Posted on 07/10/2009 2:29:08 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
In 1979 the disco industry was worth an estimated $4bn - more than movies, television or professional sport - and accounted for up to 40% of the singles chart.
But that same year on 12 July, the actions of one disgruntled rock DJ sparked a revolution that some believe signalled the death of disco.
Steve Dahl had left his radio show in Detroit in protest when it adopted an all-disco play list.
He found a new home at Chicago's WLUP Loop radio - it was the station "where Chicago rocked".
With fellow DJ Garry Meier, they tapped into a growing resentment of disco. They thought it was stupid music, so they mocked it and blew up records on air...
The promotion was simple: For a mere 98 cents listeners could bring all their unwanted disco records and watch them being blown up in a bin by Dahl and his fans.
On the evening of Saturday 12 July 1979, 70,000 people, mainly white teenage boys, thronged the streets, all armed with 98 cents and a disco record...
"The media was talking about this 'wonderful disco culture' - it was very style over substance," he says.
"I think a lot of people who were rock fans at the time felt this stuff was being shoved down their throats and they reacted against it, they were resistant to it, that's why it became so vehement..."
Earth, Wind and Pyre can be heard on Radio 2 on 11 July Saturday at 2200BST.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Proof that there is a God.
This event ushered in the age of metal and freaks. Fail.
Metal goes back to the heavy groups of the late 1960s. Iron Maiden was already in existence by the time of this event (if you were taling “new metal”).
The music industry is dictacting the tastes yet again. And as with newspaper and tv ratings, they wonder why audiences are tuning out.
If you would like to be on the ping list let me know.
This will be a medium volume ping list during the baseball season and a low volume ping list when all life stops in late October.
> “I think a lot of people who were rock fans at the time felt this stuff was being shoved down their throats and they reacted against it, they were resistant to it, that’s why it became so vehement...”
Exchange “this stuff” for Obama 24/7...
I almost went to that game, but there was too much traffic.
Replace disco with Zero and it fits today's situation.
I was part of the “I hate disco” crowd around the same time period. Looking back, however, disco was relatively innocent and tame compared to the crap kids are listening to now.
Not at Studio 54 it wasn’t. Cocaine and public gay sex.
Can't compete in the marketplace, so they attack the music. How predictable and lame. Never-mind that disco really didn't die, it merely laid the foundation for hip-hop, soul, and R & B music, and that rock during the 70s (FReeper note: I am a huge 70s rock aficionado and consider that period the very best in rock music) as a whole consistently out-performed and out-sold many one-hit disco tracks.
Naw, the anger at disco had more to do with the fact that minorities were dressing up and going out and having a good time at venues just like whites did in the 1950s.
Ping
Attending junior high school in a suburban South Jersey town, this article brought back memories of the 'Disco sucks!' rants from a number of my classmates, including one fellow Matt, who enlisted in the U.S. Navy a few years later, whom I ran into while serving chow during my Recruit Work Week at NTC Orlando, Florida. Sadly he was murdered about a year or so later while stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.
...I actually now consider some of Disco to be a guilty pleasure which I indulge in from time to time when listening on my iPod.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4yWP6DMhgo
Burger King Disco, that whole craze got really outa hand.
As a former disc jockey and a musical historian, I can debate the “disco” connection to soul and r&b, stating that soul and R&B music was more of a response to, partner with, and resurgence after, the flower-power era.
I can definetely, however, endorse the connection between Disco and Modern Hip Hop. Just listen to “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang, and some of the other acts that were brought forth by Sylvia Robinson over on the east coast.
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