17 Facts About Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene.

Disco started as a mixture of music from venues popular with Italian Americans, Hispanic and Latino Americans and Black Americans in Philadelphia and New York City during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Disco can be seen as a reaction by the 1960s counterculture to both the dominance of rock music and the stigmatization of dance music at the time.

Disco declined as a major trend in popular music in the United States following the infamous Disco Demolition Night, and it continued to sharply decline in popularity in the U S during the early 1980s; however, it remained popular in Italy and some European countries throughout the 1980s, and during this time started becoming trendy in places elsewhere including India and the Middle East, where they were blended with regional folk styles such as ghazals and belly dancing.

Disco is further characterized by a 16th note division of the quarter notes as shown in the second drum pattern below, after a typical rock drum pattern.

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Disco songs were arranged and composed by experienced arrangers and orchestrators, and record producers added their creative touches to the overall sound using multitrack recording techniques and effects units.

Disco was mostly developed from music that was popular on the dance floor in clubs that started playing records instead of having a live band.

Disco's installed a dance floor with coloured lights and two turntables so she could play records without having a gap in the music.

Disco organized the first major party in his Manhattan home on Valentine's Day 1970 with the name "Love Saves The Day".

Disco vowed not to record any songs in the genre, and actually wrote the song as a parody.

Disco's briefly reappeared on the charts with the disco song "Gigolo" in 1980.

Disco's soon left the company and signed with Elton John's The Rocket Record Company, and in 1976 had her biggest and best-known single, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", a disco duet with John.

Disco's singing style was said to have influenced the singer Prince.

Disco sound was adopted by artists from other genres, including the 1979 U S number one hit "No More Tears" by easy listening singer Barbra Streisand in a duet with Donna Summer.

Disco jingles made their way into many TV commercials, including Purina's 1979 "Good Mews" cat food commercial and an "IC Light" commercial by Pittsburgh's Iron City Brewing Company.

Disco was the first disco DJ to use three turntables as sound sources, the first to simultaneously play two beat matched records, the first user of electronic effects units in his mixes and an innovator in mixing dialogue in from well-known movies into his mixes, typically over a percussion break.

Disco was a music of mutual attraction: cruising, flirtation, negotiation.