Disco(Eng. Disco, lit. “disco”) is one of the main genres of dance music of the 20th century, which arose in the mid-1970s.
Disco was being developed almost simultaneously in the US and Europe. American disco is characterized by a sound close to funk and soul. European disco was closely intertwined with traditional pop music and general trends in pop music.
In the 70s, disco had several sub-styles, including "disco fusion", "Munich sound", etc., and after 1981, thanks to the spread of electronic musical instruments, - sub-styles such as EuroDisco, ItaloDisco and Hi-NRG.
origins
In 1972, some of the first compositions written by various composers began to appear that could be classified as "disco". Examples: "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" by the Temptations; theme song for the film Shaft, performed by Isaac Hayes. You Baby» by George McCray and “Love’s Theme” by the Love Unlimited Orchestra (theme from the movie “Heat”). In Europe, one of the first disco hits was Dalida's "J'attendrai" (1975). However, only thanks to the German group "Silver Convention", the disco style began its victorious march across European dance floors.
Among the numerous "disco" groups there were interesting production projects, in which the composers of leading music labels were involved, and real nuggets, who started their path to success from unknown school ensembles. The former included Boney M., A la carte, and Dschinghis Khan, while the latter included Eruption, Amanda Lear, and the pop-disco bands Pussycat and Neoton Familia. (see pop disco style).
The general formula of a disco composition is as follows: dance rhythm at a tempo of about 120-140 beats per minute and "live" melodies, often heavily orchestrated. But there are many exceptions to this rule, allowing us to talk about the existence of various branches of the genre in its heyday (“the era of classic disco” in 1975-81). For example, mellow disco featured slower tempos of 95-110 beats - such hits as Silver Convention's "Fly, Robin, Fly" and Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby". Electro-disco could be less orchestrated (lack of "violins" in the sound) - this includes the once popular on the dance floors "Dancer" by Gino Soccio, "Beat Of The Night" by Fever and "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" by Sylvester. Also during 1977-1979 (at the peak of the global popularity of the genre), many compositions were released that were a "fusion" of disco with other styles: with classical music("A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy), with rock ("Shine A Little Love" by the Electric Light Orchestra), with jazz ("Turn the Music Up" by Players Association), with ethnic ("Disco Bouzouki" by Disco Bouzouki Band ).
Development
The mid-80s brought a new interest in the disco genre. Since the main musicians who worked in this direction were in Europe, the new disco wave began to be called EuroDisco. Through the use of electronic musical instruments within this genre, several new styles of dance music emerged, the main ones being Hi-NRG and ItaloDisco.
Outstanding representatives Hi-NRG can be called such music bands and performers like Modern Talking, C.C. Catch, Bad Boys Blue, Fancy, Silent Circle, Joy, London Boys, Patrick Cowley.
The ItaloDisco style, which arose a couple of years later than Hi-NRG, includes such Italian performers like Gazebo, Den Harrow, Ken Lazlo, Mike Mareen, Radiorama, Mr. Zivago, Sabrina, Scotch.
The Bee Gees played one of the leading roles in the development of the disco genre in the United States. In 1975, their disco hit "Jive Talkin" was released, which radically changed all ideas about disco among Americans. The members of the group at the moment became the "kings of disco", they were imitated, they were envied.
decline
In the early 90s, new trends formed in dance music, finally replacing disco. This is, first of all, EuroDance.
This article is the start great overview disco music at the Disco Encyclopedia. You will learn everything about disco - without embellishment and glamor, cosmetics and censorship. We will talk about the origins of disco culture and the socio-cultural background that contributed to its emergence. You will read about the first European and American discos, visit the popular clubs of the disco era and meet the first DJs - innovators of their craft. This review does not claim to be complete, in the future, we will consider each aspect of disco culture in more detail.
origin of name
The word "disco" comes from the French "discothèque" - this was originally the name of a regular stack of records (by analogy with a library - a repository of books). In the 1940s, when Paris was under German occupation, dance music of that time - jazz, bebop, swing was banned as "music of black subhumans", bringing capital to the "Jewish" show business. Since the beginning of 1942, her performance on dance evenings was prohibited.
However, despite increased propaganda, Parisian youth continued to gather at closed parties, dancing swing not to the music of a live orchestra, but to records. With its apathy, cynicism towards the ruling regime, special slang with a lot of anglicisms and love for everything American, this subculture resembled Soviet dudes. She called herself the jazz word "zazu". In Germany, there was a similar youth movement "swing kids" or "swing youth".
After the war, the familiar word "disco" in France began to refer to nightclubs. In 1947, Paul Pasin opened the first commercial discotheque in Paris - the Whiskey à Go-Go club (from French à gogo - "in abundance, in abundance"). In 1953, Regina Zilberberg had a hand in its modernization - former singer of Polish-Jewish origin, later a well-known night cabaret manager. Throwing the trendy American ones out of the establishment, she replaced them with live disc jockeys who worked behind twin turntables. This innovation gave the club a lively and dynamic atmosphere!
Discos of the New World
In America, where they closely followed the Parisian fashion, discos came in the mid-60s. The success of Whiskey à Go-Go inspired Americans to open similar clubs in Chicago and Los Angeles. But if the discos of Regina Zilberberg claimed some kind of elitism, in America they were initially available to the general public. The Whiskey-A-Go-Go disco, opened in 1964 in West Hollywood, popularized go-go dancing: a cage was suspended from its ceiling, in which girls in short skirts (or without them) danced.
In the New World, "discotheques" began to be called not only the clubs themselves, but also the dances that were danced in them, and even the outfits of the public! For example, this was the name of women's sleeveless dresses that did not restrict movement during dances. 
Thus, american girls 60s went to discos, putting on ... discos! Such confusion often happens with neologisms that have not had time to acquire a clear meaning. But even more confusion was added by the favorite way of Americans to abbreviate everything, when the word "disco" turned into "disco"!
However, in the era of rock and roll, there were few discos, and young people preferred to spend time in bars. The real flowering of disco culture will only happen in the next decade! The spread of discos in America and beyond, caused a demand for the profession of a disc jockey, whose skills were increasingly improved!
The art of being a DJ
"The typical New York disco DJ is a young gay Italian".
(Vince Aletti, music critic)
Specially trained people who put on and changed records at discos were called the hippodrome word "disc jockey" or "DJ". 
They inherited this name from the DJs of radio stations, which have been called that way since the 40s.
But, unlike radio hosts, club DJs have long been the most " lower caste' in their profession. The disc jockey sat modestly in his wheelhouse, taking orders and changing records. An absolutely insignificant role, like a waiter serving drinks to a bored audience.
However, sooner or later, any more or less observant DJ began to feel the audience and understand the mood that this or that music creates. Skillfully selecting songs, he became something like a puppeteer who, pulling the strings of emotions, sets the mood on the dance floor!
One of the innovators whose name is inscribed in golden letters in the history of disco was DJ Francis Grasso. This man revolutionized DJ culture from a craft to an art. He is considered the author of most of the techniques that DJs use to this day. In the late 60s, while working in the New York Sanctuary club, Grasso was the first to popularize "beatmatching" - the mixing of two records, in which one song smoothly and imperceptibly to the public flows into another.
“Until that time, the DJ would put on a record, then say something, then put on another record. Now, the songs changed imperceptibly, it was called "transition". And the music never stopped. A lot of DJs like Nicky Siano were known for their cool transitions."
(Mark Jacobson, journalist)
Holding the record with his hand, allowing the disk to rotate freely under it, Grasso released it at the right moment, which created the effect of surprise when a theme from a completely different composition suddenly burst into one song. 
This technique is called "slip-cuing".
In the early 70s, Jamaican-born New York DJ DJ Kool Gerk came up with a technique whereby two identical recordings were mixed together, allowing one composition to be extended almost indefinitely and repeating the audience's favorite passages. Kool Gerk's technique laid the foundation for the birth of the new "breakbeat" genre.
In 1975, New York DJ Grand Wizard Theodore accidentally invented the "scratching" technique that later became hallmark hip hop music. 
By moving the record back and forth during playback, he deftly built a floating sound into the rhythm of the composition being played.
In 1977, New York DJ Tom L. Lewis released The Disco Bible (later more neutrally titled Disco Rhythms), which listed all of the most famous disco hits and their tempos. She made life easier for novice DJs who had not yet acquired a sense of rhythm. This list was later republished by Billboard magazine.
With the development of DJ skills, cult figures began to appear among club DJs, virtuosos of their craft, to whose performances people came as if they were artists. However, the DJ profession was still low paid. For most DJs of the 70s, working in a club was more of a way of life, and they did not earn money with music, but with drug trafficking from under the floor.
“Being a DJ was very cool, you were not paid a lot of money, but you had a lot of girls and free drinks! I remember my first sex in the DJ booth, I was the king!”
(Charlie Anzalone, DJ)
The personalities of most famous DJs were directly linked to the clubs they worked for. And it’s fair to start the story about them with David Mancuso and his Loft club, where the foundations of disco culture were first born!
Loft Club: "Love Saves The Day"
It all started with the usual house parties that former manager David Mancuso held for friends in his studio apartment on Broadway. The first party was held on Valentine's Day - February 14, 1970, and it was called "Love Saves the Day" (abbreviated as "LSD"). There were no random people there - it was possible to get to Mancuso's party only by invitation, which were distributed among close and trusted people. Isn't it true that such a conspiracy is very reminiscent of the first discos held by the Zazu in occupied Paris?
Over time, the great music and friendly atmosphere that reigned there began to attract more and more guests, which prompted Mancuso to hold his parties regularly. Although official name his club never had, friends nicknamed him “Loft” (“Attic”), and it was firmly entrenched in him. From the then-existing New York bars - rather unsafe places where people went mainly to get drunk or gamble - Mancuso's parties differed in that the music was the center of attention there. Entrance fee: 2 dollars 50 cents, the guest could use the wardrobe and bar for free, enjoy great music and communicate with interesting people.
The room was not that big, but it had one of the best sound systems at the time! David had great trepidation about sound quality and, over the years, brought the sound of his equipment to perfection! Although Loft had two turntables, Mancuso never mixed tracks. Even when beatmatching became a general trend, David did not play the next song until the previous one had finished playing.
“There, for the first time, I saw a DJ who not only plays records, but also creates an atmosphere. This a big difference. And then I thought: this is what I want. Not to put on records, but to create an atmosphere!” .
“The parties were private and like nothing else. David had a very original musical taste. There everything was permeated with music and sound. You felt special because you were allowed to be there. And people crowded outside and begged: please let us in! But there the parties were always very closed.
(David Depino, DJ)
David chose the music especially carefully - he skillfully controlled the mood of his guests, building an impeccable sound range. 
Unlike other DJs who played only the latest and most popular tracks, Mancuso chose the records at his own discretion. Sometimes they were unknown bands, sometimes they were imported records brought from Europe. His collection included a lot of jazz and ethnic music from Africa, Latin America and Jamaica. Many discoveries were made in the Loft club - the songs heard there (for example, the famous "Soul Makossa" from Manu Dibango), his DJ friends carried them around their clubs, turning them into mega hits!
Loft's regulars included many future world-famous DJs such as Nicky Siano, Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles. Over time, even celebrities considered it an honor to visit there, but at the same time, none of them sought to be in the spotlight - according to the unwritten rules of the club, there was complete equality among the guests!
“It was a kind of bohemian nirvana, a utopian idea. Groups of people met here, usually not gathering at one time and one place. But they were there, and it seemed to everyone great idea at least for the three or four hours they spent there.”
Perhaps the Loft club did not make a lot of profit, but the idea of closed events (it was called “The Loft”) very quickly found a lively response from all kinds of informals driven underground by the authorities: blacks, Latinos and gays. In a club where the party was 60% black and 70% homosexual, everyone was equal!
Outcasts
In the late 60s, America was shaken by numerous protest movements: hippies protested against the war, feminists and African Americans (hello from Angela Davis) fought for their rights. 
But, having received more rights, blacks still could not claim equality with whites. Latin Americans were considered the same “second-class” people. Whites simply did not want to see "colored" in their establishments.
The sexual revolution changed society's views on sex, but not on sexual minorities. Gays were still perceived by society only as sinners, mentally ill people or criminals. Depending on the state, they could be fined, placed in a psychiatric hospital, or even jailed. The police regularly raided bars and other establishments in search of homosexuals. Bars that catered to gays were fined and had their licenses revoked.
In a crackdown on the many gay bars, the New York City government issued a discriminatory ordinance banning the sale of alcohol to gays. 
Even in neighborhoods like Harlem or Greenwich Village, where many gay men traditionally settled, there were very few bars where they could freely meet. As a rule, such institutions were owned by the mafia, which skillfully settled problems with the law with the help of bribes. Having their own people in the police department, they learned about the raids in advance and had time to prepare for them. Such a warning system has proven itself well back in the years of the Prohibition.
To avoid problems with the law, there were unspoken rules in the establishments: men were not supposed to dance with men, and women with women. There was supposed to be one girl for every seven boys dancing. In turn, each girl had to wear at least three items of women's clothing.
“All the clubs that catered to gays were run by the mafia. Because only they had a chance to survive when the police constantly fall there with their raids. And when the laws got tougher, it made it possible for people like me or David to open their own establishments.”
The idea of "The Loft" allowed gays, blacks and Hispanics to forget about conspiracies and police raids. There were no random people at closed parties, gays and lesbians could dance with each other as much as they wanted, and blacks and Latinos could be side by side with whites without fear of insults. It was this atmosphere of equality, independence, unity, love that became fertile ground that nurtured disco!
Disco era clubs
Today we imagine disco clubs, mostly based on the movie "Saturday Night Fever" - with a glowing dance floor, strobe lights and mirror balls under the ceiling. However, in the early 70s, no special disco interior existed yet, the appearance of the institution completely depended on the imagination of its owners, which was often much more diverse than we can imagine!
One of the most famous clubs of its time was the Continental Baths, located in the basements of the Ansonia Hotel on the corner of 73rd Street and Broadway. Its owner, Steve Ostrow, took the idea of ancient Roman baths as a basis. And just like in Ancient Rome there were orgies.
In addition to the disco, the club had saunas, a pool, cabanas, a restaurant, and a cabaret. Sometimes people went to the dance floor right in towels! Two titans of electronic music played in this club: Larry Levan - the future founder of the garage style and Frankie Knuckles - the ideologist of house music. It featured such stars as The Pointer Sisters, Gloria Gaynor, Connie Francis and many others.
A real hotbed of disco culture was Fire Island - a popular beach suburb of New York, where the mostly white audience rested. The place is mentioned in the Village People song of the same name as a place for a "fun weekend". 
The song listed famous hotspots like Ice Palace, Monster, Blue Whale, and Sandpiper. The song warns "don't go into the bushes, someone might grab you" or "stab you".
The Le Jardin club, opened by John Addison at the Diplomat Hotel in Manhattan, emulated the elite Parisian discos of the 60s in the spirit of Regina Zilberberg. It had two floors, a penthouse and a basement. There were palm trees and fruit vases, luxurious furniture, and waiters in elegant uniforms on roller skates. The audience consisted of the cream of Manhattan society: gay bohemia, beautiful women and glamorous youths. It has featured iconic DJs such as Steve D'Aquisto, Bobby "DJ" Guttadaro and Bako Manguel. 
On March 3, 1975, Gloria Gaynor was crowned as the Queen of Disco!
Perhaps the first place that laid down the well-known canons of the disco interior was the Gallery club, opened by the young Brooklyn DJ Niki Siano. Taking David Mancuso's Loft club idea as a basis, Nicky brought it to life in a commercial version. But if in the Loft music was in the first place, then in the Gallery Nicky himself was in the center of attention - a real personality cult of its owner and, concurrently, a DJ reigned in the club!
“First of all, Gallery was very accessible. You pay seven dollars and you go in - and that's it. That's all you pay, unless, of course, you want to buy some acid - maybe another dollar. Or 50 cents for a quaalud, it was very, very affordable!” .
Once in a dream, Nicky saw a DJ console with not two turntables, but three. Having designed this system in his club, he got the opportunity not only to mix two records, but also to add fragments of the third one on the fly. 
Nika had a lighting system that was perfect for its time, which was controlled directly from his remote control. The sound quality was great too!
The Gallery had black walls, multi-colored lighting fixtures, and a large mirror ball under the ceiling, which, slowly circling, created the illusion starry sky. Later, this interior will become the format of disco clubs, and the mirror ball will become a symbol of disco! The same typical disco interior elements were shining garlands and confetti, fluorescent, neon and lava lamps, Balloons, smoke from dry ice, a glowing dance floor, mirrors and much, much more.
Of course, the most iconic club of the disco era was the famous New York Studio 54, but we will talk about it separately!
It is also worth mentioning other legendary New York clubs: Paradise Garage, Galaxy 21, Starship Discovery One, Cock Ring, New York New York, Copacabana, Soho Place, Reade Street", "Tenth Floor", etc.
In addition to New York, there were large venues in other cities: Studio One in Los Angeles, The Library in Atlanta, Trocadero Transfer, I-Beam and End Up in San Francisco. One after another, discos sprang up all over America, even in its most remote corners!
Incendiary music, a dance floor illuminated by lights and a sea of slender bodies, swaying and pulsing to the beat of cheerful rhythms. Approximately this is how you can describe the element that gave rise to one of the brightest, extravagant and exotic fashion styles - disco style…
And it all started in mid 70s when a new hobby appeared in the youth environment - discos. Discos were the place where ordinary people could plunge into the world of light and brilliance, positive emotions and carefree fun, forgetting about their everyday problems for a while.
In the new dances, it was not necessary to have special skills, as it was in rock and roll. Simplicity and rhythm made it accessible to absolutely everyone. Add to this the atmosphere of a holiday, or even a carnival, reigning around and you will understand why disco style won such love. Disco temporarily became the lifestyle of a whole generation with its music, its idols, its values and, of course, its unique fashion.
Saturday Night Fever
As is often the case, initially the fashion for the disco style was formed under the influence of the first pop artists, whose compositions were played in discos. Donna Samer, Gloria Gaynor, Diana Ross, Bee Gees and Village People carried to the masses not only eccentric music, but also a defiantly original style of clothing.
So, at the suggestion of Dianna Ross, young people began to wear denim caps decorated with sequins, short denim shorts with colored tights, the “Disco Queen” (Donna Summer) contributed to the popularization of a tunic dress and loose shirts in dark colors embroidered with sequins, and the ideas of Village People stage costumes with successfully found their followers at night discos.
But the standard of disco style could be called that “glamorous” image that was created by John Travolta in the cult film “Saturday Night Fever” (Saturday Night Fever, 1977) - a white suit with a black turtleneck or shirt.
The new fashion carried new trends. For the first time in the history of fashion, unisex ideas, which until then were shown only at high fashion shows, took on a mass character. Moreover, it was precisely the masculinity of the strong half of humanity that was under attack.
Sweet melodies, the pampered appearance of the performers, high voices and the unisexuality of dancing completely erased the line between the sexes. Men, like women, wore translucent T-shirts and tops, tight jeans, white leather trousers.
It was not uncommon for men (especially popular singers, dancers, and disco-goers) to wear bright makeup. Pink lips and blue eyelids are my favorite colors women's and men's makeup of the 70s. Choosing the image of a bisexual in fashion, men significantly increased the range of their wardrobe.
It is worth noting that the followers of the Disco style, unlike hippies and punks, did not always shock society with their appearance. As a rule, the everyday costume of disco lovers was quite moderate and strict, and exotic outfits with unimaginable combinations of colors were used only in evening wear. But what was it cloth!
To achieve the original image, all means were acceptable, and self-expression was limited only by the richness of imagination. At the same time, flared jeans and sexy tight-fitting satin trousers, short shorts and lurex jersey bodysuits, strappy tops and polyester shirts, lycra bodysuits and dresses with a slit that reached the panties, platform shoes and sandals from snake skin. The mixing of incompatible colors and materials, which until then was considered a sign of bad taste, became ideal for the disco style.
In the days of disco, girls wore some men's clothes, which were given feminine features. Men's blazers or blouses in the style of men's shirts were worn directly on naked body, and the absence of a bra was not only not hidden, but, on the contrary, was unambiguously emphasized by buttons or rivets unbuttoned to the waist.
They also wore shorts complete with T-shirts in loud colors, sundresses and denim maxi skirts. Shoes were first preferred on a high platform, but late 70s sandals with elegant stilettos became popular. Sandals of silver color were considered a fashion statement. Early 80s wide colored trousers tapering to the bottom came into fashion. Because of their shape and color, we called them “bananas”.
IN men's fashion 70s figure-hugging clothes were also popular: tight-fitting pants made of shiny material, tight jeans that flared to the bottom. It was considered a special chic to appear at a disco in a tight-fitting gymnastic overalls or a costume of professional dancers with a leopard skin pattern.
And a white suit worn with a black shirt was considered the chapel of elegance. Turtlenecks were also in fashion, worn with a jacket or separately. In men's fashion, classic colors have given way to orange, silver, light green, bright yellow and metallic colors.
The disco style allowed absolute freedom of action in relation to clothing. This could not but attract a whole galaxy of young designers and fashion designers who embodied the most daring ideas in clothes.
Perhaps the greatest success in this field has been achieved by an American designer. Halston, who created an ultra-modern clothing line for the dance floor. It was Halston who brought into fashion tight-fitting silhouettes and fabrics that exposed the dancer's body to the public.
The world of disco fashion was indebted to the American designer for the appearance of such things as jumpsuit shorts, suede shirt dresses, cashmere trouser suits, sets of mini shorts and long cardigans.
Other iconic designer of the 70s was Bill Gibb- the author of knitted tops with lurex. And most fashion designer shoe was considered Terry de Havilland, whose masterpieces were shoes of exotic colors on the platform or sandals on a snakeskin leather strap. A characteristic feature of disco style clothing was the use of in large numbers artificial fabrics: polyester, spandex, viscose, jacquard, lurex, etc.
When it comes to disc style accessories, everyone adhered to the same rule – the bigger and brighter the better. Massive earrings and pendants, numerous gold-tone bracelets and chains, colorful wrist rings and fantastically shaped glasses with colored glasses. All these items resembled decorations on a Christmas tree.
Just as extravagant was disco makeup, in which preference was given bright colors and rich textures. The combination of the following colors was in fashion: bright blue, pink-purple, lilac-pink, purple-lilac. The unconditional preference of the disco era was pearlescent lipstick and pearlescent bright blue shadows.
Clear contours were not welcomed, so if you were applying cosmetics with your fingers at that time, then no one would have paid attention to it. And of course, everything had to shine. Glitter was glued to the face and hair, mother-of-pearl varnish was applied to the nails, the body was covered with self-tanner and a golden leopard pattern was applied.
Of the hairstyles, the natural African beauty in the form of a dandelion called “afro” was insanely popular. The European version of this hairstyle with white hair was also acceptable. If nature deprived someone of the splendor of hair, then this was easily corrected by the variety of wigs.
In addition to eccentric hairstyles, there were more tolerant options in fashion. For girls, this is straight long blond hair, for men - hair that reaches almost to the shoulders.
disco style demanded from his followers a life in crazy rhythms, surrounded by bright colors. For young people of that time there were no boundaries between their inner world and the world around, so the expression of one's individuality, one's "I" was publicly considered the norm. Standing out from the crowd with unusually bright clothes alone was not enough. Clothing was supposed to emphasize a graceful, flexible, athletic body.
The dancing generation of the 70s did not have enough night discos on the weekend. The desire to lose the last grams of fat has brought with it a new mass fashion to visit gyms and aerobics. The disco style has formed a completely new ideal of a man. It was customary to consider a tall, slender, tanned handsome man without any pretensions to musculature and rudeness as a standard.
The ideal of a woman was considered to be a long-legged blonde with undeveloped forms. A whole cult has developed around thinness, which often degenerates into a manic obsession with diet and fitness. In the late 70s, women already had to lie down to zip up their jeans.
Already in early 80s mass interest in Disco music began to wane. And this was not surprising. An endless holiday and unbridled fun bothers no less than hopeless gray everyday life.
On the dance floor, the disco style was eventually replaced by hip-hop and "acid" dance styles, the image of sugary heroes left the movie screens, and the voices of sexless performers stopped pouring from the speakers of tape recorders. The disco style has also given way to fashion.
But, fortunately, it did not go unnoticed. The disco style left behind a rainbow legacy, which is sometimes resorted to by modern couturiers.
P.S. And for some reason, sometimes at the end of the week, when everyday problems just overwhelm us, we take out old records and a disco ball made once from a globe from the “chests”, call our friends, prepare exotic cocktails, put on crazy outfits and light a real "Saturday Night Fever" to plunge back into Magic world carefree fun and positive emotions.
Today it is rare to find such dance moves as they have been for a whole decade.
The history of the disco dance
Seventies disco was born on Valentine's Day 1970, when David Manusco opened The Loft in New York, and the dance quickly disappeared in the 1980s. When the disco movement reached its peak in 1978-79, its main contingent was white, middle-class, heterosexual urban and suburban residents. But it all started differently. For the first eight years, disco was an underground movement. Then Saturday Night Fever (December 1977) helped turn the subculture into mainstream fashion, resulting in a 30-fold increase in disco club attendance.
The 1970s saw the emergence of the pluralism so prevalent today, in which individual diversity of interests and tastes prevailed over mass tendencies and fads. Thus, discos became popular among several different groups population.
One such population was the generation of young baby boomers who felt out of touch with the counterculture revolution of the 60s. They were teenagers and students during the sixties, but all events passed them by. Many of them envied the new freedoms and lifestyle of the hippies, from the search for enlightenment to the sexual revolution.
As Bruce Pollak recalled in 1979, “We have been reminded too often that we are simply not hippies. They had long hair and Woodstock, and we had nothing to call our own. We needed some kind of common activity, despised by previous generations, that would unite us as a group. This kind of underground culture was created at discos. It was so great to feel special." For a large part of the baby boomers of the seventies, new dances became the outlet that distinguished them from everyone else. Thanks to disco, they could get a taste of the freedoms that they enjoyed in the sixties.
But they made their counterculture completely different from the hippies. main element new scene disco has become sophistication. This meant high class and style, and not mass, but individual. Thus, the sexual revolution that began in the sixties grew into a glamorous urban version.
Disco dancing in the 1970s
In the 1970s, there was another reason for the change in aesthetics and appearance discos (besides people's own desire for change). And it lay in the fact that representatives of the working class began to visit discos. The disco was attractive because its sophistication was an essential change for the workers, which they could easily "try". All they had to do was dress appropriately and pay the entrance fee, and then they could spend the night in an elegant, futuristic world. And also, importantly, to do it side by side with people standing one step higher on the social ladder.
For middle and working-class young Americans, the opportunity to “take a step into another life” became so attractive that they could not refuse it. It was typical of that time: during the day, an American of Italian origin worked hard at the factory, and at night he was the king of disco.
Notably, discos also offered a taste of freedom and self-actualization to three other subcultures during the seventies: gays, Hispanics, and African Americans. After decades of marginalization of each of these minorities, they all found an outlet in the discotheques.
1) Gays were the first. They first came to The Loft, which David Manusco opened in New York, and then to The Gallery and Paradise Garage. After the countercultural revolution of the 1960s, there was a relatively greater acceptance of gay people in the media, who were even legally given some freedoms in New York in 1971.
2) Then the Latin Americans of New York (mostly Puerto Ricans and Cubans) tried the taste of disco, who brought their dancing traditions of Latin dances of the 1950s to the dance floors. American popular culture largely abandoned couples' close embrace dances in 1960 when the twist changed the dynamics of social dancing. But Latino dancers in New York never stopped pair dancing, in part because Latinos have historically preferred pair dances over solo dances.
3) What about the music in 1972. If now a person were to send a discotheque of the early seventies with the help of some kind of time machine, he would be surprised to hear that everyone dances only to pop, soul and motown - the music of the sixties. Then in 1973, New York brought new sounds brought from Africa - "Soul Makossa", a Manu Dibango single that energized the Manhattan disco scene. new energy. It was stunningly different from anything else at the time - a repetitive motif without a melody, a plot in the lyrics and with a constant rhythm. These new sounds were soon complemented by a larger Philly-style orchestral version, funk beats, and the next generation of soul and motown. Combining together, it became the definitive music of the disco era.
Development and spread of dance
Thus, it can be said that the original disco subculture was a fusion of fun city party, Latino-supported dance, and African-American music. Disco dancing then quickly spread to Europe and parts of Asia.
It sometimes seems strange that more than a million white Americans from major cities and suburbs flocked to discos that were originally a haven for gays, blacks and Hispanics. But in fact, everything is simple. The main element of the disco scene was sophistication, which meant a desire to see oneself as an evolved person. The message of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s was covered endlessly in the press, replicated in hundreds of popular songs, and glamorized in dozens of films. By 1976 he had moved to the working class. Rural dances began to be considered unsophisticated. Also around 1970, the term "homophobia" appeared, which was considered pejorative. Like suburbanites, blue-collar workers liked the idea that they were developing and "above it." During the disco era of the 70s, dancers were criticized for seeking superficial pleasures, but it was also a time of tolerance for dissent—more so than in subsequent decades.
New freedoms were also expressed on the dance floor. It could be self-expression through solo dances or a reflection of the many shades of the sexual revolution played out in disco dances, which often emphasized sexuality, as well as accompanied by explicitly sexual lyrics.
Like most other fads, disco was also a way of being modern. In addition to modernity, it also featured futurism, a staple of the disco scene. Everything was ultra-modern, from the design of the club to brand new models wearing new synthetic polyester fabrics.
Electronic synthesized dance music entered disco in the late 70s as it was ideal for modern sound systems with their gigantic subwoofers the size of minivans, high tech lighting, fog machines, computer multimedia visual effects, animated neon effects and multicolor lasers.
The dancers felt that disco was the whole movement. But it was the original disco before it became just a fad. The underground phase of disco lasted quite a long time - eight years - much longer than the second phase of super-popularity, which lasted only 2 years. During these 2 years, the number of dance clubs increased from 1,500 to 45,000. But soon "disco fever" became a "whim of last year", and by 1980 it was declared dead.
Disco dance
During the 1960s, New York Hispanics, mostly Puerto Ricans and Cubans, maintained their teenage tradition of "bendstand" swing, which was popular in the 1950s. Basically, they danced it after church meetings at St. Mary's in the Bronx and elsewhere. Such traditions have survived in part because, among Latin Americans, couple dances have always been considered masculine. When the disco scene blossomed in New York in 1970, couple dancing was revived, and the first dancers in the disco were Latin Americans.
The term "Latin hustle" therefore refers to the Latinos of New York who still performed these dances, not because it was a dance of Latino origin. The structure, step patterns, and rhythms of the disco hustle are essentially the same as the jitterbug and bop danced by American teenagers in the 1950s and forgotten in the next decade. However, the music was new.
During the disco era, there were both couples and solo dances, but the popularity of both has fluctuated over the course of the decade. For the first eight years, disco dances were mostly dances for couples, but this changed in 1978. As Maria Torres, a New York City disco dancer, said, “The thing that really killed pair dancing was Saturday Night Fever. Disco was originally an underground dance mostly danced by Hispanics, blacks and gays. They were outstanding performers, but it was all done essentially underground. Then, when Saturday Night Fever came out, a lot of people started flocking to the clubs to experience what they saw in the film. But what they thought was 'hustle' was freestyle by John Travolta."
The original script for "Saturday Night Fever" involved only couples dancing, as was done at the 2001 Odyssey Club in the story. But John Travolta believed that the solo dance better developed the character trait. storyline and insisted that the script be changed so that he could freestyle dance. Travolta said: “They based this film on the fact that the main character was the best dancer. So I had to prove to the audience that the hero is the best dancer.” It is unlikely that Travolta knew that this altered scene would change the dynamics of dancing in a disco.
Another reason for the increase in the number of freestyle solo dances in more later years it became that in society at that time it "became fashionable" to drink a lot of alcohol. Within just one year, 44,000 new disco clubs appeared. This was partly because alcohol sales were so lucrative that clubs developed new ways to encourage drinking. Couple dancing required considerable skill (and sobriety), while freestyle could easily be performed while intoxicated.
Source Wikipedia and 4dancing.ru
Disco is a bright holiday that plunges you into a state of sweet love. A dance that gives a feeling of freedom and breaks away from everyday routine
dance and musical style Disco is perhaps the most popular trend in pop culture of the last century. The history of this genre begins around the mid-70s simultaneously in the US and Europe. The American disco style has absorbed the traditions and sound of funk and soul. The European direction of disco inherited the characteristic tendencies of traditional pop music and intertwined with new trends in pop music.
The history of disco
The year of birth of the new clockwork dance is considered to be 1974. It happened significant event in the clubs of New York, and a few years later, a real disco boom swept the whole of America. Almost simultaneously, disco, moving across the ocean, conquered Europe, and later the Soviet Union. IN THE USSR new dance penetrated from two sides at once - from the west from America and from the east from India, where the film "Disco Dancer" was filmed, which gained extraordinary popularity in the Soviet Union.
In 1977, the movie "Saturday Night Fever" with John Travolta in the title role was released in the United States. This picture clearly shows the life of a real disco fan, who on the dance floor forgot about all life's troubles and hardships.
At the origins European style the disco groups were "Abba" and "Boney M", which had perhaps the greatest fame in the history of pop music. Producers and composers contributed to the spread and popularization of the new style.
The heyday of the style falls on the eighties of the last century. He has not lost relevance even now. Every year in Russia, the Disco 80s festival is held, to which domestic and foreign stars are invited.
What is disco?
The roots of the disco style can be traced back to the funk and soul movements that absorbed the Negro music and dance culture. The main features of disco are "live" and electronic processing of music and a fast pace, from 120 beats per minute, which is twice the human heart rate.
The enchanting popularity of disco lies in the simplicity of basic movements, the absence of strict rules and requirements, and the possibility of improvisation. In disco, you can show your individuality, demonstrate your own original movements, show your skills. The dance is performed in discos in large companies.
Characteristic features of the discos of the eighties were flickering effects, mirrored walls and mirrored spinning balls, flashing lights, strobe lights. All this environment contributed to the growth of the popularity of disco and its entry into fashion.
Types of disco
The most popular types of disco are:
- Mellow disco - slow, lyrical disco, at a pace of 95-110 beats per minute.
- Hustle is an American form of disco. This pair dance, which can be danced in discos with any partner, to any music, in any, even the smallest, space. Over time, the hustle absorbed movements from many Latin American dances and stood out as an independent style.
- Eurodisco is a disco style common in Europe and the USSR. In turn, eurodisco is divided into subspecies, the most popular of which are Hi-NRG and ItaloDisco. C.Catch, Samantha Fox, Kylie Minogue, Sabrina, Sandra, Modern Talking, Pet Shop Boys, Bad Boys Blue and others were prominent representatives of Eurodisco that gained worldwide popularity.
The disco style is popular and loved even now. Not only representatives of the older generation, who "lit up" at the discos in the eighties, during the peak of the popularity of disco, but also young people listen and dance disco with pleasure.
