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Claude Lemaire kicks off his seven-part series Diving into Disco by defending disco’s cultural legitimacy and sonic richness, while tracing its roots in gay liberation and challenging its enduring underappreciation among audiophiles.
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As protests raged and culture shifted in 1968, soul and funk artists like James Brown, The Temptations, and Marvin Gaye redefined Black music with psychedelic grooves, political messages, and genre-breaking experimentation.
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Motown met the Summer of Love in 1967 with “Reflections,” as psychedelic soul emerged—while Sly & the Family Stone’s electrifying debut laid the groundwork for funk, disco, and the future of R&B.
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As Motown icons the Supremes and Temptations battled for chart dominance in 1966–67, psychedelic soul and funk pioneers like Sly Stone and James Brown began reshaping the sound of Black music—with drum breaks, distortion, and fire.
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James Brown’s funk revolution redefined rhythm, shifting focus to the downbeat groove in hits like “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.” Meanwhile, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and Eddie Floyd shaped soul’s evolution, fueling disco’s dancefloor legacy.
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From jump blues and Ray Charles’s boundary-breaking “What’d I Say” to the polished hits of Motown and gritty grooves of Stax, this sweeping history traces soul music’s rise—and disco’s roots—in a racially and musically transformative America.
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Tracing disco’s roots back to slave songs, chain gangs, and swing countercultures, the article shows how rhythm evolved into a movement — one made possible not by concerts, but by records and multitrack recording.