Why was disco so successful?

Answer 1

Well, the first reason that popped into my head was "drugs," but I don't think that was the reason. After all, the 60s were wrought with drug use and the music that came out of that decade wasn't nearly as bad as disco. I think that the music of the 60s is the reason disco was so successful. After an era of social and political unrest the mainstream was ready for something up beat and happy. (Just like the popularity of Hootie and the Blowfish after grunge). It didn't take long - thank goodness - for people to realize that disco actually does suck.

Answer 2

Disco was not so much a style as a culture. The music provided an environment that allowed people of multi cultures and sexual preferrences to come together and interact. The music was styled to a generic beat regardless of the nature of the song. Sometimes a little faster, sometimes a little slower.

People were free to just be themselves and "Freak freely" on the dancefloor. The dances were fairly simple so that no matter if both your feet were "left" there was still a place on the dancefloor for you at the party.

On the other side there were dancers who lived to master the art. They came to the disco to "Shine". Maybe they were bank tellers or Store girls by day, but when the sun went down, they were kings and queens at the Disco. It sounds silly now, but Disco was a way of life.

I always have to laugh when people talk about how "Disco died". Disco has never died, it just changed with the times, and became the next dance.

Before it was Disco, it was Motwon, The Twist, The mashed Potato (so I'm told :) ). Now its Hip Hop, R & B, Rap. See, Disco isn't just something that happened in mid 1970, It's the beat and Dance. The next time you are out at a club, or just hanging out with friends and dancing or singing along to your favorite songs, That's what "Disco" was about.

Answer 3

Disco represented the 1970's contribution of the African-American music scene to white pop music (just as Motown contributed in the 50's and 60's and jazz and the blues contributed before then). The civil rights movement of the 60's brought black culture more into the mainstream, and disco was the major contribution during this period (there were disco clubs in the early 70's but they were mainly African-American clubs). The gay rights movement also began to take off in the 70's, and disco was extremely popular in the early 70's amongst the gay community (the Village People being by far the most famous example). Mainstream white disco clubs didn't start showing up in large numbers until the mid-to-late 70's, driven by the popularity of the Bee Gees and Saturday Night Fever. So the popularity of disco can be explained by the long-standing tradition of white popular music borrowing from the African-American music scene.

I guess after the 60's people just wanted to have a good time, and nobody ever listened to disco for a message other than having a good time. The drugs probably didn't hurt either.

Answer 4

Look at the time of the rise of disco…the winding down of the 60’s, end of the Vietnam War. The turmoil of the sixties was over, people needed to mellow out. The whole disco scene was an escape from all the strife from the decade before…

Note that the music crossed over where it didn’t before, every artist did a disco track. Years before disco would have been more “black or ethnic music”. But we had big rock and pop acts like the Bee Gees and Rod Stewart making hit disco songs…

So it doesn’t matter if you liked the music the clothes or the drugs, the fact that the people were so much more accepting of each other at that time is the point. People were willing to try new things. Instead of fighting for the right to experiment in the 60’s, they actually had the opportunity to express themselves in the ‘70’s (no matter how bad the clothes were, you have to admire the mindset to have the guts to wear some of the stuff they did).

Disco was successful because it didn’t exclude anyone, it was just there and you run what ya brung, so to speak. Doesn’t matter what you were sporting, or the color of your skin…if you were black, white, Latino, big hair, afros, bell bottoms, platform shoes, leisure suits and wide lapels or just some regular jeans, it was all good.

Its hard not to be popular when everyone’s included and no one is excluded….Disco was fun, dancing is fun.

Looking for a club with a good disco night as we speak…

Answer 5

Speaking as a '70s child', (13 yrs old to 23 yrs old during during the 70s, so was right in the midst of all the confusion) disco was successful because it was something new and different. It wasn't liked by everyone...there seemed to be two or three groups - one was the rock/pop bunch and the other was the disco/fluff gang, and the other the folkie-types. However, even some of the rockers felt disco was cool for dancing, but only dancing. Disco couldn't be just listened to (still think it can't), whereas rock is more just for listening and 'grooving' as the saying goes (and that's been around a long time!). All disco required was the continuous bump-bump-bump beat, add a few cool instruments, and hopefully someone who had a powerful voice (and looked real cool in their sequins!) It can be asked, why was punk and grunge so successful in the 80s, the garage bands and hip-hop in 90s, and now what is it - total rap, etc. Each generation or era seeks change, and it will always evolve somehow. Now hopefully, this wasn't perceived as all JIVE TALK, 'cause I've got to find the mirror ball and my platforms to 'GET DOWN TONIGHT'...also to ROCK ON, MAN and oh, PEACE AND FAR OUT! Thanks for (making me feel 'older') the memories...

Answer 6

Disco has a beat that moves the soul. When you get into the music it lifts you to a different place. The influence of electronic keyboards created a new sound and had the ability to bring alive sounds which were difficult to produce before that time.

The dances were also a large reason for the popularity. Line dancing is still popular today (as it was hundreds of years ago), but at the time it was something most everyone could do, no matter what their dance ability was. Many people like the feeling of being able to join in. The discos (Now called clubs) were places you could go and see people and meet people. They were open late and people could get a since of comfort from seeing the same people when they went.

Lastly, listen to the words of a disco song. Most every one is about something happy, a party, a good time. When you spend your time listening to good positive vibes, you can't help but picking up on some of that. When you find something that makes you feel good you want to go back to it over and over. That is why disco was so successful.

Answer 7

It was the lights , it was the sound , it was the clothes, it was the silly lyrics, it was fun ! Remember Disco Duck ? It was a lifestyle ! The movies, the marketing, the Disco Clubs...... At the time it was cool but by 1980-81 it was uncool ! Every 5 years has a "new rage , type or genre, whatever you wanna call it . 40's was Jazz Blues and big Bands , 50's was Bee Bop and Rock and roll, 60's was (If you can remember anything about the 60's) Rock developing into hard and PSYcHOdELiC rock, 70's was hard , acid rock and Disco , 80's was back to rock, punk rock and the 90's was hip hop and rap and new country even got into the act! . It rolls and fluctuates. Disco was a genre , a phase that we went through ! I was a closet Disco Duck ! On the Outside it was Stevie Miller and Boston ! On the Inside it was the Bee Gees !

My 20 year old son LOVES Disco ! It will be back !

Answer 8

The original question was what made disco so great. Well, being in my prime during that era I can tell you that disco sucked!! I do realize that all music is subjective but I'll tell you why I feel this way. First, disco only last 4 years at most. It was started mainly by a famous Scientologist with the last name of Travolta. The next big thing the "Urban Cowboy" phenomenon was also started by him as well. You could say it was disco in cowboy boots.

Getting into why I hated disco was the climate it was created in. The 15 years before it was one of naive "social awareness" and "self actualization" which was far from perfect but along came disco and it was like society did a 4 year Vegas trip with an unlimited cocaine budget. Cocaine was everywhere and the path from pseudo intellectualism to out and out hedonism and social decay was almost instantaneous.

Like today, the success of the music was based on the drug or the day and like I said cocaine was that drug. Look at the music scene we're starting to emerge from and the drug of today is ecstacy. Both drugs make you feel good and want to "love your neighbor" but take away the disco ball and the light sticks and what have you got? An endless 4/4 tape loop of idiocy and an addiction that will kill you!!

Answer 9

Because it was so different from what had come before. After all the protest songs in the 1960s, and the overly sensitive singer-songwriter stuff in the early 1970s, by 1975 people were ready for something different. Disco certainly fit the bill - it was upbeat, and didn't have an axe to grind.

Not to mention that the rhythm of it was great to "get it on" to! Remember, this was before AIDS became known, so "free love" was commonplace. This may explain why disco vanished quickly in the early 80s, only to resurface a few years later as "dance music". Gay men were always a huge part of the disco scene, and when AIDS came along, anything even remotely related to gays was no longer cool. The music hasn't really gone away - you can find it labeled "techno", "electronica", as well as the "dance" tag I mentioned earlier. Whatever it's called, it's still here, though it's not on the radio or selling as much as it did in the 70s.

Answer 10

You have to put disco into the content of the time period. The Beatles just broke up and no one wanted to listen to folk music. The country was in a inflationary recession. And shows like Love Boat, Fantacy Island, Chips and Charlies Angels was on TV. People needed something to do on Friday nights. You could shop all week for the latest disco styes and show it off on the weekend. Not to mention it was a good workout. Bill Gates was still a acne faced teenager, There was no home PC, internet or ipods, HD TV and cell phones resibled a block of plastic with an antenna sticking out. The war is over in veitnam and people wanted to party, lots of pot and cocaine and reason to use it, no drug testing at work. You can't talk about Disco without mentioning The BeeGees. They were the sound that changed everything. They were the only group at that time to sell more records then the Beatles. Want to know what Disco was like? Download Beegees to you ipod and listen to it for a day and you will know. O, and by the way don't judge Disco by the movies, look at all the movies with the story line about the music of the time the movie was made. i,e Flashdance, DirtyDancing, all the Micheal Jackson Videos, Jesus Christ Super Star. Try downloading alittle Beegees and you will know why Disco was big.

Answer 11

In the late '70's, several different things emerged all at the same time to contribute to the culture and made it a success.

First, the musicians playing funk and Philly Soul decided to drop their pretense of "message music" pioneers like Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield and write songs more dance-floor friendly.

Next came the first steps out of the shadows of the American Gay community. A slow growth curve can be traced from the Stonewall riots of 1969 to the peak of disco. Sadly, this peak led to the valley of AIDS in the early '80's for many in the gay community.

Musically, there was the general exhaustion being expressed with progressive rock, with some listeners heading to the disco and some leaning towards punk rock. People were getting tired of long hair, beards and 20-minute songs.

Then, what's a cultural phenomenon without a drug of choice? The drug in this instance was cocaine, which was used at unprecedented levels during the disco era.

By the time "Saturday Night Fever" became a dual hit on movie screens and the radio, the die had already been cast on so many front and disco enjoyed a three-year run, which is roughly about the life span of early rock and roll, acid rock, new wave, hair metal and grunge.

Disco wasn't the first flash in the pan, and it more than likely won't be the last.