How did disco begin?

Answer 1

Most Music Genres started with a group or groups who performed similar music in clubs or at concerts like Jazz, Big Band, Rock n Roll or even Bluegrass which created an esoteric group of fans that snowballed gradually. Disco Music however was created as a need.

Night club owners in the late 1960's were realizing that their live bands trying to reproduce the radio hits weren't doing it so well anymore because of the newer technology and the electronic sounds on recordings. Several of the larger clubs like in New York or LA decided to start playing records...also called discs. To identify a club that only plays discs, the name discoteque

was created. It didn't catch on right away because the club goers couldn't fathom the idea of going from the rich live sound of a band to some guy playing records. But as soon as word got around about the monstrous sound systems and creative light shows, the disco was now a place to see and be seen.

Now the nightclub owners had a new dilema; there's wasn't enough danceable Top 40 hits to keep people on the floor. The club owners approached music producers, sort of sending out the "bat signal" for more beat music. Music was produced and sent to the clubs and could only be heard at the clubs and came to be known as disco music. Some of the music sounded like a souped up Big Band. Some say this was a small rebirth of Big Band Music.

Barry White wasn't really considered disco but was very much apart of the disco era and beneficial in getting the music out there. As all genres do, disco finally made it to the radio in 1974 with a trio from LA, The Hues Corporation and Rock the Boat.

In 1981, evidently everyone looked at themselves in the mirror at the outlandish fashions that came with the mania and said, "what were we thinking" and the disco era ended. But not without one more big hurrah from Kool and the Gang who gave us a nice sendoff with Celebration.