ABSTRACT
Disco music was specifically designed for an escapist ‘otherworldly’ dance event which relied entirely on recorded music. The word ‘discotheque’ stems from France, where the club La Discotheque was established before the Second World War, which provided a social drinking environment while one listened to jazz recordings. In the early days of underground African-American disco, the records which were used would be less ‘disc jockey friendly’. The rhythms and speed varied per record, which meant that it was an effort to blend one record into the next. The mainstream disco consumer indulged in a Disneyland version of a psychedelic experience. The peak of disco came in 1977 with the film and record Saturday Night Fever. Every group and artist, even classical orchestras put a bit of the four quarter beat disco flavour to their music in order to secure a hit.
