Disco Music
First popularized in America's black urban and gay clubs, disco music began to gain mainstream ground in the early to mid 1970s. As the music moved out of the clubs and onto the charts, the careers of female vocalists took off and the "disco diva" was born. Gloria Gaynor was one of the first artists to benefit from the growing popularity of the genre. On the strength of her early hits like "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Honey Bee", she became known as the “Queen of Disco”, a title later usurped by Donna Summer.
Donna Summer is disco music's only true solo female superstar. She launched her career Stateside in 1976 with "Love to Love You Baby". In 1977, she released the groundbreaking single "I Feel Love". At the peak of disco's popularity in 1979, Summer had 3 hits in the U.S. Top 5 and the #1 and #2 Albums in the country, a feat that has never been matched.
Another top selling act of the era was Boney M. (fronted by Liz Mitchell). Although Boney M. had much less success Stateside, they were bonafide superstars in the rest of the world. Their disco hits "Sunny", "Daddy Cool", and "Rasputin" helped the group sell an eventual 150 Million CDs worldwide. Due to popular demand, their bestselling "Greatest Hits" CD is repackaged and re-released every few years.
As Boney M., Donna Summer, and Gloria Gaynor rode the disco wave to chart success, there was intense pressure on many artists from other genres to release disco singles.
Swedish pop group ABBA jumped on the disco bandwagon in 1978 with "Summer Night City". The single was a modest success for the group but laid the foundation for their first disco album "Voulez Vous".
Blondie was a group with punk/new wave roots. They had released at least four singles in the U.S. before their breakthrough with the now classic disco track "Heart of Glass". Blondie continued to embrace the dance genre on subsequent releases including "Atomic", "Call Me", and "Good Boys" and on their Nineties CD "Remixed, Remade, and Remodeled"
Meanwhile, Pop and R&B superstar Diana Ross only flirted with disco music in the Seventies. Her biggest dance hits came in 1980 with the one two punch of "Upside Down" and "I'm Coming Out". She has continued to release dance tracks throughout her career, including "Until We Meet Again" and a cover of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive". In 2007, Almighty released their remix of Ross' classic hit "Love Hangover".
Like Diana Ross, Olivia Newton John was slow to embrace dance music. After her genre-jumping makeover that coincided with the release of the film "Grease", Olivia recorded several uptempo pop singles. It wasn't until her collaboration with ELO on "Xanadu" though that Newton John scored her first bonafide club hit. Since then, Olivia has had a number of club hits, noteably the Junior Vasquez remix of "Hopelessly Devote to You", Almighty's mix of "Xanadu" credited to Paula featuring Olivia Newton John, and "I Need Love", the lead single from her "Back to Basics" CD.Though the 70s dance phenomenon had waned by the early Eighties, it never truly died. Thanks to the internet which has united pockets of disco music fans the world over, the beat still goes on! OUR GUIDE TO EVERYTHING DISCO ONLINE: MP3s CDs Remixes Videos Radio DVD Disco Music - a great resource for fans! Return to Dance Music
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