The description and playlist below are from the weekly radio show (A Brief History Of…) that my friend and I host on WSUM 91.7fm Madison (the University of Wisconsin's radio station). We selected songs we felt were either historically important or just representative of each specific topic. Please comment if you feel we missed something or just to give your opinion. Remember, however, that we do this show in an hour (about 50 minutes of music), so no show will ever be comprehensive. Track length is a major factor in our decisions (shorter is usually better). Thanks!

A Brief History of...Post-Disco follows Disco's direct descendants into the underground clubs of Continental Europe, New York, and Chicago where various musicians experimented with the Disco sound. The beginning of the show looks at the type of Disco that became popular in these underground clubs. The middle portion explores some of the more experimental sounds that evolved from that basic Disco dance groove. The final portion of the show explores the popular explosion of Disco's greatest grandchild, House music. The major theme throughout the show is that Disco never really died and further, that Disco was the most important form of dance music in the second half of the 20th century.

This show was intended to get us from Disco's peak in 1977 to House music's popularity in both the US and UK in about 1990. Since many of these songs are long dance grooves and since the period covered is quite long, the show ended up being rather shallow in its coverage. For this show only, I will include some of the songs we cut (I'll put them in italics as bonus tracks) to help fill in the argument that Disco never really died. In any case, here's the playlist from this show:

Disco Goes Electronic:
First Hand Experience in Second Hand Love by Giorgio Moroder (1977). Giorgio Moroder was an Italian record producer who created some of the most successful dance music with synthesizers. His work, including this popular track, greatly influenced later dance genres like House and Techno. Moroder also marks the beginning of Italian prominence in disco and post-disco.
I Feel Love by Donna Summer (1977). Giorgio Moroder often produced the music of Donna Summer, including "Love to Love You Baby" that we played in the Disco show and "I Feel Love." The latter was the first huge mostly-synthesized disco hit, setting the stage for nearly all electronic dance music that followed.

Disco's Last Gasps:
Good Times by Chic (1979). July 12, 1979, is the standard date for the official death of disco. That was the date of Disco Demolition Night, an event organized by fired disco-DJ Dave Dahl for the burning of Disco records at a Chicago White Sox game. Some of the biggest records of the Disco era came out in 1979. Among them were "Ring My Bell" by Anita Ward, "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind & Fire, "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer, "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, and finally, "Good Times" by Chic. Disco certainly wasn't dead in 1979, but the sound was changing and by 1980, even popular Disco had evolved into something else (especially since the phrase 'Disco sucks!' had begun to catch on). We included Chic’s "Good Times" because it directly influenced the first hip-hop recordings, especially those by The Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. The song has also been sampled repeatedly by Funk, House, and Dance-Oriented Rock artists.
Kiss Me Again by Dinosaur (1979). Dinosaur's "Kiss Me Again" was Avant-Garde cellist Arthur Russel's first attempt at dance music. The lead guitar on this track was played by David Byrne of Talking Heads. The club remix by Larry Levan, a DJ at The Paradise Garage in New York, was the first song in the creation of the "garage sound." "Garage" was the underground form of post-disco that most resembled disco itself. At the time of this release, Frankie Knuckles, the Godfather of House, was working with Larry Levan in New York. Within a year, Knuckles had moved on to DJ at new clubs in Chicago. "Kiss Me Again" can in this regard be seen as the first transitional form of the Disco sound in the direct line to House music.

Euro-Disco + Italo-Disco + Synth-Pop = Eurobeat:
Moskau by Dschinghis Khan (1979). Dschinghis Khan was a German Euro-Disco band hugely popular in 1979 and 1980 in Europe, but their songs never charted in America. This European style of Disco was much more campy, bouncy, and fun than its American counterpart, a trend that would continue with popular European dance music in the early 80s.
Dirty Talk by Klein & Mbo (1982). Klein + MBO was a little known duo of Italo-disco artists. The few songs they produced, including "Dirty Talk," were huge hits in the clubs of both New York and Chicago and greatly influenced both Garage and House.
You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) by Dead or Alive (1985). When the humor of Euro-Disco was added onto the more electronic grooves of Italo-Disco (and with strong influence from the dancy Synth-Pop of bands like Depeche Mode and New Order) the sound flew across the Atlantic with Eurobeat bands like Dead or Alive and Bananarama. This song exemplifies the sound and the over-the-top humor that remained from earlier influences.

Post-Disco Experimentation:
Dance by ESG (1982). ESG was an all-female group from the South Bronx. Because of their location, they are often associated tangentially with early Hip-Hop (and rightfully so). ESG’s music was often played at the Paradise Garage and the Music Box clubs in New York City. An odd sidenote is that ESG opened for both Public Image Ltd. and A Certain Ratio in the early 80s.
Optimo by Liquid Liquid (1983). Label mates with ESG on 99 Records, Liquid Liquid took a funk approach to disco style with their minimalist disco grooves. Liquid Liquid’s "Cavern" was directly sampled as the music for Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel’s famous "White Lines (Don’t Do It)" in 1983. The sound of "Optimo" is a long way from the sound of popular Disco in the late 70s. It just goes to show how much experimentation was happening with dance grooves in the early 80s (include Hip-Hop's use of dance beats and the experimentaion level seems even more phenomenal).

Chicago House:
Your Love by Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principle (1984). Frankie Knuckles, the "Godfather of House," at first mixed old disco hits with drum-machine percussion and later created his own music with other Chicago musicians. "Your Love" is often considered the first true House song and various versions of the song spread like wildfire through Chicago's clubs in 1984.
Move Your Body (The House Music Anthem) by Marshall Jefferson (1986). Since we only had time for a couple House songs (really it deserved a show of its own, but we already had too many shows scheduled), we chose the first ("Your Love") and the biggest ("Move Your Body") songs of Chicago House. "Move Your Body" was regarded as the anthem of House music (Marshall Jefferson must have known he had something good since he subtitled the song as such). Jefferson also produced "Acid Trax" by Phuture, the song that kicked off the Acid House movement. Acid House was a more bass-driven alternative to the piano-led dance grooves of traditional Chicago House (like "Move Your Body") and became the most popular sub-genre of House music for a number of years.

House Goes to England - The Madchester Scene:
Voodoo Ray by A Guy Called Gerald (1988).
Pacific 202 by 808 State (1989). 808 State, A Guy Called Gerald (a former member of 808 State), and the next band brought Acid House to England where the sound exploded in 1988 and 1989.
W.F.L. (Think About the Future mix) by Happy Mondays (1988). I don't think my co-host understood the point of the show. We were (at least I was) trying to show the continuation of the Disco sound. Since he is the British specialist I let him choose the Madchester tracks. He correctly chose Happy Mondays, but we played "24 Hour Party People," which has very little to do with the House sound. As an executive decision, I'm replacing it here with Happy Monday's first successful attempt at a House sound, 1988's Acid House version of "W.F.L. (Wrote For Luck)." A hybrid of the traditional House sound with Acid House can be heard on Happy Mondays' 1989 "Hallelujah (Club Mix)" (which I personally think is a better song, too).

Disco Returns! - House Hits the Pop Charts:
Due to the length of many of the songs we played earlier in the playlist, we did successfully make it to House music's arrival in England, but we didn't get quite to a good ending place. We really wanted to end with the traditional House sound jumping into the pop charts in both America and Britain. Here are the final two songs that I think would have provided good closure for the goals of this show.
Pump Up the Jam by Technotronic (1989). "Pump Up the Jam" hit #2 in England and, more importantly, it was the first House song to break into the American charts, also peaking at #2.
Everybody everybody by Black Box (1990). This song sums up the entire show better than anything else I could think of. Black Box was an Italian music group (in the tradition of Giorgio Moroder and Klein & MBO) who performed House music. "Everybody Everybody" was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1990. Most significantly, the sound of the song isn't really that far removed from the Disco of the late 70s (this is made especially noticeable by the stong female voice singing lead, just like on many classic Disco hits... upon further research, the female vocalist in question is none other than Martha Wash, a back-up singer for Sylvester in the 70s and a member of The Weather Girls. This is just more proof that people still wanted to hear basically the same sound they had heard when Disco first became popular).

As a brief conclusion, Disco never died. Your favorite current dance music more than likely owes its existence to the Disco phenomenon (and probably even sounds somewhat similar - although you don't want to admit it). Furthermore, looking back at the last few shows, it is obvious that the early 80s was a period of great cross-pollination across genres (Hip-Hop, Post-Punk, Disco, New Wave, & Funk especially). A final note is that, much like Punk and Hip-Hop, many of the various Post-Disco sub-sounds will forever be tied to specific locations - not just regions or cities, but specific clubs and individuals - more than many of the genres that came before.

P.S. - we know we missed the emergence of Techno, so don't comment too negatively about that...I'd like to think we did a pretty good job considering the breadth of this show.