CA(SA) - A Changing World Personified In The Anthem of The Late Seventies.

Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive (Saturday Night Fever) - check this out: BEE GEES 

I loved this song, I loved John T, I loved this era. The late seventies was a rebirth of dance, specifically the disco dance. This is the anthem of the era. I think every 20-something male aspired to be JT, the super cool dude that the girls all loved. 

For me this was a turning point in the world as I knew it. Where the Beatles took the world in one direction, the Saturday Night Fever disco vibe took it in another. But there was a difference - reflected in the movie theme and it's message. Whereby Beatle Mania revealed the power of the youth to change the world, abandon old dusty conventions and burst into an exciting uninhibited self-expression, the disco era was flatly hedonistic. Watching the movie again, I am reminded of the vacuous emptiness of times. It tells a story of a swanking, strutting Italian stud (John Travolta) who rebels against a conventional career (a salesman in a paint shop) to become a disco dancer. The setting of the movie is New York low end - kids from a middle low class precinct - all white. JT has no interest in a career - he just wants to party and he knows how to do that well. 

The message of the movie? Party, party, party - and who cares about a career. And I loved it. I partied a lot - most nights well into the early hours, work or not! So here's the contrast: My 16 year old daughter is passionate about a group called BTS. They hail from South Korea and their music genre is termed 'K-Pop'. They are a dance group - brilliantly co-ordinated presentation couched in not-too-bad house dance. 

But here is the difference - she connects with the dedication and commitment that these kids put into their career. The emphasis is on discipline and hard work. The message is a clear claim that success comes from very hard work, a total commitment and nothing but the best. She looks at these young dancers as hero's of this cause - ethics and values! My daughter is a Z-Geno. And I like their ethos! 

Back to Saturday Night Fever. 

The movie displayed a young man with an exceptional talent. JT was an incredible dancer and a superb athlete. He must have trained with immense dedication and commitment. And yet the movie's message was devoid of anything grand although all the ingredients were there. The thing is in JT's 'real life' he was an incredible person. Disciplined, passionate, committed. Great values. This was proved to be more than real as he rose to be one of the greatest stars ever to come out of the movie industry (and my very favourite dude). The movie missed a very strong and powerful message of 'zero-to-hero'. It was there but more as an undercurrent than a statement. 

What I am alluding to here is that there seems to be something different emerging in the young generation that was not in mine.It seems that there is a reversion to basic human values of hard work and commitment, a knowing that greatness comes from dedication. The profoundness of this cannot be more clearly displayed in the world we live in. The generation that emerged out of the Saturday Night Fever ideology has created the world we live in right now. It's values and ethos is diseased. On the other hand the Z-Geno seems substantially different in there values and principles. Can we conclude that we therefore must be going into a different world - a much better world? 

I think so! 

(Originally Published on December 6, 2017)