At the same time in cities, especially New York City, LA, a few other places, you’re starting to see more outward expressions of community among certain marginalized groups-I’m thinking of queer people, you know, I’m thinking of racial minorities, Black people, Puerto Rican people, who have always existed, but I think as their cultures evolve, they start to evolve disco as well. Also, over this time, and by the time we get to the 70s, the music itself is evolving, right? It’s moving from the sort of R&B and Soul of the Motown era, and getting longer, getting stretched out. And then over time, this way of gathering with music that was recorded, as opposed to played live, continued to evolve into the 50s and 60s, and made its way across the pond to the US. So in order to circumvent those rules, people would get together and play their record libraries- discotheques-for each other and get together that way. So, going back as far as the 1940s, the word “disco” comes from the French discotheque, which referred to the secret underground clubs that existed during World War II and Nazi-occupied France where gathering and getting together and live music was not allowed. Camille Squires: Yeah, it has a long history, but it is also very much of its time.

Thinking rock clear sorting