Disco was one of the most influential cultural and musical movements of the 1970s.
It was the platform through which social dancing became a popular phenomena again after fading out at the end of the 1960s.
Disco repopularised dancing as a social activity internationally, but it was responsible for introducing a new style of freeform dancing. Prior to disco, all forms of social dancing involved a man and a women dancing with one other.
Often to get into venues you’d need bring a someone of the opposite sex – and even if you managed to get in without one, to go on the dance floor you had to be a couple.
Disco broke with this. Disco dancing was the first time people could go onto the dance floor as an individual which allowed for a new form of freedom and expression.
With couples dancing you have to avoid dancing on your partner’s toes or whatever, so you can’t focus on the DJ.
However, disco’s new form of dancing also enabled people to experience being part of a crowd for the first time.
And this dance floor collective had a strong power over the direction the music took through its reactions.
This change had big consequences for not only for what got played, but how people interacted with one another…
