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A disco ball (also known as a mirror ball or glitter ball) is a roughly sphere object that reflects light directed at it in many directions, producing a complex display. Its surface consists of hundreds or thousands of , nearly all of approximately the same shape and size, and each has a surface. Usually, it is mounted well above the heads of the people present, suspended from a device that causes it to rotation steadily on a vertical axis, and illuminated by spotlights, so that stationary viewers experience beams of light flashing over them, and see a myriad of spots of light spinning around the walls of the room.
Miniature glitter balls are sold as novelty and used for several decorative purposes, including dangling from the rear-view mirror of an automobile or Christmas tree ornaments. Glitter balls may have inspired a homemade version of the sparkleball, the American outsider craft of building decorative light balls out of Christmas lights and .
A Louisville, Kentucky company known as Omega Mirror Products claims to have made 90% of the disco balls used in the United States during the disco craze and remains a supplier.
The 1967 movie To Sir, with Love featured a disco ball in the dance scene.
The English rock band Yes used a variant of the disco ball in their 1972 "Close to the Edge" tour. This was a slowly spinning vertical mirror disk mounted atop a tall ladder, with a single spotlight aimed at it, used for the opening and closing birds/waterfall-sounds sequences of the title song Close to the Edge.See Yessongs tour video
The Grateful Dead featured a disco ball in the band's 1977 concert documentary The Grateful Dead Movie. The film includes several sequences where glittery reflections from a disco ball fill San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom during a series of 1974 performances. "A twirling mirror ball overhead also adds some visual flash to the image," notes a reviewer. The Grateful Dead Movie (review), retrieved 30 November 2014.
U2 also featured a lemon-shaped disco ball on their 1997–1998 PopMart Tour. The band entered the lemon disco ball at the end of the main set and emerged from the lemon disco ball at the start of their encore. The band also released promotional disco balls to promote the band's album Pop, the single "Discothèque", and lead singer Bono also sported the alter-ego of "Mirror Ball Man" during their 1992 Zoo TV Tour.
Introducing disco balls to a new concert demographic, the pop punk band Paramore showcased dozens of spinning disco balls in 2014 as a glittering stage backdrop during the band's 37-city US Monumentour. Paramore and Fall Out Boy Plot Summer 'Monumentour' (), retrieved 30 November 2014. Paramore Disco Balls! (YouTube video), retrieved 30 November 2014. The same disco ball backdrop was used that year at the UK Reading and Leeds Festivals, where the band co-headlined. Hayley and the boys triumph despite sound problems, retrieved 30 November 2014.
The UK television series Strictly Come Dancing and its US counterpart Dancing with the Stars award competition winners a "Glitter Ball Trophy".
American singer-songwriter Madonna has used glitter balls in several of her tours. During The Girlie Show in 1993, she descended while sitting on one before performing "Express Yourself", and later in 2006, she used a 2-ton glitter ball that was embellished by 2 million dollars worth of Swarovski crystals, which used a hydraulic system to open like flower petals for her entrance during her Confessions Tour.
Despite claims that the world's largest disco ball can be found on the promenade in Blackpool, United Kingdom,The World’s Largest Mirrorball, June. 2002, retrieved here 30 January 2010. it is smaller than the Guinness World Record holder. The ball was made for the 2014 Bestival event in England and is in diameter.
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