Disco: more than just platforms and John Travolta

Before I even begin this article, I know what people are going to say: disco? Really? Yes, really people. I am here today to convince you that disco was a revolution in itself, that promoted civil rights in the most glamorous and music-obsessed way. So, remove any preconceptions of bad cheesy remixes that even Eurovision would scorn at, and open up your mind to a world of free and funky life…

Firstly, I’m discussing the very essence of disco. The beginnings of a social movement in the late 1970s that saw the need to dance to new and exciting music combined with the need for freedom in sexuality and in race. Picture yourself in Manhattan in the early 1970s, tensions surrounding sexual and political liberties are present everywhere and to accommodate this is a night life that meshes everything together on the dance floor, one twisting hip at a time. The DJ is your Messiah whose every beat you follow, regardless of the direction. None of these fancy decks, the DJ is using his skills to time his transitions so perfectly that no dancer was put off rhythm. The drum beat pulls your hips and you sashay your way through every flowing orchestral melody and percussive Latin rhythms.  

In those small, over-capacitated clubs of the early 1970s, a new genre was born. Disco became the soundtrack to the social life of the era and offered the music industry a middle focus between rock and pop. It was something sexy and vibrant that’s success was determined by what music connected with the dancers. Tracks that blew up on the dance floor became instant hits for artists; M.F.S.B’s Love is the Message and The O’Jays’ I Love Music have to thank the dancers for the success of their records, and not to mention John Badham’s Saturday Night Fever which brought disco to the masses and rocketed this genre into mainstream madness.

But, was this the genre’s downfall? A revival of disco in the 1980s saw an attempt to rekindle the special moments of the ’70s but in an ostentatious manner, with Studio 54 paving the way for nightclubs that were merely open to be seen in. Everyone and their horse jumped on the disco bandwagon, some even naked….(sorry, Bianca Jagger). Cheesy, false replacements became the norm and disco lost its vibrancy, becoming the genre associated with bad music rather than the great.

So, having lost all pretences, here are five of my favourite disco tracks for your pleasure – preferably dancing.

1) K Jee – M.F.S.B

2)  I Want Your Love – Chic

3) You Can’t Hide From Yourself – Teddy Pendegrass

4) More Than a Woman – The Tavares

5) Son’t Leave Me This Way – Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes