This is why disco caused a strong backlash from people who with
their heart and soul embraced rock’n’roll; they suddenly felt that
they were being pushed in the background and eroded by a music genre that they
despised. It all culminated in an explosive encounter and a riot at a Disco
Demolition night on a baseball field essentially burying this genre once and
for all. The backlash against the Beatles for John Lennon’s infamous Jesus
comments pales in comparison to this.
To understand why there was such hatred against disco, we
must look at its origin. This type of music started off underground, and it was
played at gay nightclubs to great acclaim. A certain distinct and often
over-the-top fashion sense went hand in hand with the genre. Yet because it was
catchy and there were beats to groove to, disco spread like wildfire. More and
more women took part in these parties, and they brought their own lavish styles
with them, which could not help but raise the curiosity of heterosexual men as well.
After a while, it came as no surprise that colored women
singers would not only embrace this music but add their own touch and
flourishes to the genre. In a sense, this added to the budding sense of
feminism, and it is perhaps nowhere as clear and distinct as in Gloria Gaynor’s
hit “I will survive.” Not only was she telling off her ex, but she did so in a
groovy style. As we can note, race,
feminism, and political aspirations were embodied with disco from its outset.
Basically, disco took the demonstrations for equal rights of homosexuals and women away from the streets and onto the dance floor.
The turning point was of course the quintessential classic Saturday
Night Fever which popularized both the music and the dance moves and made
it accessible to everyone regardless of gender or race. Disco became universal
and by extension even more egalitarian and moved from the underground to the
foreground and into everyone’s living room. Soon enough, radios switched to
disco whether it be The Bee Gees or various other bands and musicians of the
times, and yes, that includes The Village People. This was a decisive shift from more rock-oriented riffs to groovy beats
on the radio waves.
Enter rock’n’roll enthusiast Steve Dahl who literally suffered the
consequences. In fact, he is considered one of the first shock jocks who was, like
Howard Stern, not afraid to speak his mind on the radio and who would
share inappropriate and controversial comments with, for, and for the sake of his audience. Yet
overnight - and it happened to be Christmas Eve and right after he and his wife had opted to buy a house - Steve lost his job because of disco. This did not sit well,
and he vowed to fight back.
The term that become popular at the time was Disco sucks
and rock aficionado Steve Dahl took a jab whenever he could. This ubiquitous slogan
then appeared on signs, banners, and T-shirts throughout the country but it all
culminated in an event that Steve Dahl helped organize: The disco demolition
night where people were encouraged to bring their disco records; these would
then be carried to the baseball field only to have them exploded with good
old-fashioned dynamite. This event that occurred on July 12, 1979, at Comiskey
Park in Chicago was intended as a Major League Baseball promotion but ended up
in a full-out riot with significant damages and destruction to property, equipment,
and the field itself.
The crowd was predominantly young white males most of whom
were not baseball fans and were half or fully drunk right before and when the "disco explosions" occurred. Although Steve himself strongly denies it and says
it was all about the music, there are elements of race and ethnicity, and
sexual orientation at play that cannot be overlooked or ignored in this case.
Yet these gender and racial differences tend to be also
embodied in the respective genres themselves. Rock’n’roll has a masculine
attitude attached and embodied within it. A stereotypical rock star would be someone who
drinks a lot, does drugs, also a lot, behaves irresponsibly on stage, off stage
and in hotel rooms and then caps his day by having a lot of sex with many
different female fans and groupies. Rock stars are expected to act in that way
and hence are given carte blanche to this excessive and aggressive
lifestyle. After all, their own self-professed slogan is sex, drugs, and
rock’n’roll and they believed they had to live up to it.
Disco, on the other hand, is a whole different beast. It is
about dancing, peace, sweat, sensuality, and love, as well as lovemaking. It is
basically better-looking and better-dressed hippies moving their hips and their
whole body to specific beats.
That said, the disco lifestyle, however, was not immune to
drug use either, with cocaine being the yuppie choice. All this was encouraged
with the opening of Studio 54, a very poplar discotheque that was all about
style, even more so than the music. So much so that the owner would personally
select and decide who looked good and fashionable enough to be allowed entry to
the premises. The rest would have to go home, lick their wounds and wounded
pride for the night, only to hope for a better fate or prepare a more outrageous
costume next time around.
All this ended overnight right after the riot at Disco Demolition.
This was a major fiasco, and nobody wanted to have any of it. Radios stopped
playing disco music on their waves and rock made it back on, at least
temporarily. This meant that certain social progress was suddenly cut short and
undermined while many black female singers lost their jobs and income
overnight. Interestingly, this was somewhat similar to Steve’s fate although he
ended up doing fine in the end.
Yet do not fret and do not cry for the lost and forlorn heydays of disco. Disco may have stopped but it did not die. In fact, it transformed and was reborn in what is known as house music, and it really brought DJs to the forefront. The groovy beats continued still albeit in a different form and with much less resistance the second time around. And rock’n’roll may have become a relic of the past but it still rocks.
