If you are a music fan here to learn about disco, after reading this article, you can check out all the other kinds of music you can hear at the Cape Symphony this season!
During World War II, dance halls in Paris featured jazz music; however, regulations in Nazi-occupied France banned live music, so records were played instead. “Discotheque” means "library of phonograph records" in French, and that term gradually came to refer to these clubs where records were the norm, rather than a band. In the early ‘60s, the word came into use in the United States, frequently shortened to “disco.”
Disco music itself evolved from different subcultures, with origins in Philadelphia’s R&B scene in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, featuring African-American and Latino musicians and audiences, and in private dance parties thrown in the underground gay community of New York. Big stars of R&B like Stevie Wonder and The O’Jays began to incorporate disco elements into their music. By the mid-seventies, Gloria Gaynor and Donna Summer were topping the charts with disco hits. Today’s Billboard Dance Club Songs chart was launched as the Disco Action Top 30 chart on August 28, 1976, and was the first chart by Billboard magazine to document the popularity of dance music. The first number one disco song on that chart was "You Should Be Dancing" by the Bee Gees.
Of course, the release of Saturday Night Fever and its soundtrack in 1977 truly cemented the massive popularity of disco. The final years of the decade made huge stars of Chic and Kool & the Gang, and saw many established bands and singers turning to disco, including The Jacksons, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Diana Ross.
Join the Cape Symphony and the Boogie Wonder Band for Symphony at the Disco on October 13 and 14. Get your tickets now at capesymphony.org or 508.362.1111.
Special Offers on October 13: The Cape Symphony is offering $20 tickets to guests under 50 on October 13 at 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM.
In order to make this weekend of disco truly special, the Cape Symphony is partnering with The West End in Hyannis on October 13. The West End will offer a 20% discount on dinner with your Symphony at the Disco ticket. The West End also hosts a “Studio 54” party from 9:00 PM until closing time. Join Jung-Ho Pak, Cape Symphony Artistic Director & Conductor, and your fellow disco lovers for a dance party.
