state of London underground

[Gus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis

Hardly a quiet decade of peace and stability. Although the origins of disco and or any social movement associated with it is outside my area of interest.

Probably the collective hangover of the hippie movement.

Can I phone a friend?

Then again theres usually some heavy stuff going on in the world so you can always find something that was going on. I really dont think Disco was inspired by any sort of bad times though. However disco is mostly shite so maybe you could have a point - decent music is inspired by hardtimes.