Dolly Parton danced with disco in the late 1970s

Before becoming a country superstar, Dolly Parton recorded girl-group-style singles

Parton signed with Monument Records in the mid-1960s and released a few singles that were distinctly not country music. Instead, they sounded like Phil Spector productions, in the vein of records by the Ronettes and the Crystals. Although they weren't hits in the United States, songs like "Don't Drop Out" took off in England's Northern Soul scene, which celebrated American records that had slipped through the cracks.

Read an interview with Parton conducted by Andy Warhol

Both frequented Studio 54, the chic New York club, during the disco era, and Warhol admired the country singer for her bombshell image, which he emphasized with a 1984 cover story for his Interview magazine.

Parton hosted two separate variety television shows called ‘Dolly’

Parton became a magnetic television performer on “The Porter Wagoner Show,” something that would pay off in dividends later in her career. Both her 1976 show “Dolly” and the 1987 series of the same name featured musical performances from Parton and various guests, along with lighthearted segments featuring contemporary stars. You can watch the fifth episode of 1987 below, with special guest Kermit the Frog.

Dolly Parton jumped to Hollywood in the 1980s

Costar Jane Fonda said she heard Parton’s song “Two Doors Down” on the radio while the movie was still being developed and knew she’d be a perfect fit for one of the starring roles. The success of that movie kickstarted an acting career, following up with roles in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” “Steel Magnolias,” and more.

The best Dolly Parton songs

The country icon has been recording classics for over five decades, from hits that have topped the pop charts to evergreen standards. This list, compiled by two Billboard critics, ranks the 15 best in her catalog, including “Jolene” and “9 to 5,” along with some deeper cuts like “Two Doors Down.”

A brief history of dance music

Throughout history, crowded, dimly lit, sweat-filled, and loud spaces that have hosted dance music have mirrored and shaped social change. Tracing the evolution of dance and club culture from the 1950s to today reveals changes in youth culture and desires over time. Read this article to learn more about how dance floors have reflected societal movements.

Dolly Parton declined her nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

The country icon was nominated in 2022 but bowed out, saying, “I don’t feel I have earned that right” and that she didn’t want votes split because of her inclusion on the ballot, though the Hall of Fame inducted her anyway. Interestingly, she also mentioned that the nomination motivated her to release a rock ‘n’ roll record in the future. She released “Rockstar,” a double-album featuring several duets and covers of popular rock songs, in 2023.

Dolly Parton wrote the song '9 to 5' on the set of the movie '9 to 5'

She’d agreed to star in the film if she could write its theme song, which she began while shooting the movie. As Parton tells it, the song’s genesis was clacking her long acrylic nails together.

Why Robyn's 'Dancing on My Own' became an anthem

Robyn's "Dancing on My Own," was a low-key hit when it was released in 2010, but it's become an anthem in the time since then, influencing artists like Lorde and Charli xcx and inspiring an iconic scene on HBO's "Girls." This article breaks down why that is, studying the song's beats per minute, which match humans' typical walking pace, and the queer experience reflected in its lyrics.

'Islands in the Stream' was another massive crossover hit for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton

The country stars each earned their second pop No. 1 hits with the duet, eventually selling over 3 million units. In 1998, the Fugees’ Pras scored a hit with an interpolation of the song on his track “Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are),” which was eventually certified platinum.

Bossa nova had its own dance, though it was short-lived

American record executives hoped to create a social dance for the song, believing it would lead to more record sales, as had been the case with Chubby Checker's "The Twist." That led several well-regarded dance studios to attempt to create a dance, though none caught on like "The Twist" had.

Although payola was made illegal in 1960, it likely continued on the Billboard charts through the '70s

In his book “Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves,” music journalist Chris Dalla Riva argues that payola, the music industry term for undisclosed paid publicity, likely continued into the 1970s with the Billboard chart. Dalla Riva cites chart irregularities and reports about Bill Wardlow, Billboard’s then director of sales, who was a known booster for disco label Casablanca Records.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

The ‘90s saw a resurgence of the girl group

The ‘90s saw a resurgence of the girl group, with acts like TLC, the Spice Girls, and Destiny’s Child turning the model on its head. While still strongly influenced by the ‘50s and ‘60s girl groups, these acts also worked in hip-hop and dance music. Most significantly, they emphasized female empowerment—or “girl power”—rather than adolescent yearning.

DJ Kool Herc pioneered the use of breakbeats for hip-hop

Inspired by Jamaican dancehall culture and Manhattan's disco scene, Herc used a new style that used two turntables, seamlessly mixing and looping "breakbeats"—isolated drum breaks from funk, soul, and rock records—that kept dancers at the "back to school jam" moving. Herc's technique would be the basis for modern sampling and hip-hop's first few decades.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

A DJ helped popularize the term 'rock 'n' roll' to resell R&B to a broad audience

Cleveland DJ Alan Freed launched his radio show "Moondog's Rock 'n' Roll Party," rebranding R&B records, largely performed by Black artists, as "rock 'n' roll" to appeal to a largely white audience. The name was a double-entendre, describing the sound and the sexual activities it was said to induce.

After taking a break for over a decade, Liza Minnelli released a new track using AI arrangements

In the 2026 song "Kids, Wait Til You Hear This," the singer proudly claims that the vocals are all her own, though AI generates the background music. The dance track shows Minnelli venturing into the deep house genre, straying from her traditional pop and show tunes background. The song is part of an ElevenLabs album featuring other AI-generated tunes, and shares a title with her 2026 memoir.

Listen to the 'Star Wars' disco album

The 1977 film inspired disco producer Meco to record danceable covers of sections of John Williams' score. The lead single from "Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk" eventually topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two consecutive weeks.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

Western swing merged country with jazz

For as long as country music has been set to record, its artists have experimented with the genre’s boundaries. Look no further than this track from 1946, Bob Wills’ “Roly Poly.” The song is a classic example of Western swing, a country subgenre that blended country and jazz.

Bob Dylan often reworks his vocal melodies, even for his classic songs

Bob Dylan is an unpredictable live artist willing to reinvent his classics as they age. This analysis by Steven Rings, a music professor, breaks down the evolution of the singing style in "A Hard Rain’s A‐Gonna Fall," which transformed in one 1994 performance and then continued growing.

Disco fries are New Jersey's answer to poutine

The dish—french fries topped with mozzarella cheese and brown gravy—is a staple for New Jersey diners, where the dish was served to inebriated patrons who'd just left the disco club. There's no clear inventor responsible for the delicacy, though most people assume it's a variation of poutine, the similar dish that's popular in Canada.

Horse diving was a popular attraction for 50 years

The event, which took place in Atlantic City, is exactly as it sounds: horses, directed by (sometimes scantily clad) riders, would jump from diving boards into pools. Although it was a popular spectacle for decades, it fell out of favor by the late 1970s.

Prince removed the bass from 'When Doves Cry,' creating the song's unique sound

It was an unorthodox choice, especially for someone associated with funk music, a genre that relies on prominent bass lines, but Prince wanted the song—written in the 11th hour for "Purple Rain"—to have more space. It worked: The song wound up as the lead single for the album and went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

How 'A Hard Day's Night' innovated popular culture

The Beatles' first film, "A Hard Day's Night," was groundbreaking, using innovative directorial techniques, the aesthetics of French New Wave, and slapstick class-based humor to effectively establish the model for the music video decades before the debut of MTV. This essay from a music educator breaks down how the film was received in 1964 and why it still resonates with new fans today.

PSY—GANGNAM STYLE

One of the first K-pop songs to reach a critical mass of fans in markets far outside of South Korea was 'Gangnam Style'—a lighthearted, catchy track from Korean rapper Psy that soon had fans around the world trying out the music video’s signature horse-riding dance. The video for the song, which was uploaded to YouTube in July 2012, was also the first on the platform to reach 1 billion views.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

The 2026 Ebola outbreak in the DRC is spurring new Ebola vaccine development for the Bundibugyo species.

Dirty lightning is a thunderstorm created from friction between rising and falling flows of ash and smoke during volcanic eruptions.