Disco Music and Dance Clubs

• Discos provided a venue for a youth counterculture composed of both men and women, gay and straight, from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, to socialize, listen to music and dance. Revelers would dance the night away at popular discos such as Studio 54 in New York City and the Whiskey-A-Go-Go in Hollywood.
  
  

Movies and Television

• Disco-themed TV shows and movies brought disco dancing into the mainstream.Ryan McVay/Photodisc/Getty Images
  
  Disco culture permeated the entertainment industry, inspiring movie and television scripts, and bringing the disco lifestyle into the living rooms of millions of people.
  
  The quintessential movie of the disco era was "Saturday Night Fever" starring John Travolta as an immature, young Brooklynite who finds the attention he seeks on the disco dance floors of New York City. The disco revolution moved to television with shows like "Soul Train" that featured disco dancing and live performances from the genre's hottest artists.
  
  

Language

• Discos affected the language people used, adding such words and phrases as "boogie," "get down" and "groovy man" to the vernacular.
  
  

Fashion

• Suits with bell-bottomed pants and wide lapels were signature disco fashions.Digital Vision./Photodisc/Getty Images
  
  Fashions inspired by disco dancers included wide lapels, bell bottoms and platform shoes. Travolta's iconic, white three-piece suit in "Saturday Night Fever" defined the disco look for men. "Most men's shirts were usually unbuttoned half-way, or further," according to Ties-Necktie.com. "Men in the disco era loved to show off skin, especially if they had an abundance of chest hair."
  
  Women's disco fashions included wraparound, rayon dresses, ultra-short shorts known as "hot pants", leotards and high-waisted, bell-bottomed jeans. Synthetic fabrics with tight fits, flashy colors and wild patterns were fashionable for both men and women.
  
  

Drug Abuse

• A culture of substance abuse grew along with the disco lifestyle. Drugs common in the disco scene included marijuana, cocaine, Quaaludes and "poppers," which were vials of amyl nitrate, traditionally used to treat angina, that were broken open and inhaled.
  
  

Sexual Liberation and Promiscuity

• The "free love" sexual liberation of the 60s flowed freely into the pre-AIDS society of the 70s. Discos provided an environment for uninhibited sexual behavior; disco dancers were known for their risqué clothing and sexually provocative moves on the dance floor. Discos also provided a place for gays to express their sexuality more freely.
  
  

The Beginning of the End

• The popularity of discos and disco music began to wane in the late 1970s and early 1980s. One event in particular symbolized the beginning of the end of disco: In July 1979, Chicago radio station WLUP invited fans to bring their disco records to "Disco Demolition Night" at Comiskey Park during a doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers. Tens of thousands of people chanted "disco sucks" as station personnel used pyrotechnics to blow thousands of disco records 200 feet into the air.
  
  Disco suffered another hit with the onslaught of the AIDS virus in the 1980s. With its "anything goes" philosophy, the disco lifestyle was a convenient target for the establishment to blame for the spread of the disease.