Disco

• The term “disco” was first used in

post-World War II France when clubs

began playing recorded dance music

rather than using live bands.

• During the sixties such clubs were

called discothèques.

Disco

• Disco music of the seventies began

with the soul styles of Detroit (Motown

Records) and Philadelphia

(Philadelphia International Records)

that became popular in gay and African

American clubs in New York before the

dance craze spread to the rest of the

country.

Disco

• The musicians and singers of disco

music did concertize, as have most

other rock musicians, but the essence

of disco lay in the clubs themselves,

where the dancers were the

performers.

Disco

• Because the music was intended to be

played from records by disc jockeys,

many disco records had “bpm” (beats

per minute) indications on the labels

so that recordings could be chosen to

easily segue from one to another

without changing the speed of the

beat.

Disco

• Many disco records began with a

rhythmically free introduction to allow

the tempo to change from that of the

previous record played and to give

dancers time to get out on the dance

floor.

Disco

• Other recordings such as Donna

Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby”

(1975) were longer than singles

normally were, again, to allow dancers

a continuous flow of music.

Disco

• Musically, disco was somewhat related

to seventies street funk in that each

beat was strongly accented, although

not always at an even dynamic level.

Disco

• Many disco recordings also featured

group backup vocals that created a

party-like atmosphere or used whistles

and other sounds to invite listeners to

join into the festivities and dance.

Disco

• The movie Saturday Night Fever (1977)

helped spread the popularity of disco

dancing to a massive mainstream

audience.

Disco

• Disco’s steady, pounding beat was an

important influence on music during

the eighties and nineties, particularly

on American new-wave bands such as

Blondie.

Disco

• It was also an influence on the

synthesized dance music called techno,

which was still popular in the early

nineties.

Disco

• Much of the music sampled or imitated

to provide background for early rap

recordings also came from funk and

disco recordings.

Disco

• The widespread use of video screens

throughout former disco clubs has

made the visual images of performers

more important than they were in the

disco era.

Disco

• Whether disco dancing returns to the

popularity it experienced in the late

seventies or not, disco music continues

to make its mark on the popular

culture.

Disco

• In fact, Kool and the Gang followed

their street funk recording of “Funky

Stuff” with disco hits such as “Ladies’

Night” (1979).

Disco

• One of the earliest

important disco singers,

songwriters, arrangers,

and producers was Barry

White (born in 1944),

whose disco records

were made with a forty-

member orchestra he

called the Love

Unlimited Orchestra.

Disco

• White was born in Texas, where he

sang and played the organ for his

church.

Disco

• In Los Angeles as a teenager, White

became a singer and pianist with a

rhythm and blues group.

Disco

• He spent time working as an A&R

(artist and repertory) man at a record

company before 20th Century records

contracted him as a singer.

Disco

• After the top ten success of his single

“I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More

Baby” (1973) he formed his Love

Unlimited Orchestra and made one hit

disco record after another through the

seventies.

Disco

• As the popularity of disco waned in the

eighties, White had fewer records

making the pop charts, but he did

continue to record.

Disco

• His deep, lush voice made it back onto

the pop charts in 1994 with the album

The Icon Is Love and its hit single

“Practice What You Preach.”

Disco

• The movie Saturday Night Fever (1977)

helped spread the popularity of disco

dancing to a massive mainstream

audience.

Disco

• The Bee Gees had already had considerable success on the American pop charts with such hits as “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” (1968) and many others, but with the popularity of Saturday Night Fever and its hit soundtrack album they had three number one hits, “How Deep Is Your Love,” “Stayin’ Alive,” and “Night Fever,” and enjoyed continuing success after that.

Disco

• Other top forty hits from the Saturday

Night Fever soundtrack were the

Trammps’ “Disco Inferno” and Tavares’

“More Than a Woman.”

Disco

• Kool and the Gang, and KC and the

Sunshine Band, also contributed to the

movie soundtrack.