Disco music provided the soundtrack for gay men's culture in the 1970s and made one of gay culture's biggest forays into mainstream consciousness. Disco was first played in New York City, in small black gay clubs. By 1974 or so, disco had come to dominate white gay bars, which had traditionally featured black music rather than the rock n' roll played in white straight bars. Much of disco did not explicitly address gay themes (the work of The Village People - YMCA, In the Navy - and a few others excepted), but gay men responded to disco's pulsating rhythm, to its lyrics which glorified sex and sensuality and to female vocalists - like Gloria Gaynor and Diana Ross - who belted out songs of unrequited love.

Disco changed the face of many gay bars. Once dark and furtive places, gay bars were transformed into spacious bright discos with high-tech light shows, mirror balls, and an air of celebration. Gays were suddenly trendsetters. Soon heterosexuals began to frequent gay discos, and clubs like New York's Studio 54 became places where gay men and straight clubgoers mixed. By 1976, performers like Gloria Gaynor and Donna Summer had successfully crossed over to mainstream success. The success of the film Saturday Night Fever represented the apex of disco's move into the public's consciousness.

Source: Miller