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Just like the bombing of Hiroshima, it was the right thing to do.
Race had nothing to do with it. Steve Dahl was a rock DJ who hated disco.
Now a lot of people people, mostly the Satanic Left, say EVERYTHING is racist and homophobic.
Disco sucks. I cheered that night when it happened, and I’d cheer it today.
Long live rock and roll!
“I find that odd because the biggest group associated with Disco was the Bee Gees.”
Agreed and remember that the Bee Gees’ music was mainly featured in the movie that really promoted disco and that was 1978’s “Saturday Night Fever”. That movie featured a white cast with John Travolta, Donna Pescow, and Karen Lynn Gorney and it basically was about a young white working class man in Brooklyn who deep down inside aspired to make it into the upper classes in Manhattan.
The other story I remember about that night was reading the late Ron Luciano’s take on the whole thing. Believe he was part of the umpire crew for that night and he said he and the rest of his crew made themselves scarce once things got out of hand because someone in a blue umpire’s suit at Comiskey that night would have been just as popular as someone wearing a “Elvis Loved Disco” t-shirt, lol.
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of disco is John Travota. I found disco annoying and pretentious. At the time, I saw disco as a white phenomenon. Now if you don’t love it you are a white supremacist.
This Maoist/Stalinist accusation stuff is wearing thin. By the time the next election comes people will wear their accused Nazism as a badge of honor and the people will cheer it.
The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is better than most music produced in recent years. Many “disco” songs were actually very good funk or R&B.
Missing from the article is any consideration of the passion of the radio age. As a yute I had my favorite station on all the time. It was comfortable and always in the background.
It’s understandable that many people took offense to the rapid, forced integration of Disco onto the airwaves.
Stations that were once grounded in Rock now played crap dance music and in cities with limited radio choices if you’re favorite station made the change you were screwed.
Offended, mad, pissed off. All are qualities that every person regardless of color are entitled to express when an abomination is forced upon them.
Disco wasn’t exclusive to blacks and gays. Not even close. It was a cross-cultural mess.
The Insane Coho Lips
Nothing but a bunch of haters. Disco revolutionized the music industry and proved that once again, blacks are innovators when it comes to trends.
Fun fact: The late Michael Clark Duncan was at the game!
“but now people are saying this promotion gone wrong was racist and homophobic.”
Those people are idiots. I was there.
L
I thought the worst part of disco was the fashion. Polyester shirts, white belts and shoes, leisure suits.
One interesting thing about DISCO is that it did help some cross cultural music introduction, although before that, Motown, The Philadelphia Sound and Rosalie Trombley did far more.
Rosalie Trombley was the music director for CKLW, a powerhouse station in Windsor, Ontario. Their signal reached several states and provinces. She simply erased color barriers and introduced lots of black music to white audiences.
The music of the late 60’s to mid ‘70’s in almost every major format is simply the best era. Just go to any big box store and listen to what’s playing.
I’m not a fan of pure disco, but the soul and R&B influence of that music was awesome.
Where did White Sox fans come from in 1978? What parts of Chicago?
I know a couple of people who were there that night...one was even able to identify himself in a news photo. That guy, far from being a racist, is a hardcore blues fan today.
He’s openly said the crowd (including himself) was a bunch of dumb teenagers that got caught up in the moment, and that he was half scared to death once the mob psychology set in and people got rowdy.
Don't forget, some of Earth, Wind and Fire's best songs were basically disco, and as much as I didn't like the genre, I have to say now looking back on it that the Bee Gees were a very good band, very talented musicians.
The first time I ever noticed disco on my car radio (where I mostly listened to pop music) was hearing KC and the Sunshine Band in 1975. Local radio stations (in upstate NY) were playing the song incessantly, and I kept thinking "this can't go on, this has got to be some kind of a fad that won't last." I figured it would last six months or a year, but it in fact lasted four or five years.
There were many A-A bands and musicians who one might say "resisted" disco, doing a minimum of disco songs due to market forces but mostly sticking to their own style and taste. The Commodores were one such; Lady was the only disco-style song I can remember them doing; otherwise, they continued to do great ballads and Lionel Ritchie emerged as the main guy in the band, going on become a solo act. Al Jarreau paid minimal attention to disco, otherwise working hard to keep the jazz aspect of pop music alive, along with Steely Dan and (to some extent) the Doobie Brothers.
Also I thought Donna Summer was a very good singer, although I didn't like her sex-heavy music very much, ditto for Madonna, five or six years later.
I was glad to see disco recede into the background, although its influence has never gone away.
By the way, what ultra-cool band wrote a very popular disco song that contained a prominent cha-cha-cha figure, repeated multiple times, that no one noticed as a throwback to the early 1950s?
“Burn baby burn, disco inferno.
Burn that mother down.”