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Overview

This lesson focuses on African American dance music styles following the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Many of these music styles had signature dances as well. These styles include but are not limited to funk, go-go, and disco, while popular dances were the funky chicken, mashed potato, camel walk, hustle, James Brown, and others. We will look at all of them in this lesson. On the social front, during the 1970s, more tangible steps towards proper racial integration and gender equality were happening than before. Besides the style of music itself, because of these steps toward equality, this lesson categorizes this music as contemporary. However, we will also see that the music industry often coopted popular Black dance music and dances to varying degrees of economic success during this era.

Be ready to:

Discuss the significance of rhythm and terms such as riff, groove, syncopation, and four-on-the-floor.

Identify dances that occurred during the late 1960s through the 1970s and venues that aided in disseminating them to the general American population.

Identify instruments such as synthesizer, slap bass, and scratch guitar and their use within funk, go-go, and disco.

Explain the role of music in raising people's level of social consciousness.

Discuss how the demographics among Black Washingtonians influenced the development of go-go.

Articulate the role of the DJ in the development and dissemination of disco music.

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Keywords

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References

Disco 1

Coined to describe the broad range of danceable music played by disc jockeys (DJs) in public discotheques and private parties in North America in the early 1970s, disco became a recognized genre of popular dance music that drew on elements of African American music genres of funk, gospel, jazz, and soul. Disco recordings were often built on a propulsive underlying rhythm section, around which a wide range of instrumental and vocal techniques emerged using structured songs and groove-oriented tracks. DJs became central to the popularization of disco records and were often characterized by how engineers, producers, and remixers deployed a series of increasingly unconventional studio techniques to manipulate vocal and instrumental takes. It is important to note here that disco music started out as predominantly Black/interracial and gay-friendly, and sooner than later music executives whitewashed it to gain a mainstream audience.

Vintage DJ Station. A DJ mixer is placed between the two turntables.

Donna Summer in a recording studio in September 1977

Several hits propelled disco's commercial success between 1977 and 1980: In 1977, " I Will Survive♫ " by Gloria Gaynor and " You're the First, the Last, My Everything♫ " by Barry White; in 1978, " Boogie Oogie Oogie♫" by A Taste of Honey, " YMCA♫" by The Village People, and " Last Dance♫" by Donna Summer; in 1979, " Hot Stuff♫ " by Donna Summer; and in 1980, " Celebration♫" by Kool & The Gang. However, the subsequent coincidence of disco's industrial overproduction and a deep recession culminated in a backlash against the genre and its associated culture, and during 1980 the music industry stopped using the word "disco" altogether. In addition, the fact that later genres such as the newly coined categories of dance, hip-hop, house, and techno made increasing use of electronic and sequenced sounds also distinguished them from disco.

Giorgio Moroder

I think it would be stupid for us to try and tell people who are dancing in a discotheque about the problems of the world. That is the very thing they have come away to avoid.

Don Cornelius

As always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soul!