This single song from 1979, with its breathy vocal and famous bassline, spawned a ton of homages/imitations (“Rapper’s Delight,” by the Sugar Hill Gang, “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen, “Rapture” by Blondie, “The Magnificent Seven” by The Clash…) and justifiably can be credited for helping launch a whole new genre of music in the 20th century.
A little history: Chic was the brainchild of guitarist/producer Nile Rodgers and bassist/producer Bernard Edwards. The two originally started out in a backing band for a short-lived R&B vocal group called New York City before founding their own funk-rock band, The Boys, which also fell apart after countless record companies told them they had no idea how to market a "black rock" album.
Soon after the breakup of New York City in the middle of the band’s tour of England, Rodgers was taken to a Roxy Music show in London by his girlfriend. Although he didn’t know much about Brian Ferry or the band, he was impressed by the total, cohesive experience of the show: the band members were dressed in high-fashion clothes, the concertgoers were dressed to match the band, and it was all taking place in a venue called The Roxy, to boot.
Then, after the duo's failed attempt at funk-rock, Rodgers and Edwards began looking to a new kind of dance music that they were hearing in lower Manhattan clubs in the mid-70s. It was completely rhythm-driven and seemed to celebrate a kind of escapism that fit well with the high-fashion vibe Rodgers had witnessed at the Roxy Music show.
The name “Chic” was chosen because it encompassed that high-class aesthetic (and because they felt it sounded French and, therefore, cool).
As Rodgers recounted during a talk at the International Music Summit in Ibiza, 2012, neither he nor Edwards wanted to be stars; they simply wanted their music to be heard. After all, they'd been backing musicians their entire careers.
“We knew we didn’t have the charisma to be front people,” said Rodgers. “So when we put Chic together, we did this faceless thing. It was a concept. [Chic was] the vessel for our compositions.”
Rodgers got confirmation that the concept might actually be successful after attending a KISS show where he met the band’s former lead guitarist, Ace Frehley. In the 2013 BBC documentary The Hitmaker, Rodgers recounts meeting Frehley for a drink just after the show. Frehley had already removed his elaborate kabuki stage makeup, which rendered him completely unrecognizable to fans.
“Nobody knew that I was talking to Ace Frehley,” said Rodgers. “We’re standing there, we’re just talking. Meanwhile, the crowd was going crazy for him, 20 minutes ago.”
After that experience, he and Edwards knew that they could kind of disappear into the “Chic mystique” that they had created, even when they were racking up hit after hit, and still lead fairly anonymous lives. Which suited them fine.
It's kind of interesting that, although Rodgers and Edwards took creative cues from what came to be labeled disco music, they never saw Chic as a "disco band," per se, but as an R&B band whose music got heavy rotation in discos.
However you want to classify Chic, though, Edwards's singular, supple bass sound and Rodgers's wrist-snapping guitar licks, which are as influenced by gut bucket Southern boogie as they are by sophisticated urban jazz, created a whole new thing in music in the late 70s. In fact, it was almost like a new musical language that set the stage for everyone from graffiti artists to b-boys and b-girls to burst into the mainstream, circa 1980-1984.
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