Disco music has been personified as loud, rambunctious melodies coming together in electrifying way. During the early 1970’s the rise of disco music started to take over. This shift from R&B to disco targeted a different type of demographic that were club-goers from the gay, African American, Italian American,Latino, and psychedelic communities in Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York City. With this new disco genre on the rise more sexual fluidity and revelation of sexual identity emergence took place. By the late 1970s, most major U.S. cities had thriving disco club scenes, where DJs would mix a seamless sequence of dance records. Studio 54, a venue popular among celebrities, is a well-known example of a disco club. Popular dances included the Hustle, a sexually suggestive dance. When most musical scholars look at the rise of disco, they also see the rise of gay culture within the community. This stating is not that homosexuality was not around before disco, this is stating that homosexulity began to become more public during this era in music. The claim that gay culture emerged from disco is due to the fact that when the music was being played clubs and/or venues the atmosphere symbolized endless freedom with its nonstop beats and broader shift from effeminate to masculine gay behavior. Similarly, the overheated sweatbox atmosphere mandated shirtlessness, ushering in the rise of body culture. Disco’s loudness killed clever, wordy chitchat and led to more directness about wanting to hookup in these spaces as well. Disco changed the club scene to allow for the “queering of the dance floor”. Whereas the club scene prior to the entrance of disco was primarily for heterosexual couples and dancing partners, disco allowed folks to dance by themselves and break the stereotypical male female partnership. Disco was a refusal of both straight and gay normative concepts.
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