When did Disco begin and what began it? When did it end and what ended it?

Question

When did Disco begin and end and what events (songs?) began and ended it? Just curious of people's opinions.

Answer 1

Disco begin in the early 70s as a fusion of Soul and Funk musical styles, but really gained currency in the mid70s as a series of acts began releasing long, base driven dance "songs". What brought it to most people's attention was the release of Donna Summers' 11 minute orgasmic "Love to Love You Baby" in 1976.

What killed disco was the release of Supertramp's "Breakfast in America" in 1979 -- This album produced 3 Top 20 hits in North America and firmly dislodged the disco acts from chart dominance. Shrewd observers quickly noted the change in musical taste; even Donna Summer ditched Disco for her "Bad Girls" album, also released in 1979. Radio stations that hand changed from a Rock format to a Disco format began to change back by the summer of 79.

The rise of New Wave acts at roughly the same time that Supertramp was challenging for chart dominance gave younger people something to rally around, and within about 12 months, Disco was pretty much dead.

Answer 2

Disco became a Night Club draw during the summer of 1974. The group KC and the Sunshine Band had most of the early hits for club dancing. A whole new culture and dance style took off. With no cell phones or Laptops, people had time to dance and dance like never before. The real cure for obesity. The first discos were patterned after the roller skating rinks of the 50s and 60s. They even had 33 RPM records that were manually mixed by the sound guy. The term Disco came from the record disc that was played. Like any other age Disco exploded during the 70s with Saturday Night Fever. Many of the black soul artists of the early 70s changed there rhythm to disco. It should be noted that Classic Rock continued to be popular during this period. Discos started to change there format in the early 80's with Urban Cowboy and the flood of European New Age. Exercise left the Disco dance floor for the Health Club Meat Markets of the 1980's. Now it was fashionable to hit on a hottie in the Health Club and not the Disco Club. And now you know the rest of the story.

Answer 3

Jerry Butler’s 1969 "Only the Strong Survive"[1] may be the first instance of the combined musical elements which would later become disco music. This song brings together Philly and New York soul, both evolutions of the Motown sound. The Philly Sound is typified by lavish percussion.Manu Dibango's 1972 "Soul Makossa" is considered one of the early disco songs. However, the term disco was not coined until an article by Vince Aletti in the September 13th 1973 edition of Rolling Stone Magazine titled "Discotheque Rock '72: Paaaaarty!"

Music historians generally refer to July 12, 1979, as the "day disco died", because of an anti-disco demonstration that was held in Chicago. Rock station DJs Steve Dahl and Garry Meier, along with Michael Veeck, son of Bill Veeck, who was the owner of the Chicago White Sox, staged Disco Demolition Night, a promotional event with an anti-disco theme, between games at a White Sox doubleheader for disgruntled Rock fans. The event, which involved exploding disco records, ended in a riot in which police made numerous arrests. Because of serious damage to the field and stadium, the second game of the doubleheader had to be forfeited.

Answer 4

It grew out of early 70s soul which was moving away from Barry Gordy's Motown sound. Meanwhile white fans had gravitated to densely overproduced hard rock like Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd. When a palatable form of soul appeared, white teens and college age people celebrated taht it was "okay to dance again" and flocked to clubs featuring Bee Gees, ABBA, Van McCoy, Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer and others. The drug subculture of cocaine and quaaludes was also a big factor, just as Ecstacy is with the rave subculture of today.

It ended when it became a parody of itself, as Frank Zappa's "Dancing Fool" and other rockers parodied it as effeminate. There was a big anti-disco bash before a Cleveland Indians game in the late 70s. Buttons, t-shirts and bumper stickers with slogans like "Death to Disco," "Disco Sucks," and "No Disco" were increasingly seen.

Also the rise of punk and New Wave showed that the music could still have some integrity and be danceable, too. The rise of New Wave and the decline of disco were parallel.

Answer 5

Get all you need over at Wikipedia...

Answer 6

early 70's and coke started it
80's and coke ended it!