In January 2019, Kirkpatrick and his “New Rules” collaborators Caroline Ailin and Emily Warren were working at Warren’s place in Wyoming and went out to a disco night to blow off some steam. This is a way of escaping.”Īn experience of dance floor escapism was actually what influenced “Don’t Stop Now” in the first place. “When shit’s going bad, people like to indulge in happier music,” says Ian Kirkpatrick, the producer of “Don’t Start Now,” and Lipa’s 2018 hit “New Rules.” “These songs are so uplifting.
A public health crisis and subsequent recession - one started just barely 10 years after the last - plus a reinvigorated movement for racial justice, fueled by demands of significant societal restructuring in the real service of long overdue equality, make for a heavy load to bear, especially if you’re unemployed or otherwise struggling. It’s hard not to see parallels between the disco era and the political and cultural shifts happening right now in America.
With uncomplicated messages of feeling good (i.e., “Good Times” by Chic, “You Should Be Dancing” by the Bee Gees) and empowerment, like Gloria Gaynor’s perennial “I Will Survive,” hefty funk basslines, eclectic percussion via cowbell and woodblock, and four-on-the-floor rhythms, disco was the music of liberation when marginalized, working people - in particular for queer, Black, Hispanic and Latinx, and Italian-American people - needed it badly.
Mass shootings and labor strikes abounded. and Deputy Chairman of Black Panther Party Fred Hampton. At the end of the previous decade, the Civil Rights movement was disrupted by the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. The post-World War II economic boom had come to an end and the United States began to endure a cycle of depression that included an oil crisis, a stock market crash, and a recession that caused high unemployment and simultaneously high inflation. But why now? And why disco?ĭisco originated in the 1970s at a time of economic crisis. After its release in November of last year, what’s followed has felt like a new wave of disco nostalgia. Her massive lead single “Don’t Stop Now” channels OG disco and many of its modern antecedents like nü-disco, italo disco, and French house, also known as French touch. With her 2020 album Future Nostalgia and follow-up remix LP, Club Future Nostalgia, Dua has doubled-down, releasing feel-good invocations of dance music’s ur-texts. Her 2018 single “New Rules” once felt like it would be the last high-gloss hit for a long time. In contrast, pop singer Dua Lipa has been something of a guardian angel of big stadium energy. 1 on the Billboard Pop Songs chart for longer than any track by a female solo lead had in over five years, its producer Frank Dukes tweeted, “Label heads and the people at radio told us this was not a hit when we first tried to put it out lol.” Camila Cabello’s solo single “Crying in the Club,” a percussive dance track with an anthemic Sia-penned hook, was eclipsed by its restrained follow-up “Havana,” which relied on the hip-hop-leaning, lackadaisical sound of artists like Post Malone and Blackbear, as well as the vocal elasticity of rappers like Young Thug, who guests on the track. In 2017, it seemed like the big pop banger was all but dead. It’s a significant energy shift from the low-key, vibey music that’s been dominating pop music over the last few years.
In May, the divisive Doja Cat scored her first-ever chart-topper with a remix of her slick, disco-guitared “ Say So,” and a few months later, K-Pop notables BTS took that top spot with “ Dynamite,” another disco-tinged track that doubled as their first release performed only in English.ĭisco revivalism has been buoyed in pop, electronic music, and even indie rock since its inception, but the current crest of high-profile pop artists surging radio and streaming services with this sound feels a little different this time around. When rappers like Roddy Ricch, DaBaby, and Megan Thee Stallion aren’t holding court at the top of the Billboard 100 chart, disco-inspired pop has made its way to No. Pop is currently having a love affair with disco.