These 5 Songs Defined '70s Disco

The war between rock and disco was arguably a short one, only spanning the '70s. The former won out in the long game. But the latter didn't go down easily because there was one thing rock couldn't do, and that's jumpstart the energy of a dance club and keep it going until daybreak, something  the infamous Club 54 is was known to do.

Some called it a fad, but disco was more than a trend. It was a sexual revolution that ushered in more openness for both straight people and the LGBT community. The decade kicked off with the Stonewall riots, galvanizing the gay rights movement. Women were finally able to open their own checking accounts, and men were comfortable wearing white polyester jumpsuits without threatening their masculinity. 

Then there was the music that played over this Renaissance; high-octane grooves that brought people together on dance floors that lit up underneath them while mirrored balls dappled their faces with reflections from track lighting. The five songs on this list define the decade's sexual liberation, all its glitter and bedazzled campiness, and how everyone fought the system with music, pride, and bell-bottomed tenacity. 

The otherworldly harmonizing of the Brothers Gibb and their amazing songwriting defined disco. After Frankie Valli proved masculinity could include a high voice with hits like "Sherry" and "Walk Like a Man" in the early '60s, in came Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb to define love in falsetto in the '70s.  

The 1977 movie, "Saturday Night Fever," celebrated disco and nightlife, producing a soundtrack that would go on to sell over 72 million copies, per Chartmasters. The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" was one of the tracks on that album, climbing to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 where it stayed for four weeks. 

The song emphasized how masculinity didn't have to be a competitive sport. Men could express their creativity through dance reinforced by an increase in BPMs and performative art. Furthermore, the song emphasized that disco — which many thought was a queer genre — bolstered their heterosexuality in public, even bringing cultural awareness to the "strut" — a distinctive walk that showed confidence and machismo in city streets. "Stayin' Alive" didn't just tell the story of the straight male disco era experience, it became an anthem for it.

Before TikTok dances, there was "The Hustle" by Van McCoy. A song so catchy that when you heard it on the transistor radio, you stopped what you were doing and tried to remember the moves.

It was released in 1975 and was relatively mid-tempo for what the movement was trying to dole out at the time, mostly high energy tracks that experimented with synth and traditional instruments. A good example of the electronic movement can be heard in 1973's "Tubular Bells," which became the theme from "The Exorcist." It's not a disco song, but an example of how electronica and traditional instruments were being fused to create a new medium.  

"The Hustle" is categorized as an instrumental song. It even won the Grammy for that category in 1976. But despite its lack of verbal storytelling, the song connected a few generations. One, the Silent Generation of the 1930s and '40s, who were used to music composers like Jimmy Dorsey and George Gershwin. Then there were the rebellious Boomers who idolized non-traditional music like Elvis and Motown. "The Hustle" was harmless for the latter but still subversive enough for the former. It also sparked a dance trend at the time, which made it interactive way before going viral was a thing.

If the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" was an era anthem, "The Hustle" was its timid cousin. The disco subculture was notoriously known for being drug-infused and sexually charged. Amid all that frenetic energy, there was "The Hustle," an instrumental banger that worked to both cool down the dance floor and unite people from different generations.

At the end of its lifecycle, disco had a powerful wake in the voice of genre queen Donna Summer, and she was going to give it an incredible send-off. By 1979, disco was nearly dead, and rock had matured enough to become contemporary. Bands like Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles were poised to dethrone disco, but before mainstream rock completely took over, Summer served up the best nightclub music the era had ever heard. It is fitting that her song "Last Dance," was its curtain call because not only was it on the nose, it felt personal.

Co-produced by disco maven Giorgio Moroder, the song won an Oscar as it was part of the soundtrack to the 1978 film "Thank God It's Friday," a musical touchstone and curtain closer for the disco era. "Last Dance" was the quintessential ballad with an uptempo twist that signaled an end to a party. Its simmering intro gives way to a powerful rhythmic showstopper as Summer's voice goes into overdrive in the middle, before using her full voice to offer a powerful crescendo.

Summer had taken her disco career to a full stop. In July 1979, almost exactly a year after "Last Dance" was released, an event called "Disco Demolition Night" was held at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Fans brought disco records for admission and they were put in a crate and blown-up, declaring once and for all "disco is dead."

Amid all the pop hits that disco produced, there were a few that pushed the limits as far as sexuality. Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell" was one of them, and thanks to a banger hook, it got past the censors, but we knew what she was talking about.

Disco was, in all intents and purposes, a revolution. Having just ended the controversial Vietnam War, America was taking a breather not only from violence but also basking in the progress of Civil Rights and the feminist movement. On the radio, artists like Donna Summer and the Bee Gees lent their voices to the renaissance. Summer released "Love to Love You Baby" in 1975, which was basically a long play track of her having an orgasm.

Although not as graphic, Ward released "Ring My Bell" in June 1979. Young Boomers loved the innuendo and energy of the song,and it shot to No. 1 where it stayed for two weeks. 

The curtain closed for disco in the late '70s, and "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor seemed to bookmark the era both for the past and the future; it's been said that Gaynor's song was the end of disco.

But as much as disco was about cultural rebellion, so too was it about freedom. After decades of women being ruled by men, the field on which the battle of the sexes was waged was evening out and in 1979, Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" was its victorious battle cry. This classic tune not only carried a danceable disco groove, it told a story of love and heartbreak and how the first step toward empowerment was trusting yourself.

When you heard that opening arpeggio, you knew everyone in the house was going to start singing en masse. It was a participation song where everyone acted out the universally positive message of triumph over adversity.