History (and this list) tells us that dance music — in the literal, platonic sense — existed before “I Feel Love.” But dance music, as we know it today — the heaving, the sweat, the communing, the ecstasy (pun intended), the cultural shorthand and culture unto itself, and to some, even a religion — that, arguably, was realized in the spring of 1977, when Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, and Pete Bellotte recorded “I Feel Love.”

That’s where the genius of Moroder and Bellotte’s production comes in. Their innovative and painstaking recording process yielded something that hadn’t really been heard in a pop song before: a continuous, sequenced electronic bassline and washes of synths. It’s uncomplicated, but unstoppable; otherworldly, but we feel it, know it, deeply. In combination with Summer’s vocals — organic and sensual — its electronic precision transcends those past limitations of human expression. The result is timeless — both in the sense of standing the test of time, and the sensation of being lost within it, suspended of it. And what is it to dance to music if not that?