Donna Summer
USA, 1968–2012
American singer, billed as the Queen of Disco. Her Giorgio Moroder productions 'Love to Love You Baby' and 'I Feel Love' shaped the genre and, in the latter case, the sound of electronic dance-pop.
MusicRoots documents 2 artists who influenced Donna Summer and 6 artists Donna Summer influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Donna Summer?
- Mahalia Jackson — Donna Summer was an admirer of Mahalia Jackson and sang gospel in church — the sacred power beneath the disco.
- Janis Joplin — Summer was inspired by rock singers including Janis Joplin — the raw rock power that fed her later new-wave and rock turns.
Which artists did Donna Summer influence?
- Kylie Minogue — Kylie's dance-pop grew out of the Euro-disco tradition — her Stock Aitken Waterman hits and later 'Disco' era descend from Donna Summer and the 1970s disco sound.
- Sophie Ellis-Bextor — Her nu-disco hits, above all 'Murder on the Dancefloor', revive the string-driven disco sound of Donna Summer's era.
- Bronski Beat — The Age of Consent closes on a medley built around 'I Feel Love' — the record that showed a disco track could be made entirely of sequencer, which is what Bronski Beat then did with a political lyric on top.
- Laura Branigan — Donna Summer's Eurodisco was the model Branigan's wailing dance-pop followed — the vocal-disco lineage of 'Gloria' and 'Self Control'.
- Goldfrapp — Donna Summer's disco — absorbed by Alison Goldfrapp as a teenager — is part of the glam-disco DNA of Goldfrapp's dancefloor records.
- Pet Shop Boys — The Moroder productions the Pet Shop Boys call their template were Summer's records.