Even some of the big mainstream artists like Diana Ross, the O’Jays, Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart had big Disco hits. Gay men especially love their divas, so it was only natural that many of the biggest stars of Disco were women – most notably Donna Summer, but also Gloria Gaynor, Thelma Houston, Patti Labelle, Linda Clifford, Alicia Bridges, Betty Wright and Grace Jones, to name but a few. As Sister Sledge so eloquently put it in one of their songs, people could get “Lost in Music”. Just like today, where club DJs play electronic or house music with one track blending seamlessly into the next without interruption, so did the DJs of the Disco era. Some of the popular Disco songs were also big chart hits, but beginning around 1976, many were extended compositions or remixes recorded with the intention of being played in the clubs, and lasted ten minutes or longer, often with lush orchestration and heavy use of synthesizers.
But, man, what a great run it had!ĭisco’s origins were inspired by R&B, soul and funk, which is why many of the early Disco songs were from Black artists like Hues Corporation, Van McCoy, The O’Jays, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, The Trammps, and Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. Once the “I Love Lucy” theme was made into a Disco remix, it was quite honestly time for the genre to die. Although it was a music genre people loved to hate (many considered Disco a scourge in much the same way I felt about Rap in the 1990s), it was immensely popular, lasting from early 1974 to around 1980, by which time the genre rapidly flamed out. Disco lost momentum as the '70s became the '80s, but it didn't die - it mutated into a variety of different dance-based genres, ranging from dance-pop and hip-hop to house and techno.Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area and coming of age as a gay man in the 1970s, I absolutely loved Disco. There were disco artists that became stars - Donna Summer, Chic, the Village People, and KC & the Sunshine Band were brand names - but the music was primarily a producer's medium, since they created the tracks and wrote the songs. In no time, the insistent, pounding disco beat dominated the pop chart, and everyone cut a disco record, from rockers like the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart to pop acts like the Bee Gees and new wave artists like Blondie. DJs could mix these tracks together, matching the beats on each song since they were marked with how fast they were in terms of beats per minute. Similarly, the singles were issued on 12-inch records, which allowed for extended remixes. Disco albums frequently didn't have many tracks - they had a handful of long songs that kept the beat going. Naturally, these records also had strong pop hooks, so they could have crossover success.
Soon, record companies and producers were cutting records created specifically for discos. After being played in the disco, the records began receiving radio play and respectable sales. Most of the discotheques were gay clubs in New York, and the DJs in these clubs specifically picked soul and funk records that had a strong, heavy groove. Disco was named after discotheques, clubs that played nothing but music for dancing. Growing out of the increasingly groove-oriented sound of early '70s and funk, disco emphasized the beat above anything else, even the singer and the song. Disco marked the dawn of the modern era of dance-based popular music.