I'm old enough to remember cheering when that DJ blew up the disco records at the baseball field in Chicago, back in the late 1970s.

Yes, I hated disco back then. Yes, race was involved. But no, it's not what the anti-rockist diatribes say. I didn't dislike disco because the performers were Black. I disliked disco because it stood in stark contrast to Black music I knew that was more vital and interesting to me. If you grew up with James Brown and the Temptations and the Supremes, disco is going to be a letdown. One of the things wrong with disco was that it was not Funkadelic.

I've mellowed a bit towards disco over the years. At least KC and the Sunshine Band wrote their own material and actually played their instruments.

Remember when we had so little else to worry about, that gangsta rap lyrics became a moral panic? The violence against law enforcement! The misogyny!

My interest was piqued. I turned to the performances themselves. Unfortunately, they were far less rousing than the publicity had led me to believe.

The unachievability of authenticity does not make all poses equal, either.