Disco: Music, Movies, and Mania Under the Mirror Ball

This dazzling volume shines new light on the songs, styles, and enduring pop culture impact of the 1970s musical genre that emerged from Black and Latin queer culture to take the world by storm.

Half a century after the drug-fueled, DJ-driven, glamour-drenched musical phenomenon of disco was born at a New York City loft party, disco’s musical and fashion influences live on in popular culture.

This is a frolicking, entertaining, yet serious tribute to the overlooked art form of disco, which has never been given its proper due, nor taken its true place in the historic struggle for LGBTQ+, gender, and racial equality.

Painting a vivid portrait of this provocative era, DeCaro explores the cultural importance of disco and how the music and dance that originated in queer Black and Latin clubs of the day became a mainstream phenomenon, changing our culture along the way.

With glamorous photos from disco’s heyday up through today, DeCaro examines disco’s pervasive influence on pop culture over the last fifty years--exploring disco in film and television as well as in fashion and interior design.

Through entertaining texts--as well as interviews with artists and celebrities of the era, such as Donna Summer and Grace Jones, among others--this book champions the diverse origins of disco while celebrating its influence on today’s groundbreaking artists such as Lady Gaga, Duo Lipa, and Miley Cyrus. A must for all lovers of music, style, and pop culture.

Frank DeCaro’s work has appeared in myriad publications including the New York Times Magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Vogue, and the Advocate. He is also the author of Rizzoli’s Drag: Combing Through the Big Wigs of Show Business.