As someone who lived through the disco years as a teenager I would say that 1975 was when the term disco became popular. Before that it was simply known as soul or funk. Round about 1974 there appears to have been a morphing of the two styles into a popular club groove that later became termed disco. I don’t think anybody used the term "Disco" until mid to late '74. Initially the sound was mostly underground, and was popular with hard core dance freaks with centres in places such as Philadelphia.
In its early years disco coexisted quite nicely alongside other music styles, at least on the radio (which was much more influential than now). Then in 1977 Saturday night fever came along and spoiled everything. What up till then was a burgeoning scene became chewed up, spat out and raped by both the media and record companies eager for a quick pound. When tracks such as bridge over troubled water got the disco treatment everybody knew that discos death toll had been sounded. It was the **** presented as disco at this time that earned it all the hatred it received.
As always happens in cases such as this, the cool crowd (well in the UK at least) left the mainstream to it and moved on to jazz funk.
As regards to funk: Funk maintained its following throughout the 70’s and into the 80’s despite bands who might be classed as funk dipping there toe in the dance scene ( mostly in the form of singles) to earn a few sheckles.
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