hate and fear masquerading as pride, and promoted by the corporate media, so was the backlash against disco.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiscoAccording to music writer Piero Scaruffi the disco phenomenon spread quickly because the "collective ecstasy" of disco was cathartic and regenerative and led to freedom of expression.<11> Disco was the last mass popular music movement that was driven by the baby boom generation.<25>
An angry backlash against disco music and culture emerged in the United States, hitting its peak with the July 1979 Disco Demolition Night riot. While the popularity of disco in the United States declined markedly as a result of the backlash, the genre continued to be popular elsewhere during the 1980s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_NightPopular Chicago disc jockey Steve Dahl had been fired from local radio station WDAI when its programming shifted from album-oriented rock to an all-disco format. Dahl was subsequently hired by rival album-rock station WLUP, "The Loop". Sensing an incipient anti-disco backlash<1> and playing off the publicity surrounding his firing, Dahl created a mock organization called "The Insane Coho Lips Anti-Disco Army" to oppose disco. Dahl and broadcast partner Garry Meier regularly mocked and heaped scorn on disco records on the air. Dahl also recorded his own parody, Do You Think I'm Disco? (a satire of Rod Stewart's, "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?").<2><3>
White Sox TV announcers Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall, who were broadcasting the game for WSNS-TV, commented freely on the "strange people" wandering aimlessly in the stands. Mike Veeck recalled that the pregame air was heavy with the scent of marijuana.<5> When the crate on the field was filled with records, staff stopped collecting them from spectators, who soon realized that long-playing (LP) records were shaped like frisbees. Some began to throw their records from the stands during the game, often striking other fans. The fans also threw beer and even firecrackers from the stands.
After the first game (which Detroit won 4-1), Dahl, dressed in army fatigues and helmet, along with Lorelei Shark, WLUP's first "Rock Girl"<6>, and bodyguards, emerged and proceeded to center field. The large box containing the collected records was rigged with explosives. Dahl led the crowd in chants of "disco sucks" and a countdown prior to triggering the explosives. When detonated, the explosives tore a hole in the outfield grass surface and a small fire began burning. Dahl, Shark, and the bodyguards hopped into a jeep which circled the warning track before leaving the field through the right-centerfield exit. Thousands of fans immediately rushed the field. Some lit more fires and started small-scale riots. The batting cage was pulled down and wrecked,<7> and the bases were stolen, along with chunks of the field itself. The crowd, once on the field, mostly wandered around aimlessly,<8> though a number of participants burned banners, sat on the grass or ran from security and police.
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