Disco is a
genre of
dance music containing elements of
funk,
soul,
pop, and
salsa that was most popular in the mid to late 1970s, though it has had brief resurgences. Its initial audiences were club-goers from the
gay,
African American,
Italian American, Latino, and
psychedelic communities in
Philadelphia and then later
New York City during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Disco also was a reaction against both the domination of
rock music and the stigmatization of dance music by the
counterculture during this period. Women embraced disco as well, and the music eventually expanded to several other marginalized communities of the time.