Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars.
House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culture in the late 1970s, as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat.
Larry Levan was an American DJ best known for his decade-long residency at the New York City night club Paradise Garage, which has been described as the prototype of the modern dance club. He developed a cult following who referred to his sets as "Saturday Mass". Influential post-disco DJ François Kevorkian credits Levan with introducing the dub aesthetic into dance music. Along with Kevorkian, Levan experimented with drum machines and synthesizers in his productions and live sets, ushering in an electronic, post-disco sound that presaged the ascendence of house music. He DJ'd at Club Zanzibar in the 1980s as well, home to the Jersey Sound brand of deep house or garage house.
Paradise Garage, also known as "the Garage" or the "Gay-rage", was a New York City discotheque notable in the history of dance and pop music, as well as LGBT and nightclub cultures. The 10,000 square feet (930 m2) club was founded by sole proprietor Michael Brody, and occupied a building formerly located at 84 King Street in the SoHo neighborhood. It operated from 1977 to 1987 and featured notable resident DJ Larry Levan.
Ini Kamoze is a Jamaican reggae artist who began his career in the early 1980s and rose to prominence in 1994 with the signature song "Here Comes the Hotstepper". The single topped the US Billboard Hot 100 as well as record charts in Denmark and New Zealand, reaching number four on the UK Singles Chart.
Charles Arthur Russell Jr. was an American cellist, composer, producer, singer, and musician from Iowa, whose work spanned a disparate range of styles. Trained in contemporary experimental composition and Indian classical music, Russell relocated to New York in the mid-1970s, where he became associated with Lower Manhattan's avant-garde community and eventually embraced the city's disco scene.
Nu-disco is a 21st-century dance music genre associated with a renewed interest in the late 1970s US disco, synthesizer-heavy 1980s European dance music styles, and early 1990s electronic dance music. The genre was especially popular in the first half of the 2000s, and experienced another mild resurgence throughout the 2010s.
Garage house is a dance music style that was developed alongside Chicago house music. The genre was popular in the 1980s in the United States and the 1990s in the United Kingdom, where it developed into UK garage and speed garage.
The Peech Boys, also known as the New York Citi Peech Boys or NYC Peech Boys, were a band that comprised Bernard Fowler, Steven Brown, Robert Kasper, Darryl Short, Larry Levan and Michael de Benedictus. The group formed at the Paradise Garage, being influenced by Larry Levan. They only released four 12" discs with "On a Journey" peaking at #56 in the 1983 US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. However, they are most known for their 1982 song "Don't Make Me Wait", which was one of the early hits in the New York house/garage scene, due to Levan's playing it at the Paradise Garage. "Don't Make Me Wait" was their only UK Singles Chart entry, peaking at #49 in November 1982. They were signed to the West End Records label, but in 1984 they split up.
Post-disco is a term to describe an aftermath in popular music history circa 1979–1985, imprecisely beginning with an unprecedented backlash against disco music in the United States, leading to civil unrest and a riot in Chicago known as the Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979, and indistinctly ending with the mainstream appearance of new wave in 1980. During its dying stage, disco displayed an increasingly electronic character that soon served as a stepping stone to new wave, old-school hip hop, euro disco, and was succeeded by an underground club music called hi-NRG, which was its direct continuation.
Taana Gardner is an American disco and post-disco singer who found her success through West End Records since 1979. She is also a former member of the Aural Exciters.
"Heartbeat" is a 1981 dance single by Taana Gardner. It was arranged by Dennis Weeden and Kenton Nix, and released by West End Records, with the more famous club mix created by Larry Levan. It reached the Billboard R&B chart at No. 10 and the No. 6 on the dance chart. It has sold over 800,000 copies.
Boogie is a rhythm and blues genre of electronic dance music with close ties to the post-disco style, that first emerged in the United States during the late 1970s to mid-1980s. The sound of boogie is defined by bridging acoustic and electronic musical instruments with emphasis on vocals and miscellaneous effects. It later evolved into electro and house music.
The Catacombs Nightclub was a gay afterhours club in Philadelphia that played underground dance music, which was the precursor to house music. Additionally, Catacombs was responsible for the creation of the dance music genre "Philly Classics." The club was a haven and cultural centre for music industry professionals and artists of diverse backgrounds in the early '80s.
"Don't Make Me Wait" is a song recorded by the Peech Boys in 1982. It was written by the band and produced by Paradise garage DJ Larry Levan. It was released by West End Records and peaked at No. 89 on the Billboard R&B singles chart and No. 49 on the UK Singles Chart.
The New Jersey sound or Jersey sound is a genre of house music originating in Newark, New Jersey during the early 1980s. It is a type of deep and garage house with an emphasis on soulful vocals influenced by Newark's gospel legacy.
UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house, but also incorporates elements from R&B, jungle and dance-pop. It is defined by percussive, shuffled rhythms with syncopated hi-hats, cymbals and snares, and may include either 4/4 house kick patterns or more irregular "2-step" rhythms. Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-stretched or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure at a tempo usually around 130 BPM.
Corrado Rizza is an Italian DJ and producer.
Melvin Cheren was a record executive who helped start the Paradise Garage, also known as "Gay-rage", a New York City gay discothèque popular in the 1970s and '80s.
