Arthur and Lance traveled the land, challenging different performers to battles of song, dance, and poetry. The disco duo defeated every opponent, but always with grace and good will. In the process, they united several clubs dedicated to various styles of performance. Thus, the Peace of Genres.
This dealt the Man a significant blow. The Man is all about control, and one of the Man’s most effective tools for maintaining that control is dividing people against each other. As a result, the Man encourages classism, racism, religious triumphalism, et cetera. Anything that some people can latch onto in order to rationalize feelings of superiority serves the Man’s purposes.
One of the Man’s early triumphs came about shortly after the birth of jazz and the blues. The Man planted seeds of suspicion among whites, especially in the South. Jazz and the blues weren’t music for respectable people, the Man hinted. It was fine for those people, but those people needed to keep themselves and their music in their place. As the blues evolved into rock, the seeds of suspicion were sown anew. The same happened when hip hop started to move from the streets to the airwaves.
In a seeming contradiction, the Man also lured artists into the mainstream. This way, those inclined to ignore or rebel against the Man’s insinuations could be lulled into thinking that these mainstream artists (frequently referred to as “sell-outs” by those in the know) somehow represented an authentic musical voice. Along with the mainstream came the merchandising, the carefully controlled messages, and further divisions.
Arthur and Lance achieved something important with the Peace of Genres. People still have their musical preferences. Arthur and Lance remain devoted disco darlings. The crowded clubs in the Land of Funk still thrum with groovy bass lines. Cowboys still two-step in honky tonks, and long-haired head bangers thrash in mosh pits.
But gone is much of the hostility. In its place is an appreciation for artistry and a common desire to get down. Tex Rhinestone, manager of the Texas Twister, still thinks disco sucks, but he also knows that “Disco sucks!” are words put into the people’s mouths by the Man.
“United we dance! Divided we fall!”
