What is "disco"

1964, American English shortening of discotheque; sense extended by 1972 to the kind of music played there.

n. 1 (context countable slightly dated English) A short form of '''discotheque''', a nightclub for dancing. 2 (context uncountable English) A genre of dance music that was popular in the 1970s, characterized by elements of soul music with a strong Latin-American beat and often accompanied by pulsating lights. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To dance disco-style dances. 2 (context intransitive English) To go to discotheques.

n. a public dance hall for dancing to recorded popular music [syn: discotheque]

Disco is the second album by the British synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. It was released by Parlophone on .

Disco was not an original studio album, but rather a collection of remixes of tracks from their first album, Please, and its respective B-sides. Many fans of 1980s synthpop view the mixes on this album as some of the best examples of the extended dance mix, and this album includes remixes by Arthur Baker, Shep Pettibone and Pet Shop Boys themselves. __TOC__

Disco is a genre of music originating in 1970s discothèques, incorporating elements of funk, soul music, and salsa.

Disco or DISCO may also refer to:

Disco is an application for Mac OS X developed by Austin Sarner, Jasper Hauser and Jason Harris.

The software is an optical disc authoring utility, which allows users to burn CDs and DVDs with multisession support, disc duplication, burning VIDEO_TS folders, disc spanning as well as a searchable disc index, dubbed Discography. Disco also features an interactive "3D smoke" animation which is visible when burning. This smoke responds to microphone input, as well as mouse input, causing perturbations in the smoke effect.

Disco was designed as a low-cost alternative to the popular Mac OS X optical disc authoring application, Roxio Toast.

Since its launch in 2007, Disco was available as shareware, requiring users to purchase a license after burning seven discs with it on a single computer. In July 2011, a free license code to activate the application was published on its official website, effectively making the application available as freeware.

Disco is a boxed set of three Grace Jones's albums released in 2015. The set contains Portfolio (1977), Fame (1978), and Muse (1979), all of which were recorded at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound with disco pioneer Tom Moulton as producer, in their entirety. The albums were remastered and each of the 3 CDs included 7 bonus tracks while the vinyl box maintains the original track listings and offers a fourth record, that collects mainly long versions of the 45s from this era.

Disco is a genre of dance music containing elements of funk, soul, pop, and salsa. It achieved popularity during the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. Its initial audiences were club-goers from the gay, African American, Italian American, Latino, and psychedelic communities in Philadelphia during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Disco can be seen as a reaction against both the domination of rock music and the stigmatization of dance music by the counterculture during this period. It was popular with both men and women, from many different backgrounds.

The disco sound has soaring vocals over a steady "four-on-the-floor" beat, an eighth note (quaver) or 16th note (semi-quaver) hi-hat pattern with an open hi-hat on the off-beat, and a prominent, syncopated electric bass line. In most disco tracks, string sections, horns, electric piano, and electric rhythm guitars create a lush background sound. Orchestral instruments such as the flute are often used for solo melodies, and lead guitar is less frequently used in disco than in rock. Many disco songs use electronic synthesizers, particularly in the late 1970s.

Well-known 1970s disco performers included Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, Boney M, KC and the Sunshine Band, The Trammps, Gloria Gaynor and Chic. While performers and singers garnered much public attention, record producers working behind the scenes played an important role in developing the "disco sound". Many non-disco artists recorded disco songs at the height of disco's popularity, and films such as Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Thank God It's Friday (1978) contributed to disco's rise in mainstream popularity. Disco was the last mass popular music movement that was driven by the baby boom generation. Disco was a worldwide phenomenon, but its popularity drastically declined in the United States in 1980, and disco was no longer popular in the U.S. by 1981. Disco Demolition Night, an anti-disco protest held in Chicago on 12 July 1979, is commonly thought of as a factor in disco's fast and drastic decline.

By the late 1970s most major U.S. cities had thriving disco club scenes, where DJs would mix a seamless sequence of dance records. Studio 54, a venue popular amongst celebrities, is a well-known example of a disco club. Popular dances included The Hustle, a sexually suggestive dance. Discotheque-goers often wore expensive, extravagant and sexy fashions. There was also a thriving drug subculture in the disco scene, particularly for drugs that would enhance the experience of dancing to the loud music and the flashing lights, such as cocaine. Disco clubs were also associated with promiscuity.

Disco was a key influence on the 1980s electronic dance music style called House. Disco has had several revivals, including in 2005 with Madonna's album Confessions on a Dance Floor, and again in 2013 and 2014, as disco-styled songs by artists like Daft Punk (with Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers), Justin Timberlake, Breakbot, and Bruno Mars—notably Mars' Uptown Funk—filled the pop charts in the UK and the US.

Disco was a pop music program that aired in Germany on the ZDF network from 1971 to 1982. It generally aired on the first Saturday of each month at 7:30PM, each show running 45 minutes. 133 shows were produced. The show was hosted by German actor and comedian Ilja Richter. Its lesser known predecessor on ZDF, 4-3-2-1 Hot & Sweet was aired between 1966 and 1970, presenters included Ilja Richter and Suzanne Doucet. Disco generally served a younger pop-oriented audience compared to ZDF's own program Hitparade, and until 1972, its main competitor was Beat-Club (originally patterned after the pure live-act show Ready Steady Go! in the UK, from the late-1960s turning more and more into psychedelic music videos made especially for the invited acts), followed by Musikladen, both on ARD.

Repeats of Disco have been aired since 1984 on ZDF Musikkanal, after its closedown in 1989 on 3sat. Since 2004, the digital ZDF Theaterkanal (which is now zdf.kultur) aired repeats of the entire series until 2012. In 2007, ZDF Dokukanal began to air reruns, starting with episodes from 1975 and also multiple repeats of the series have been shown on hit24 in 2008, most recently zdf.kultur began to show the entire series each day in 2013.

The show focussed on chart hits current at the time of airing, giving about equal airtime to international pop music and German Schlager. Despite its name, it did not particularly focus on disco music although it featured many disco hits as long as they were chart relevant. (The name of the show was devised before disco as a musical style existed).

Disco is a French film directed by Fabien Onteniente, which was released on 2 April 2008, with Franck Dubosc as "Didier Travolta" in the main role.

The main subject of this movie is the rebirth of disco music at the mid-2000s in a town of France. The film is at first humorous, with a lot of clichés about Saturday Night Fever, but it doesn't disparage the disco culture at any time. In fact, all the people involved in this film are fans of disco, dance and funk music.

The soundtrack to the film contains a cover version of the Bee Gees' " Night Fever" performed by Australian singer and songwriter Tina Arena.