There are a lot of artist that had success with disco music or other genres that with current public are less known. Next time I meet with my Gen Z friend that is an amateur singer id she knows Donna Summer, Limahl, Eraure or Cindi Lauper.
Besisdes, Donna sumemr and Giorgio Moroder were in my opinion the pivoltal point with “I feel love” with the transition from disco music to italo disco, vith artis like Raf
or Gazebo
Zappa’s “Disco Boy” comes to mind. The dig wasn’t at disco music, just the scene and attitude built up around it.
I didn’t mind disco so much since I was a kid during it’s height and everything on the radio was just music to me, not a cultural competition, but I could see an adult getting tired of it pretty quickly, like “psychedelic” a few years before it became a style slathered on everything like gravy. Some great music, some not so great. I liked Disco Duck, but in my defense I was 7.
This is an amusing take down of one of the bigger disco hits (cued to relevant part):
As a musician I feel as if a good song can stand up no matter what style the accompaniment is arranged in. There were some fantastic songs written as disco, and there are some crap songs written as disco. This is true for all genres. It’s one of the reasons that the Leo M. covers that JLW posts about tickle some of us sometimes; the cross-style bit validates that whole spiel up there about how a song works.
ETA: All this is just to say dig what you dig, don’t yuck someone else’s yum, and at least try to recognize the immortal classics available in all genres
"I don’t like [genre] at all… well, apart from that one… "
We all do that 
When you wrote
The good stuff was called funk or soul or new age, the term “disco” had degraded to mean something like Muzak.
I thought you meant that there was music which could be placed in either one of the first three genres (if it was good), but would be branded disco (if it was bad). There definitely is music which might be termed funk and/or soul and/or disco, but I’m not aware of any disco/new age crossover. Hence, my confusion.
“I hate disco and I’m not racist” may not be the slam dunk we think it is 
I tried to find a video that expounded on the racial nature of Disco’s death
Not quite a video, but check out this podcast. They go into the subject at length:
The more I try to remember, it’s the record stores that I am basing my opinion off of. Mannheim Steamroller might have been disco in 1978, but by 1981 it was being stocked in the “New Age” rack with Kitaro and Brian Eno. The “disco” section had shrunk down to compilations that had “disco” in the title, and by 1982 I think it was mostly removed and the remaining albums moved into “pop”.
I am trying to think of how others viewed disco more than my own opinion, and it’s hard, honestly. But I try nonetheless.
I’m playing their ‘79 album Fresh Aire III right now, and if this was filed as disco, it’s because no one knew where else to put it. I suppose it might be very slightly reminiscent of something like Walter Murphy’s classical/disco fusions, but those at least had a groove of sorts. Sounds like prog to me, although there’s not much rock, which might be how they eventually ended up in new age.
This, right there. A lot of good music is hard to classify, because it’s only concerned with being good music, not with being canonical to a specific genre.
When we were kids, we relied upon the record store’s sorting to tell us which genre an album belonged in. So when they filed stuff under “Disco”, we trusted them. When they filed it somewhere else the next year, well, they were the experts and we were just students bumming around at the mall.
And now I am an old leading-edge Gen-Xer, happy to listen to all the Pink Floyd and Yes that I can, but still gravitating to the indie stations and any playlist I hadn’t heard, and now the hits of the 1970s are there to evoke memories. I can hear “Disco Inferno” and my nose remembers the smell of a roller rink and playing Asteroids for the first time.
I just wanted to add, I never expected this thread to take off like it did, it certain adds a deep layer of extra perspective and a real richness to the subject. Thanks! For the comments everyone!
My Voight-Kampf test is if your booty doesn’t move to this song then you are not human (Emma Goldman, may I have this dance) The Trammps - Disco Inferno (Original Long Version - Tony Mendes Video Re Edit) - YouTube
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