There were many reasons for the anti-disco backlash...yes, there were the gay and racial issues, but there was more than that. Disco was the total antithesis of the rock movement...you had to dress up (no T-shirt and jeans rock uniform), you had to actually *learn* how to dance, you had to spend money and have all the *right* things, it was exclusive/exclusionary (the doorman and the velvet rope). And yes, it became very, very overplayed by the time of Disco Demolition in July of 1979.
Bands were replaced by DJ’s and don’t get me started on Drum Machines.
A smart host would have asked how well disco is doing these days. BTW, who watches MSNBC?
“Disco was the total antithesis of the rock movement”
Rockers certainly thought so, but they forgot themselves. Rock and roll was originally dance music, and never lost that essence, no in its least danceable offshoots. You didn’t see very many people dancing to, say, Black Sabbath or The Ramones, unless you count headbanging and pogoing, which you shouldn’t. But consider one of the biggest surviving rock acts of the disco era, Van Halen, and you have a perfect model for danceable hard rock. You could look back to Led Zeppelin, as well, or sideways to Aerosmith. They weren’t made exclusively for dancing, but they do in a pinch. Heck, you can even dance to AC/DC if you want.
That’s what rock is made for, is what I’m saying, even when it isn’t readily apparent.
“you had to dress up (no T-shirt and jeans rock uniform), you had to actually *learn* how to dance, you had to spend money and have all the *right* things, it was exclusive/exclusionary (the doorman and the velvet rope”
Ah, here we get to the nub of the issue. I don’t believe you needed to learn how to dance, at least not as intensively as before rock. Disco is infinitely easier to pick up than swing, big band, or more advanced line/square dancing. There was the Hustle, and you could salsa, samba, lambada, etc. all you wanted. But they weren’t necessary to get on the floor. They weren’t all Travoltas out there. Most of what they did was as free-form as hip-hop is today.
Anyway, that’s beside the point. What do all the things you mention have in common? Think about it: clothes, structured dancing, club exclusivity...women, that’s what! Women like it when you dress up, show them off on the dance floor, and not have to hang around huddled masses of sweaty guys. Disco was chick music, before it was anything else. It was also gay music, naturally, since gays as you may have noticed are basically women. You, if you were a rocker, had to play along to get you know what. Which undoubtedly frustrated a lot of rockers, having to loitter around music they hated for the sake of something else.
That, more than race, class, or anything else is what seperated disco from the rock of the day. That is, the rock that wasn’t glam, which by the way came back in a big way shortly afterwards under the name hair metal, itself meeting a backlash similar to disco in the following decade.
“And yes, it became very, very overplayed by the time of Disco Demolition in July of 1979.”
Look no further for the cause of the backlash than right here, in my opinion. Disco had limited appeal and for whatever reason, call it popular delusion and the madness of crowds, outgrew its natural fanbase. It would survive under different names: new wave, pop, r&b, hip-hop, etc., to be enjoyed by its female, gay, black, and hispanic devotees as well as the mainstream. But it wouldn’t, couldn’t dominate the mainstream forever, just as heavy metal and punk couldn’t. Because they get old too fast for those who don’t love them exclusively.