DISCO IS ALIVE PARTY

DISCO IS ALIVE PARTY

Saturday July 14th Noon SLT (9pm CET)

T.R.A.C.S

http://slurl.com/secondlife/River%20Island/221/249/22

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. Its initial audiences were club-goers from the African American, Latino, gay, and psychedelic communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Disco also was a reaction against both the domination of rock music and the stigmatization of dance music by the counterculture during this period. Women embraced disco as well, and the music eventually expanded to several other popular groups of the time.

 

"Saturday Night Fever" and platform shoes remind us of the disco era. Dancers did the "Hustle," the "Electric Slide" and other line dances, and everyone dressed to impress at dance clubs across the country.

By 1970, "Disco Swing" was born. However, many refer to this dance style as the "Hustle," which was in actuality a line dance introduced in 1975 by Van McCoy. Donna Summer's music sent the disco craze worldwide, and when "Saturday Night Fever" was released in 1978, the popularity of disco dancing really exploded. Different offshoots of the "Hustle" were created, including "West Coast Hustle," "Tango Hustle," "Sling Hustle," "Rope Hustle," "Latin Hustle" and "Street Hustle."

The disco craze brought disco versions of classical music pieces, such as "A Fifth of Beethoven," from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, "Night on Disco Mountain," a "discofied" version of "Night on Bald Mountain" and of course, Ravel's "Bolero," which played a primary role in the movie "10" with Dudley Moore and Bo Derek. When the Village People released "Y.M.C.A.," the popularity of the song sent people all over the world to their local Y.M.C.A.'s to join. The U.S. Navy noticed this and asked the group to release a song about the Navy. This led to "In The Navy," a hit song for the Village People and a great recruitment tool for the military, which enjoyed an increase in enlistment as a result of the song's popularity.

 

"The Hustle" is a famous disco song by songwriter/arranger Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony.

Van Allen Clinton McCoy (January 6, 1940 – July 6, 1979) was an accomplished musician, music producer, arranger, songwriter, and orchestra conductor. He is known best for his 1975 internationally successful song "The Hustle", which is still played in dance halls and on radio to this day more than thirty years since his death. He has approximately 700 song copyrights to his credit and is also noted for producing songs for such recording artists as Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Stylistics, Aretha Franklin, Brenda & The Tabulations, David Ruffin, Peaches & Herb, and Stacy Lattisaw.

Sources: The History of Disco / Wikipedia