July 12,1979 Disco Demolition night

**the whistler** · July 11th, 2004, 04:05 PM

Hiya folks, I'm not to sure if you are aware of this but July 12, 2004 marks the 25th Anniversary of the Disco Demolition night.

Here'a link with articles and photos of what occured

http://www.outernetweb.com/focal/dis...nes/index.html

Was any one there?

What does this day mean to you?

I look forward to reading all of the posts especially from Bernie, NickNack, Marky and Quinny

Will this thread get ugly?

:lol:

Cheers The Whistler

**Nano** · July 11th, 2004, 05:00 PM

Will this thread get ugly? Well, it seems you're wishing so! :-?

For me it's interesting to have a look at something I didn't catch at the time... in fact, I was beginning to think it was "urban legend".
But you'll have to drop more info on this... Who organized this? Is that guy dressed as Fat Elvis? What about that one RIP two years later? And what the hell is Coho?

BTW, one of the flags read: "Roses are red/ violets are blue/ and disco sucks". Sure this "suckers" didn't know how to rhyme. :)

**Bernie** · July 11th, 2004, 05:20 PM

Originally Written by the whistler

Was any one there?

What does this day mean to you?

I look forward to reading all of the posts especially from Bernie, NickNack, Marky and Quinny

Will this thread get ugly?

:lol:

Cheers The Whistler

1. No, I wasn't there.
2. No offense, but it means absolutely nothing to me. Really.
3. No, it won't get ugly.

**Discomanic** · July 11th, 2004, 05:30 PM

I wasn't there and doesn't mean anything to me. Just a comment, I'll bet some of the folks who contributed their disco records for such an event wished they had them back now due to the dollars they could bring on ebay..... :lol:

**Videoskooter** · July 11th, 2004, 06:25 PM

I remember this! I thought it was ridiculous. I was still in school that time and the hard-rockers and punkers were cheering about this event and were giving me a hard time.

I recently saw them back at a school-reunion.

They were enjoying themselves at the party and were having a great time dancing....

ON DISCOBEATS! :lol:

**Mixmachine** · July 11th, 2004, 09:17 PM

I never even knew about it at the time, I first heard some one mention the incident in a conversation about the changing of the music labelings from 'Disco' to 'Dance', some one posted here a while back a link that had those newspapers articles, it was the first time I read any details.

**QUINNY** · July 12th, 2004, 03:45 AM

I only vaguely remember hearing of it at the time. Probably a brief note in James Hamilton's Disco pages in the Record Mirror. As it was, it had no real effect on me as a DJ, 'cos the records just seemed to keep on coming.

**NickNack** · July 12th, 2004, 04:11 PM

For me it was nothing. I didn't even hear about it until after it was over. Whoever these people were screaming "DISCO SUCKS" weren't hanging around in my crowd. I was probably spinning the night the event took place. Didn't care about then, don't care about it now. I'm sure Steve Dahl got what he hoped for: Publicity of all kinds.

**SandraDee** · July 12th, 2004, 04:39 PM

That blowing up of disco records always reminded me of the Nazis burning books in the 30s. Fascism was alive & kicking folks!

**Studio74** · July 12th, 2004, 04:54 PM

Here in Portugal the (small) Disco scene wasn´t affected by that,and i think most of the people in Portugal never heard of that night.And as i mentioned in other post,people here would dance to anything without prejudice,as it was normal to hear Disco,New-Wave,Punk,Classic Rock and Electro-Pop all in the same night.But that doesn´t diminish the stupidity of that event.I guess the right-wing was getting affraid of so much sexual liberation and the fact of seing all the people getting together,be them black,white,yellow,homossexual or heterossexual.But for me it wasn´t that event that destroyed the "Great Disco Party"...AIDS did...it killed a lot of people who where living the Disco lifestyle and scared others...and maybe some Reagan politics helped to destroy that great spirit that was behind the "Great Disco Party"

**DiscoMan** · July 12th, 2004, 11:59 PM

Watched it on the TeeVee news when it happened. Thought they were ignorant mid-western assholes. I think "The end of Disco" was brought about pretty much by natural forces:
Drug and booze burnout, marriage, lack of money brought about by marriage and HIV. At least that's the way it was with my group. We all got married between '78 and '80 and started havin' babies in '81. MTV! Change in music tastes.
Conservative politics in the '80s.
Don't know why people stopped Hustlin'?

**discofrank** · July 13th, 2004, 03:02 AM

Unfortunately, i was not old enough to remember such an event, so I can only base my comment on observations. It seems that all the talk about "disco" being about sex, liberation, and drugs is very superficial. I think there was more to the disco culture then this.. I think disco (before Saturday Night Fever, at least) was about the bringing together of different people, experiences backgounds and harmony. While the Dahl event was just middle america opposing such a sentiment .. it's not a surprise that this act never really affected anybody outside the US. This display is actually a political embarresment to the US (Much like Reagen, Bush and Bush jr). :lol:

**Discovery** · July 13th, 2004, 10:29 AM

Were there any pro-disco demonstrations anywhere in response to this event, or at any time during the "disco sucks" era?

**Bernie** · July 13th, 2004, 11:33 AM

Originally Written by Discovery

Were there any pro-disco demonstrations anywhere in response to this event, or at any time during the "disco sucks" era?

Yeah sure, the people who went out to the clubs or bought the records on a consistent basis :-)

**daviddiebel** · July 13th, 2004, 01:39 PM

If I were around then, I would have undoubtedly payed too much attention to that event, since I sociologically analyze all sorts of events in the cultural realm.

I think that the event and what gave rise to it have been correctly analyzed many times elsewhere: Many straight white men felt threatened by their perceived displacement by women, non-whites and gay men. Disco figured in their fears and this manifested in the sexualized slogan "Disco Sucks."

If you look at the crowd in that melee, it's clear who these people were. Interestingly, the influence of their music is far more dead today than is disco, in the mainstream at least.

I always hope for a disco comeback. I love the actual disco music. But perhaps more importantly, I hope for a comeback of some of the attitude toward life surrounding disco. Things have become entirely too uptight on the one hand, and slovenly on the other...