d. disco
Various new musical forms emerged from American cities during this period of industrial decline and economic frustration. In abandoned factories and warehouses in the Northeast, discotheques attracted patrons with funk- and soul-influenced dance music. Disco, as the music was called, stressed personal liberation and flashy clothing statements rather than social protest, thereby providing more ammunition for those who criticized 1970 culture as narcissistic. But disco music also brought pleasure to a diverse urban populace. Originating in Black and gay music venues in the early 1970s, disco had become an integrating force in American urban nightlife by the decade's end. Like many hit films of the times, the disco celebration Saturday Night Fever (1977) features an Italian working-class hero, but dancing in that movie connects men and women of different classes and races, a hallmark of the disco era.