What is disco music?

Disco is the four-on-the-floor dance sound of the 1970s — lush strings, funk basslines and an unbreakable groove built to keep a room moving.

Born in New York's clubs in the early 1970s, disco layered a steady four-on-the-floor kick with syncopated bass, chicken-scratch guitar, orchestral strings and soaring vocals. It was engineered for the dancefloor: continuous, warm and euphoric, with a groove that never lets go.

As a background for a clock-radio station, instrumental and 'nu-disco' cuts keep the sunshine and the groove while dropping the vocals — the feel-good energy of disco without lyrics competing for your attention. It's the natural score for cooking, cleaning, and any task that goes better with a little swing in it.

Disco also quietly founded modern dance music: house, garage and nu-disco all trace straight back to those four-on-the-floor nights. Slow it down and warm it up and you're most of the way to a lo-fi groove already.

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