2. DISCO IS…
(or disco was?)
• Most popular in the 1970s
• Initial audience: club-goers from African
American, gay, Latino, Italian American, and psychedelic
communities in New York and Philadelphia during late
1960s and early 1970s.
• Considered a reaction against domination of rock and
dance music
• Well known disco performers: ABBA, Bee Gees, The
Village People etc.
• Musical influences: funk, Latin and soul
• Disco is sometimes considered a sub-genre of electronic
3. CODES AND CONVENTIONS
There are a lot of iconic features that help us
recognise disco:
• Disco ball
• The dance move – the most common move
associated with disco music
• Fashion/style:
- Men – tight, flared, shiny
outfits, heeled boots, big hair
- Women – colourful, shiny
outfits, long heeled ‘go-go’
boots
5. HOW WIDE/SMALL IS THE AUDIENCE?
• Audience very limited
• Disco era faded – new music eras
arrived (80s, 90s)
• Some modern artists tried to make
aspects of disco return (e.g. Madonna –
image on right)
• Overall, not a wide variety of disco
music around, however songs from the
era still get played, e.g. ‘stayin alive’ and
‘YMCA’.
6. Indie Folk
• Arose in the 1990’s
• From singer/songwriters in the indie rock community.
• Influenced by the folk music scenes (of the 1950s, 1960s and
early 1970s), country music and indie rock.
• Commonly related to freak folk, psych folk, baroque pop, etc.
• early artists included Lou Barlow and Jeff Buckley.
• Significant growth since early 2000s
• Beginning with acts, e.g. Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, and Edward
Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
7. Alternative Rock
• Subgenre of rock music.
• Emerged from the independent music underground of
the 80s.
• Became widely popular in the 90s.
• ‘Alternative’ refers to distinction from the mainstream
rock music.
• Most alt bands’ commercial success – limited
compared to other genres of rock/pop at the time (80s)
– so stayed signed to independent labels & received
little attention from the media.
• With breakthrough of Nirvana & the popularity of
grunge and Britpop movements in 90s – alt. rock
entered musical mainstream & many alt. bands
became commercially successful.
