{"id":4490,"date":"2015-10-20T21:24:31","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T21:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ilovedisco.events\/projects\/the-major-labels-who-produced-disco-music\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T16:03:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:03:55","slug":"the-major-labels-who-produced-disco-music","status":"publish","type":"projects","link":"https:\/\/ilovedisco.events\/en\/projects\/the-major-labels-who-produced-disco-music\/","title":{"rendered":"The Major Labels: Who Produced Disco Music?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Until 1978, <b>Disco music<\/b> had been the domain of Black artists. From that year (the year after the release of &#8220;<b>Saturday Night Fever<\/b>&#8220;), radio stations and charts were flooded with disco products. <b>The major record labels<\/b> had a new market to conquer, and so even traditional rock artists (Rolling Stones, Bowie, Elton John, Chicago, Rod Stewart\u2026) joined the disco sound. It happened that for disco to become a worldwide phenomenon, it was necessary for white artists to appropriate it (much like what had happened in the &#8217;60s with Rock and Roll).  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1263 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/ilovedisco.events\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/motown-logo.jpg\" alt=\"motown-logo\" width=\"264\" height=\"258\">Many record labels began producing Disco Music in the early 1970s. One of the first was Motown Records of Detroit. Soul and R&#038;B had been the counterpart to dominant rock for years. <b>Motown Records<\/b> of <b>Detroit<\/b> (Michigan) relocated to Hollywood in 1972, seeking to refresh an image that labeled it &#8220;Black music&#8221; with insurmountable limits for the large international market. In the 1960s, Motown and its Soul division were so famous that they created the term <b>Motown Sound<\/b>, a style of soul music with extremely distinctive features, such as the use of bass, a particular melodic structure, arrangement, and a special vocal line. <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Disco music has its roots in the work done by Soul and R&#038;B artists at Motown. Among the famous artists who recorded with Motown are: * The Jackson 5 with Michael &#038; Jermaine Jackson * Marvin Gaye * The Commodores * The Contours * Stevie Wonder * Smokey Robinson &#038; The Miracles * Rick James * The Temptations * Tammi Terrell * The Four Tops * Martha Reeves &#038; The Vandellas * Gladys Knight &#038; the Pips * Diana Ross &#038; The Supremes * The Undisputed Truth * Rare Earth * Jr. Walker &#038; the All stars * Isley Brothers * The Marvelettes * Mary Wells * Dina Rae.  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Another historic label that dedicated itself to disco music was <b>20th Century Records<\/b> of <b>Los Angeles<\/b>. It took &#8220;Love&#8217;s theme&#8221; by the Love Unlimited Orchestra for the concept of Disco Music to be welcomed and accepted by the mass public, especially well codified by the vinyl industry. The track, snubbed by radio stations, was promoted solely by New York DJs and marked a critical point in the evolution of Disco, marking the beginning of the separation of Black music from its traditional form: 1960s soul. Honeyed voices, violins, strings, brass, horns, and three Supremes-like singers. With these ingredients, Barry White climbed the American charts and made visible the power of disco and DJs. Principal artists: * <b>Barry White<\/b> * London Symphony Orchestra * Edwin Starr * Love Unlimited Orchestra * Sammy Davis Jr. and many others. The record label was owned<br \/>\nby 20th Century Fox, from which it took its name, later changed to 20th Century Records.      <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Moving on to <b>Casablanca Records<\/b> of <b>Los Angeles<\/b>, a record label created by Neil Bogart in 1973 after leaving Buddah Records. Casablanca released the hits of <b>Donna Summer<\/b>, The Four Tops, Angel, Village People, and Parliament. Polygram purchased 50% of the company in 1977 and subsequently acquired the remaining half for $15 million. Later, the label released hits by Lipps Inc and Irene Cara. It was closed in 1984.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/ilovedisco.events\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/TSOP-logo.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1264 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/ilovedisco.events\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/TSOP-logo.jpg\" alt=\"TSOP-logo\" width=\"373\" height=\"217\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Then there was <b>Philly Sound<\/b> of <b>Philadelphia<\/b>, an American record label founded by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff in 1971. The soul foundations of the two, combined with violins, xylophones, and a strong rhythmic section, defined the groove of disco music. The principal artists produced by Philadelphia International Records were:<br \/>\n* MFSB * Patti Labelle * Archie Bell &#038; The Drells * Jerry Butler * The Ebonys * Jean Carn * The Intruders * Dick Jensen * The Jones Girls * McFadden &#038; Whitehead * Harold Melvin &#038; the Blue Notes * The O&#8217;Jays * Billy Paul * Teddy Pendergrass * Lou Rawls * Dee Dee Sharp * Bunny Sigler * Gideon Smith * The Three Degrees * Dexter Wansel * Johnny Williams * The Whitehead Bros * Talk of the Town * Phyllis Hyman * Love Committee * The Force * Frantique * The Trammps.  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Other labels that produced important disco music artists were: <b>TK Records<\/b> of <b>Miami<\/b> and <b>Sea Studios<\/b> of <b>New Orleans<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Meanwhile, in <b>San Francisco<\/b>, some record labels also began dedicating themselves to disco music: these were the <b>gay labels<\/b>. The most important were: <b>Megatone<\/b> and <b>Moby Dick<\/b>. In particular, the latter was famous for the eccentric and kitsch character of its productions.  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Finally, we recall <b>Salsoul Records<\/b> of <b>New York<\/b>. Founded in 1974 by brothers Joe, Ken, and Stanley Cayre and by Joe Bataan, Salsoul (a name derived from the fusion of the words Salsa and Soul) was born as a sublabel of Caytronics, a label that primarily produced Mexican and Latin American music. Among the principal artists to be remembered are: *Aurra* *Carol Williams* *Edwin Starr* *Donna Summer* *Inner Life* *Instant Funk* *Jocelyn Brown* *Larry Levan* *Loleatta Holloway* *Rafael Cameron* *Skyy* *Charo* as well as one of the co-founders: *Joe Bataan*.<br \/>\nAmong the productions, the *Salsoul Orchestra* should be remembered: an actual classical music orchestra that, between 1974 and 1982, composed music by blending different genres such as funk, Philadelphia soul, and Latin music, eventually arriving at disco music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Until 1978, Disco music had been the domain of Black artists. From that year (the year after the release of &#8220;Saturday Night Fever&#8220;), radio stations [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4492,"template":"","project-category":[65],"class_list":["post-4490","projects","type-projects","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project-category-history"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Major Labels: Who Produced Disco Music? - I Love Disco | Communications and Events<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ilovedisco.events\/en\/projects\/the-major-labels-who-produced-disco-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Major Labels: Who Produced Disco Music? - I Love Disco | Communications and Events\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Until 1978, Disco music had been the domain of Black artists. 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