Kool and The Gang is a band which originated in 1964, New Jersey, who are now notable for their R&B and Disco music, two genres which were very prominent around the 1980’s during the growth of black pop along similar genres. Kool and The Gang was initially made up of two brothers (Robert and Ronald Bell, two Muslim brothers born in Ohio) in addition of five other members, and over time the many other members joined and left the band. They were originally a Jazz band, but later started playing funk and R&B oriented music, gaining them some success during the beginning of the ‘70s; and then gained even more success in the later years - when disco became popular - with hits like “Celebration”, “Get Down on It”, and “Fresh”. Although they have …show more content…
Released under De-Lite Records in 1980 through their album “Something Special,” and being the band’s only song to ever hit #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, this remains their most successful hit to this day. Celebration’s genre fell under a sub-genre of disco and funk, known as post-disco, which was prevalent at the time. This hit song is still heavily-listened to this day, with over 40M streams on Spotify and over 100M views on YouTube, it’s safe to say that the song’s relevancy through this modern age of music is still high up. “Celebration” has a simple 2/4-meter beat, going at around 120 beats per minute, and begins with a catchy instrumental introduction which sets up the mood of the whole song. The form of the song seems to follow (not including the introduction) Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Pre-Hook/Hook and then a reprise of that structure, whereas the verse only switches one word of the lyrics, making most of the song easily memorable, ending with a second bridge, to an outro being a fadeout of the song’s main hook. The instrumentals, on the other hand, repeat throughout most of the song, whereas the drum kicks every second beat, giving the song a more “danceable” feel. The whole song conjoins and follows the A-flat major scale, which is what wholly gives it the lively feel that it