User:Elijahbroderick/sandbox

THIS IS MY CONTRIBUTION TO THE ARTICLE PROFESSOR GAUNT, DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET MY EDITS TO YOU OTHER THAN THROUGH A SCREENSHOT VIA EMAIL...

Promoting Black Music In The Disco Era

As Soul Train was bringing popular black music and dance styles into the mainstream during the early 1970's, disco was developing underground exclusively in New York City and San Francisco. DJ's, like Francis Grasso, in Black, Latino and gay night clubs would simultaneously spin multiple records belonging to the Motown, funk and soul genres before disco was given a genre of its own. Innovation and promotion of the genre came from the DJ's and independent labels housing disco artists such as Donna Summer. Because disco was exempt from the radio in the first half of the 70's, it remained underground and gained publicity in nightclubs. Disco artists flooded the pop charts as the popularity of the white group, the Bee Gees, and their movie Saturday Night Fever gained prominence in America. At this point, radio had began to realize the marketing potential of "disco fever" and 200 stations had gone exclusively disco. As quickly as it had come, disco was gone when rock stations, who generated music fads, began bashing the genre. The industry followed suit and disco in the early 80's became unmarketable. In order for disco radio stations to be able to compete with the reigning rock and pop stations, they had to switch to a different genre of music known as Urban Contemporary. The genre retained artists of soul, jazz and funk backgrounds and encompassed black acts as well as white ones.