Disco music is a popular style of dance music. It wouldn’t be disco without the dancing! Some of the most definitive sounds of the 20th century came from the disco era; the style is so iconic and defined an era, therefore this genre of music had its own time period called the “Disco Era”. Disco music stemmed from playing around with vinyl records, changing the way certain tracks sounded. Ready-made recordings were played on turntables and record players. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that artists took these records and moved them on the turntables, creating scratches and stops in the track, and it changed the way that recorded music was played. It now had a human element to it, and every musician wanted to try it.

This new breed of musicians were called disc jockeys, or DJs for short. They were the masters of mixing and scratching, creating new beats out of old tracks. This same method of making music was predominant in hip-hop as well, but disco had a prevalent element: its ability to make you dance. Disco beats were all about the dancing. A main attribute in disco music was the percussion – disco music was in 4/4 time and had drums going in the strong beats, 1 and 3. Have a listen to a disco beat sample:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8suMqBDwS4

(I do not own this video nor its content; I believe it is a perfect example to show the percussion element of disco music. This guy demonstrates that very well!)

What also makes disco unique is the use of synthesizers and possibly other instruments to create a “run” throughout a musical riff. While the bass and rhythmic instruments provide the harmony, there is another line of melody going on in the background. It makes the track sound fuller and busier, giving the listener something else to concentrate on. In the music world, we call it counterpoint, and the extra melody line is the counterpoint in disco music. Have a listen to disco artist KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight”.

(I do not own this video nor its content; I believe it is a perfect example of standard disco music.)

In the introduction of the song, while the horn section is blaring their first chord, the guitar is playing a harp-like riff that isn’t quite what the singer is going to sing along to, but it is something extra that adds to the fun character of this song. The high-register guitar returns in the chorus (“Do a little dance / make a little love / Get Down Tonight!”), along with a trumpet solo. These extra instruments act as their own voices, making the song more fun to dance to.

Disco music wasn’t just produced live; as I have mentioned before, DJs have played a large role in the making of disco. They would take tracks on vinyl records and create “sound collages”, which meant to take parts of songs and make them into a whole, but different song. This is where the art of sampling music had begun. It was also common to use equipment to produce their sounds. Track-mixing equipment such as synthesizers, turntables, loop stations and drum kits allowed the disc jockey to play around with different sounds and beats to add to the vinyl record that was currently playing. Since one did not have to have the musical background to make this kind of copy-and-paste music, there was no shortage of DJs in New York City. Venues and nightclubs, even small bars and night restaurants had DJs playing almost every night. The disco atmosphere was everywhere, and everyone took in the percussion and synthesized melodies.

Click here to see where some of the venues of disco were and are.