Disco at 50: Stayin’ Alive — and Still Influential

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

It was derided for years as danceable detritus. But some 50 years later, disco is finally getting the respect it deserves. Vintage dance tracks can be heard in supermarkets, on planes, at the theater — yes, that is a song from The Ethel Merman Disco Album playing before the Broadway hit Oh, Mary!

This glittery music genre that shot to popularity in the ’70s, only to face a harsh “disco sucks” backlash, is now appreciated for all its thump-thump glory. Would you really want to go to a high school reunion and not hear Donna Summer’s “Last Dance”?

This mainstream acceptance was not expected when disco started about five decades ago, in the early ’70s. Sure, Summer, Gloria Gaynor, 82, and the Village People eventually scored monster hits, but at its origins, this was just high-energy music, then called “danceable R&B,” meant to be played in safe spaces where marginalized groups — people of color, women, gay men — gathered to have fun together. Diversity danced beneath the disco ball.

Disco was surging in popularity in 1975 and ’76, with such chart hits as Silver Convention’s “Fly, Robin, Fly,” Vicki Sue Robinson’s “Turn the Beat Around” and Andrea True Connection’s “More, More, More.”

The following year, the mirror ball really got spinning. The feature film Saturday Night Fever premiered in December 1977, making a superstar out of a white-polyester-clad John Travolta, now 78, and getting the country boogying to the Bee Gees. (I saw the English-Aussie superstars at Madison Square Garden in September 1979 — I still have my ticket stub!) Earlier that year, a Newsweek cover story headlined “Disco Takes Over” estimated that 20,000 discotheques had opened in the U.S. My local club was the Strawberry Patch in Wayne, New Jersey, and you bet I went to its alcohol-free “teen disco” events every Sunday afternoon. It seemed like this party would never end.

But disco’s downfall began when a Chicago shock jock staged a radio promotion called “Disco Demolition Night” at a baseball doubleheader in July 1979. More than 50,000 people showed up and started a riot. Rock critics, most of whom had discounted disco all along, felt vindicated by its supposed demise (although the music kept going strong in Europe and Australia). It would be decades before they admitted that disco had, in fact, laid the groundwork for new wave and hip-hop.

As we celebrate a half-century of disco, it’s time to realize that disco never really died. It just went into hiding for a while, assuming different names like house music, techno and EDM (electronic dance music). And many of today’s young pop stars proudly incorporate disco beats into their hit songs. Harry Styles’ latest album, for instance, is called Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. As a current T-shirt philosophy puts it: “Disco doesn’t suck. You just can’t dance.” There are lessons to help with that. Only now, instead of at Arthur Murray, they’re on TikTok.

(From left) Disco fashion included jumpsuits, wide-lapel suits with dagger collars, dressing way up, peacock style and halter tops.   AARP (From left: Bert Stern/Conde Nast via Getty Images; Photo Media/Classicstock/Getty Images; ClassicStock/Alamy Stock Photo; Eugene Adebari/Shutterstock; Alamy Stock Photo)

The clothes we wore: iconic disco fashion trends

Jumpsuits. “A full-body jumpsuit in a stretch synthetic works like a leotard — which we also saw on dance floors — in how it molds to the body and creates a lean silhouette,” Abrego says.

Dressing up. “Dresses ranged in length, but we saw a lot of flowing, fluid skirts that showcased movement. Lots of uneven hemlines and flounced edges with high slits,” says Abrego.

‘Peacock’ looks for men. This meant more colorful menswear: bright prints and patterns. Flared pants, half-buttoned shirts, higher heels and medallions were popular looks.

Halter tops. These are “a style that is easy to wear and adjusts to fit while still being revealing. It makes sense with the more body-conscious styles of the time,” says Abrego.

Wide-lapel suits/dagger collars.  Dagger collars on men’s shirts were another go-to. “That is borrowing straight out of 1930s aesthetics, but repackaged” for the era, according to Abrego.

Platform shoes.  This look started with rock stars. “By the time you get to disco, it was becoming more acceptable for guys to bring that into their wardrobes on the weekend,” Abrego says.   —Maisy Fernandez

From left) The music of Nile Rodgers’ Chic, Harry Wayne Casey of KC and The Sunshine Band and Thelma Houston made them dance-floor legends.  AARP (From left: Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy, Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images, Andrew Stiles)

The hitmakers we boogied to in the ’70s look back

Nile Rodgers, 73, of Chic

Hits include “Le Freak” (1978), “Good Times” (1979)

Q: Was disco revolutionary?

A: It was super revolutionary. It was a celebration of movements in the activist community. Our world was about women’s rights, gay rights, equal rights for people of color and societal ills we wanted to correct.

Q: In 1980, Chic stopped having hit singles. But you stayed on the charts by writing, producing or playing with other artists, from Diana Ross and David Bowie to Madonna and Daft Punk. Does that mean disco never died?

A:   Disco, as a movement, died, but dance music will never go away — it makes you want to move. Disco is alive in me, for sure. And not just me. I played “Le Freak” with Dua Lipa last year at Madison Square Garden. She started crying. It was amazing to see an artist of that caliber so moved by hearing a band play a song.   —Interview by Rob Tannenbaum (R.T.)

Harry Wayne Casey, 75, of KC and the Sunshine Band

Q: Did you intend for “Shake Your Booty” to be a song of encouragement?

A: Yes. “Don’t fight the feelin’ / Give yourself a chance.” Have a good time! Give yourself a chance to enjoy life.

Q: Do you think the ubiquity of   Saturday Night Fever   in 1977 helped create the backlash against disco?

A: It wasn’t any different than when everyone went after Elvis Presley or the Beatles. Disco was such a strong change in the direction of music that it was threatening to other people. The backlash was about rockers feeling like their music was being taken away.   —R.T.

Thelma Houston, 80

Hits include “Don’t Leave Me This Way” (1976), “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning” (1978)

Q: The biggest hit of your career was a disco song, but you’re not really a disco singer, are you?

A: I’m not. But when “Don’t Leave Me This Way” came out, people associated me with the disco era. That’s where I’ve been ever since, according to people’s beliefs.

Q: Disco had the reputation of being a producer’s medium rather than a singer’s medium.

A: It did, and when every single song started to sound the same, that ruined it. I recently did a gig with the Trammps, A Taste of Honey and Rose Royce, and these people still sound good! It wasn’t like everybody who sang disco was not a good performer or singer.

Q: I’ve seen videos, and your voice still sounds great.

A: That’s because I didn’t party all the time back in the ’70s! Plus, I still do vocal exercises with a teacher, because I want to keep doing this.   —R.T.

(From left) Disco endures in the music of Doja Cat, Lady Gaga, Will Smith, Sabrina Carpenter and Madonna; Diana Ross started as a Supreme, ended up a disco queen.  AARP (From left: Noam Galai/Getty Images for Global Citizen; Alamy Stock Photo; Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic/Getty Images; Alamy Stock Photo; Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for AEG; Alamy Stock Photo; Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)

And the beat just keeps going on

Disco continues to shape-shift and evolve to this day. “Disco is all-pervasive as a subterranean force going into every other kind of music,” says Michaelangelo Matos, author of   The Underground Is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America.   We can chart disco’s influence through every decade.

’80s   Disco in the clubs morphed into an electronic genre called house. It also found a new home in pop music, but without the D-word; Michael Jackson (“Thriller”), Diana Ross (“Upside Down”) and Madonna (“Lucky Star”) released disco-inspired songs.

’90s   Rap pulled from the past. Listen to Will Smith’s “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” and you’ll also hear Sister Sledge. Tim Zawada, owner of Chicago record label Star Creature, calls it a “constant whirlwind of things being discovered, reinterpreted and sampled.”

Spot the disco icons: Bianca Jagger, Thelma Houston, KC and the Sunshine Band, Steve Rubell, Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Sylvester, John Travolta, Gloria Gaynor, Chic, Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli, ABBA, Village People and Grace Jones. See key below.   1 Bianca Jagger: Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images; 2 Thelma Houston: Courtesy Everett Collection; 3 KC and the Sunshine Band: Alamy Stock Photo; 4 Steve Rubell: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images; 5 Bee Gees: Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock; 6 Donna Summer: HA/Cinema Publishers/The Hollywood/Shutterstock; 7 Sylvester: Alamy Stock Photo; 8 John Travolta as Tony Manero: Alamy

2000s/2010s   Into the 21st century, artists like Lady Gaga and Kesha started practicing a sort of modern disco. And artists across genres such as rap (Nicki Minaj), country (Kacey Musgraves) and R&B (Usher) experimented with their own disco-infused tracks.

2020s   Dua Lipa, Doja Cat and Sabrina Carpenter have released danceable tracks that in an earlier era might have been called disco. “It’s so common that I don’t think people really give it much thought anymore,” Zawada says.   —Britt Julious

Frank DeCaro is a former contributor to   The Daily Show  and the author of   Disco: Music, Movies, and Mania Under the Mirror Ball .