on this date, 39 years ago, a musky looking white cis-het male, inspired thousands of white people, pridominantly other musky looking white cis-het, to riot against disco music. they STILL claim that the riot was not rooted in racism and homophobia. 
on july 12, 1979, steve dahl, a rock dj who had been fired when his station transitioned into a dance station, got the white sox to host, what he called "the infamous disco demolition night." this dude was so enraged that he vowed to end disco.
by the summer of 79, disco was so huge that radio stations began to switch to an all-disco format. donna summer was not only the queen of disco but she was undoubtedly the queen of pop having scored three top 5 pop hits, including a pair of number ones by the summer of '79.
although the motion picture “saturday night fever” has gentrified the disco, the genre was still associated with black and latino and white gay men. this was a threat to white cis-her rockers. oh yeah, i should note that rock music also wasn’t selling.
white sox promoters and dahl came up with the idea of blowing up disco records inbetween a white sox double headers at comiskey park. the promotions offered $1 entrance to anyone who brought a disco record to explode. thousands showed up.
steve dahl will tell you that the demolition was just an act for people to express their love of rock & roll and that burning records of primarily black and brown artists had nothing to do with it. this is why we don’t believe the history white cis-het men tell.
dahl framed the explosion of disco records as a war against disco. it was this framing that attracted a crowd of predominantly white cis-het men to the stadium to burn records and rage against the disco culture. a culture that was thriving left that 10 years after stonewall.
after the white sox allowed this white dude to literally burn disco records, and after he took a victory lap around the park, thousands of drunk people rushed the field and began rioting. many held up signs that read "long live rock & rock".
"the disco demolition" night was an attempt to purge the culture of disco aka gay, black and latino culture. this was an act to remind those on the margins who was really in "control." sadly, this action would prove to be successful in ending and/or interrupting disco's reign.
the blacklash was immediate, radio began to eliminate disco from their playlists. while a few disco records still managed to crossover, donna summer even scored a #1 pop hit with "no more tears" (a duet with barbra streisand), in late '79, the genre was declared "dead."
by 1980, stations had switched back over to rock or adult contemporary. people had become so comfortable with the anti-disco movement that they literally chased gays back into the closet. reagan was in office and even MTV didn't play videos by black artists.
of course disco never really died. hell, the first rap record to break the pop 40 in 1980 sampled the disco hit "good times." disco would later morph into freestyle music in the mid 80's and then eventually into house music in the late 80's. it still lives.
