New Genres & Fragmentation

• Rock


  • Dominated music in the 1970s
  • Older categories such as Rhythm, Blues, Country and Western remained popular
  • New sub genres emerged: Heavy Metal, Punk, Disco and Hip-Hop
• Disco boom began


  1974
• By 1976 there were around 10,000 discotheques in the US
• First Disco hit to reach the charts

  Gloria Gaynor - 'Never Can Say Goodbye' (1975)
• Donna Summer

  'Love to Love You Baby' reached number two in the charts (1976)
• The Pop Charts were full of Disco records


  End of 1976
• Disco records on the Pop Charts

  • Hot Chocolates' - 'You Sexy Thing'
  • The Bee Gees - 'You Should be Dancing'
• Rock fans despised Disco music as formulaic
• The 'death' of Disco was attributed to record companies saturating markets with low-quality, standardised producers (1979)
• Heavy Metal, Punk, Hip-Hop and singer-songwriters lasted longer than Disco