DISCO

Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged and characterized urban nightlife during the late 1960s in the United States. The name “disco” is the abbreviation of “discotheque”, where this type of music was mostly played and danced. Disco started as a mixture of music from African Americans, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Italian Americans and LGBT people in Philadelphia and New York City.

Disco sounds are characterized by a beat-driven style, and it was principally a form of dance music. Disco songs are characterized by a fast tempo, four-on-the-floor rhythms, energetic guitar sounds, syncopated bass sounds, orchestral arrangements, vocals with reverb, chorus structure. The lyrics are often about love. Disco was principally a form of dance music. Several dance styles developed during the period of disco's popularity in the United States and all over Europe in the 1970s until the late 1980s.

Films such as Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Thank God It's Friday (1978) contributed to disco's popularity.

The typical instruments of disco are vocals, the electric guitar, the bass guitar, the keyboard, the synthesizer, the drums, the orchestra, the electric rhythm guitars.

Well-known disco artists include Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, the Bee Gees, Chic, KC and the Sunshine Band, Thelma Houston, Sister Sledge, The Trammps, the Village People and Michael Jackson.