Synopsis of Pop Music

"Macho, Macho Man,
I want to be a Macho Man..."

Disco was a musical style that encouraged performers to be outrageous, but few took it as far as the ultra-colorful Village People. This vocal group skewered macho stereotypes by dressing in traditional masculine attire and performing choreographed routines while singing about the joys of being a “Macho Man.” Their campy, Hollywood-Musical-derived sense of style made them an international success in the late 70’s and they scored several disco hits that remain popular with clubgoers today.

The Village People were the brainchild of a French disco producer, Jacques Morali. After seeing men dressed in costumes at the discotheque, he realized a disco group consisting of such costumed men could be a hit. Morali auditioned several actors, dancers and singers to play the colorful figures he envisioned and hired songwriters Phil Hurtt and Peter Whitehead to compose appropriate, mock-macho material for the group to perform.

The group’s first single, “San Francisco You’ve Got Me,” became a club favorite and a British hit in 1977, but The Village People made their real breakthrough with “Macho Man.” This energetic dance song featured lead singer Victor Willis, ‘The Cop,’ describing the attributes of the perfect he-man over a percolating mixture of percussion, horns and thumping bass. He was backed up by a gruffly-vocalized chorus that chanted rhythmically in the background. The song sold a million copies as a single and drove its parent album, Cruisin’, into the Top-5 area of the album charts. Meanwhile, the group became a popular attraction on television variety and talk shows for their elaborate song-and-dance routines.

1979 was the biggest year yet for the Village People. They scored their all-time biggest hit in the form of “Y.M.C.A.,” another horn-driven disco smash that celebrated the titular meeting place for macho men. The band promoted the song with a dance routine that featured hand-signals that illustrated the letters of the title. This caught on at discos around the world and has since become a part of pop-culture folklore. Anytime the song is played on a dance floor, it’s a safe bet that several people will do the “Y.M.C.A.” hand-signals.

The Village People followed this success with the #3 hit single “In The Navy,” a tribute to their favorite branch of the armed forces. It featured the familiar bass, percussion and horns combination behind their other hits but also had a unique hook in its use of handclaps to punctuate the line “We want you/we want you/we want you as a new recruit.” In 1980, the villagers starred in their own feature film musical, Can’t Stop The Music, which told a humorous, fictionalized version of their story and featured elaborate production numbers built around their greatest hits.

The Village People tackled new wave and experimented with a new, futuristic-dandy image on their next album, Renaissance. However, they soon returned to their original macho-costumes image and hit the tour circuit. Since then, they have remained an in-demand tour attraction around the world. Their hit songs remain as popular as ever today and are frequently used in films like Wayne’s World II, Addams Family Values and In And Out. Their continued popularity makes it clear that this band of colorful rogues will be ‘shaking their groove thing’ for a long, long time.

Artist Release History

1977 - Village People
1978 - Cruisin'
1978 - Macho Man
1979 - Go West
1979 - Live and Sleazy
1981 - Renaissance
1988 - Greatest Hits (compilation)
1994 - Live and Sleazy
1994 - The Best of the Village People (compilation)
1999 - We Want You: Ultimate Collection (compilation)

Pop Sub Categories

pop
r&b

Essential Music Albums

Best of the Village People (Casablanca)

Band Members

Victor Willis / The Cop (1977-80) lead vocals
Ray Simpson / The Cop (1980- ) lead vocals
Felipe Rose / The Indian vocals
David Hodo / The Construction Worker vocals
Randy Jones / The Cowboy vocals
Alex Briley / The Sailor vocals
Glenn Hughes / The Biker vocals

Other Pop Music Links