Here's how I would break down the various "eras" of Disco music.  I'll add the caveat that my perspective is not based on specific fact or expertise, but as someone who lived attentively through it.  See what you think:

1970-Early 1974 "Pre Disco" era- in this post-60s shaped era, Disco was not part of the vocabulary.  No one would have predicted what it would become, either.  Yet in certain songs and artists, the strains that became the hallmarks of Disco were emerging.  Electronic/synthesizer-heavy sounds along with Philly Soul, certain Motown, Funk, and independent artists like Barry White made a strong suggestion of a sound to come.

1974-Mid 1975 "Disco Youth" era - at this time, Disco emerged as a brand new sound, but it wasn't necessarily well defined.  Most Disco was still coming from artists classified R&B or Soul, although other artists started catching on to it.  People weren't using the term "Disco" at this time, but the term started being tossed about.  On American Bandstand, many of the songs were described as having "a nice beat and good to dance to", and that attribute was rapidly increasing in popularity.

Mid 1975-Mid 1977 "Disco Viable" era - by this time, Disco was a known quantity, people were accustomed to it and it coexisted nicely with the other music styles that were popular then.  At this time, quite a few "Disco-only" artists emerged and cluttered the music landscape.  Disco began coming from artists of different styles and was no longer limited to Soul/R&B type artists.  This was the time experiments where Disco was blended with other styles was popular, sometimes with good results but often not.

Mid 1977-Mid 1979 "Disco Rules" era - during this period, Disco became so overwhelmingly popular that it dominated the popular music landscape, to the chagrin of some.  Artists whose output was anything besides Disco were relegated to second class, and either suffered or adjusted their style to fit.  It was Saturday Night Fever and Fame and Everybody Dance.  This is the time when established Rock artists began outputting Disco-style tunes just to continue getting airplay.  It was this musical climate and the increasing backlash that led to, among other things, the 1979 Disco demolition event in Chicago.

Mid 1979-End 1980 "Disco Wanes" era - even as strong as Disco was at the beginning, it became clear that it couldn't go on forever.  Established Disco artists were still punching out hits, but with decreasing success.  Artists who "sold out" to Disco were finding new music avenues opening up - and jumping in full steam.  The New Wave era (as not yet named) had begun, which was different enough from Disco to not take the major Disco players along.  And so Disco fizzled.  The era ends.

Comments, anyone?

Well written. :)

I'm more a casual fan of Disco, sounds like you know it better than me. But I agree with all that - I'd say 1975-'81 was definitely Disco influenced in some way, even as late as 1983. Though it totally peaked and is best known for the Studio 54 era, c. 1977.

It was also IMO, the first genre to widely feature artists "updating their sound to fit with the trends".

8) I remember Disco well......My dad took me to see Sat Night Fever..I was hooked..for awhile..The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Those skin tight pants Sandy wore in Grease..( what were they called??)...of course Candies high heels to dance in...And the song " Disco Duck"...we used to listen to it on the bus...

You know, despite all the flack Disco (especially the fashion associated with it) gets, many of its key songs were an influence on various forms of '80s dance and urban music, IMO. Oh, sure, it looked a world away, and was the butt of jokes by 1982, but I just listened to "Disco Inferno" yesterday. It's got synthesizers, for instance, and doesn't sound "old" per se.

Also, on the other end of it, I'd say "Celebration" from early 1981, iis the last true Disco song.

You know, despite all the flack Disco (especially the fashion associated with it) gets, many of its key songs were an influence on various forms of '80s dance and urban music, IMO. Oh, sure, it looked a world away, and was the butt of jokes by 1982, but I just listened to "Disco Inferno" yesterday. It's got synthesizers, for instance, and doesn't sound "old" per se.

Also, on the other end of it, I'd say "Celebration" from early 1981, iis the last true Disco song.


What seemed to happen to disco was the transformation into the "Hi-NRG" dance sound of say, "Drop a Bomb on Me" or Sylvester, which did survive into 1982 or so. This got combined with the sound of Duran Duran's "Hungry Like a Wolf" and the Human League's "Don't You Want Me" to make the dance-pop sound popularized by Madonna.

Disco was much more "cool" and "innovative" around mid-1979 than ever before. A song like "Good Times" is one of the main influences on "black" music and dance-pop since 1980...even listening to something by Rihanna or Sean Paul today you can hear its influence. The same goes for "Ring My Bell", "We Are Family", or "Bad Girls", the latter being my personal favorite disco song of all time.

A song like "Celebration" was almost a return to the disco of the mid-'70s, in being more mild and less out there than the full-on hedonistic disco of '79, like "More More More" by Andrea True, which is often said to be the first disco hit. Disco turned into rap, dance-pop, and even new wave, and so never died, the way punk never died. You could even argue it was the most momentous wave of change in popular music since the Beatles hit in '64, starting "classic rock"...it was something totally new that everything that came afterwards carried and carries its indelible influence.

Before 'Disco' music swept into mass-popularity (and ubiquity) in the mid to late 70s, the term was of course used to denote Discoteques - which is just a fancy name for a nightclub where music is played for folks to dance to. Anyway, I'm no disco historian (let alone a music historian), but I generally consider the bonafide disco period from about Saturday Night Fever in 1976 (there were a few novelty disco hits in 74-75 like Disco Tex and Sexolette's 'Get Dancing') to the advent of New Wave. It was interesting how disco coincided with punk in the late 70s and sort of fused to form New Wave in places like New York.

Before 'Disco' music swept into mass-popularity (and ubiquity) in the mid to late 70s, the term was of course used to denote Discoteques - which is just a fancy name for a nightclub where music is played for folks to dance to. Anyway, I'm no disco historian (let alone a music historian), but I generally consider the bonafide disco period from about Saturday Night Fever in 1976 (there were a few novelty disco hits in 74-75 like Disco Tex and Sexolette's 'Get Dancing') to the advent of New Wave. It was interesting how disco coincided with punk in the late 70s and sort of fused to form New Wave in places like New York.


Disco was creeping in during the mid-'70s out of the basement dance clubs and gay clubs in New York where it started, to produce hits like "The Hustle", "More More More", etc. SNF was late '77, by the way. I think disco's popularity really peaked in mid-'79, which is, IMO, when the best disco songs came out.

Both disco and new wave came out of the New York underground scene...just different facets of it. Disco came out of the gay, black, Latin, and Italian-American clubs, whereas new wave grew out of the downtown arts scene. 

What seemed to happen to disco was the transformation into the "Hi-NRG" dance sound of say, "Drop a Bomb on Me" or Sylvester, which did survive into 1982 or so. This got combined with the sound of Duran Duran's "Hungry Like a Wolf" and the Human League's "Don't You Want Me" to make the dance-pop sound popularized by Madonna.

Disco was much more "cool" and "innovative" around mid-1979 than ever before. A song like "Good Times" is one of the main influences on "black" music and dance-pop since 1980...even listening to something by Rihanna or Sean Paul today you can hear its influence. The same goes for "Ring My Bell", "We Are Family", or "Bad Girls", the latter being my personal favorite disco song of all time.

A song like "Celebration" was almost a return to the disco of the mid-'70s, in being more mild and less out there than the full-on hedonistic disco of '79, like "More More More" by Andrea True, which is often said to be the first disco hit. Disco turned into rap, dance-pop, and even new wave, and so never died, the way punk never died. You could even argue it was the most momentous wave of change in popular music since the Beatles hit in '64, starting "classic rock"...it was something totally new that everything that came afterwards carried and carries its indelible influence.

I agree. Would you say it evolved into some of the urban/streetwise R&B from the early '80s? "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" by the Gap Band, for example. Even the glossier pop crossover R&B had some influence of Disco, like "Caribbean Queen" by Billy Ocean.

Yeah, I guess "Celebration" was more back to basics. I think at that time, nobody knew what direction music was ultimately going in (btw, the preMTV, postDisco period is one of the most fascinating times to me, I try to research it as much as I can). They didn't know if Disco was just going through a rough stage or dying, which probably explains the more laid back Disco feel of 1980 and early '81 songs.

I was debating with myself recently about what the beginning of the true musical "generations" are. Elvis and the basic teen culture explosion, c. 1955 definitely is one. As is 1964 with the Beatles, 1981 with MTV (or '83 with Thriller), and c. 1992 with Nirvana and grunge. Do you think Disco c. 1976 should be included in there too? Even if being only about 6 or 7 years before MTV really took off is a little too short for an actual different musical generation.


P.S. I think my favorite Disco songs (not counting the crossovers like "Miss You" or "Heart of Glass") are the synth/dance ones like "Macho Man" and "Disco Inferno".

I agree. Would you say it evolved into some of the urban/streetwise R&B from the early '80s? "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" by the Gap Band, for example. Even the glossier pop crossover R&B had some influence of Disco, like "Caribbean Queen" by Billy Ocean.

Yeah, I guess "Celebration" was more back to basics. I think at that time, nobody knew what direction music was ultimately going in (btw, the preMTV, postDisco period is one of the most fascinating times to me, I try to research it as much as I can). They didn't know if Disco was just going through a rough stage or dying, which probably explains the more laid back Disco feel of 1980 and early '81 songs.

I was debating with myself recently about what the beginning of the true musical "generations" are. Elvis and the basic teen culture explosion, c. 1955 definitely is one. As is 1964 with the Beatles, 1981 with MTV (or '83 with Thriller), and c. 1992 with Nirvana and grunge. Do you think Disco c. 1976 should be included in there too? Even if being only about 6 or 7 years before MTV really took off is a little too short for an actual different musical generation.


P.S. I think my favorite Disco songs (not counting the crossovers like "Miss You" or "Heart of Glass") are the synth/dance ones like "Macho Man" and "Disco Inferno".


I agree, c. late 1979-mid 1981, even to 1982, was an interesting period in music where no one knew what was happening. I personally think new wave peaked in '79 and '80, though, with artists like Elvis Costello, The Talking Heads, The Pretenders, Squeeze, etc. really releasing their best albums before the genre morphed into synth-pop and dance-pop with Duran Duran, ABC, The Human League, Spandau Ballet, Tears for Fears, New Order, etc. I think alot of people then were predicting a return to back-to-basics rock n' roll in general, with lots of '50s and early '60s nostalgia, like Hall and Oates, Pat Benatar, etc. It was a heavily nostalgic period in general for "older times", with the economic problems of the late Carter era and the general feel that America was going to end.

I don't think true urban music regained its mainstream energy until mid-1984, with "When Doves Cry", a big crossover hit that was still VERY edgy and sexual, as opposed to "Celebration", which was more toned-down and squeaky clean.

I agree, c. late 1979-mid 1981, even to 1982, was an interesting period in music where no one knew what was happening. I personally think new wave peaked in '79 and '80, though, with artists like Elvis Costello, The Talking Heads, The Pretenders, Squeeze, etc. really releasing their best albums before the genre morphed into synth-pop and dance-pop with Duran Duran, ABC, The Human League, Spandau Ballet, Tears for Fears, New Order, etc. I think alot of people then were predicting a return to back-to-basics rock n' roll in general, with lots of '50s and early '60s nostalgia, like Hall and Oates, Pat Benatar, etc. It was a heavily nostalgic period in general for "older times", with the economic problems of the late Carter era and the general feel that America was going to end.

I don't think true urban music regained its mainstream energy until mid-1984, with "When Doves Cry", a big crossover hit that was still VERY edgy and sexual, as opposed to "Celebration", which was more toned-down and squeaky clean.


Yeah I agree, that era was a little "uncertain" all around, especially before Reagan took office, music just reflected this. That and John Lennon's death was probably seen as another "end of an innocent era". If you took a random person off the street c. 1980 who was knowledgeable about music and asked them what they thought it would become, I'm sure they'd agree it would largely be retro/50s inspired/a return to a more "innocent" era (not just music even, but probably most areas of entertainment) - which actually ended up happening sorta, with the Culture Club era, c. 1983.

Alot of songs from this era were very "oldies" sounding, such as:

"What I Like About You" by the Romantics
"Cruel to Be Kind" by Nick Lowe
"Being With You" by Smokey Robinson
"Crazy Little Thing About Love" by Queen
"Ride Like the Wind" by Christopher Cross
"The Tide is High" by Blondie
"Working My Way Back to You" by the Spinners

I also agree, Pat Benatar and Hall and Oates, despite their '80s-ness and (slightly later on) ties to the MTV era, have a somewhat retro (50s/pre1967 '60s) pop/rock feel in much of their songs. For H&O especially, the Motown sound played a big part - Daryl has said the Temptations were as influential as The Beatles to him.


To further support this as a "looking back on/wanting to recreate old times" era, I recently found this old music documentary show on a VHS tape that my dad must've taped back in the day. I think it was from 1982. In a way it was like a prelude to MTV (it was called FM-TV ;) ) and had music videos, but equally featured documentaries and interviews with artists old and new. Really interesting show for a few reasons.

Anyway, there was a segment on The Beatles, talking about Lennon's death and things like the re-release of A Hard Day's Night getting alot of younger fans into them. They had this one guy on, a critic I believe, who said to the effect of, "It's ridiculous how much Beatles nostalgia there is here in 1981 and how obsessed we are with the past. There's nothing much going on now." If we're talking about the complete mainstream, in a way he was right, since that interview was just before MTV went on the air (and I don't think people really widely knew about it 'till the second half of 1982 anyway).

Although, as you've said, alot of the key new wave bands were making some of their best music around 1979/80 (even if it was a bit underground, still). I think the radio tends to be the last to cross over, since they play what they know is profitable/safe. That's why in the Top 40, there was some '70s holdovers as late as 1983. It took Thriller and MTV really blowing up to change that, IMO.

Also, Britain seemed to get the gyst of what the '80s was going to be much sooner than the US. Duran Duran and Culture Club were already big in '82 there, whereas it took until '83 for the "New Romantic"-style groups and synth pop to be successful in the US. To me, when new wave really became mainstream was when "Burning Down The House" was a big hit in '83, the Talking Heads having been the epicenter of the early New York new wave movement.