Disco is a genre of dance-oriented pop music that was popularized in dance clubs (discothèques) in the mid-1970s, and which dominated mainstream pop until the late 1970s. The traditional form of Disco is the American, described in this article, but there was an off-shoot form (like rock and jazz) of European (see: Eurodisco). Disco songs usually have soaring, often reverberated vocals over a steady four-on-the-floor beat, an eighth note (quaver) or sixteenth note (semi-quaver) hi-hat pattern with an open hi-hat on the off-beat, and a prominent, syncopated electric bass line. Strings, horns, electric pianos, and electric guitars create a lush background sound. Orchestral instruments such as the flute are often used for solo melodies, and unlike in rock, lead guitar is rarely used. While there were a number of well-known mid-1970s disco performers, such as the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, the Village People, Sylvester and KC and The Sunshine Band, Disco was primarily a producer's medium, since they created the tracks and wrote the songs."[1]Many non-disco artists recorded disco songs at the height of disco's popularity, and films such as Saturday Night Fever and Thank God It's Friday contributed to disco's rise in mainstream popularity and, ironically, it's eventual decline. While disco music declined in popularity in the early 1980s, it was an important influence on the development of the 1980s and 1990s electric dance music genres of house and techno. It also was an important influence in the 1990s and 2000s on the hip hop subgenres of crunk, hyphy, and snap.