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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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disco: References & Edit History

Additional Reading

Albert Goldman, Disco (1978), essentially a coffee-table book, remains definitive. Barbara Graustark, “Disco Takes Over,” Newsweek, 93(14):56–64 (April 2, 1979), offers decent reportage of the moment. Good historical accounts of the phenomenon are provided in Reebee Garofalo, Rockin’ Out: Popular Music in the USA (1997); and Hugh Mooney, “Disco: A Music for the 1980s?,” Popular Music and Society, 7(2):84–94 (1980). Tom Smucker, “Disco,” in Anthony DeCurtis, James Henke, and Holly George-Warren (eds.), The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, 3rd ed. (1992), attempts to recapture disco as a scene.

Aspects of gay culture are covered in Richard Dyer, “In Defense of Disco,” in Corey K. Creekmur and Alexander Doty (eds.), Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Essays on Popular Culture (1995); and Walter Hughes, “In the Empire of the Beat: Discipline and Disco,” in Andrew Ross and Tricia Rose (eds.), Microphone Fiends: Youth Music & Youth Culture (1994). Anthony Haden-Guest, The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night (1997), is also an entertaining read.

Disco’s resurgence in the 21st century led to a number of books and documentaries on the genre, including Matt Tyrnauer (director), Studio 54 (2018); the PBS miniseries Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution (2024); and Frank DeCaro, Disco: Music, Movies, and Mania Under the Mirror Ball (2024). The Disco Demolition event is covered in the oral biography Steve Dahl, Dave Hoekstra, Paul Natkin (eds.), Disco Demolition: The Night Disco Died (2016); and Jeff Malmberg and Morgan Neville (directors), The Saint of Second Chances (2023).

Representative Works

  • Manu Dibango, “Soul Makossa” (1973)
  • Gloria Gaynor, “Never Can Say Goodbye” (1974)
  • MFSB, “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” (1974)
  • KC and the Sunshine Band, “Get Down Tonight” (1975)
  • The O’Jays, “I Love Music” (1975)
  • Donna Summer, “Love to Love You Baby” (1975)
  • The Bee Gees and various artists, Saturday Night Fever (1977)
  • Cerrone, “Love in C Minor (Part 1)” (1977)
  • The Tramps, “Disco Inferno” (1977)
  • Kool and the Gang, “Ladies Night” (1979)
  • Donna Summer “Bad Girls” (1979)
  • Chic, “Good Times” (1979)

Article Contributors

Primary Contributors

  • Reebee Garofalo
  • The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
    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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.

Other Encyclopedia Britannica Contributors

Article History

Type Description Contributor Date
Added media and links. Oct 29, 2026
Invalidated site: University of California Press - Journal of Popular Music Studies - Disco Before Disco. Sep 17, 2026
Add new Web site: UAB Digital Commons - Blame It on the Boogie: The Story of the Rise and Fall of Disco (PDF). Sep 12, 2025
Fixed display issue. Jul 09, 2025
Added a cross-reference and top questions. Jun 11, 2025
Add new Web site: BBC - 6 ways disco changed the world. Jun 06, 2025
Added a cross-reference. Apr 14, 2025
Add new Web site: CiteSeerX - Disco: An Object - Oriented System for Music Composition and Sound Design (PDF). Mar 18, 2025
Add new Web site: PBS - Disco: Soundtrack of a revolution - The Dazzling, Daring History of Disco. Feb 08, 2025
Added a photo and removed a video. Dec 31, 2024
Article thoroughly revised. Dec 30, 2024
Add new Web site: Social dance at Stanford - The Disco Lifestyle. Sep 17, 2024
Add new Web site: Fire Island Pines Historical Society - The History of Disco. Mar 01, 2024
Add new Web site: University of California Press - Journal of Popular Music Studies - Disco Before Disco. Oct 20, 2023
Add new Web site: Humanities LibreTexts - Funk and Disco. Sep 07, 2023
Add new Web site: Sam Houston State University - Disco Music. Feb 15, 2023
Add new Web site: Carnegiee Hall - Timeline of African American Music - Disco. Dec 09, 2022
Add new Web site: American Heritage - The Birth, Proliferation, and Death of Disco. Sep 22, 2022
Add new Web site: AllMusic - Disco. Sep 16, 2014
Add new Web site: British Broadcasting Corporation - Disco. Dec 08, 2011
Add new Web site: How Stuff Works - People - How Disco Works. Dec 08, 2011
Article revised. Feb 09, 2000
New article added. Nov 08, 1999
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