The Wanderer is a 1980 album by Donna Summer. Summer had made her name the previous decade as the most successful female artist of the disco genre, releasing a vast selection of hit singles and albums on Casablanca Records. During this period however, Summer had felt that the label had exploited her and made her portray a sexually orientated image ("the first lady of love") with which she never felt comfortable. The label had also taken over other elements of Summer's personal life, to the point where she felt she had no control over her life or career. Having come out of a period of depression and rediscovering her Christian faith, Summer had made the decision to break away from Casablanca and file a lawsuit against them. After the lawsuit was eventually settled, Summer became the first artist to be signed to the newly established Geffen Records. At that time, disco was starting to experience a backlash. Rock and New Wave music had started to become more popular, and people were starting to feel that the original "edge" to the disco culture had now vanished and that it had become a "safe product". Others felt that the disco scene had become too associated with drugs, while others resented its exclusivity (doormen would often expect people to look or be dressed a certain way before being allowed into a disco). By 1980, banners reading "disco sucks" were seen everywhere and disco records became flops. Fans wondered what direction Summer (who was seen as "the Queen of disco")