Funny thing is the disco album "Off The Wall" came out around August 79 sold 7 million copies and two number singles, Diana Ross put out an album of disco tunes around summer 1980 and had two No.1 hits "Upside Down" & "I'm Coming Out", Queen put out a disco funk tune "Another Bites the Dust" a No.1 single that sold over 4 million units and crossover, and producer Bob Ezrin who co-produced Pink Floyd's "The Wall" said "Another Brick In The Wall Part 2" admitted that they were imitating a disco rhythm and ever Roger Waters gave in because it turn out to be good and that hit No.1. Then Chic's ""Good Times" is the only record that was an end of an era and the beginning of a new one, "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang. So the popularity of disco may have died but the influence never went away.
Michael Jackson continued much of the Disco tradition in his music. I think a big difference though between 1970s disco and 1980s dance music, including Jackson, was the removal of a lot of the big melodies and orchestrations - including string and horn sections which are a continuation of the American big band tradition. In the 1980s music was more synthesised and scaled down. This is of course a generalisation, for example, Georgio Moroder wrote very electronic music for Donna Summer in the mid 1970s; but I think in terms of broader trends this is true. More generally music in the 1980s was more white: country and British rock was the mainstream. RandB was around (eg. Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston) but these artists were against the bigger trends.
Well that movie popularized it a lot. Kind of like people stopped swimming in the ocean after Jaws. Movies had a big effect on culture back then. Their weren’t that many things to focus on. Today the choices are mind blowing. I rember tv had 4 channels with Rabbit ears reception.
As a school boy in Philly, disco was synonymous with black music to the disco sucks crowd. I never understood why some random white kid would feel compelled to come up and tell me disco sucks out of the blue. Now I know. But disco had the last laugh because it evolved into funk, 80s soul and pop.
disco made more people angry than happy.theres nothing more silly sounding than your opinions.disco once again called it a new type of rock which ultimatly killed it.
I was in my early 20s living on the West Side during Disco Demolition night. Forget the racism and homophobia angle, Chicago was a blue collar manufacturing town that worshipped Led Zeppelin. Heck, WLUP was still playing Zep blocks 25 years later. Disco and Led Zeppelin were like oil and water. BTW, from a promotion standpoint, that night was a commercial success. During those years, the White Sox were awful and couldn’t get anybody to go to White Sox Park. That night, they sold out with many thousands outside who couldn’t get in.
Pittsburgh was (and in some ways still is) a miniature version of Chicago. Blue collar (And a sizable Eastern European population). To THIS DAY our highest rated station (WDVE) is a "classic rocker" - Led Zeppelin still getting it's share of airplay! 😊👍
@@etmeyutub ) how am I stupid for saying that? What's the difference between "Disco sucks" and "Led Zeppelin sucks"??? What's the difference? What's the difference?!
@@etmeyutub ) "Disco sucks" is a stupid ( and bigoted ) statement. "Led Zeppelin sucks" is just a sarcastic response. It was mostly a joke on people like you, off coarse you took it seriously.
What really killed disco was that daytime talk TV like Merv Griffin and Dinah Shore started singing covers on their shows and old people started liking Disco. If mom and dad like it then it's got to go
This is interesting because the roots of disco in Philly(musically) and NYC(culturally). So organically the rest of the country did not relate beyond the “Saturday Night Fever” phenomenon. Once that craze subsided the backlash occurred. However in the NYC area where I grew up it just continued to grow the club scene most of which never closed until 7am. So lifestyle wise it didn’t fit most of the country anyway...
We are in a golden age of music. There will be a time when technology becomes so advanced that we’ll rely on them to make music rather than raw talent. Music will lose its soul. (Freddie Mercury 1946-1991)
Hey man, you're totally mistaken. Upon searching up this quote, I found out there's is no source for this, so it's most likely fake. Besides, how can Freddie predict the future of technology?
@@aliasalias738 I don't know if the quote is true, But could Freddie Mercury see the future of tech in music? YEP. He WAS in a MAJOR band, so he's seen advanced (for the era) studio gear. Digital mastering was a thing by the early 1970's, Synths were advancing and MIDI was released in the early 1980's - Would not be all that hard for a major musician/composer to speculate that computers would "take" over music. "Boston" alluded to this on the inside of their "Don't Look Back" album in 1978, "No Synthesizers Used…No Computers Used"
This act was one of many black eyes for music in total. Disco was a great genre that was filled with great artists and songs. It's disgusting how people can be threatened by tunes on the radio.
boy i cant believe these comments.the so called artists didn't even write their own music and threatened the happiness of working rock musicians.THANK GOD FOR SENDING DISCO BACK TO HELL.
@@michaelkula9887 Actually disco never died; it mutated. Rap music in the late 70's and 80's used disco music behind their lyrics and house music, acid house also contributed. Along with post/disco music introduced us to other acts like Was Not Was and Depeche Mode. Fast forward to today and you have acts like Bruno Mars and Dua Lipa holding it down. "Demolition Night" was nothing but a slant of bigotry towards a certain culture trying to suppress their music similar to book burning. Despite the ignorance of a few people disco moved on and expanded. To me everything is Rock. Disco is a subculture, like grunge, but people wants to differentiate because certain people felt uncomfortable. This is why you have disco icons like Niles Rodgers, Micheal Jackson, ABBA and the Bee Gees are in there. If you don't remember anything I said then at least remember this line by a famous Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Billy Joel. "Next phase, new wave, dance craze, any ways, it's still rock and roll to me."
Disco was utter trash. The birth of all the bad music we have today. Lame dance beats, insincere performances, loops and studio gimmicks over genuine talent. Disco music was just an excuse to go get high at a club, no substance whatsoever, and it flourished because DJs were cheaper to hire than an actual band with talent. It was the beginning of the end as far as popular music goes, and even to this very day we still have untalented clowns who use canned beats and studio gimmicks to cover up the fact that they have nothing meaningful to say. That's the real legacy of disco, fake and insincere plastic polyester BS.
@@silversnail1413 Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so is music. To say it's the reason we have bad music today is a stretch. Certain rock stars died young because of a rock-n-roll lifestyle not just a disco lifestyle. Last time I remembered talented artists like Joplin and Hendrix died young. You only see the negative side while I grew up in the era of Discotheques and Roller rinks that pumped groups like Chic from it's speakers. Block parties were awesome were you had neighbors come together to have fun and dance the day away. Solid Gold, Soul Train and Dance Fever hit the television market and was successful. Let's not forget "Saturday Night Fever." It was a top selling movie and helped skyrocket the careers of The BeeGees and John Travolta. I'm sure that you can find something wrong in all types of music but let's not act that Disco is the reason for everything going wrong in our current culture. Matter of fact censorship is today's norm and guess who helped facilitate it. The same people who thought like you who would quell a genre of artist who are just expressing their creativity.
Well, that's certainly one spin on things and a way of dismissing criticism by labeling critics as racists and homophobes. You completely miss the Punk scene and what Dahl was saying in the commentary - and that is the elitism of disco both in looks and money. When you had disco clubs like the legendary Studio 54 choosing who was fashionable and good looking enough to dance with celebs and rich people, there was bound to be a backlash from the disenfranchised. Disco was a world of glamour out of touch with misfits, geeks, rebels...
True… although I’d argue that disco was already splintering off and mutating thanks to two songs released that year: Amii Stewart’s cover of “Knock On Wood” (which sounds nothing like disco) and Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” (which kickstarted the rise of hip hop). Punk was a protest against the narcissistic egotism and elitism prevalent in rock at the time (10 minute solos, air humping, phallic guitar poses, stage dives etc.)
Agreed. It's pathetic how so many people try to paint this as a homophobic or racist incident when it was really just a matter of taste. All the disco crybabies out there can't handle real rock n roll energy.
Dismissing critics??? Lmao. I'll blow up a few bibles for you and I trust you won't dismiss my criticism of the contents of said bibles. Jk I don't practice iconoclasm.
I was a young kid during the time of Disco. But I still remember hearing the phrase Disco Sucks in the late 70s and early 80s. My retrospective view is it had also run its course. The 80s was a new decade and the young crowd always seems ready to embrace something new in a new decade. But I will say this…guys like Dahl are always annoying in any decade. Discounting all gay baggage some people seemed to place on disco, it was a style where guys took more care with their appearance. I don’t see that as a bad thing in any decade. Guys like Dahl seem to think being a straight male means having an unflattering appearance. The 90s did that again and guys dressed like trashy bums in the Grunge scene. I never get this need by some hetero guys to bash looking well put together. Why do they think dressing like a sloppy bum is masculine? It just looks lazy. As a straight guy I noticed this stupid cycle while growing up. Just saying.
I think that maybe they feel if they care about their appearance, they might attract gay men or that only women care about their looks and appearance. It wasn’t manly.
@@danityvanityinsanity My view as a guy is that men are mostly lazy. They do think having a put together style is gay at times. But that’s usually because it’s an easy out to be lazy.
I remember being a kid and hearing about this. I’m in my late 40’s now and I can say that I liked Disco and I liked Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. I would hear the music from the people who played it around me and I liked it. Funny thing is that Disco was killed in Chicago in between a white sox vs Detroit tigers game and a few years later HOUSE MUSIC WAS BORN IN CHICAGO AND DETROIT ANSWERED BACK WITH TECHNO.
@faust. Just like you, at that time I too liked both disco and rock and roll. However, I hung around with the rock and roll crowd and I secretly liked disco which I didn't mention to my acquaintances.
The reason people hated disco, (and the reason musical rivalry used to get so heated in the first place) is because music used to cost money and was scarcer in supply. Nowadays it's all too easy to get together all the music you want, and cut out any music you dislike--and at zero cost. Full disclosure, I've personally never spent a dime on a song. Back then however, things were different. The ways of getting music were essentially, buying records, going to clubs & concerts, and hoping something you liked came on the radio. All of these can lead to frustration; they moved the rock records out to make room for disco records, youve got no money to go to rock concerts and bars and clubs play only disco, you've got no cash for a radio, and once you get it the airwaves are crowded with disco (didn't Steve Dahl, who led the movement, actually get fired because the station he worked for wanted to play disco?) I find the idea that it motivated by large amounts of homophobia a bit tenuous, simply because it's rather unlikely that very many people actually knew about discos origins in the gay community. It's all too easy nowadays to trace disco's origins, just by reading Wikipedia or something, but not so back then. For one thing, disco fans themselves were unlikely to acknowledge this fact, due to the homophobia of the time. Some of the older, more streetwise disco haters probably were aware of this, but many did not. My father for example, was 14 years in 1979. Considering how the gay community was swept under the rug at this time, where would a 14 year old kid be learning about their contribution to pop culture? There was no internet back then for research, and they certainly wouldn't have noted it in an encyclopedia, or a TV spot. (Maybe they published the fact in a magazine somewhere, but why would you buy a magazine to read about a musical genre you hated?). To my father, disco was a nuisance that came out of nowhere, a god awful machination by the music industry. I think there's a bit more credibility to claims of racial motivation, but that's not absolute either. My father disliked disco, and he is black. To him disco seemed too 'glossy'. He preferred things like funk or Motown, which he considered more relevant and better sounding. Disco seemed a bit too artificial and aimlessly flashy. It's a bit like nowadays, where some people are annoyed by all the bragging and 'flexing' rappers do, and wish hip hop would go back to its more down to earth roots.
you typed up this whole paragraph and it still doesn’t hold ANY weight at all. disco was publicly and famously gay and born out of gay culture and gay clubs. they literally started a whole movement that was homophobic called the disco ducks club. to say it wasn’t homophobic or racist is to completely ignore the context of the time and what white people thought rock n roll represented during that time and you’re ignoring the context of disco culture itself. fucking insufferable.
Steve Dahl was naturally afraid of change in the Music scene business because it would put people like him out of business just like the older 1930's-1940's Heydey media generations were who hated Rock & Roll Music when it first became big in the 1950's.
I agree, but sadly the reason this happened in part was because these loons were why "disco" became a dirty word. I'm a rock music fan myself, but there were some kickass disco songs back in the day and still some made today that are good. I'm LGBT too myself (bisexual), and I'm well aware my community, especially bi and gay men, benefited from the disco scene in the mid-late '70s until, well, this...
These were not homophobically motivated these were motivated by class resentment. The underclass hated disco because of its decadence which was unattainable to most people in an economic downturn in American history
I think the idea of Disco Demolition is rooted in silliness and a, “We just like rock music and want to see it re-emerge!” Type of mentality. But instead when you dig a little deeper it’s just resentment toward a different culture and part of society’s interests and enjoyment that otherwise doesn’t effect the anti-Disco people at all. Like most things in life, you can change the station, look the other way and focus on your own enjoyments and endeavors instead of solely on your disdain toward others and their own passions. The kicker is that so many of today’s would-be rockstars are as schticky as it can get with their on-stage uniforms and expensive clothes, where as disco and club music’s stylistic functions were based within their own scene and preferences, whether the hair be large or not. Imagine caring this much about what’s on the radio; a format and device that has largely neglected its own listeners and supporters for so many years now that only the least opinion-having individuals seem to not notice how dreadful it actually is.
Hey pal, I would love it if you could show me evidence of that. Remember, you’re talking about Steve Dahl; prominent writer and singer of parody songs based on extremely corporate music, maker of prank calls about “Islamic Fried Chicken” and promoter of Disco Demolition Night all because, by his own word, he felt useless after being fired when his radio station gig went a different direction and he felt compelled to find a tangible scapegoat as a response. Believe me, if this were all some ploy to overthrow the music biz and establish better creative control, pay structures and quality of life for the musicians within it we’d have more to appreciate about it. But as it is, we’re just looking at a bad decision followed by a worse result because of what blaming genres of music mainly headlined by people of color or outsiders implies in the first place. Absolutely nobody cares if you don’t like disco, rap or mariachi music - but lots of pointlessly angry white men are patiently waiting to loudly respond and retaliate if someone dumb and reactive enough to organize it all gives them even a simple reason to do so.
Basically it was a underground experience that came to the mainstream but wasn't correct in the mainstream and nobody could stop it because of the money involved.
Tom Street Try and reflect but black people love to burn down their own hoods when they protest. This was a record promotion HUGE DIFFRENCE but hey you probably like all them illegals to so you love the losers.
Tom Street Yeah its all about the police. Get a life man. People are tired of that narritive. Its all because the police its not because when they do get pulled over they are 10x more likley to be dirty than white people. 13% of population but fill our prisons. Yeah because they are all so innocent. Keep drinking the koolaid liberal.# MAGA 2020.
Yeah it has nothing to do with white people getting away with crimes that black people don't. How many of those assholes at this event had pot on them. Somehow I doubt any of them saw prison time. We both know if it was black people that would be a different story. And the fact that a racist like you is a Trump supporter is the non surprise of the century. Funny thing is back in the 70's Trump and his bonespurs was dancing to Disco.
Tom Street good lord man get some help. Im sorry you have so much hate for white people and need to go back 40 years to find an example. Have a nice day.
It wasn't so deep like this bro. Some people just thought it was like Justin Bieber today. So they were just tired of disco fever. It had nothing to do with antigay or whatever. It was just a publicity stunt by the DJ. It's not different than the Boy Band and Bieber haters. Don't look at it so naively. Secondly the people that came out on the field were drunk as hell and it got out of control. That's it. Nothing more. Can't really blame the DJ for his comedic stuff. It was the drunk idiots who screwed up and damaged the field.
You know, I never hear disgruntled fans of prog acts like Emerson, Lake & Palmer getting this bent out of shape just because that type of music was hugely popular in the early 70s and then became very unpopular. The same goes for late 80s glam or "hair" metal in the late 80s.
With or without Disco Demolition Night At Comiskey Park, the popularity of Disco would have died out not long after. Disco was a bubble that was going to burst at some point, a fad. The growth of it was immense and fast, always a warning sign. It just got over-saturated. Whether it’s radio, magazines, records, television, or movies, with it being everywhere was going to have a backlash. It did and big time. To be honest with you, I did not know about the racist or homophobic undertones to the anti-Disco movement. It’s news to me. All of this turned into a perfect storm. I could see why something like Disco would anger a lot of people. If you saw something non-stop, you’d get fed up. This is a great lesson about fads, and a perfect example of its backlash.
The disco era was THE ONLY TIME IN AMERICAN HISTORY THAT A DIVERSE CROWD CELEBRATED TOGETHER WITHOUT PREJUDICE. NEW YORK WAS AWESOME, AND WAS OTHERWORLDLY OF WHAT PEOPLE COULD ACHIEVE WITH RESPECT FOR ONE ANOTHER. People hated it, and sought to destroy it.
That literally never happened, dude. Take it from an old fart who was there...that never happened. Disco fans were just as homophobic as everybody else was. You could sometimes be kinda-sorta out in highly urbane clubs like 54, but everybody there was too snowed up to really notice much. Otherwise gay men in particular had to stick to the gay clubs or risk serious harassment.
@@thiosemicarbizidebenzoylal2921 It didn't break shit. Over and over I see this implication, mostly from people born decades after the scene in question died out, that the disco era was some kind of halcyon period of integration and acceptance. That is a long, long way from the truth. Outside of a few urbane spots like 54 there was very little integration, and 54 itself was notoriously picky about who it let in. (The band Chic was once refused entry to 54 despite the fact that Grace Jones invited them.) Racism hurt disco music more in the way it was treated by the music industry than by the general public. It was relentlessly whitewashed by the same people who were promoting it. In the late 70's when people thought of disco they thought of the Bee Gees and John Travolta, and that was a calculated move by the industry, which thought disco would fail if it was seen as "too black." What ultimately killed disco was overexposure. By 1979 it was ubiquitous. It dominated the radio, movies, TV commercials, you name it. There was no way it was going to sustain that momentum. Disco Demolition Night was, at best, a particularly virulent symptom of its self-inflicted downfall.
The only reason I hated disco was because it took over most of the bars in my area. I loved rock music and live bands and disco seemed to have taken that away. I had no desire to wear a white three piece suit just to go out. We either had to stay home or deal with disco and since there were always a lot of women into disco we would often just deal with it and go. For me homosexuality was never even brought up and was not an issue as I could careless who people are attracted to.
I guess it was a regional thing. I was into rock in the 1970s, But while there were disco stations in Pittsburgh, We still had rock (and country,jazz, R&B) stations. People who liked one or another genre just kept tuned to there favorite station. PS Our biggest rock station was in the 70's was WDVE 102.5FM - It still is! (Since 1969!).
@@rockvilleraven WLUP (Chicago) is now BRANDED "K-LOVE", But since by tradition radio and TV station's ACTUAL call letters east of the Mississippi River (with very few exceptions) begin with "W" and stations to the WEST of it start with "K" , The former WLUP is now WCKL.
I should point out that not only is WDVE the top "rock" station in Pittsburgh. It's the biggest station overall in ratings! in fact, The number 2 station, (in ratings) WWSW is a "oldies" rock station! 60s-80s rock is THE dominant radio format here! KDKA-AM 1020 is number 4 in the ratings, A hell of a feat for an AM station, anywhere! KDKA-AM has NEVER been out of the top 5, and is 100 years old this year!
The assessment of disco demolition as homophobic or racist is shallow. The recent HBO documentary about The Bee Gees offered the same myopic mischaracterization. By the time Disco Demolition happened that form of music was a vast pop phenomenon, hardly representative of the gay, Black underground NY dance scene in which it evolved. The suggestion that the knuckleheads at Comisky that day were engaged in some sort of backlash against homosexuality is false. The event was conceived as a promotion to get people in the park. It was in coordination with a rock radio station. They weren’t motivated by hate towards gays or black music, they were motivated by the imaginary need to defend “rock”. To them it’s wasn’t gay vs straight, it was Led Zeppelin vs The Bee Gees. It’s really that simple. The revisionist notion that the backlash against disco was homophobic is largely nonsense. By the time this event happened disco was all about straight white people.
@@steamboatwill3.367 Because homophobia and systemic racism are very real and we have a responsibility to address both. So I object when people waste their energy bitching about something they totally misunderstand and pat themselves on the back for being righteous. If you really cared about genuine racism or homophobia you wouldn’t be focused on this.
The irony is, Chicago and Detroit were playing baseball that night. Chicago (home of House Music) and Detroit (home of Techno, House Music's cousin). Let that sink in.
Black music was always mainstream, MoTown ruled the music charts. So nothing different there. What was the new ingredient with Disco? GAYS! And they made sure to stamp it out as quickly as possible.
There were gays in rock. Elton John. Freddie Mercury. Rob Halford. You can dislike disco for purely musical reasons that have nothing to do with who is gay or not. i never thought of disco as gay music back in the seventies. Just thought of it as lacking quality.
Disco all the way lefreak, dance dance dance, everybody dance, bernard Edwards from the band played alot of bass riffs in songs like we are family, lost in music. Nile rogers went on to form the band draft punk wich is a more modern form of disco like the song get lucky.
@@DanielNicholsonAKATheActor Nile Rodgers didn't form Daft Punk... Daft Punk are literally 2 guys from France, though they did collaborate with Nile on their RAM album which was pretty much a big homage to that whole era of music
Yeah, the public was so "homophobic" back than that they would embrace a genre (heavy metal) that's entire stage presentation and costume design was directly inspired by the london gay club scene in the early 70's. The public was so "homophobic" back then that they elevated Judas Priest to huge mainstream success despite their lead singer being gay and it being an open secret among the fans for more than 20 years before he confirmed it himself in 1998. Could it possibly be that the public is willing to look past such things if the music is good and that the public rejected late stage disco because it was lazy artless cash grab music that was being made by people with no real talent who embarrassed themselves and the genre at large with low quality material too the point that legends from within the genre like donna summer were actually glad to see the genre die because a majority of the music being made under its banner was "trash"?
Boy George pointed this out many years ago. How could anyone think metal was any more homophobic than other musical genres when the bands are dressed like a bunch of skanky girls and leather fetishists?
What disco songs? I hear it got stale in 79 but any examples of those "bad disco songs"? And I think people DIDN'T KNOW they were and rock fans were just hypocritical...
It was a weird time in music, I left the 6th grade and the Disco permeated the airwaves, when I started 7th grade in the fall of '79 it was new wave & AOR.
That's an oft cited, but overblown excuse for what was simple mob mentality. At that time a 6 pack of 16oz cans was about $2.50 (So about .20 cents per 8oz serving) That SOUNDS great - It's HALF PRICE!, But then you have to factor in 2 things: You had to spend money on a ticket to get in.(where you sat could erase any "bargain") 2, If you bought a 6 pack at a bar you got all the beer at once. The promo lead to high demand, SLOWING the rate that an individual ticket holder could acquire beer.
I didn't understand the conflict between Rock & Disco, I love💖 Disco from The Bee Gees to Donna Summers & I even love💖 Rock from Fleewood Mac to Peter Frampton. There was room for all kinds of music🎶, I've even love💖 Country music from Glen Campbell to Kenny Rogers. To each his own.🤷♂️
I think from a couple of these videos I've been seeing floating around was Disco being a little over saturated and perhaps bleeding over into spaces that probably wouldn't have as much of it. And the fans of rock in this conflict that maybe didn't like the genre, got a little irritated when the music they enjoyed on the airwaves in their usual spaces were taken over by this genre they didn't like.
I don't think people were against gay men but against the superficial culture of disco. A lot of people on the left hated disco because it was an individualist music culture.
It's sort of a weird situation because gay liberation wasnt a "left" thing at the time, it was a thing gay people and friends of gay people cared about but it wasnt really a partisan issue. So leftist rockers would hate disco because of its candy coated nature and saturation of the market (much like modern/post modern pop music) and not consider the gay aspect where hyper-conservatives may dislike the culture forming around disco because of homophobia and racism along with disliking the saturation of the market and wanting to "go back" to rock n roll.
I lived during that time. It was extremely evident that it was taboo because it was 'gay' music. Intentional or not that was the tone in society. I lived through it. Thankfully music of that type (BPM/Tempo) came back in the very late 80s with House Music.
You’re right about the left wing being critical of disco for being bourgeois escapism whilst the working classes suffered the consequences of economic policies. Here in England, you’d have been into punk, roots reggae or folk if you were really right on. Even Rock Against Racism wouldn’t touch disco with a ten foot barge pole for that very reason.
Well... there is one other factor that needs to mentioned here: Money! I actually discussed this a bit in my HISTORY OF ROCK 70s doc (sorry for the plug) My father (who had previously attended the famous Woodstock festival in '69) lived in NYC in the 70s and he would tell you that the Studio 54 scene was not what it's been romanticized to be, "Some fancy club that you couldn't get into where everyone had lots of money... and everyone was doing lots of cocaine." You see you can't really talk about the "Disco-Hate" without discussing the differences between the 60s and the 70s, and I'm not just talking about the rock scene, but all scenes. The late 60s - early 70s were such a creative time musically where the music was a bit more adventurous and lyrically it spoke more about what was going on in the world (hence Marvin Gaye's album WHAT'S GOING ON). And the diversity felt much more real. I mean think of Woodstock itself: you had Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, Santana and Ravi Shakur all on the same bill. The differences in musical styles and grooves are pretty extraordinary. And all the while, the themes of the event are about ending the Vietnam War with half a million fans listening in the pouring rain. That's a pretty heavy difference from Studio 54. Of course it should be mentioned that the hippie rock and roll movement wasn't without its problems either. Months after Woodstock, Altamont happened and that was kind of the end of that. All good things get ruined. Hell fast forward to the late 1980s, "Rock" music produces some of the worst garbage I've ever heard in my life, the kind that the 90s Grunge era rebelled against just as hard as "Disco Sucks" did. And it is worth mentioning that as adventurous as all this was, it wasn't really dance music, at least not something the general public could groove to. So while Disco may have had its roots in the more indie clubs of the Greenwich Village as a sort of "alternative music", it became commercialized HEAVILY. This also is the moment where record companies were starting to move away from more experimental albums from Pink Floyd or The Mahavishnu Orchestra and went back to chasing formulaic hit singles, which was super easy to capitalize on this new Disco craze. While DARK SIDE OF THE MOON felt like it was Pink Floyd's vision, "I Feel Love" felt less like Donna Summer's vision and more like producer Giorgio Moroder's. Sure there were pro-LGBT songs like "Mighty Real", but they certainly didn't chart like The Bee Gees "Staying Alive" did. The other issue is that many times the lines between "Disco" and "Funk" are pretty blurred. I love Earth Wind & Fire, one of my favorite bands. "Shining Star," "Serpentine Fire," "Getaway", these are some of the funkiest grooves ever captured on record and songs like "That's The Way of the World" had a clear message to it. But even they had admitted that when they cut "Boogie Wonderland", they felt like they were selling out to the new craze. So with all this happening, and with radio becoming so commercialized and catered to disco, you suddenly had The Rolling Stones doing "Miss You", Rod Stewart doing "Do You Think I'm Sexy" and even the holy Pink Floyd adding a 4 on the floor beat to "Another Brick in the Wall" (their biggest single). Personally, I like these songs, but all of these artists will admit they were jumping on the bandwagon so they could stay relevant. THIS is what set off Steve Dahl and where the "Disco Demolition Night" came into play... which was really stupid when you consider they were burning Beatles records a decade and a half earlier... but I digress. Was this demolition night at least partially motivated by racism and homophobia? Sure. But I think the backlash to the overproduction and corporatism of the music also played a big part in that. It's kind of like when so many people hated GHOSTBUSTERS 2016 (the one with the all-female team) for being a corporate, unfunny, pointless remake, but because a minority of people made sexist comments it became: "People hate GHOSTBUSTERS 2016 because of misogyny!" And boy did Sony ever exploit that in their marketing... And here's the irony of all of this, Disco didn't really die. What is THRILLER but a disco album in all but name? And nowadays, disco is more popular than ever. The Weeknd makes disco songs. And of course the music industry is more soulless than it's ever been. Looking back on it, I actually do like some "Disco" records, even if I don't consider a lot of them to be "Disco" and even then, people should be aloud to enjoy whatever musical genera they like. I'll certainly take it over most garbage coming out of the radio these days. I think if Dahl's anger had been directed more towards the soulless record industry for not supporting more variety, and instead bringing attention to emerging rock artists instead, history might judge him differently. But the whole thing was stupid, attracted a bunch of blood-thirsty neanderthals, gave way to the landscape of shit that rock music became in the 80s, and in the end, did ABSOLUTELY nothing to stop disco. "I'm Coming Out" was released a year later and became an LGBT anthem. The point of this long essay is I think the roots of this "Disco Demolition Night" were more against a coked out Music Industry, however misguided and attracting to neanderthals it might have been.
I read most of this and agree. My comment including "....cocaine fueled flaccid sex for post teens and drowning queens," was a quote from a book I read. Can't remember the author. Disco at the end was a commercialized shell sprinkled with massive amounts of cocaine.
Someone thinking that disco sucks is no different, or worse, than people who think that country music, for instance, sucks. Not everything has some hidden sociopolitical subtext, really. People really can just dislike things. If the reaction was a little over the top, then IMO that was because disco had just absolutely saturated music, to the point of absurdity-come on, Ethel Merman had a disco album? People were just saturated with it, it was inescapable. Hence the somewhat drastic reaction. And anyway it wasn’t that drastic, it was one very publicized event, if you don’t count all the “disco sucks “ tee shirts. Rock music dealt with a similar situation when punk was oppositional to it. It’s so annoying when some people try to pull “isms” out of thin air about every blessed little thing people do. Is it so hard to believe that people were just burned out on a genre that had saturated everything for years? The wheel turns, disco was a narrow genre stylistically, it was inevitable that it would have its day until the next thing came along-it was just so very delineated because disco had been so ubiquitous for quite a few years.
It's preposterous to suggest that disco died mostly due to r--ism and h-m-phobia. The real reason it went out is because disco saturated the market and became too big. People were tired of the overexposure of disco music and disco culture. Most fads wind up dying out after they peak. Disco was no exception. Stop blaming everything on r and h, people!
i think this is a great video but having lived through this time and loving Disco. Disco was way too overexposed at this time. New Wave and Punk were taking over anyhow
@@LAZY-RUBY Who knows....the point isn't that there weren't some racist or homophobic people within that movement, but rather that the movement itself was not rooted in racism or homophobia. I was aligned with disco destruction, but had zero knowledge of who was into it. And I wouldn't have cared anyway.
Thank you....COHO!....not one "homophobic" thing about it...I listened to Steve and Gary EVERYDAY...I started writing my own parody songs like Steve's learned real music and write my own now because of him....and the Beatles lol
Staying Alive is as disco as it gets though, it has the typical 4 on the floor disco rythm pattern and puts an emphasis on melody rather than the groove...
Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker) by "Parlament" IS "funk". Stayin' Alive IS "disco". Disco can be described as being derived from funk, but they are different.
Many people have no clue about disco. Disco music was much more then Travolta and Bee Gees. Disco music was fusion of Sou,Funk and Latin music. Clubs like Paradise Garage,Loft played cutting edge disco music. Many jazz fusion musicians did great dance records and many Soul singers did disco tunes. Disco was not Travolta.Disco was Born out of Pfilly Sound and Salsoul.
Blondie kicked butt though. I still consider them more of a punk band. I feel like they made their disco songs as a joke, to make money and show that they could do that too.
uh, unless you're gay like me, and grew up during that period and lived in the chicago suburbs as I did, you might THINK it had nothing to with homophobia, but it most certainly DID have homophobic undertones. Maybe you'd have to be gay to feel it, but it was definitely there.
This is a very american phenomenon anyway it seems to me. Even from the point of view of rock itself in the UK glam rock (David Bowie, T rex, Slade, Gary Glitter, etc) was huge in the early to mid 70s, it ruled the charts for some years with all its sexual ambiguity and glamour and it ended up influencing the aesthetics of disco itself. In the US though glam rock was not as big and even though it produced a few bands (New York Dolls) it never became as important in US rock as it was in the UK and so US rock was dominated by mainstream male rock. But also new wave and post punk, which were rock styles mainly from both New York (CBGBs) and the UK, could have good relations with disco and with dance music more generally even going beyond the hate that punk rock had of disco. As far as males "dressing up" it seems to me what US rock lacked was the mod subculture of the UK which was the main aesthetic behind the so called "British invasion" bands of the 60s and it had a strong fashion element around a certain aesthetic of looking smart and elegant. It went againts the previous 50s "greaser" look of more US origin. In the 60s David Bowie was a mod and in the early 70s he was the king of glam alongside the also ex mod Marc Bolan of T. Rex. Meanwhile US rock went from the greaser look of the 50s to an era were british rock ruled and then to the hippie look which also tends to go againts elegance and is often associated with low higene and that particular look ruled rock, and more so US rock, until punk and new wave came to exist. This is true even for the 90s grunge which you can do the contrast with something that came around the same time which was Britpop and so you will see how grunge is much more hippie looking mixed with US rural male clothing styles and rebelled againts glam metal of the 80s while Britpop, the biggest rock genre in the uk of the 90s, was a combination of mod with glam rock, new wave/post punk, punk and guitar indie rock from the 80s. Meanwhile grunge rock was a sort of mix between 80s anti-fashion hardcore aesthetics with 70s hard rock. It seems that the reason for these differences are cultural and geographic since the US is a large chunk of small and medium sized "white" cities and rural areas with a lot of religious influence with a few large cities which have the other races and ethnicities while the UK is a much more urban, more secular and more european influenced entity
It's just too bad disco wasn't completely purged in European countries like Italy, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, etc. It just completely pollutes their societies!
RE:Ahha Govono... i agree i don't think it was racist. i love disco myself just as i also love rock music, 50s-60s rock & roll music, soft rock music, blues music, jazz music, country music, etc but i believe the disco backlash was the same as what happened in the 1950's from the old establishment declaring war against rock & roll and like the way i personally hate rap and hip hop sound music since 1990.
I was part of the Disco Sucks movement and it wasnt so much racism or homophobia. It was over saturation. All the radio stations that used to play hard rock were playing it non stop and everywhere we looked, it was being thrown in our faces. Tv, movies, kid shows, etc. Some of our favorite rock bands were inching towards it. Back then, we didnt have computers, internet, Itunes, CZcams, and etc. The only way you could listen to music was radio and records and when the radio is constantly playing this effeminate dance music, it became frustrating. Thank God for My Sharona, Hot Blooded, and Another Brick in the Wall which helped kill Disco.
Great explanation! "Another Brick in The Wall" is a disco song itself though, maybe Pink Floyd were making a statement and I missed it lol. But they got some criticism for it.
Good video, but its PREPOSTEROUS to say "anti-disco" had anything whatsoever to do with electoral politics. Conservative politics was on the rise from 1975 wayyy before the "disco" movement or its backlash. Their was also a huge backlash against the "anti disco" thing to. Steve Dahl and fans who rushed the field were considered idiots by just about everybody. Excellent point at end of video, disco didn't die it simply started being called something different.
@@TJTinerella I wasn't alive, good point. I'm just repeating what I heard. I lived in Chicago all my life and I'm told that the only thing that changed was calling things disco or dance clubs disco-techs
ikill.....Don't forget these guys--->The Stones, Doors, Allman Brothers, Doobie Brothers, Journey, Foreigner, Styx, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, The Police, Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and on and on.....
Queen....it IS Sissy music so get YOUR "fucking" facts straight!! Rock still lives while disco died a slow agonizing, whimpering death.....AND MAY IT STAY THAT WAY!!
Disco may have died in the US, but in Europe it continued to evolve into stuff like Italo disco in the '80s and Eurodance in the '90s. I notice how rock songs are typically from the US and dance/electronic songs are typically from Europe.
I was there that night. I resent the revisionist history in the new millennium. Steve Dahl drove a stake in the rotten corpse that was disco. It was a glorious night, one that I will cherish forever.
Disco during the last decade: resurrected and vindicated by acts with global success like Daft Punk and Bruno Mars. Rock during the last decade: elitists destroying young talents, leading Imagine Dragons to top the rock charts every week. In the end, disco had the last laugh.
I didn't know what color the artists were. All I know is that - as a musician - that "four on the floor" with no variation drove me absolutely crazy. If you were on a gig and it was disco you would want to shoot yourself in the head from the sheer monotony. They didn't have to burn those records though. Disco had peaked and was now making way for New Wave, house, hardcore and eventually grunge. I loved "Le Freak" just like I loved "Carry on wayward son." Peace ☮️
Umm, this was at least the third forfeit in MLB history. The last game of the second version of the Washington Senators was a forfeit. Also 10 cent beer night in hell hole cleveland in 74 or 75.
Wrong. I was nineteen in 1979 and a rocker. I've been yelled at by gay men for not liking Discos. But I got tired of being hit on by men twenty years older than me in Discos where the ONLY way I could afford a drink was if they bought it for me...and then of course the cocaine was the next thing they would offer. And I didn't appreciate the 18 or 19 year old girls being hit on by older men, either. I didn't have a brand new hot car outside. And again, I could not buy the girls drinks or offer them cocaine! Fortunately, I didn't prostitute myself nor sniff anything up my nose. Besides, Disco was producer designed and commercialized. At a rock concert I might get drunk or smoke some pot but considering one was legal and the other is rapidly becoming legal...I really don't think I have too much to be ashamed of. How old are you anyway? Were you there and were you one of the date rape prey?!?! I'm pansexual...and was active back then with both men and women...and I hated Discos! The rest of it...that all rockers were homophobic is a crock of bull****!
The insufferable arrogance elitism and snobbery that was part of the scene was the main reason why so many people detested disco so much. To be "with it" in the disco scene you needed to have a lot of disposable income so you could afford the dance lessons gaudy clothes jewelry hairstyles and insulting door charges that went with the scene and most of the hot clubs would literally tell average people to fuck off and never come back becasue they "weren't with it".. Punk rock and metal clubs like CBGBI's in NYC The Troubadour in LA and The Soundhouse in London were the complete antithesis of that snobbery and elitism which is why they became so beloved in the late 70's and 80's.
Disco is Talent that rockers of close minded willlnever understand from a guy born in 88 funk and hip hop grew from those influende and let's not forget JAZZ because if she doesn't like jazz I don't know what we're gonna talk about???
Agreed. We all knew what it was all about back then. During high school, it was a division of style of music. The author of this must have been born after 1995
Isn't it just possible that it nothing to do with homophobic B.S. or racism? Couldn't it just be that disco was a horrible form of noise with no artistic value what so ever? Why does everything have to be racist or homophobic? Get over yourselves.
No people always thought the disco riot was racist. It has nothing to do with politics. You did not only destroy disco records. You destroyed funk records too. @Proton2112
The same generational conflict happened in the 1950's. The white old farts establishment hated the youth new sound in the 1950's because the music was taking over sales putting the older singers from the 1930's and 1940's out of business. They were declaring war on the new youth movement sound in the 1950's. This is what happened again here in 1979 in the United States. Disco for a brief time was putting rock performers out of business and rock lovers having a harder time finding something new good in rock music for them on the front record store shelves.
I was a definite Rock and Roller when this happened. I loved Funk and Motown (MJ), too. Mind you, I am Hispanic. Disco was overpowering the radio waves. One could hardly listen to rock without an insert of Disco because the Rolling Stones (a rock group) got into it, then it was David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Queen, they were all conforming .... what t h is happening? It also brought out this new snob culture who wore inch thick makeup and acted like they farted rose petals, just because they knew how to dance the Hustle, or had 'Disco' parties, not just regular parties. The music: A constant one rhythm beat, no harmony imo, yelling female singers whispering male singers with long, very long instrumentals of that beating rhythm. Lord, it had nothing to do with gay or ethnicity at the time. It was all about the survival of real Rock. All I have to say is thank goodness that Punk/New Wave came in after this. It felt like it cleansed the palate.
In the "conservative" 80's you had "gender bending" stars like Boy George, Simon Lebon, Depeche Mode ruling the charts with disco influenced music call "new wave" or "synthpop". Some of the anti-disco backlash was anti elitism not homophobia or racism and some of it was people did not like the music.
Acts named "Chic", "Evelyn Champagne King", discos had doormen that kept average people and people with nonexpensive wardrobes out. Rock fans were dressed in black tee shirts with their bands name or album cover on it. Rock fans had on Levi or Lee Jeans, discoers wore designer jeans or the infamous white suit.
What's wrong with letting the reasons that some of the disco sucks crowd gave....stand on their own. "It was a lifestyle they were trying to shove down our throats." - Dahl
Edward Kollin, I think a lot of it was a rejection the lack of substance in disco music. You don't need to even go as far as the 80s but rather look at bands like Queen or artists like David Bowie or a pop culture phenomenon like Rocky Horror Picture Show to know that it wasn't based in homophobia rather a rejection of disco. I don't think New Wave Music is a relation to Disco but rather a softening of punk with electronic elements. Seems to me disco was just a trend like bell bottoms and the pet rock.
I was there. Yes, we were all white and we were all from the city, not the suburbs. Disco didn't speak to the vast majority of the fans who showed up to protest its promotion and undermining of the culture. Good riddance.
Funny thing is the disco album "Off The Wall" came out around August 79 sold 7 million copies and two number singles, Diana Ross put out an album of disco tunes around summer 1980 and had two No.1 hits "Upside Down" & "I'm Coming Out", Queen put out a disco funk tune "Another Bites the Dust" a No.1 single that sold over 4 million units and crossover, and producer Bob Ezrin who co-produced Pink Floyd's "The Wall" said "Another Brick In The Wall Part 2" admitted that they were imitating a disco rhythm and ever Roger Waters gave in because it turn out to be good and that hit No.1. Then Chic's ""Good Times" is the only record that was an end of an era and the beginning of a new one, "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang. So the popularity of disco may have died but the influence never went away.
That's good :)
There was a lot of disco influenced music well into the early 1980s and where a lot of New Wave stuff evolved from as well
Chic and Giorgio Moroder where influential to New Wave/Synthpop musicians
Michael Jackson continued much of the Disco tradition in his music. I think a big difference though between 1970s disco and 1980s dance music, including Jackson, was the removal of a lot of the big melodies and orchestrations - including string and horn sections which are a continuation of the American big band tradition. In the 1980s music was more synthesised and scaled down. This is of course a generalisation, for example, Georgio Moroder wrote very electronic music for Donna Summer in the mid 1970s; but I think in terms of broader trends this is true. More generally music in the 1980s was more white: country and British rock was the mainstream. RandB was around (eg. Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston) but these artists were against the bigger trends.
I'm a Millenial that Loves all types of Music.
I think Disco Music is awesome.
I Love both Rock and Disco. I think music elitism is stupid.
Me too.
1987 millenial here and i totally LOVE disco
I love both kinds, I'm a Generation Z member born in 2000, and I'm bisexual too.
Disco Demolition was not “homophobic”.
@@megatruthoverlord1807 Yes, it was Racist and homophobic.
An idiot in the comments dead said that disco was invented by John Travolta I'm dying lmfao
Is that like how Al Gore invented the internet?
Who said such a stupidity?
I was there! Stayed in stands though.
Well that movie popularized it a lot. Kind of like people stopped swimming in the ocean after Jaws. Movies had a big effect on culture back then.
Their weren’t that many things to focus on. Today the choices are mind blowing. I rember tv had 4 channels with Rabbit ears reception.
Wasn't invented by John Travolta; it was more like Hues Corporation and Rock the Boat
As a school boy in Philly, disco was synonymous with black music to the disco sucks crowd. I never understood why some random white kid would feel compelled to come up and tell me disco sucks out of the blue. Now I know. But disco had the last laugh because it evolved into funk, 80s soul and pop.
Funk and Soul existed before that.
Disco made people happy
I think it's sad that people were so against being happy
yes happy and gay they're synonyms if you look it up
@@tolfan4438 They were meant to make gay people feel gay in terms of the other definition of gay...
GAYCEPTION!
@@PKMNFan4664 making gay people happy is not the same as making happy people gay
Or is it
Disco music had a good spirit
disco made more people angry than happy.theres nothing more silly sounding than your opinions.disco once again called it a new type of rock which ultimatly killed it.
I was in my early 20s living on the West Side during Disco Demolition night. Forget the racism and homophobia angle, Chicago was a blue collar manufacturing town that worshipped Led Zeppelin. Heck, WLUP was still playing Zep blocks 25 years later. Disco and Led Zeppelin were like oil and water. BTW, from a promotion standpoint, that night was a commercial success. During those years, the White Sox were awful and couldn’t get anybody to go to White Sox Park. That night, they sold out with many thousands outside who couldn’t get in.
Pittsburgh was (and in some ways still is) a miniature version of Chicago. Blue collar (And a sizable Eastern European population). To THIS DAY our highest rated station (WDVE) is a "classic rocker" - Led Zeppelin still getting it's share of airplay! 😊👍
@@steamboatwill3.367 Now let's not show the world how stupid you are with a statement like that. Not even disco fans would say Led Zeppelin sucks.
@@etmeyutub ) how am I stupid for saying that?
What's the difference between "Disco sucks" and "Led Zeppelin sucks"???
What's the difference?
What's the difference?!
@@etmeyutub ) "Disco sucks" is a stupid ( and bigoted ) statement.
"Led Zeppelin sucks" is just a sarcastic response.
It was mostly a joke on people like you, off coarse you took it seriously.
@@etmeyutub ) I probably should have said this instead:
"DISCO doesn't suck, YOU do!"
I don't care what anyone says, I love disco. It's the only kind of music I can dance to without feeling self conscious about how silly I look.
Disco music had a good spirit
agree 100%
It’s ok
I love 70s, I love Village People!!!
Only a few good songs. Most of it all sounds alike.
What really killed disco was that daytime talk TV like Merv Griffin and Dinah Shore started singing covers on their shows and old people started liking Disco. If mom and dad like it then it's got to go
Like old memes
Absolutely
This is interesting because the roots of disco in Philly(musically) and NYC(culturally). So organically the rest of the country did not relate beyond the “Saturday Night Fever” phenomenon. Once that craze subsided the backlash occurred. However in the NYC area where I grew up it just continued to grow the club scene most of which never closed until 7am. So lifestyle wise it didn’t fit most of the country anyway...
We are in a golden age of music. There will be a time when
technology becomes so advanced that we’ll rely on them to make music rather
than raw talent. Music will lose its soul. (Freddie Mercury 1946-1991)
Bill Presley True true true.
Hey man, you're totally mistaken. Upon searching up this quote, I found out there's is no source for this, so it's most likely fake. Besides, how can Freddie predict the future of technology?
Freddie and John wrote some great Disco music, and MJ said that "Hot Space" influenced "Thriller." Know the history.
Music sucked then too. Only the good songs are remembered (generally speaking).
@@aliasalias738 I don't know if the quote is true, But could Freddie Mercury see the future of tech in music? YEP. He WAS in a MAJOR band, so he's seen advanced (for the era) studio gear. Digital mastering was a thing by the early 1970's, Synths were advancing and MIDI was released in the early 1980's - Would not be all that hard for a major musician/composer to speculate that computers would "take" over music. "Boston" alluded to this on the inside of their "Don't Look Back" album in 1978, "No Synthesizers Used…No Computers Used"
This act was one of many black eyes for music in total. Disco was a great genre that was filled with great artists and songs. It's disgusting how people can be threatened by tunes on the radio.
boy i cant believe these comments.the so called artists didn't even write their own music and threatened the happiness of working rock musicians.THANK GOD FOR SENDING DISCO BACK TO HELL.
@@michaelkula9887
Actually disco never died; it mutated. Rap music in the late 70's and 80's used disco music behind their lyrics and house music, acid house also contributed. Along with post/disco music introduced us to other acts like Was Not Was and Depeche Mode. Fast forward to today and you have acts like Bruno Mars and Dua Lipa holding it down.
"Demolition Night" was nothing but a slant of bigotry towards a certain culture trying to suppress their music similar to book burning. Despite the ignorance of a few people disco moved on and expanded.
To me everything is Rock. Disco is a subculture, like grunge, but people wants to differentiate because certain people felt uncomfortable. This is why you have disco icons like Niles Rodgers, Micheal Jackson, ABBA and the Bee Gees are in there. If you don't remember anything I said then at least remember this line by a famous Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Billy Joel.
"Next phase, new wave, dance craze, any ways, it's still rock and roll to me."
@@michaelkula9887 Just say you hate gay people, it’s a lot less words to say which will save you an entire hour.
Disco was utter trash. The birth of all the bad music we have today. Lame dance beats, insincere performances, loops and studio gimmicks over genuine talent. Disco music was just an excuse to go get high at a club, no substance whatsoever, and it flourished because DJs were cheaper to hire than an actual band with talent. It was the beginning of the end as far as popular music goes, and even to this very day we still have untalented clowns who use canned beats and studio gimmicks to cover up the fact that they have nothing meaningful to say. That's the real legacy of disco, fake and insincere plastic polyester BS.
@@silversnail1413
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so is music. To say it's the reason we have bad music today is a stretch. Certain rock stars died young because of a rock-n-roll lifestyle not just a disco lifestyle. Last time I remembered talented artists like Joplin and Hendrix died young. You only see the negative side while I grew up in the era of Discotheques and Roller rinks that pumped groups like Chic from it's speakers. Block parties were awesome were you had neighbors come together to have fun and dance the day away. Solid Gold, Soul Train and Dance Fever hit the television market and was successful. Let's not forget "Saturday Night Fever." It was a top selling movie and helped skyrocket the careers of The BeeGees and John Travolta. I'm sure that you can find something wrong in all types of music but let's not act that Disco is the reason for everything going wrong in our current culture. Matter of fact censorship is today's norm and guess who helped facilitate it. The same people who thought like you who would quell a genre of artist who are just expressing their creativity.
Well, that's certainly one spin on things and a way of dismissing criticism by labeling critics as racists and homophobes. You completely miss the Punk scene and what Dahl was saying in the commentary - and that is the elitism of disco both in looks and money. When you had disco clubs like the legendary Studio 54 choosing who was fashionable and good looking enough to dance with celebs and rich people, there was bound to be a backlash from the disenfranchised. Disco was a world of glamour out of touch with misfits, geeks, rebels...
Same could apply to both rock and punk ( in different ways but still )
True… although I’d argue that disco was already splintering off and mutating thanks to two songs released that year: Amii Stewart’s cover of “Knock On Wood” (which sounds nothing like disco) and Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” (which kickstarted the rise of hip hop). Punk was a protest against the narcissistic egotism and elitism prevalent in rock at the time (10 minute solos, air humping, phallic guitar poses, stage dives etc.)
Bingo.
Agreed. It's pathetic how so many people try to paint this as a homophobic or racist incident when it was really just a matter of taste. All the disco crybabies out there can't handle real rock n roll energy.
Dismissing critics??? Lmao. I'll blow up a few bibles for you and I trust you won't dismiss my criticism of the contents of said bibles. Jk I don't practice iconoclasm.
These are the people who would storm the Capitol today.
Before I read your comment, I realized this.
I was a young kid during the time of Disco. But I still remember hearing the phrase Disco Sucks in the late 70s and early 80s. My retrospective view is it had also run its course. The 80s was a new decade and the young crowd always seems ready to embrace something new in a new decade. But I will say this…guys like Dahl are always annoying in any decade. Discounting all gay baggage some people seemed to place on disco, it was a style where guys took more care with their appearance. I don’t see that as a bad thing in any decade. Guys like Dahl seem to think being a straight male means having an unflattering appearance. The 90s did that again and guys dressed like trashy bums in the Grunge scene. I never get this need by some hetero guys to bash looking well put together. Why do they think dressing like a sloppy bum is masculine? It just looks lazy. As a straight guy I noticed this stupid cycle while growing up. Just saying.
I think that maybe they feel if they care about their appearance, they might attract gay men or that only women care about their looks and appearance. It wasn’t manly.
🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂OK Dad
@@danityvanityinsanity My view as a guy is that men are mostly lazy. They do think having a put together style is gay at times. But that’s usually because it’s an easy out to be lazy.
Disco has aged better than most generes. Hate how much hate disco has gotten.
I remember being a kid and hearing about this. I’m in my late 40’s now and I can say that I liked Disco and I liked Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. I would hear the music from the people who played it around me and I liked it. Funny thing is that Disco was killed in Chicago in between a white sox vs Detroit tigers game and a few years later HOUSE MUSIC WAS BORN IN CHICAGO AND DETROIT ANSWERED BACK WITH TECHNO.
House sux more than Disco
@@TJTinerella 🫤….awww too bad for you boo hoo hoo. 😢😢😢 U probably got rejected at the door to a House club I guess. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@TJTinerella ….here this for u….
czcams.com/video/sHQKiEXfFrc/video.html
@faust. Just like you, at that time I too liked both disco and rock and roll. However, I hung around with the rock and roll crowd and I secretly liked disco which I didn't mention to my acquaintances.
The reason people hated disco, (and the reason musical rivalry used to get so heated in the first place) is because music used to cost money and was scarcer in supply.
Nowadays it's all too easy to get together all the music you want, and cut out any music you dislike--and at zero cost. Full disclosure, I've personally never spent a dime on a song.
Back then however, things were different. The ways of getting music were essentially, buying records, going to clubs & concerts, and hoping something you liked came on the radio.
All of these can lead to frustration; they moved the rock records out to make room for disco records, youve got no money to go to rock concerts and bars and clubs play only disco, you've got no cash for a radio, and once you get it the airwaves are crowded with disco (didn't Steve Dahl, who led the movement, actually get fired because the station he worked for wanted to play disco?)
I find the idea that it motivated by large amounts of homophobia a bit tenuous, simply because it's rather unlikely that very many people actually knew about discos origins in the gay community. It's all too easy nowadays to trace disco's origins, just by reading Wikipedia or something, but not so back then. For one thing, disco fans themselves were unlikely to acknowledge this fact, due to the homophobia of the time. Some of the older, more streetwise disco haters probably were aware of this, but many did not. My father for example, was 14 years in 1979. Considering how the gay community was swept under the rug at this time, where would a 14 year old kid be learning about their contribution to pop culture? There was no internet back then for research, and they certainly wouldn't have noted it in an encyclopedia, or a TV spot. (Maybe they published the fact in a magazine somewhere, but why would you buy a magazine to read about a musical genre you hated?). To my father, disco was a nuisance that came out of nowhere, a god awful machination by the music industry.
I think there's a bit more credibility to claims of racial motivation, but that's not absolute either. My father disliked disco, and he is black. To him disco seemed too 'glossy'. He preferred things like funk or Motown, which he considered more relevant and better sounding. Disco seemed a bit too artificial and aimlessly flashy. It's a bit like nowadays, where some people are annoyed by all the bragging and 'flexing' rappers do, and wish hip hop would go back to its more down to earth roots.
you typed up this whole paragraph and it still doesn’t hold ANY weight at all. disco was publicly and famously gay and born out of gay culture and gay clubs. they literally started a whole movement that was homophobic called the disco ducks club. to say it wasn’t homophobic or racist is to completely ignore the context of the time and what white people thought rock n roll represented during that time and you’re ignoring the context of disco culture itself. fucking insufferable.
people should protest bad music
not good music
I don't think disco's haters were homophobic or racist. They just couldn't dance.
@@stephaniegormley9982 People who could not dance are homophobes & racists.
They did. The protested disco.
People were angry at disco since rock and roll stations played it constantly. It would be like playing house music in a classical music station
Steve Dahl was naturally afraid of change in the Music scene business because it would put people like him out of business just like the older 1930's-1940's Heydey media generations were who hated Rock & Roll Music when it first became big in the 1950's.
no disco just sucked
@@TJTinerella you are tone deaf and crazy
Disco forever baby 🪩💃🕺
Disco rules it didnt die it just changed names and evolved
Blow up rap hip hop records
Rick Astley songs are rock n roll but they sound so much like disco, i really like disco and rocknroll.
I agree, but sadly the reason this happened in part was because these loons were why "disco" became a dirty word. I'm a rock music fan myself, but there were some kickass disco songs back in the day and still some made today that are good. I'm LGBT too myself (bisexual), and I'm well aware my community, especially bi and gay men, benefited from the disco scene in the mid-late '70s until, well, this...
@@yosangle The song Astley is known for is by no means "rock".
@@MrTeatreeoil So you're racist.
Disgraceful night.
Steve Dahl is a racist and anti-Gay person that had an agenda to "clean" music from other "influences"....
Is it just me? Or does Steve Daul look a lot like that infamous killer who must not be named?
I was about to say the same thing...
These were not homophobically motivated these were motivated by class resentment. The underclass hated disco because of its decadence which was unattainable to most people in an economic downturn in American history
I think the idea of Disco Demolition is rooted in silliness and a, “We just like rock music and want to see it re-emerge!” Type of mentality. But instead when you dig a little deeper it’s just resentment toward a different culture and part of society’s interests and enjoyment that otherwise doesn’t effect the anti-Disco people at all. Like most things in life, you can change the station, look the other way and focus on your own enjoyments and endeavors instead of solely on your disdain toward others and their own passions. The kicker is that so many of today’s would-be rockstars are as schticky as it can get with their on-stage uniforms and expensive clothes, where as disco and club music’s stylistic functions were based within their own scene and preferences, whether the hair be large or not. Imagine caring this much about what’s on the radio; a format and device that has largely neglected its own listeners and supporters for so many years now that only the least opinion-having individuals seem to not notice how dreadful it actually is.
They were acting like rock was dying but it wasn’t so that demolition was a huge waste of time
Bud you were obviously not there it was a revolt against a attempt of corporate conformity against anyone who didn't want what was being sold
Hey pal, I would love it if you could show me evidence of that. Remember, you’re talking about Steve Dahl; prominent writer and singer of parody songs based on extremely corporate music, maker of prank calls about “Islamic Fried Chicken” and promoter of Disco Demolition Night all because, by his own word, he felt useless after being fired when his radio station gig went a different direction and he felt compelled to find a tangible scapegoat as a response.
Believe me, if this were all some ploy to overthrow the music biz and establish better creative control, pay structures and quality of life for the musicians within it we’d have more to appreciate about it. But as it is, we’re just looking at a bad decision followed by a worse result because of what blaming genres of music mainly headlined by people of color or outsiders implies in the first place.
Absolutely nobody cares if you don’t like disco, rap or mariachi music - but lots of pointlessly angry white men are patiently waiting to loudly respond and retaliate if someone dumb and reactive enough to organize it all gives them even a simple reason to do so.
Basically it was a underground experience that came to the mainstream but wasn't correct in the mainstream and nobody could stop it because of the money involved.
I'm writing an article on Disco Demolition Night, do you mind me citing your video as a reference?
This it a terrible and dishonest little video.
40 years later, I love a lot disco funk and r&b. I,am white
It's not always right to generalize, not all whites like rock and roll or country music.
cookie for being white?
Interesting to see how white and male those anti-disco rioters were.
Because all white men are racist right? We just can't avoid being foaming at the mouth, racist, homophobic assholes right? Such a dick statement.
Tom Street Try and reflect but black people love to burn down their own hoods when they protest. This was a record promotion HUGE DIFFRENCE but hey you probably like all them illegals to so you love the losers.
Tom Street Yeah its all about the police. Get a life man. People are tired of that narritive. Its all because the police its not because when they do get pulled over they are 10x more likley to be dirty than white people. 13% of population but fill our prisons. Yeah because they are all so innocent. Keep drinking the koolaid liberal.# MAGA 2020.
Yeah it has nothing to do with white people getting away with crimes that black people don't. How many of those assholes at this event had pot on them. Somehow I doubt any of them saw prison time. We both know if it was black people that would be a different story. And the fact that a racist like you is a Trump supporter is the non surprise of the century. Funny thing is back in the 70's Trump and his bonespurs was dancing to Disco.
Tom Street good lord man get some help. Im sorry you have so much hate for white people and need to go back 40 years to find an example. Have a nice day.
You people are crazy we were not homophobic we just loved our rock that we grew up with. Chill out people we dealt with it and have moved on!
You can't speak for everyone. I am sure there were those people who were just about the music. But others, it was something more.
Enjoy your rock, and let other people enjoy disco. A ton of people hate rock, and they'd be assholes too if they did this.
Trash no skill music. No wonder rock died
Rock music is sht. Your just brainwashed into liking that crap.
It wasn't so deep like this bro. Some people just thought it was like Justin Bieber today. So they were just tired of disco fever. It had nothing to do with antigay or whatever. It was just a publicity stunt by the DJ. It's not different than the Boy Band and Bieber haters. Don't look at it so naively. Secondly the people that came out on the field were drunk as hell and it got out of control. That's it. Nothing more. Can't really blame the DJ for his comedic stuff. It was the drunk idiots who screwed up and damaged the field.
It was the end of Disco and the beginning of the Punk/New Wave movement in America. Disco had served its time.
You know, I never hear disgruntled fans of prog acts like Emerson, Lake & Palmer getting this bent out of shape just because that type of music was hugely popular in the early 70s and then became very unpopular. The same goes for late 80s glam or "hair" metal in the late 80s.
@@Jelperman hair metal fans complain about nirvana all the fucking time. Get outta here
@@seamac206 technically tho I think it was Guns ‘N’ Roses that killed hair metal.
@@seamac206 technically tho, tbf, I think it was Guns ‘N’ Roses that killed hair metal.
With or without Disco Demolition Night At Comiskey Park, the popularity of Disco would have died out not long after. Disco was a bubble that was going to burst at some point, a fad. The growth of it was immense and fast, always a warning sign. It just got over-saturated. Whether it’s radio, magazines, records, television, or movies, with it being everywhere was going to have a backlash. It did and big time. To be honest with you, I did not know about the racist or homophobic undertones to the anti-Disco movement. It’s news to me. All of this turned into a perfect storm. I could see why something like Disco would anger a lot of people. If you saw something non-stop, you’d get fed up. This is a great lesson about fads, and a perfect example of its backlash.
The disco era was THE ONLY TIME IN AMERICAN HISTORY THAT A DIVERSE CROWD CELEBRATED TOGETHER WITHOUT PREJUDICE. NEW YORK WAS AWESOME, AND WAS OTHERWORLDLY OF WHAT PEOPLE COULD ACHIEVE WITH RESPECT FOR ONE ANOTHER. People hated it, and sought to destroy it.
"People" didn't hate. White men did....They wanted their influence back. Thus the division continued
Amen. Blacks, Hispanics, Italian Americans, and Homosexuals dance together.
That literally never happened, dude. Take it from an old fart who was there...that never happened. Disco fans were just as homophobic as everybody else was. You could sometimes be kinda-sorta out in highly urbane clubs like 54, but everybody there was too snowed up to really notice much. Otherwise gay men in particular had to stick to the gay clubs or risk serious harassment.
@@ziweiyuan Didnt say people allowed anything to go, but they celebrated together. It broke the racial divide more than anything else.
@@thiosemicarbizidebenzoylal2921 It didn't break shit. Over and over I see this implication, mostly from people born decades after the scene in question died out, that the disco era was some kind of halcyon period of integration and acceptance. That is a long, long way from the truth. Outside of a few urbane spots like 54 there was very little integration, and 54 itself was notoriously picky about who it let in. (The band Chic was once refused entry to 54 despite the fact that Grace Jones invited them.)
Racism hurt disco music more in the way it was treated by the music industry than by the general public. It was relentlessly whitewashed by the same people who were promoting it. In the late 70's when people thought of disco they thought of the Bee Gees and John Travolta, and that was a calculated move by the industry, which thought disco would fail if it was seen as "too black."
What ultimately killed disco was overexposure. By 1979 it was ubiquitous. It dominated the radio, movies, TV commercials, you name it. There was no way it was going to sustain that momentum. Disco Demolition Night was, at best, a particularly virulent symptom of its self-inflicted downfall.
40 years later Disco lives through House Music!
House Music? Like *"C+C Music Factory"?* Yeah, no. That's not a thing.
@@kakarroto007 😂😂😂😂😂
Purple Disco Machine
The only reason I hated disco was because it took over most of the bars in my area. I loved rock music and live bands and disco seemed to have taken that away. I had no desire to wear a white three piece suit just to go out. We either had to stay home or deal with disco and since there were always a lot of women into disco we would often just deal with it and go. For me homosexuality was never even brought up and was not an issue as I could careless who people are attracted to.
I guess it was a regional thing. I was into rock in the 1970s, But while there were disco stations in Pittsburgh, We still had rock (and country,jazz, R&B) stations. People who liked one or another genre just kept tuned to there favorite station. PS Our biggest rock station was in the 70's was WDVE 102.5FM - It still is! (Since 1969!).
Didn't it become a Christian McRadio station called KLove?
@@rockvilleraven WLUP (Chicago) is now BRANDED "K-LOVE", But since by tradition radio and TV station's ACTUAL call letters east of the Mississippi River (with very few exceptions) begin with "W" and stations to the WEST of it start with "K" , The former WLUP is now WCKL.
I should point out that not only is WDVE the top "rock" station in Pittsburgh. It's the biggest station overall in ratings! in fact, The number 2 station, (in ratings) WWSW is a "oldies" rock station! 60s-80s rock is THE dominant radio format here! KDKA-AM 1020 is number 4 in the ratings, A hell of a feat for an AM station, anywhere! KDKA-AM has NEVER been out of the top 5, and is 100 years old this year!
Good video. Thank you for posting.
The assessment of disco demolition as homophobic or racist is shallow. The recent HBO documentary about The Bee Gees offered the same myopic mischaracterization. By the time Disco Demolition happened that form of music was a vast pop phenomenon, hardly representative of the gay, Black underground NY dance scene in which it evolved. The suggestion that the knuckleheads at Comisky that day were engaged in some sort of backlash against homosexuality is false. The event was conceived as a promotion to get people in the park. It was in coordination with a rock radio station. They weren’t motivated by hate towards gays or black music, they were motivated by the imaginary need to defend “rock”. To them it’s wasn’t gay vs straight, it was Led Zeppelin vs The Bee Gees. It’s really that simple. The revisionist notion that the backlash against disco was homophobic is largely nonsense. By the time this event happened disco was all about straight white people.
Everything you said was correct.
exactly. it was "jeans and black tshirts vs polyester and hairspray"
Discophobic.
Why are you defending this?
@@steamboatwill3.367 Because homophobia and systemic racism are very real and we have a responsibility to address both. So I object when people waste their energy bitching about something they totally misunderstand and pat themselves on the back for being righteous. If you really cared about genuine racism or homophobia you wouldn’t be focused on this.
People that think this event ended disco don't know shit about music. Something like disco is popular today. It's called house music and techno.
The irony is, Chicago and Detroit were playing baseball that night. Chicago (home of House Music) and Detroit (home of Techno, House Music's cousin). Let that sink in.
and SUX even more
But what we knew as disco back then IS indeed gone. The fact that it became part of other styles doesn't change that fact.
I remember the big picture of John Travolta; in his white disco suit; with a big screw driving through him. It was the "Disco Sucks" insignia
DISCO FOREVER
Black music was always mainstream, MoTown ruled the music charts. So nothing different there. What was the new ingredient with Disco? GAYS! And they made sure to stamp it out as quickly as possible.
@@myBquest ) "showed down everyone's throat" is very overblown, it really wasn't that widespread.
There were gays in rock. Elton John. Freddie Mercury. Rob Halford. You can dislike disco for purely musical reasons that have nothing to do with who is gay or not. i never thought of disco as gay music back in the seventies. Just thought of it as lacking quality.
@@etmeyutub ) Disco is more like real classic rock than what "rockers" ( self indulgent disco hating frat boys ) were listening to.
Who actually knew they were back then?
And howwas it "lacking in quality" when it was so we'll produced and popular? Compared with metal....
8:47 Is that not a picture of Scotland fans celebrating at Wembley so many years ago?
I think your right there David....
CHIC was more Funk than Disco.
Disco all the way lefreak, dance dance dance, everybody dance, bernard Edwards from the band played alot of bass riffs in songs like we are family, lost in music. Nile rogers went on to form the band draft punk wich is a more modern form of disco like the song get lucky.
@@DanielNicholsonAKATheActor You mean "Daft Punk".
@@DanielNicholsonAKATheActor Nile Rodgers didn't form Daft Punk... Daft Punk are literally 2 guys from France, though they did collaborate with Nile on their RAM album which was pretty much a big homage to that whole era of music
Yeah, the public was so "homophobic" back than that they would embrace a genre (heavy metal) that's entire stage presentation and costume design was directly inspired by the london gay club scene in the early 70's.
The public was so "homophobic" back then that they elevated Judas Priest to huge mainstream success despite their lead singer being gay and it being an open secret among the fans for more than 20 years before he confirmed it himself in 1998.
Could it possibly be that the public is willing to look past such things if the music is good and that the public rejected late stage disco because it was lazy artless cash grab music that was being made by people with no real talent who embarrassed themselves and the genre at large with low quality material too the point that legends from within the genre like donna summer were actually glad to see the genre die because a majority of the music being made under its banner was "trash"?
Boy George pointed this out many years ago. How could anyone think metal was any more homophobic than other musical genres when the bands are dressed like a bunch of skanky girls and leather fetishists?
What disco songs? I hear it got stale in 79 but any examples of those "bad disco songs"?
And I think people DIDN'T KNOW they were and rock fans were just hypocritical...
10:13. Way to go Geddy Lee.
"It's not called Disco music anymore, it's called Dance music." LMAO.
It was a gag if it had anything to do with 'anti gay' at the time it was way way under the radar, nothing overt.
It was a weird time in music, I left the 6th grade and the Disco permeated the airwaves, when I started 7th grade in the fall of '79 it was new wave & AOR.
I disagree with the comments on punk and new wave killing disco. What really killed disco was cheesy, camp junk like “Disco Duck”.
But the 70’s seemed to be the best of times. But when it went mainstream is when it started to fall off
The 70s Sucked the Oakland As where winning multiple World Series.
@@austindreyer2930 LMAO
Don't forget. A glass of beer was .10 cents. That added fuel to the rage.
That's an oft cited, but overblown excuse for what was simple mob mentality. At that time a 6 pack of 16oz cans was about $2.50 (So about .20 cents per 8oz serving) That SOUNDS great - It's HALF PRICE!, But then you have to factor in 2 things: You had to spend money on a ticket to get in.(where you sat could erase any "bargain") 2, If you bought a 6 pack at a bar you got all the beer at once. The promo lead to high demand, SLOWING the rate that an individual ticket holder could acquire beer.
And the crowd was on drugs ( maybe even more than at a Disco.... )
Isn't it amazing how come this gave birth to a music scene that silently but efficiently rules the dance floors? All hail house 🏠🙌🏻
And ironically House music was started in Chicago
I didn't understand the conflict between Rock & Disco, I love💖 Disco from The Bee Gees to Donna Summers & I even love💖 Rock from Fleewood Mac to Peter Frampton. There was room for all kinds of music🎶, I've even love💖 Country music from Glen Campbell to Kenny Rogers. To each his own.🤷♂️
Exactly there's nothing better than being well-rounded and versatile and having an open mind when it comes to music
I think from a couple of these videos I've been seeing floating around was Disco being a little over saturated and perhaps bleeding over into spaces that probably wouldn't have as much of it. And the fans of rock in this conflict that maybe didn't like the genre, got a little irritated when the music they enjoyed on the airwaves in their usual spaces were taken over by this genre they didn't like.
The fact that such an event actually happened seems so sad and pathetic to me.
Why? It was a glorious event in the anti disco movement.
I don't think people were against gay men but against the superficial culture of disco. A lot of people on the left hated disco because it was an individualist music culture.
It's sort of a weird situation because gay liberation wasnt a "left" thing at the time, it was a thing gay people and friends of gay people cared about but it wasnt really a partisan issue. So leftist rockers would hate disco because of its candy coated nature and saturation of the market (much like modern/post modern pop music) and not consider the gay aspect where hyper-conservatives may dislike the culture forming around disco because of homophobia and racism along with disliking the saturation of the market and wanting to "go back" to rock n roll.
I lived during that time. It was extremely evident that it was taboo because it was 'gay' music. Intentional or not that was the tone in society. I lived through it. Thankfully music of that type (BPM/Tempo) came back in the very late 80s with House Music.
You’re right about the left wing being critical of disco for being bourgeois escapism whilst the working classes suffered the consequences of economic policies. Here in England, you’d have been into punk, roots reggae or folk if you were really right on. Even Rock Against Racism wouldn’t touch disco with a ten foot barge pole for that very reason.
Reminds me of the mayhem of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.
Well... there is one other factor that needs to mentioned here: Money!
I actually discussed this a bit in my HISTORY OF ROCK 70s doc (sorry for the plug)
My father (who had previously attended the famous Woodstock festival in '69) lived in NYC in the 70s and he would tell you that the Studio 54 scene was not what it's been romanticized to be, "Some fancy club that you couldn't get into where everyone had lots of money... and everyone was doing lots of cocaine."
You see you can't really talk about the "Disco-Hate" without discussing the differences between the 60s and the 70s, and I'm not just talking about the rock scene, but all scenes. The late 60s - early 70s were such a creative time musically where the music was a bit more adventurous and lyrically it spoke more about what was going on in the world (hence Marvin Gaye's album WHAT'S GOING ON). And the diversity felt much more real. I mean think of Woodstock itself: you had Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, Santana and Ravi Shakur all on the same bill. The differences in musical styles and grooves are pretty extraordinary. And all the while, the themes of the event are about ending the Vietnam War with half a million fans listening in the pouring rain. That's a pretty heavy difference from Studio 54.
Of course it should be mentioned that the hippie rock and roll movement wasn't without its problems either. Months after Woodstock, Altamont happened and that was kind of the end of that. All good things get ruined. Hell fast forward to the late 1980s, "Rock" music produces some of the worst garbage I've ever heard in my life, the kind that the 90s Grunge era rebelled against just as hard as "Disco Sucks" did.
And it is worth mentioning that as adventurous as all this was, it wasn't really dance music, at least not something the general public could groove to. So while Disco may have had its roots in the more indie clubs of the Greenwich Village as a sort of "alternative music", it became commercialized HEAVILY. This also is the moment where record companies were starting to move away from more experimental albums from Pink Floyd or The Mahavishnu Orchestra and went back to chasing formulaic hit singles, which was super easy to capitalize on this new Disco craze. While DARK SIDE OF THE MOON felt like it was Pink Floyd's vision, "I Feel Love" felt less like Donna Summer's vision and more like producer Giorgio Moroder's. Sure there were pro-LGBT songs like "Mighty Real", but they certainly didn't chart like The Bee Gees "Staying Alive" did.
The other issue is that many times the lines between "Disco" and "Funk" are pretty blurred. I love Earth Wind & Fire, one of my favorite bands. "Shining Star," "Serpentine Fire," "Getaway", these are some of the funkiest grooves ever captured on record and songs like "That's The Way of the World" had a clear message to it. But even they had admitted that when they cut "Boogie Wonderland", they felt like they were selling out to the new craze.
So with all this happening, and with radio becoming so commercialized and catered to disco, you suddenly had The Rolling Stones doing "Miss You", Rod Stewart doing "Do You Think I'm Sexy" and even the holy Pink Floyd adding a 4 on the floor beat to "Another Brick in the Wall" (their biggest single). Personally, I like these songs, but all of these artists will admit they were jumping on the bandwagon so they could stay relevant. THIS is what set off Steve Dahl and where the "Disco Demolition Night" came into play... which was really stupid when you consider they were burning Beatles records a decade and a half earlier... but I digress.
Was this demolition night at least partially motivated by racism and homophobia? Sure. But I think the backlash to the overproduction and corporatism of the music also played a big part in that. It's kind of like when so many people hated GHOSTBUSTERS 2016 (the one with the all-female team) for being a corporate, unfunny, pointless remake, but because a minority of people made sexist comments it became: "People hate GHOSTBUSTERS 2016 because of misogyny!" And boy did Sony ever exploit that in their marketing...
And here's the irony of all of this, Disco didn't really die. What is THRILLER but a disco album in all but name? And nowadays, disco is more popular than ever. The Weeknd makes disco songs. And of course the music industry is more soulless than it's ever been.
Looking back on it, I actually do like some "Disco" records, even if I don't consider a lot of them to be "Disco" and even then, people should be aloud to enjoy whatever musical genera they like. I'll certainly take it over most garbage coming out of the radio these days. I think if Dahl's anger had been directed more towards the soulless record industry for not supporting more variety, and instead bringing attention to emerging rock artists instead, history might judge him differently. But the whole thing was stupid, attracted a bunch of blood-thirsty neanderthals, gave way to the landscape of shit that rock music became in the 80s, and in the end, did ABSOLUTELY nothing to stop disco. "I'm Coming Out" was released a year later and became an LGBT anthem.
The point of this long essay is I think the roots of this "Disco Demolition Night" were more against a coked out Music Industry, however misguided and attracting to neanderthals it might have been.
I read most of this and agree. My comment including "....cocaine fueled flaccid sex for post teens and drowning queens," was a quote from a book I read. Can't remember the author. Disco at the end was a commercialized shell sprinkled with massive amounts of cocaine.
this had NOTHING to do with homophobia, that's a flat out lie
Someone thinking that disco sucks is no different, or worse, than people who think that country music, for instance, sucks. Not everything has some hidden sociopolitical subtext, really. People really can just dislike things. If the reaction was a little over the top, then IMO that was because disco had just absolutely saturated music, to the point of absurdity-come on, Ethel Merman had a disco album? People were just saturated with it, it was inescapable. Hence the somewhat drastic reaction. And anyway it wasn’t that drastic, it was one very publicized event, if you don’t count all the “disco sucks “ tee shirts. Rock music dealt with a similar situation when punk was oppositional to it. It’s so annoying when some people try to pull “isms” out of thin air about every blessed little thing people do. Is it so hard to believe that people were just burned out on a genre that had saturated everything for years? The wheel turns, disco was a narrow genre stylistically, it was inevitable that it would have its day until the next thing came along-it was just so very delineated because disco had been so ubiquitous for quite a few years.
0:47 Is that guy, named Lansing, wearing a University of Michigan jacket? Ironic.
It's preposterous to suggest that disco died mostly due to r--ism and h-m-phobia. The real reason it went out is because disco saturated the market and became too big. People were tired of the overexposure of disco music and disco culture. Most fads wind up dying out after they peak. Disco was no exception. Stop blaming everything on r and h, people!
Jesus McPhuck i agree but dont act like those weren't happenin at the time
Your right. The radio stations had overplayed Disco and everybody had a disco album out it seemed. Rock and Roll was ready to emerge again as King.
@@GEMINITREKKER Well said, Disco WAS a fad whereas Rock will never die.
You are fooling yourself if you think racism and homophobia played no role in it's downfall.
@@gogotonyyo Disco still lives on in a bunch of other genres of music. Rock is now dead.
i think this is a great video but having lived through this time and loving Disco. Disco was way too overexposed at this time. New Wave and Punk were taking over anyhow
They call it house music,
Correct?
I remember in high school one classmate having a T-shirt with the message "SLAUGHTER THE BEE GEES".
i am old enough to remember listening to steve and gary before the DD event and i assure you - it was NOT about homophobe/racism .
Then why were the record piles full of black artists that were not in any shape or way classified as disco?
@@LAZY-RUBY Who knows....the point isn't that there weren't some racist or homophobic people within that movement, but rather that the movement itself was not rooted in racism or homophobia. I was aligned with disco destruction, but had zero knowledge of who was into it. And I wouldn't have cared anyway.
Thank you....COHO!....not one "homophobic" thing about it...I listened to Steve and Gary EVERYDAY...I started writing my own parody songs like Steve's learned real music and write my own now because of him....and the Beatles lol
Mike Veeck was fired and was barred from the entire MLB for life.
He now owns the St Paul Saints (a Northern league team)
* Disco demolition was not about homophobic or racist views. It was about a popular FM rock radio station changing to 24&7 disco music. ☺
Steve Dahl wasn't being homophobic he was being what he still is a shock jock.
how does being a shock jock affect the literal content of what he said?
Anyone who hates disco never heard dubstep or the pop music of today.
ya I hate that too
Stayin' Alive was more Funk than Disco in my opinion.
Staying Alive is as disco as it gets though, it has the typical 4 on the floor disco rythm pattern and puts an emphasis on melody rather than the groove...
Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker) by "Parlament" IS "funk". Stayin' Alive IS "disco". Disco can be described as being derived from funk, but they are different.
Funk and Disco are very similar. Both extremely black genres.
@@michaelsieger9133 Tell that to Giorgio Moroder.
@@ziweiyuan or the Bee Gees. And what does Extremely Black even mean?
Many people have no clue about disco.
Disco music was much more then Travolta and Bee Gees.
Disco music was fusion of Sou,Funk and Latin music.
Clubs like Paradise Garage,Loft played cutting edge disco music.
Many jazz fusion musicians did great dance records and many Soul singers did disco tunes.
Disco was not Travolta.Disco was Born out of Pfilly Sound and Salsoul.
Blondie kicked butt though. I still consider them more of a punk band. I feel like they made their disco songs as a joke, to make money and show that they could do that too.
It had next to nothing to do with Homophobia it had to do with cultural hegemony and classism, disco was the music of elite cities. Etc.
uh, unless you're gay like me, and grew up during that period and lived in the chicago suburbs as I did, you might THINK it had nothing to with homophobia, but it most certainly DID have homophobic undertones. Maybe you'd have to be gay to feel it, but it was definitely there.
This is a very american phenomenon anyway it seems to me. Even from the point of view of rock itself in the UK glam rock (David Bowie, T rex, Slade, Gary Glitter, etc) was huge in the early to mid 70s, it ruled the charts for some years with all its sexual ambiguity and glamour and it ended up influencing the aesthetics of disco itself. In the US though glam rock was not as big and even though it produced a few bands (New York Dolls) it never became as important in US rock as it was in the UK and so US rock was dominated by mainstream male rock. But also new wave and post punk, which were rock styles mainly from both New York (CBGBs) and the UK, could have good relations with disco and with dance music more generally even going beyond the hate that punk rock had of disco. As far as males "dressing up" it seems to me what US rock lacked was the mod subculture of the UK which was the main aesthetic behind the so called "British invasion" bands of the 60s and it had a strong fashion element around a certain aesthetic of looking smart and elegant. It went againts the previous 50s "greaser" look of more US origin. In the 60s David Bowie was a mod and in the early 70s he was the king of glam alongside the also ex mod Marc Bolan of T. Rex. Meanwhile US rock went from the greaser look of the 50s to an era were british rock ruled and then to the hippie look which also tends to go againts elegance and is often associated with low higene and that particular look ruled rock, and more so US rock, until punk and new wave came to exist. This is true even for the 90s grunge which you can do the contrast with something that came around the same time which was Britpop and so you will see how grunge is much more hippie looking mixed with US rural male clothing styles and rebelled againts glam metal of the 80s while Britpop, the biggest rock genre in the uk of the 90s, was a combination of mod with glam rock, new wave/post punk, punk and guitar indie rock from the 80s. Meanwhile grunge rock was a sort of mix between 80s anti-fashion hardcore aesthetics with 70s hard rock. It seems that the reason for these differences are cultural and geographic since the US is a large chunk of small and medium sized "white" cities and rural areas with a lot of religious influence with a few large cities which have the other races and ethnicities while the UK is a much more urban, more secular and more european influenced entity
It's just too bad disco wasn't completely purged in European countries like Italy, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, etc. It just completely pollutes their societies!
RE:Ahha Govono... i agree i don't think it was racist. i love disco myself just as i also love rock music, 50s-60s rock & roll music, soft rock music, blues music, jazz music, country music, etc but i believe the disco backlash was the same as what happened in the 1950's from the old establishment declaring war against rock & roll and like the way i personally hate rap and hip hop sound music since 1990.
I was part of the Disco Sucks movement and it wasnt so much racism or homophobia. It was over saturation. All the radio stations that used to play hard rock were playing it non stop and everywhere we looked, it was being thrown in our faces. Tv, movies, kid shows, etc. Some of our favorite rock bands were inching towards it.
Back then, we didnt have computers, internet, Itunes, CZcams, and etc. The only way you could listen to music was radio and records and when the radio is constantly playing this effeminate dance music, it became frustrating. Thank God for My Sharona, Hot Blooded, and Another Brick in the Wall which helped kill Disco.
Great explanation!
"Another Brick in The Wall" is a disco song itself though, maybe Pink Floyd were making a statement and I missed it lol. But they got some criticism for it.
Good video, but its PREPOSTEROUS to say "anti-disco" had anything whatsoever to do with electoral politics. Conservative politics was on the rise from 1975 wayyy before the "disco" movement or its backlash. Their was also a huge backlash against the "anti disco" thing to. Steve Dahl and fans who rushed the field were considered idiots by just about everybody. Excellent point at end of video, disco didn't die it simply started being called something different.
No Disco died...disco techs closed...you are decades too young to remember
@@TJTinerella I wasn't alive, good point. I'm just repeating what I heard. I lived in Chicago all my life and I'm told that the only thing that changed was calling things disco or dance clubs disco-techs
That was just insanity. Just fricking RIDICULOUS! What the F$@K were these disco haters thinking?!?!?!?!?
Curt Brennan First of all disco isn't sissy music so get your fucking facts straight and go listen to that piece of shit you call rock music
Like Elvis, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Chuck Berry, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Deep Purple? That "shit"?
ikill.....Don't forget these guys--->The Stones, Doors, Allman Brothers, Doobie Brothers, Journey, Foreigner, Styx, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, The Police, Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and on and on.....
They were thinking that disco sucks. Duh.
Queen....it IS Sissy music so get YOUR "fucking" facts straight!! Rock still lives while disco died a slow agonizing, whimpering death.....AND MAY IT STAY THAT WAY!!
Disco may have died in the US, but in Europe it continued to evolve into stuff like Italo disco in the '80s and Eurodance in the '90s. I notice how rock songs are typically from the US and dance/electronic songs are typically from Europe.
I was there that night. I resent the revisionist history in the new millennium. Steve Dahl drove a stake in the rotten corpse that was disco. It was a glorious night, one that I will cherish forever.
So why did u dislike disco so much?just don't listen to it and listen to what you like!
Disco during the last decade: resurrected and vindicated by acts with global success like Daft Punk and Bruno Mars.
Rock during the last decade: elitists destroying young talents, leading Imagine Dragons to top the rock charts every week.
In the end, disco had the last laugh.
I didn't know what color the artists were. All I know is that - as a musician - that "four on the floor" with no variation drove me absolutely crazy. If you were on a gig and it was disco you would want to shoot yourself in the head from the sheer monotony. They didn't have to burn those records though. Disco had peaked and was now making way for New Wave, house, hardcore and eventually grunge. I loved "Le Freak" just like I loved "Carry on wayward son." Peace ☮️
Umm, this was at least the third forfeit in MLB history. The last game of the second version of the Washington Senators was a forfeit. Also 10 cent beer night in hell hole cleveland in 74 or 75.
Wrong. I was nineteen in 1979 and a rocker. I've been yelled at by gay men for not liking Discos. But I got tired of being hit on by men twenty years older than me in Discos where the ONLY way I could afford a drink was if they bought it for me...and then of course the cocaine was the next thing they would offer. And I didn't appreciate the 18 or 19 year old girls being hit on by older men, either. I didn't have a brand new hot car outside. And again, I could not buy the girls drinks or offer them cocaine! Fortunately, I didn't prostitute myself nor sniff anything up my nose. Besides, Disco was producer designed and commercialized. At a rock concert I might get drunk or smoke some pot but considering one was legal and the other is rapidly becoming legal...I really don't think I have too much to be ashamed of. How old are you anyway? Were you there and were you one of the date rape prey?!?! I'm pansexual...and was active back then with both men and women...and I hated Discos! The rest of it...that all rockers were homophobic is a crock of bull****!
The insufferable arrogance elitism and snobbery that was part of the scene was the main reason why so many people detested disco so much.
To be "with it" in the disco scene you needed to have a lot of disposable income so you could afford the dance lessons gaudy clothes jewelry hairstyles and insulting door charges that went with the scene and most of the hot clubs would literally tell average people to fuck off and never come back becasue they "weren't with it"..
Punk rock and metal clubs like CBGBI's in NYC The Troubadour in LA and The Soundhouse in London were the complete antithesis of that snobbery and elitism which is why they became so beloved in the late 70's and 80's.
Well both of you arr dumb hypocrites.
@@steamboatwill3.367 Thank you for that well reasoned response.
This comment section is disgustingly toxic holy shit
IKR!
The video is too
@@megatruthoverlord1807 ) or just the title?
Disco is Talent that rockers of close minded willlnever understand from a guy born in 88 funk and hip hop grew from those influende and let's not forget JAZZ because if she doesn't like jazz I don't know what we're gonna talk about???
Hey, It was a radio station promotion. It wasn't racist or homophobic. The title of this video is misleading & the content erroneous.
Agreed.
We all knew what it was all about back then. During high school, it was a division of style of music.
The author of this must have been born after 1995
Isn't it just possible that it nothing to do with homophobic B.S. or racism? Couldn't it just be that disco was a horrible form of noise with no artistic value what so ever? Why does everything have to be racist or homophobic? Get over yourselves.
Orc.....WELL SAID!!
Probably because the black guys who worked at Comiskey said it was racist.
"Couldn't it just be that disco was a horrible form of noise with no artistic value what so ever?" Orc, I think you just described rap perfectly!
No people always thought the disco riot was racist. It has nothing to do with politics. You did not only destroy disco records. You destroyed funk records too. @Proton2112
@@lisah8438 ) you're the only intelligent person here.
Hug I like disco and rock
They should be dancing yeah
Lolol, this wasn't racism or homohate, this is the fact that most disco sucked.
The same generational conflict happened in the 1950's. The white old farts establishment hated the youth new sound in the 1950's because the music was taking over sales putting the older singers from the 1930's and 1940's out of business. They were declaring war on the new youth movement sound in the 1950's. This is what happened again here in 1979 in the United States. Disco for a brief time was putting rock performers out of business and rock lovers having a harder time finding something new good in rock music for them on the front record store shelves.
Nice Racism there
wait. disco demolition night got Reagan elected? damn i need what you guys are smoking!
Same
I love bee gees also my mom so too 🥰🥰🥰🤗🤗🤗😍😍😍
I was a definite Rock and Roller when this happened.
I loved Funk and Motown (MJ), too. Mind you, I am Hispanic.
Disco was overpowering the radio waves. One could hardly listen to rock without an insert of Disco because the Rolling Stones (a rock group) got into it, then it was David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Queen, they were all conforming .... what t h is happening? It also brought out this new snob culture who wore inch thick makeup and acted like they farted rose petals, just because they knew how to dance the Hustle, or had 'Disco' parties, not just regular parties.
The music:
A constant one rhythm beat, no harmony imo, yelling female singers whispering male singers with long, very long instrumentals of that beating rhythm. Lord, it had nothing to do with gay or ethnicity at the time. It was all about the survival of real Rock.
All I have to say is thank goodness that Punk/New Wave came in after this. It felt like it cleansed the palate.
When you get two different sides of the same story, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
In the "conservative" 80's you had "gender bending" stars like Boy George, Simon Lebon, Depeche Mode ruling the charts with disco influenced music call "new wave" or "synthpop". Some of the anti-disco backlash was anti elitism not homophobia or racism and some of it was people did not like the music.
How was anti-disco anti-elitism? Rock fans are the most elitist people out there, and I say this as a rock fan myself (kinda).
Acts named "Chic", "Evelyn Champagne King", discos had doormen that kept average people and people with nonexpensive wardrobes out. Rock fans were dressed in black tee shirts with their bands name or album cover on it. Rock fans had on Levi or Lee Jeans, discoers wore designer jeans or the infamous white suit.
What's wrong with letting the reasons that some of the disco sucks crowd gave....stand on their own. "It was a lifestyle they were trying to shove down our throats." - Dahl
Edward Kollin, I think a lot of it was a rejection the lack of substance in disco music. You don't need to even go as far as the 80s but rather look at bands like Queen or artists like David Bowie or a pop culture phenomenon like Rocky Horror Picture Show to know that it wasn't based in homophobia rather a rejection of disco. I don't think New Wave Music is a relation to Disco but rather a softening of punk with electronic elements. Seems to me disco was just a trend like bell bottoms and the pet rock.
@@adamp_ You had to look a certain way to get into Studio 54. If that's not elitism, than what is it?
I was there. Yes, we were all white and we were all from the city, not the suburbs. Disco didn't speak to the vast majority of the fans who showed up to protest its promotion and undermining of the culture. Good riddance.
Disco won thou
House music, techno, Edm
Disco offspring
Modern pop music
Rock got sent to the underground
Rock lost.
My cousin we’re there that and they were Mexicans also hear from them that some blacks and Asians were to
During The Tigers And White Sox
Hip hop was allowed to continue
Because of the negativity