Nile Rodgers On His Disco Roots and Taylor Swift
“An icon is someone who has a massive effect on the culture to an extent that things are one way before they exist and it's another way after,” says Nile Rodgers.
A legendary musician, songwriter, and producer in his own right, Rodgers helped usher in the disco era with his seminal band, Chic, which he cofounded with bassist Bernard Edwards in 1976 after experiencing the genre firsthand at a nightclub in New York. “Here were all these different people—gay, Black, Asian—partying in complete harmony," says Rodgers. “From that moment on, that was the community I wanted to belong to." He continues, "That's what Taylor Swift has. That's what Beyoncé has. That's what Bruno Mars has. All big artists have this huge community of people that are not necessarily of like minds, but they come together to listen to their music."
After releasing a series of smash hits with Chic, including the oft-sampled “Good Times” and “Le Freak,” Rodgers went on to cowrite Sister Sledge’s 1979 breakout hit “We Are Family.” After that, Rodgers, now a Songwriters Hall of Fame Inductee and multi-Grammy Award winner, went on to collaborate in all kinds of groundbreaking ways with the likes of Diana Ross (“I’m Coming Out”), David Bowie (“Let’s Dance”), Madonna (“Like a Virgin”), and, more recently, Daft Punk (“Get Lucky”) and Beyoncé (“Cuff It”). "95 percent of the recordings I've done happened because I casually met a person, liked them, and said, 'hey, let's do music together,'" he says. “The thing that's really wonderful is that I always learn from the people that I'm working with."
For our Icons issue, Rodgers curated a playlist that includes Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” and Bowie’s “Let’s Dance,” as well as John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme (Part I).” Rodgers, whose first obsession was jazz, says when he first heard the Coltrane song, “I felt like I was losing my virginity. I was enthralled; it was like I was floating.”
Listen to Nile Rodgers's playlist exclusively on Apple Music.
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