The Sylvers' 1976 Hit Song "Boogie Fever" And YouTube Comments About Big Afros & "Dead" Audiences

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post provides a compilation of comments about big afros (hairstyles) and "dead" audiences on a YouTube discussion thread about The Sylvers' 1976 Midnight Special television show performance of their hit song "Boogie Fever".

Information about the "Boogie fever" song is included in this post.

The Addendum to this post contains my comment about racial differences in audience etiquette.

The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the composers of "Boogie Fever" and thanks to The Sylvers for their musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.
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This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on Black hair styles. Click the "afros" tag and the "Black hair styles" tag for other posts in this series.
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I've decided to publish a separate post on racial differences in audience etiquette. Here's the link to that pancocojams post: http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/01/racial-differences-in-audience-etiquette.html Racial Differences In Audience Etiquette

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SHOWCASE VIDEO: The Sylvers - Boogie Fever (Midnight Special 1976)



thepaak786, Published on Nov 8, 2009

The Sylvers Perform "Boogie Fever" on The Midnight Special In 1976.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE R&B SONG "BOOGIE FEVER"
From https://genius.com/The-sylvers-boogie-fever-lyrics

“Boogie Fever” is a single on The Sylvers‘ fourth album Showcase.

“Boogie Fever” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a week in May 1976 and Billboard’s Hot Soul Singles chart in March of 1976.

It also topped the RPM charts in Canada and was also certified Gold.
-snip-
The song's lyrics are also found on that page.

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From
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogie_Fever https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogie_Fever
..."Billboard ranked it [the song "Boogie Fever"] as the No. 20 song for 1976. "Boogie Fever" is one of two gold records by the Sylvers, the other being "Hot Line".

[...]

The song was featured in the Stephen King miniseries The Stand (1994) and the feature film Roll Bounce (2005). In 2010, "Boogie Fever" was briefly used in a scene in Despicable Me, and in 2012 it was used in its theme park attraction adaptation, Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. The song has also appeared in TV ads for Intel Pentium II, Old Navy and Little Caesars Pizza. An instrumental version was also music for level 1 and level 9 of the game Frantic Freddie.”…

[...]

Songwriter(s) Freddie Perren, Kenneth St. Lewis"...
-snip-
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sylvers
for an article about The Sylvers.

Note: "Boogie" is an African American Vernacular English term that means "to dance".

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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THIS VIDEO'S DISCUSSION THREAD
These selected comments are divided into two sections: "Comments about The Sylvers' afro hairstyle" and "Comments about the audience at this televised performance of The Slyvers' performing "Boogie Fever".

These comments are given in chronological order by year with the oldest comments given first, except for responses. The comments in each section are numbered for referencing purposes only.

Notice that some of these comments address both of these section topics.
I've added my own comments after a few of the comments about afros. I've also added a comment after the section about that particular television audience's lack of response during that "Boogie Fever" performance.

SECTION I- COMMENTS ABOUT THE GROUPS' AFROS
2010
1. parisel313
"silly froes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

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REPLY
2. mslegacy01
"@parisel313 Silly 'fro's?!??? WHAT was SO silly about 'em!?! Those boys had some of the BIGGEST, BADDEST most beautiful and healthy fro's around! I'd LOVE to stop relaxing my hair (as a woman) and wear my hair PROUDLY in a 'FRO!

Tell me you're NOT black making that stupid comment"

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2011
3. charlesw62
"WOW! I remember when my afro was that big!!! LOL"

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4. TheRealCritique
"I think this wins the all-time afro competition...big, and seriously well-rounded and even. I can't imagine what that looks like after you sleep on it."
-snip-
While my 'fro was never that big, I had what I would consider a "medium size afro". Usually at night I adhered to the common custom of plaiting my hair into several braids*. The next morning I took out the braids and picked (combed my hair using a wide tooth afro pic). Braiding my hair and then "picking it" helped to de-tangle the tightly curled hair coils, resulting in a wider look. While I picked my hair, I would pat it down to achieve the round look (that I call a "halo look") that was popular in the 1970s. A much more wind-spread, any shape or no shape natural ("afro") look is much more popular now, if that look can even be termed an "afro".

*This wasn't a hair style that was usually worn in public. This hair style wasn't cornrolls that Black females have worn forever, and wasn't the micro braids hairstyles that Black females wear nowadays.

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5. Oakbluffsdiva
"Boy those fro's were picked to perfection!!! Foster was my boyfriend when Michael J. wouldn't act right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lolllllllllll"
-snip-
“picked to perfection” = The comb used for “afros” was called an “afro pic”. "Picked to perfection" means combing out your hair (combing the tightly coiled strands of hair which probably had been braided overnight)* with an afro pic) until it achieved its desired round shape.

*Read the note that I wrote after comment #4 above.

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6. InfinityNebula Heaven
"BLACK PPL NEED TO GO BACK TO THE PPL THEY REALLY WERE BEGINNING WITH THE BEAUTIFUL AFROS AND STOP ASSIMILATING INTO WHITE CULTURE THAT WATERS DOWN WHO BLACK PPL ARE AS A WHOLE
THE BEGINNING OF BLACK DOWNFALL IN AMERICA BEGAN WHEN THEY ASSIMILATED AND BEGAN TO BE ASHAMED TO BE BLACK CUTTING THE BEAUTIFUL AFRO AND STRAITENING THE HAIR LIKE EURO'S"
PEACE!

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7. vinyl45junkie
" I took my baby to the DRIVE IN show" What a great time era! Drive in's, fashion, hair,(great afro's,purfectly round) and the music just awsome !

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2012
8. DARLENE THERATLADY
"Back in the days of the natural fro"

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9. Calvin Roach
"Now those are Afro's!"

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10. mrsfifties
"blows my mind when i c how all the guys have the same afro look,, im not knockin them by any means,they were very good, funny how u notice things like tht now"

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2013
11. BerlinFan82
"Some serious 'fros."

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12. BALD ETTA
"THE SYLVER'S HAD THE GREATEST FROS OF ALL TIME!"

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13. creativechic92
"This is so AFROTASTIC!!"

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14. discolady2
"like the afros every body getting back n2 their afros again i'm glad didn't need that perm noway ."
-snip-
"n2"= into

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15. Karmadog
"If only their hair were a bit bigger, they'd be perfect! :)"

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2014
16. Calvin Dunn
"The guys were my "hair idols" back in the 70's..LOL I saw them live in Oakland Cal. After that - I had one of the biggest afros in high school. Lol Whats amazing to me is they sound perfect, and their harmonies are excellent - even while doing dance steps. There's no groups or bands out there today that can sound that good live or in studio."

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17. Jeff Cobb
"Lordy, those fros ain't no joke!"

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18. Marcela Buggin'
"Ooh, them 'fros. Got a sista swoonin' over here!"

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19. troysvisualarts
"Always been a fan of this super disco group and this great dance groove classic, makes me wanna get down!!! :D Man these guys had the biggest baddest finest frizzed afro hairdos of any disco/funk group of that era, I bet they invested a good portion of their income on Afro Sheen to maintain those fros! ;)"
-snip-
"Afro Sheen" the brand name for very popular hair care products for Black Americans' hair. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/06/eleven-non-racist-product-commercials.html for two 1970s Afro-Sheen commercials. Another hair care commercial from is featured in that post is for Ultra-Sheen, a rival Black hair care brand.

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20. OrchidIslander
"I grew up back in the day dancing to the Sylvers. Back then I had a killer "fro" Today my head is shaved because of my hair challenged ancestors and the only place I seem to grow hair is on my back and knuckles. Life is still good....boogie fever baby!"

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2015
21. Wildman
"Those Afro's are Bad Ass..Love Em..."

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22. zigzagbigbag
"If I could grow an afro like that I'd do it in a heartbeat. Alas.... I'm white. :("

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REPLY
23. Chris Simpson
"+zigzagbigbag Are you Jewish? There might still be hope! #jewfro"

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REPLY
24. pup lover
"+Chris Simpson LOL"

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REPLY
25. a j
"zigzagbigbag Back in the late 60s, Eric Clapton had a killer 'fro! :D"

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26. William Gibbs
"Huge afros rock. What a great era."

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27. Motoroil
"Those fros had their own zip code!"

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28. Hozaak Labias
"I always wanted to have a afro but I'm native American"

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29. Elizabeth Roberto
"this is a "GOOD" song & the singer is "REAL CUTE" & i do like "The Sylvers!" but that HAIR makes them look like Q-tips Heads! lol do people even wear their hair like that anymore? it would be "VERY ODD LOOKING" if they did. -_- _"

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2016
30. FancyPants69
"Great live performance of this song....Foster Sylvers was so damn cute.....RIP Edmund Sylvers....During a time when anybody that had a Big Afro was considered fine as all get out!!!"
-snip-
Edmund Sylvers is the lead singer for "Boogie Fever".

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2017
31. Jose Martínez
"What the hell that hair😘😘😱😱😱😱"

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32. rafterscott
"The 'Fro seriously needs to make a comeback."
-snip-
The rounded natural hair style (big, medium, or short) is largely out of style. However, the "unstyled", non-descriptive shaped "natural", particularly big unstyled "naturals" are "in". Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-changing-shape-of-womens-afro-hair.html The Changing Shape Of Women's Afro Hair Styles (with January 2018 Update) for video examples of these Black natural hairstyles and video examples of the older "afro" hair styles.

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33. jjj ddd
"I miss seeing fros and Bell bottomms"
-snip-
"bell bottoms [pants] = pants that flared out toward their bottoms

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34. dennis tate
"Awesome song
There fros are dope!"
-snip-
"Dope"= an African American Vernacular English term meaning "very good".

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2018
35. brandon stewart
"I LOVE THESE AFROS OMG."

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36. Rich Lo
"The bigger the fro the better"

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SECTION II- COMMENTS ABOUT THIS TELEVISION SHOW'S AUDIENCE
1. OldskolFan, 2009
"Audience is too sedated. I was 10 when I saw them perform this and I was standing on the chair screaming. I guess it was not their kind er musiq?"

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2. thediva3BC, 2010
"It's cracking me up how this audience is subdued and then watch the same performance on soul train and the audience is PARTYIN'"
-snip-
Soul Train was a long running [from October 2, 1971 to March 27, 2006], iconic dance series that mostly targeted Black Americans. The series was "created by Don Cornelius, who also served as its first host and executive producer." Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Train for information about Soul Train.

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2011
3. memdiva
"That choreography is sooooo amazing! They really got down up there! I cant believe the crowd was just sitting there. How can you just sit there amd stare and something like that and not dance? I would have caught the boogie fever right along with the sylvers!"

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4. Yabbadabbawhat100
"@949galaxy I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing the audience was told to stay seated by the director. It's the only explanation I can think of for people quietly sitting through a killer performance like that. :-)"
-snip-
I didn't see an comment by someone with that name. "memdiva" could have changed her name from @949galaxy or someone else could have dropped that screen name for another name.

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5. NanTheGoldChild
"That damn audience needed life support, wth?? That was a live ass boogie down performance if I ever saw one!!! Sylvers Forever!!!"

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REPLY
6. eniebabe44
"@Nanadsyl ..unfortunalely that was the Midnight Special Audience for a while..they would just sit there and then applaud at the end...the show got on my nerves because people are performing their asses off and the audience just sits there...the producers of the show must have been out of the minds or maybe they were hungover...lol"

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7. Mama Nuveau
"@Nina513 Yeah, but that audience WAS mostly white, even though they were on The Midnight Special show, which was supposed to be so hip and cool with all that acts they showcased. That audience WAS pitiful...dead, dead, dead! They could've at least had some cues for the audience to get hype like they do now...but that was then...Ed Sullivan's audiences were much more lively, it seemed."

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8. jonathan taylor
"They're on the stage rocking and everyone's just sitting there like it's a black and white movie. Come on crowd show some emotion. Sing along, clap your hands, something."

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9. Mucupuru
"whats wrong with the audience ? they will never be infected with the boogie fever !"

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2012

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2013
10. Scott O'Mary
"The funniest part of this clip is not the afro's or the clothes, but the audience full of stiff white people"

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11. T Conte
"That audience was about the unboogiest audience of all time. Stiff as boards, except for a few. How could they remain so still with this funkiness?"

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REPLY
12. pchelloo
"Yeah...I agree......must've been in Russia or Korea maybe? True Sylvers fan here"

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13. 67johnnyjoe
"Great song, great LIVE singing and dancing! Today's groups couldn't perform this. But can't believe the audience wasn't up and dancing!"

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14. Silver Jag
"You can see this was the transitional period between rock music and disco for MNS because you have a disco/dance group performing but the audience is still sitting in chairs just watching."
-snip-
"MNS" = Midnight Special television series

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REPLY
15. typo368
"probably all stoned!!! :)"
-snip-
"stoned" = " on 'recreational' (illegal) drugs

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16. David Huff
"what's wrong with the crowd? sitting on hands."

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17. RockWithYu
"Man, that is the DEADEST crowd…it's like they're performing inside a morgue…"

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2014
18. Jez Parish
"Check out the drummer - looks as bored as hell. Are the audience all dead????"

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REPLY
19. CaneFu
"Are the audience all dead?"...NO, it's called 'watching and appreciating' the performance"

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REPLY
20. Jez Parish
"Really? How the hell could you tell? lol"

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REPLY
21. elijah jackson
"+CaneFu They're in Japan?"

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22. jmusic45
"That's a dead looking audience. I don't even see but one person nodding their head,"

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2015
23. BigMTBrain
"WHOA!?!?! Why such a DEAD audience?!?

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2016
24. Jim Bilbrey
"yeah the audience looks like a bunch of Deadbeats. but if that had been a soul train audience. with Don Cornelius they would be getting down"

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25. Carl Trascher
"[profanity abbreviation deleted] is wrong with the audience?"

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REPLY
26. RayNDeere
"A lot of times they brought in crowds for long tapings. They may have several acts perform their set for later performances. But early on they did tell the crowds not to dance."

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2017
27. gabstanace2
"It should be a federal crime not to dance to that song!"

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2018
28. tanya ms80sfreak
"I'm dancing right now how can the audience be superglued to their seats"

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29. spiff2268
"1. The audience was quiet because the bands actually played live and the producers wanted to get the best recordings possible.

2. Black people, bring back them 'fros! They were awesome!"

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30. Jerry Jazzbo
"The audience was on qualludes."

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ADDENDUM: RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN AUDIENCE ETIQUETTE
It's possible that the audience for this Midnight Special television show featuring The Sylvers' performance of "Boogie Night" -and other Midnight Special shows were instructed to be silent and stay in their seats without clapping or moving during the show's taping.

However, I believe that there are core differences in audience etiquette during performances or other cultural events (including religious events) between African Americans and White Americans, and between some other racial populations. I have experienced these cultural differences and have read about them online, including in some YouTube discussion threads of other videos (and especially pre-1980s videos) of African American performances in front of White audiences or majority White audiences in the United States and in Europe.

Generally speaking, African Americans' audience etiquette is rooted in Black African traditions where people are expected to demonstrate their appreciation-or lack of appreciation for performances- during and not just after those performances. In so doing, audiences give energy to the performers and are active participants in those performances. This active, expressive audience behavior has been found and continues to be found during religious events such as certain but not all Black denominations' church services and during certain non-religious cultural performances such as some musical concerts, plays, spoken word events, and rallies.

Here are some verbal examples and physical examples of active expressive audience behavior during performances and/or other non-religious or religious cultural events:

Verbal
-shouting approval exclamations such as "Amen!", "Go 'head!", "Do it!", "Yeah!" [Note that disapproval exclamations may also be shouted]
-speaking on command in "response" to a performer's "call"

Physical
-nodding your head in time with the song
-clapping hands along with a song
-raising your hand (and/or waving your hand) while seated or standing up
-raising both hands (and/or waving both hands)
-standing up
-singing along
-dancing

Historical accounts of English theatre audiences attending Shakespearean plays and other plays of that time document that those audiences demonstrated some of these active, expressive audience behaviors, and more. However, eventually the White European norm developed in which the audience was-and largely still is- expected to be silent and still during cultural performances, i.e. audiences were and are expected to be inactive and non-expressive during performances and other cultural events.

I've experienced how people are sometimes not sure which audience etiquette standards they should follow when there are integrated audiences for cultural events in the United States. This particularly occurred at "downtown" events when audiences consist of a large number of African Americans and also a considerable number of White Americans. One example that comes to mind was during a Drum Line performance that I attended that was staged by an African American ensemble. In addition to playing drums as if they were part of a drum & bugle corp drum line, the ensemble sang and danced to old & current Black songs. Because this performance was held in a downtown concert venue, and because there were so many White folks there, I believe that Black folks' expressive responses to the show was far less than it would have been if the performance had been held in a Black community venue and if there were no White people or fewer White people in attendance.

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