It’s the first “Discover The Album Cover” of 2025 and boy do we have a special treat for you. In fact this one’s so good I want to include the flip side too 😁
Disco and tacky album covers often go hand in hand, and this one is no exception. A scantily clad woman strikes a pose with lips poised for… well, who knows? Is she dressing or undressing? The scene’s lighting is dreadful, like a rabbit—or in this case, two🐰🐰—caught in the headlights. And what’s with the random parrot? So many questions…
Given that a significant portion of disco’s audience was part of the LGBTQ+ community, it’s puzzling how often the album art seemed misaligned with this demographic. If these visuals weren’t designed for the core audience of the music, then who were they targeting? Marketing 101 teaches us that when a product and its presentation don’t align, the message misses the mark—and that’s the story of Southern Exposure’s sole release.
Southern Exposure was a project from Toronto-based Top Hat Productions, led by producers Ian Guenther and Willi Morrison with arranger Pete Pedersen. The team had several disco ventures in the late ‘70s, including Grand Tour, Sticky Fingers, and the THP Orchestra, known for the epic “Too Hot For Love.” Notably, Southern Exposure’s standout track, “Love Is,” feels like a near carbon copy of “Too Hot For Love.” The album’s single, “Headin’ South,” is a high-energy disco track clearly aimed at the LGBTQ+ disco fan base.
On the surface, the album might appear to have a theme of escapism and travel, with tracks like “On Our Way” and “Headin’ South.” However, this is mere window dressing. Delve deeper, and you’re met with rather cheesy lyrics. In “Headin’ South,” the singer promises to visit all kinds of Southern locales but declares he’ll get there by “riding all night.”🤠 Then there’s “Hot Pants,” offering questionable (and frankly hazardous) dietary advice with lines like, “You starved to death and held your breath so you could dance in tight pants.” It brings to mind my mother’s warnings about the dangers of tight-fitting jeans in the early ‘80s and their potential impact on one’s… future family plans.
Unsurprisingly, Southern Exposure never achieved success. Perhaps it was the disconnect between the music and its presentation. Or maybe it was simply released at the tail end of the disco era by a major label that neither understood disco nor cared for its LGBTQ+ audience. They may have been interested in the model on the cover though, but we’ve heard nothing from her since.
Interesting. A lot of hard rock/heavy metal bands at the time were pillared for the crime of sexism (“what’s wrong with being sexy?”) but if your a funk/disco band? The music press seemed to look the other way.
I believe the music press likely viewed these types of releases as already beyond the pale 😃, so they didn’t bother covering them. I can’t imagine this record received much attention from the press at the time. Disco was on it's way out as far as they were concerned
Interesting. A lot of hard rock/heavy metal bands at the time were pillared for the crime of sexism (“what’s wrong with being sexy?”) but if your a funk/disco band? The music press seemed to look the other way.
I believe the music press likely viewed these types of releases as already beyond the pale 😃, so they didn’t bother covering them. I can’t imagine this record received much attention from the press at the time. Disco was on it's way out as far as they were concerned