La Discoteca

Ready for sequins, glitter and mirror balls? We’re taking you to an imaginary late-70s Italian discoteca! Listen to our selection of Italian disco-soul, disco-funk, sleazy-disco, Eurodisco, space-disco, and disco/new wave songs (from 1975-1982, with lyrics in English or Italian) and jump back to the euphoria, fun and tight musicianship of our composers’ take on the predominant musical form of the 70s.

American disco music – like its predecessors Philly soul and New York soul – arrived in Italy in the mid-70s via DJs who came from the United States to spin records in jet-set discotheques. When private radio stations were allowed to broadcast in 1976, the disco sound invaded the country’s airwaves, eventually penetrating not only Italian pop, but also library music and film soundtracks. 

The mixture of soaring melodies and driving rhythms found an enthusiastic audience in a large section of the population who, tired of the gloom, violence and political turmoil of the period (the notorious “years of lead”), needed uplifting, fun music and saw dancing as a release. The genre also found fertile ground in the practice of our composers, arrangers, orchestrators and musicians, who were certainly not new to combining melody-oriented Italian traditions with classical music and foreign influences, from Latin music to jazz and funk. 

By the end of the decade, disco had been reshaped through an Italian (and European) lens by incorporating a variety of additional elements, including from electronic music and rock.