Disco Demo Night
By Nikki Thach
With the recent love of the 70s, there comes a resurgence of love for the decade's music. One of the biggest genres of the time was disco, but all didn’t exactly love it during its rise. This is the story of the anti-disco movement and how it became an attack on the marginalized communities that were disco's biggest audience.
Steve Dahl became the face of the anti-disco movement of the 70s, when he claimed to have lost his job as DJ for a Chicago rock radio station due to its switch to becoming a disco station. Since then, he has declared war against disco and sought revenge on the genre. During his new gig at another radio station, he made sure that his hate for disco was loud and clear, but his greatest statement was made during Disco Demolition Night.
Many view Disco Demolition Night and the anti-disco movement as a hateful act against the LGBT Latino and Black artists and communities that popularized the genre. It was the rise of a minority-fronted music scene, but others view it as simply a hatred for the new 70s culture.
On July 12, 1979, 59,000 people arrived at Chicago’s Comiskey Park with a disco record to attend a doubleheader between the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers for just 98 cents. After the first game, Dahl, wearing a military uniform, drove onto the field in a Jeep as thousands of disco records were wrecked by dynamite. A wild riot then followed. After Disco Demolition Night, more anti-disco movements were made. Once disco died down, so did the efforts to end it.
