What is Disco Music

Disco Music covers a wide range of styles of music and everyone will have a different opinion of what Disco Music is. Personally, it is music that is created that is either emotional, is evocative, has feeling or vibe or basically just sounds good! The first ‘Disco’ record I bought – Rubber Band Man was at the time the pinnacle of music. It changed by mood, it made me want to dance, it lightened my mood and, at the age of 15 (in 1975) mission to find more music like this. I was drawn to Daddy Kool records, in Hanway Street just off Tottenham Court Road in London to seek out this exciting music. Being a diminutive little white fellow, I used to get some strange looks from some of the other clientele but ended up spending hours in there listening to the amazing music, and buying a few albums.

One of the first 12” singles I bought was ‘Right On Time’ by Brothers Johnson, a classic mid-tempo funk/boogie tune. It will be 29 years old in 2006 and to me still sounds as fresh as it did back then. I also bought a lot of Cameo, early Earth Wind & Fire, Ohio Players and some Fatback. Another album from 1977 that deserves special mention is Rose Royce 2 – as well as ‘Wishing On A Star’ two other tracks are well worth a mention. ‘Funk Factory’ and ‘It Makes You Feel Like Dancing’ are great tunes, possibly pre-Disco created by the producer Norman Whitfield who went to create exceptional Disco tunes for bands such as Stargard.

By 1978 the Disco scene was in full swing and there was an explosion of releases – arguably this was the best year for the music and so many hits and tunes have gone on to be classics. Obviously a number of bands jumped on the Disco bandwagon – or were created with a view just to create a ‘Disco’ sound and capitalise on the ‘movement’ of the time.

Unlike some, I don’t subscribe to the view that just because something is obscure it has to be good! Some people only like stuff that no-one else knows….to me it doesn’t matter whether it is obscure or not – if it sounds good, is going to get the right vibe at the right time – it will get played. Even ‘commercial’ Disco – ‘Shame’, ‘Le Freak’. ‘He’s The Greatest Dance’ will all get played, if they are the right track at that time! I may draw the line at ‘I Will Survive’, and you will definitely not hear from me any Abba, Bee Gees, Boney-M or Ottawan.