Disco

We’ve already heard how rhythm gained more focus in Funk. This continued, so that a new genre evolved focussing primarily on dancing. Disco is a type of dance music that originally catered for an African-American audience, but later gained a wider audience. It is often associated with gay-culture.

Saturday Night Fever and the Bee Gees

The movie Saturday Night Fever epitomizes Disco, so let’s look at some sections from this cult classic.



The soundtrack for this movie is by the Bee Gees. Some people is of the opinion that the Bee Gees and this movie is the beginning of Disco. This is, however, not the case. When “Saturday Night Fever” came out in 1977, Disco was already going for a number of years. Let’s look other prominent names in Disco.

Barry White

In 1973 Barry White and the Love Unlimited Orchestra recorded “Love’s Theme,” a purely instrumental piece. While listening to the music, try to describe the melody, harmony, and especially the rhythm.



Now listen to another song by Barry White and the Love Unlimited Orchestra, “I’m Gonna Love You, Just a Little More Baby.” The video is from a concert he performed in Sao Paulo, Brazil. What would you say is the main element in this song?


Now listen to “It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me.” Again, notice the very prominent rhythm.



The Jackson Five

Quite influential during the 70s were the Jackson Five. Listen to them perform one of their great singles, “I Want You Back,” from 1972. Also listen to “ABC” thereafter.




Especially in “ABC” one can very clearly hear the vamp. The vamp, which was a distinctive element of Funk, is also a common feature in Disco music since it adds to the songs dance quality.

KC and The Band’s “That’s The Way I Like It”

The song “That’s the Way I Like It” is another great Disco classic. While listening to the song, try to identify all the jazz influences in this song.


You’ll also notice that there is not much lyrics. Most of the words of the song consists only of it’s hook: “That’s the way uh-huh uh-huh, I like it!” There is also a very clear vamp. Something you may have noticed by now is that Disco music often neglected lyrics in favor of rhythm. Words became mere tools to reinforce the rhythm, by repeating the words on the beats.



Chic





While Chic’s music was not that different from other Disco music of the time, they were probably the cause of one of today’s most successful pop genres, namely Hip-Hop. In the following song you will hear a very important rhythm. Tom Zarecki explains:

Interestingly, the instrumental, non-vocal parts of "Good Times" before and after the singers were singing, were used more and more in nightclubs as the rhythm track while people in the club grabbed the mic and would recite rhymes over the infectious music. This technique, using "Good Times" as well as hundreds of other popular dance tracks of the day, later formed the foundation of what later became known as hip hop / rap music. In fact, the bass and rhythm for "Good Times" became the foundation track of the first crossover hip hop song, "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang.

Here is Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”:

Funk = Soul + ?

If Soul = Gospel + Rhythm & Blues, then what is the formula for Funk? One ingredient of Funk is definitely Soul music.

Watch this short video about “Funk”:



In one sense, Funk music still “looked” like Soul and often had similar orchestration and background vocalists. However, Funk orchestration focused especially on the electric guitar, electric bass, and the drums. The reason is that all of these instruments work ideally to emphasize rhythm, which is probably Funk’s most distinctive quality. Unlike Rhythm & Blues and Soul music that had strong melodies and some focus on harmony, Funk music focused primarily on the Rhythm. The use of chord progression was replaced with a groovy vamp of pitches within one chord. A “vamp” is a continuous repetition of a short piece of music. (In Classical music the vamp is known as “ostinato” and in Rock music as a “riff.” Later, in Hip-Hop music the vamp would be called a “loop.”)

The Godfather of Soul and King of Funk

James Brown is the known as the “Godfather of Soul,” and was instrumental in this new sound, known as Funk. Another title for James Brown is “King of Funk.”
Listen to James Brown perform his signature song “I Feel Good.” This song is based on the Twelve Bar Blues structure. Even parts of the lyrics have the AAB-form, for instance: “I feel good, I knew that I would, now / I feel good, I knew that I would, now / So good, so good, I got you.” This is, of course, inherited from the blues tradition.



Watch the following video-clip in which James Brown repeats the phrase “Make it Funky.” This is a good example of “vamp” in funk music. The vamp not only includes the beat and bass-riff, but also the lyrics is at times part of the vamp.



Lady Marmalade

In the 70s Labelle came out with a song called “Lady Marmalade.” This Funk song, is considered by some as one of the first Disco songs. Let’s listen to it.



The French phrase “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soir)?” in the song means “Do you want to sleep with me (tonight)?” The song is about one man’s encounter with Lady Marmalade, a prostitute in New Orleans.

In 2002 Christina Aguilera, Pink, Mya, and Lil' Kim covered this “Lady Marmalade” for their Moulin Rouge performance.