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Donna Summer poses in a studio portrait, wearing a sheer white top with her long, voluminous hair styled in loose curls. Abba members Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Faltskog, and Bjorn Ulvaeus pose together in colorful outfits after winning Sweden's Eurovision Song Contest in 1974. John Travolta in a white suit and Karen Lynn Gorney in a red dress dance under a disco ball on a lighted floor in a scene from Saturday Night Fever. Large crowd gathers outside the entrance of Studio 54 nightclub in Manhattan at night, beneath a marquee with the club's bold 54 logo. Steve Dahl stands on the field at Comiskey Park holding a microphone, leading chants during Disco Demolition Night, with several men and a large crowd in the background. Madonna sings into a microphone while performing with two male dancers at Studio 54 in New York City. “Where do you go when the record is over…” Summer, Donna
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Donna Summer poses in a studio portrait, wearing a sheer white top with her long, voluminous hair styled in loose curls.
Disco queen Donna Summer, c. 1976 American singer Donna Summer was a disco superstar in the 1970s and early '80s, known for hit songs such as “Love to Love You Baby” (1975) and “Last Dance” (1978).

disco

music
Written by
Reebee Garofalo
Emeritus Professor of American Studies, University of Massachsetts, Boston. Author of Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA; editor of Rockin' the Boat: Mass Music and Mass Movements.
Reebee Garofalo
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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•History

disco, beat-driven style of popular music that is one of the preeminent forms of dance music. Its name derives from discotheque, the French word for a type of dance-oriented nightclub that first appeared in the 1960s. Disco provided the musical accompaniment for political movements of the 1970s, in particular Gay Pride and LGBTQ+ rights. Its popularity peaked in the late 1970s, and its commercialization contributed to the backlash against it. Yet disco also gave birth...

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