Dard-e-Disco

Donna Summer and the Bee Gees are believed to have originated disco,rather they pumped up the volume in a genre that was already kicking but hadnt found its feet. In 1975,Summer took the lyrics of Love to love you baby to Giorgio Moroder,one of the founders of electronic music,who sexualised it with much moaning and groaning. Summer had strong reservations because of her Christian upbringing but the song reached second place in the Billboard Hot 100 singles,making over-the-top content legit in popular music. Two years later,the Bee Gees were asked to compose for Saturday Night Fever,which was already on the floors. Their drummer had an emergency during the recording of Stayin alive,so they improvised by picking a couple of bars from his work and re-recording them in an endless loop. And thus,quite by accident,was born another hallmark of the disco sound insistently pulsing repetitive rhythm.

Though neither the Bee Gees nor Donna Summer began disco,they defined its sound and projected it beyond Europe and North America to a global listenership. Echoes of their work are audible in genres that developed decades later,like electronic dance. And the participatory nature of disco you didnt listen to it,you danced to it turned dance into a public art form tailor-made for TV contests. The prime movers of disco are almost all dead,but their influence lives on in myriad musical forms.