I hope I'm not the first to say it, but disco is a major influence on today's rap, R&B, and hip hop. The influence of the producer on disco was unprecedented (Phil Spector and the Motown people had always been influential, but the constant refining and sampling, mostly from symphony orchestras, that disco used influenced the way hip-hop producers use sampling.) Also, disco was one of the first pop music forms where the arranger, mixing engineer, and DJ were just as important as the producer, nearly. Also, disco is similar to today's hip-hop in that it constantly refines upon phrasing and a defined rhythm guitar groove to create songs that could easily go on forever, and the "talking directly to the audience" style of vocals in disco is similar to that in hip-hop. If you listen to Chic's "Le Freak", the influence on hip-hop is more readily apparent. The constant build-up and breakage also is similar to hip-hop. Disco is more influential than it is given credit for.

Definitely.

Disco is like grunge, in that although it technically "died" it never lost its influence on later music.

Definitely.

Disco is like grunge, in that although it technically "died" it never lost its influence on later music.


Yep, both are dead genres that had brief three-four year heydays defining an era and that continued to be highly influential in subtle ways since their death. Disco is mostly unacknowledged, though-there's still residual disco hate from 1979-1980.

Part of the reason disco got run out of town was because a new musical movement was coming (punk/new wave) and it made disco look like precisely what it was; light and fluffy music with no weight or substance.  Now, that's not to say that punk and new wave were as lyrically heavy as 60s protest anthems, but in comparison the two genres couldn't be more different. 

Another reason disco died out, was due to it's oversaturation in the market, seeing as how everything was "discofied" in order to sell.  Disco clothes, disco shoes, disco eyeshadow, even disco Burger King.  It was too much all at the same time and people got tired of everything being "funky" and covered in silver glitter.  Part of the "Disco Sucks" movement had some truth; the music, barring a few exceptions, did suck and most of it was overproduced to within an inch of its life. 


Now as for grunge music, much like when disco first broke out onto the scene, it was a stark contrast to what was on the radio at the time.  The music was darker, the lyrics more introspective and the singers were less poppy and more pissed off.  Grunge too got overexposed, what with everyone drinking Starbucks and swimming in plaid flannel shirts and half-buckled overalls.  However, the death of grunge really came with the death of Kurt Cobain, not because of it's overcommercialization; to a greater extent that happened after he died, not before it.  Grunge music was associated with Nirvana since they were the first band in that genre to really get critical and commercial success, so to some people once he was gone, the music had nowhere to go. 


Now, was disco highly influential?  Absolutely.  It helped usher in the burgeoning rap movement (in my opinion, the best kind of rap that's been out there) and it took people's minds off of what was going on in the world at the time, and anytime music can be used as an escape, that's a good thing.  I don't know about it deserving more respect, though.  While disco helped bring in the era of dance music, something the country hadn't seen since the Swing days of the 30s and 40s, it was so overdone and so overproduced and so overexposed, it really destroyed it's own good intentions.

Part of the reason disco got run out of town was because a new musical movement was coming (punk/new wave) and it made disco look like precisely what it was; light and fluffy music with no weight or substance.  Now, that's not to say that punk and new wave were as lyrically heavy as 60s protest anthems, but in comparison the two genres couldn't be more different. 

Another reason disco died out, was due to it's oversaturation in the market, seeing as how everything was "discofied" in order to sell.  Disco clothes, disco shoes, disco eyeshadow, even disco Burger King.  It was too much all at the same time and people got tired of everything being "funky" and covered in silver glitter.  Part of the "Disco Sucks" movement had some truth; the music, barring a few exceptions, did suck and most of it was overproduced to within an inch of its life. 


Now as for grunge music, much like when disco first broke out onto the scene, it was a stark contrast to what was on the radio at the time.  The music was darker, the lyrics more introspective and the singers were less poppy and more pissed off.  Grunge too got overexposed, what with everyone drinking Starbucks and swimming in plaid flannel shirts and half-buckled overalls.  However, the death of grunge really came with the death of Kurt Cobain, not because of it's overcommercialization; to a greater extent that happened after he died, not before it.  Grunge music was associated with Nirvana since they were the first band in that genre to really get critical and commercial success, so to some people once he was gone, the music had nowhere to go. 


Now, was disco highly influential?  Absolutely.  It helped usher in the burgeoning rap movement (in my opinion, the best kind of rap that's been out there) and it took people's minds off of what was going on in the world at the time, and anytime music can be used as an escape, that's a good thing.  I don't know about it deserving more respect, though.  While disco helped bring in the era of dance music, something the country hadn't seen since the Swing days of the 30s and 40s, it was so overdone and so overproduced and so overexposed, it really destroyed it's own good intentions.


Disco was more of a cultural soundtrack than anything else. It symbolized the carefree "free sex" as opposed to "free love" days of the mid-late 1970s. It was also the first pop culture movement to have gays as a main part of it. Gays helped bring in disco and helped popularize it, and it has remained a soundtrack to the gay community. Without the disco lifestyle, disco is very little-it is the quintessential lifestyle soundtrack music.

Part of disco's popularity, as you said, was that it contrasted to what was popular at the time. The early-mid 1970s was full of "classic rock" that you basically sat around to listening in the dark, in a circle, and getting stoned. Disco celebrated communal jubilation and joy-without the disco, disco is very little. Admittedly, disco doesn't work very well on the radio. Disco produced about 30 amazing, classic songs that stand the test of time, that balance overproduction with excellent melodies and mixing, and that you can get the feel of outside the club. But disco was a very slim genre that you can't push, and that is so excessive by definition that it's hard to do well. You walk a slim line with disco. Disco was precisely what a country sick and tired of scandal and war needed-a communal call to primally dance in glee. And its influence in being that still rests to this day.

Haven't heard much disco, so can't really comment. My idea of disco is K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Donna Summer, Disco Tex and the Sexolettes, Maxine Nightingale, Tavares the Bee Gees...you get the picture. From what I've heard Disco sounded alright; it was like dance music with a proper melody and arrangement. But then again, I guess I haven't heard 'crappy' disco music.

As Sister Morphine mentioned, critics are all to quick to sneer at musical genres seen as 'lightweight' and 'superficial' with no profound 'social insight.' I guess it doesn't matter if the music's good, if there isn't a lyric which references some profound aspect of humanity, or some original artistic statement, it's nothing. I think the Disco lifestyle has been so much a part of the music, it is impossible to seperate the two. The Disco culture has been satirised as overblown, self conscioiusly flamboyant and such; the whole era has become one stereotype (as much as hippies are, although free love is still very much part of many peoples' experience). Though, they don't realise, current dance, trance.etc music and the associated lifestyle is just like disco. Except I think today's 'dance' has a more sordid, darker feel; Disco was about being light-hearted, and having fun - pure hedonism. Today, clubbing is a more 'primal' experience. I think all of us long for just one night when we could be John Travolta on the dance-floor at Studio 54, circa 1976 lol . But enough of my ramblings, my point is I think Disco has hugely influenced not just dance but many other genres, and hardly deserves to be derided in so disrespectful a way.

Haven't heard much disco, so can't really comment. My idea of disco is K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Donna Summer, Disco Tex and the Sexolettes, Maxine Nightingale, Tavares the Bee Gees...you get the picture. From what I've heard Disco sounded alright; it was like dance music with a proper melody and arrangement. But then again, I guess I haven't heard 'crappy' disco music.

As Sister Morphine mentioned, critics are all to quick to sneer at musical genres seen as 'lightweight' and 'superficial' with no profound 'social insight.' I guess it doesn't matter if the music's good, if there isn't a lyric which references some profound aspect of humanity, or some original artistic statement, it's nothing. I think the Disco lifestyle has been so much a part of the music, it is impossible to seperate the two. The Disco culture has been satirised as overblown, self conscioiusly flamboyant and such; the whole era has become one stereotype (as much as hippies are, although free love is still very much part of many peoples' experience). Though, they don't realise, current dance, trance.etc music and the associated lifestyle is just like disco. Except I think today's 'dance' has a more sordid, darker feel; Disco was about being light-hearted, and having fun - pure hedonism. Today, clubbing is a more 'primal' experience. I think all of us long for just one night when we could be John Travolta on the dance-floor at Studio 54, circa 1976 lol . But enough of my ramblings, my point is I think Disco has hugely influenced not just dance but many other genres, and hardly deserves to be derided in so disrespectful a way.


Yes, disco is an important genre, most of the "techno", "trance", "rave", and "house" music that came to the fore in the '90s was an evolution of disco without the orchestral trappings and trimmings, via Eurodance. Listen to Giorgio Moroder's "I Feel Love" with the Donna Summer vocals, basically every contemporary dance track descends from that song.

Yes, disco is an important genre, most of the "techno", "trance", "rave", and "house" music that came to the fore in the '90s was an evolution of disco without the orchestral trappings and trimmings, via Eurodance. Listen to Giorgio Moroder's "I Feel Love" with the Donna Summer vocals, basically every contemporary dance track descends from that song.



Giorgio Moroder was a genius. 

Giorgio Moroder was a genius. 


From Giorgio Moroder comes dance music as we know it today.

I'm sorry.  As much as I love music, and even some Disco, I can't take it that far.

To me, Disco is simply what happens when White people try to perform Funk.  All of the "Soul" was stripped from it, and it became nothing but another commercial product.  I will pick Parlaiment any day over The Villiage People.

BTW, did anybody else catch "America's Most Wanted" this weekend?  It seems that Victor Willis is wanted in California for drug and weapons charges.  Willis is most well known as the Policeman (or Soldier) from The Village People.

http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=35412

Oh my God...things are going in threes with '70s and '80s gay icons getting arrested, first George Michael and now the Policeman from the Village People, next Elton John or Boy George will get arrested for possession of slaves or something.

I love disco....and I don't know why so many people make fun of it...like it was some tacky trend or something. You are right saying that disco influenced a lot of today's music....there are even a lot of artists that use the beat from popular disco songs as the background in their songs that are popular today.

I love disco....and I don't know why so many people make fun of it...like it was some tacky trend or something. You are right saying that disco influenced a lot of today's music....there are even a lot of artists that use the beat from popular disco songs as the background in their songs that are popular today.



People make fun of it because it was a tacky trend.......at the time.  It was everywhere, and you couldn't escape it.  Hell, Ethel Merman did a disco album.  They overcommercialized the hell out of it, and people got sick of it.  It was "disco" this and "disco" that, and when something that big explodes that high and that far that fast, there's nowhere to go but down, and that's just where it went.

Now, time has given people a different perspective on it, so people who didn't like it at the time, have warmed to it somewhat, since it's not as pervasive across the landscape as it used to be.

I love Disco.  Back in it's hey day, it was so popular, that in late 1974, the Billboard Charts created the "Disco Action" charts, which would eventually become the "Hot Dance Music / Club Play" charts

Disco s'posedly died in '79-early 1980, but there were Disco songs well into 1983 :)

I think that disco gets just about the right amount of respect that it deserves. Like any genre of music, it has its good and bad songs, and I think that the good disco songs (especially ones by KC And The Sunshine Band) have withstood the test of time. Not to mention, if I'm driving and "Disco Inferno" by The Trammps just happens to come on the radio, it makes me want to stomp on the gas. Which, to me, is a surefire sign of a good song.  ;)

The rule of thumb is that for every decent, fun disco song and artist, there were like five horrible songs and artists. Jesus, Aretha Franklin's disco album? What's remembered today is the best of the genre, like the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and Donna Summer's catalogue.

Is it just me or was this thread made just to get a response from KtelQueen? I would say that disco came back in the 90's under Dance hits and Techno.

To the guy who puts his foot to the floor when he hears Disco Inferno.

I have 13 (WT-eff?  Where'd my life go?) remixes of Amii Stewart's Knock On Wood that range from the 1978 to 1985 to 1999, and I'll neither confirm nor deny that I've hit triple-digits in my 80s luxo-barge with that track, traffic conditions permitting. 

A lot of disco was like a lot of 80s/90s/00s pop: just overrated fluff.  But some of it stood the test of time.  "Test of time" depends on your ears.

For me, the test of time is "can you listen to it 10 and 20 years later, and do you still want to dance?"  If the answer to both questions is "yes", it's a winner in my book.  Amii and the Trammps can still fill floors, even of mixed ages. 

There was good Disco, and there was bad Disco. And yes, there was over-saturation of the market. One problem with Disco is that it was "lifestyle" music. Country music was as much maligned in Brooklyn in 1979 as disco was maligned in Frankfort the same year. Kids in Brooklyn weren't going to barn dances, and kids in Kentucky weren't going to The 2001.

As others have pointed out, there was a lot of inanity in disco. However, I make the inanity charge against Ted Nugent and Foreigner as well.

There was a filthy undercurrent to the "Disco sucks" movement. There were people who simply didn't like disco so they did not buy it or listen to it. There were others who had a vested passion in denouncing disco, hence the "disco sucks" slogan. You see, Disco was an urban thing, a Black thing, a Latin thing, and a gay thing. The message behind "Disco sucks" wasn't just about the music per se. It was racist, and homophobic, and it was provincial.

As far as where Disco itself really went bad, I think Nile Rogers (of Chic) was right on the money when he pointed his finger at Rick Dees and "Disco Duck."
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/12/duckie.gif

Disco sucks. But I'm grateful for its influence on techno/new wave/electronica, etc.

Yes, Disco's novellization and cheapification was perhaps the reason for its downfall. And the fact everyone hopped on the Disco bandwagon for the very, very brief period when it was 'hip' (I'd say very late 76 to 79). Punk exploded simultaneously with Disco (the New York Dolls rose to prominence in '74, with the Ramones arriving in 75-76), and the two sort of Clashed with New Wave. Disco's influential is still very pervasive with current dance music.

There was good Disco, and there was bad Disco. And yes, there was over-saturation of the market. One problem with Disco is that it was "lifestyle" music. Country music was as much maligned in Brooklyn in 1979 as disco was maligned in Frankfort the same year. Kids in Brooklyn weren't going to barn dances, and kids in Kentucky weren't going to The 2001.

As others have pointed out, there was a lot of inanity in disco. However, I make the inanity charge against Ted Nugent and Foreigner as well.

There was a filthy undercurrent to the "Disco sucks" movement. There were people who simply didn't like disco so they did not buy it or listen to it. There were others who had a vested passion in denouncing disco, hence the "disco sucks" slogan. You see, Disco was an urban thing, a Black thing, a Latin thing, and a gay thing. The message behind "Disco sucks" wasn't just about the music per se. It was racist, and homophobic, and it was provincial.

As far as where Disco itself really went bad, I think Nile Rogers (of Chic) was right on the money when he pointed his finger at Rick Dees and "Disco Duck."
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/12/duckie.gif


I think the 1979 phase of disco, its peak, produced some of the best music of the '70s. The decade was dominated by MOR schmaltz like "You Light Up My Life", John Denver, and Barbra Streisand, and flatulent, overblown classic rock like Grand Funk Railroad. The last strain of disco songs to hit the charts ("I Will Survive", "Heart of Glass", "Bad Girls", "Hot Stuff", "Knock on Wood", "Le Freak", "Boogie Oogie Oogie", "Ring My Bell", "Stayin' Alive", "Best of My Love"), from 1977-1979, is one of the most prolonged strains of time when the charts were not crap. I think what replaced disco in the last half of 1979 and 1980 is far worse than "Good Times", the last disco song to hit #1-it was "My Sharona", an inane piece of overhyped crap. The fall of disco was a product of the racism and homophobia that still plagued the '70s, despite its reputation as a "liberal decade", and the fear of the East Coast (disco's popularity was centered in the ethnic white, black, and Hispanic communities of NYC.) Disco had some inanity, but it produced more decent #1s than the rest of the '70s combined, and united the country at a low point together, regardless of race or sexual orientation, in one moment of communal joy, the way no other music has ever done. And this discophobia continued during the Reaganite '80s, when everyone was practically blaming us gays ourselves for AIDS, disco, and probably even the "evils of MTV."

And disco is more influential than anything on the charts c. 1980. Without disco, we wouldn't have the whole genre of hip-hop, dance-pop, synth-pop, techno, etc.

Denying the influence of disco is a travesty - sure it was at times campy, a bit flamoyant, had too much flair - was a bit 'out there', but who of us in our more extroverted moments didn't just wanted to don a really out there outfit, and boogie down on the Dance floor? Disco gave us that 'just have fun' aesthetic which continues today in Dance/Trance.