Culture
Disco Died In 1979: Watch Videos From The Night It Happened
Disco may have died in Chicago, but house was born there soon after.
1979 is the year that disco is said to have died. The event? A White Sox double-header at Comiskey Park that hosted a Disco Demolition Night between games.
As the story goes, Chicago DJ Steve Dahl offered .98 cent tickets to the game if attendees brought disco records he could blow during the event. The whole spectacle turned into a riot, and sent a not-so-subtle message of malice to the mostly black, Latino, and gay communities that had been the major purveyors of disco up until that point.
Looking back, Steve Dahl admits that disco “obviously threatened a lot of rockers.” Well, with disco having exploded into house, techno new wave, hip-hop and all of underground dance music while rock continues to plummet into a black hole of stale ideas, we know who later had the last laugh. Read the whole history of this infamous night over on Open Culture here. Check below for footage of the fateful evening.
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