Thirty years ago, a huge crowd of rabid Rednecks gathered at a football stadium in Chicago to perform a mass detonation of hundreds of Disco records - a symbolic gesture ("Disco Sucks") that was supposed to signal the death of a type of music loathed by homophobes and racists across the USA.
This radical gesture may well have sparked the rapid demise of the illuminated dance floors, the go-go dancers and the glitterballs for a while, but they failed to kill the music. Despite a sea-change in styles and attitudes throughout the 80s (most American dance music in that decade featured guitars and heavy drum-box effects), in Europe we developed our own more synth-based Italo/Eurodance/Hi-NRG style, and deep underground in the US some pioneering mixers and club DJs were busy creating what later became known as House Music.
As one of those pioneers Frankie Knuckles says, "disco music is alive and well and living in the hearts of music-lovers around the world. It has simply changed its name to protect the innocent."
And so, thirty years later what type of dance music is dominant among cool clubbers? Disco, of course! Here's some examples...
First up (featuring possibly the most unconvincing heterosexual performance ever by Steve Perry), here's Cyberjacks:
And then there's this slice of brilliance from Shena:
But of course, the greatest proponents of the "Disco" sound in the noughties must be the Freemasons (love them!)...
Have a great weekend at the Disco!
Read more on the BBC website
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