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When one is asked to think of music they consider to be ideologically “anti-establishment”, one might think of the anti-authoritarian and non-conformist nature of the punk scene, or perhaps think of the blue collar and working class roots of country music. What one probably wouldn’t expect would be to think of disco music, despite its undeniable counter cultural impact and radical themes. It was the radical nature of disco music that caused its precipitous downfall out of the American mainstream in 1980, despite the genre becoming a staple in American music and pop culture throughout the 1970s. Disco music was an unequivocal cultural voice for some of the most vulnerable and marginalized people in America at the time: the genre was pioneered by African-American, Latin-American, and Queer music, culture, and nightlife. Originally emerging from major American cities such as Philadelphia and New York City, the disco scene emerged as an underground subculture created by and for queer people and people of color. Despite the radical nature of an entire subculture created by and catered to the marginalized, many of disco’s critics would dismiss disco as an unserious, ideologically vapid genre that achieved mainstream success due to its frivolousness and marketability. Not only is that untrue, it is dismissive of the undeniable impact disco has had on the music genre and American culture and society as a whole. Disco music and the disco scene is an ideologically rich, countercultural subculture that made waves of progress for marginalized communities, and should be regarded with the same revolutionary prestige that other genres such as punk and country are regarded with.

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The Disco subculture and disco music had emerged in a radically changing era, was created and pioneered by the very same people who led these movements ushering in social change–people of color and queer people. Prior to the existence of the fully realized disco sound, there were the foundations of a disco community: disco had first begun to emerge as a gay club culture, in dance clubs in cities like New York and Philadelphia. Dancers at these clubs were primarily gay and African-American or Latino, and they played music that was created by these communities such as soul, funk, and latin music. These dance clubs had emerged as a way for these marginalized peoples to find community in the midst of rising social tensions in the 1960s. The 1960s was a period that was characterized by the rise of social liberation movements fighting for change throughout the United States, a battle which would only intensify into the 1970s. At the end of the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement had concluded with the abolition of segregation and racial tensions in America were at an all time high, Second-Wave feminism had emerged and feminist liberation movement began their push for rights and equality, and the Stonewall Riots took place in New York which had mobilized the gay liberation movement in their pursuit of rights and autonomy. It was an era for the liberationist–the first time that many of these marginalized groups were empowered enough to make their voices heard on a national scale. Despite this incredible atmosphere of liberation and usher in lasting social change, it was also an incredibly dangerous time to be a marginalized person. There was no protection from the government and not many public places to seek out community. These discotheques emerged from that desire for community and release, and the gay African-Americans and Latino-Americans who would come to frequent those clubs became the foundation of emerging disco culture and the disco scene. It was these marginalized groups that pioneered the disco sound in addition to the community–the tenets and the ideology of the disco scene is rooted in the beliefs and values of marginalized peoples in the 1970s.

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Disco is an ideologically rich genre that promotes radical inclusivity and acceptance, sexual liberation and exploration, and bodily autonomy. Inclusivity and equality are inextricably linked to the values of the disco scene. The disco scene was rooted in welcoming people from all aspects of life, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. Discotheques were the great equalizer–no matter who you were prior to entering the club, you’re equal to everyone else in the club. As disco was founded on a marginalized community, many of the artists that thrived in the disco scene were women, people of color, and queer people. Artists such as Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, The Village People, and Sylvester were at the forefront of their genre and scene, rather than being discriminated against or not offered the same opportunities due to their race or sexual orientation. As such, disco became one of the only mainstream spaces where the marginalized perspective was allowed to be heard. Another core tenet of the disco scene is the radical eroticism and sexual liberation. Romance and attraction were the primary subject matter of the disco genre, and the lyricism of disco songs often depict themes of desire, sex, indulgence, and attraction. Disco encouraged the sentiment of being open and honest with one’s romantic feelings, whether it was desire, passion, or heartbreak. There is a freedom in allowing yourself to love freely, and it is this idea of free love that disco is founded on. Disco music sought to promote the idea of loving oneself and expressing love for others, and in merely providing a space where marginalized people could do that without fear of persecution, disco music is a deeply progressive cultural movement. It was these tenets that would not only define the disco genre, but what enticed so many people into joining the disco scene as it quickly rose into the American mainstream in the mid-1970s. Oftentimes it is the case that underground cultural movements tend to become vastly less radical and more ideologically neutered as the movement leaves its core scene and enters into the mainstream. However, disco was unique in that its ideological core remained present and intact despite its jump in popularity. This is because many people were enticed by the disco sensibility–its promotion of free love, self-acceptance, and sexual expression was alluring to so many who found current American society to be constraining. Richard Dyer, an English academic, writes about the allure of disco in his 1979 essay “In Defense of Disco”, published in the socialist, gay men’s magazine Gay Left: “Its passion and intensity embody or create an experience that negates the dreariness of the mundane and everyday. It gives us a glimpse of what it means to live at the height of our emotional and experiential capacities - not dragged down by the banality of organized routine life. Given that everyday banality, work, domesticity, ordinary sexism, and racism are rooted in the structures of class and gender or this society, the flight from that banality can be seen as a flight from capitalism and patriarchy as lived experiences.”   It wasn’t simply the music that had sparked people’s curiosity–though the impact of the music cannot be understated–disco’s promotions of unapologetic joy and freedom had provided many with an outlet to cope with tribulations in American society in the 1970s, such as the brutal end of the Vietnam War and the effects of a tumultuous, unstable economy. During a time when jobs were at an all time low and many were feeling discontent in regards to their future, disco had provided people with the opportunity to dance and be in joyous community with other people. However, in its rise in popularity, disco’s message had not only reached newfound lovers of the genre across America, but had also managed to gain a strong opposition to the disco ideology and the genre.

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As Disco begins to peak in cultural relevance and popularity, the attention begins to give rise to a growing anti-disco movement. In the late 1970s, disco reached a new level of popularity and mainstream success. In 1977, two cultural disco zeitgeists emerged and shot disco up to the forefront of the mainstream American consciousness: Studio 54 and Saturday Night Fever. The former, Studio 54, was a New York City nightclub and discotheque that debuted in 1977 and quickly became a phenomenon. The club was immensely popular and was frequented regularly by some of the most influential artists of the scene and of the era–Diana Ross, Andy Warhol, Elton John, Grace Jones, and a young Michael Jackson to name a few. Studio 54 was known for its exclusivity–doormen at the club would decide to grant entry merely by giving a thumbs up or thumbs down based on their physical appearance, wardrobe, and demeanor. The exclusivity of Studio 54 solidified the disco scene as something to be sought after. It wasn’t just popular to go to the disco, it was cool, it held social weight and significance. Everyone wanted to go to the disco, everyone wanted to look like the people who got into Studio 54. Saturday Night Fever had a similar effect on the American perception of disco. The film itself was a massive success, but the film’s soundtrack–a collection of disco tracks performed by The Bee Gees–would go on to become one of the most successful selling movie soundtracks of all time, selling a whopping 40 million copies. Several Bee Gees tracks from the film such as “Stayin’ Alive”, “More Than a Woman”, and “How Deep is Your Love” became iconic disco tracks, and the image of John Travolta dancing in platform shoes had embedded itself into American music culture. After Saturday Night Fever, disco was an indomitable force of cultural relevance. However, that cultural dominance was met with the chagrin of a growing group of Americans that would eventually develop into the anti-disco movement. The anti-disco movement was spearheaded by rock and roll fans who had felt that disco didn’t represent the American population, and instead catered to the interests of elites, gay people, and pretentious artists. They were spurred by an opposition to the inherently erotic and sexual nature of the disco, condemning the actions of clubbers as perverse and obscene rather than an act of freedom and expression. The reasons that an opposition to disco had been cultivated so successfully was because there were many people who opposed the values of disco; disco critics condemned sexual freedom, and were disgusted by the notion of inclusivity and acceptance toward queer people. Disco had platformed the perspectives and lifestyles of women, people of color, and most notably gay people where these identities previously ostracized and other by the American mainstream public consciousness. Those who hated disco not only wished to get disco music off the air, but sought to create a cultural war that would shift American society to devalue the countercultural thought of radical self-expression and sexual liberation that disco consistently promotes. As such, much of the disco stigma regarding disco is rooted in anti-gay and racist prejudice. It was racism and homophobia–not merely an attack on the popular music of the era–that caused the shift from disco-hate to intensify into violent anti-disco backlash unfolding across America. Gillian Frank details the anti-disco aggression of this time in her essay “Discophobia: Anti Gay Prejudice and the 1979 Backlash Against Disco”: “That year in Seattle hundreds of rock fans gathered at fairs and attacked a mobile dance floor. In Portland, Oregon, thousands cheered as a radio disc jockey cut through a stack of disco records with a chainsaw. In Detroit and Chicago anti-disco clubs attracted thousands of members. T-shirts that bore the phrases "Disco Sucks" or "Death to the Bee Gees" were worn across the United States. In Los Angeles, a radio station released a promotional anti disco record with songs such as "Disco's What I Hate," "Disco Defecation," and "Death to Disco."' In New York, radio listeners protested a rock radio deejay because he played disco singer Donna Summer's so-called sex anthem, ‘Hot Stuff’”. These incidents were not isolated–they are indicative of the rapidly intensifying cultural war enacted on disco. The culture war would eventually come to its climax on the infamous Disco Demolition Night.

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Disco Demolition Night would act as the catalyst for disco’s falling out of mainstream appeal. On Thursday, July 12, 1979, the White Sox Stadium and Comiskey Park in Chicago was filled over capacity, the highest turnout for a baseball game in almost a decade. This was because the event was promoted by Steve Dahl, a Chicago radio host, who billed the night as “Disco Demolition Night” and invited his listeners to bring disco records to the game to be destroyed. The atmosphere of the event was chaotic from the beginning–anti-disco chants filled the stadium during the game, banners toting slogans like “Disco Sucks” and deeming it “obscene” were hung from the rails. The night had reached a fever pitch when Steve Dahl took the field in military garb and a military-style jeep, bringing a giant crate of over 50,000 disco records onto the field before detonating them with fireworks and other explosives. After the explosion, the crowd rushed the field: “seven thousand fans ran wild, lighting bonfires, tossing firecrackers in the audience, tearing up turf, and destroying the records themselves.” Despite the destruction and mayhem lasting only around thirty minutes, the event would quickly become "the explosion heard round the record industry” and around America as a whole. After just one night, disco records had fallen virtually entirely off of radio stations. Those records that weren’t being taken off the air were labeled as dance music rather than disco. Disco record labels would progressively either close, be sold to larger record companies, or were reorganized. The event had shifted the American consciousness entirely away from the disco scene, and it fell out of mainstream appeal by the year 1980. The response of Disco Demolition Night to the disco movement however is what solidified the disco movement as a countercultural revolution. American society had deep-seeded anxieties in regards to authentic expression and queer love, and the disco movement had undoubtedly inspired a shift within the American population to be more sexually empowered and promote the acceptance of all racial and sexual identities. As trivial and innocuous as many disco critics of the era would argue the genre to be, Disco music had always been a space to inspire radical thought and instill a personal revolution–first against oneself and one’s inhibitions, then to go out and inspire a less inhibitive and judgemental world. Disco was a joyous revolt–a gleeful rejection of the status quo, but a revolt all of the same. Disco was always more than a genre, rather a cultural revolution: one that had provided community for marginalized peoples and inspired for sexual liberation, and one that the anti-disco backlash was dedicated to tearing the movement and its tenets down. While they were successful in shifting the public consciousness away from disco, the ideas that the disco scene was founded on would continue to endure and be fought for as the years progressed.

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Despite the decline of the disco sound out of mainstream American popular culture, the legacy of disco’s impact as a countercultural movement and as a genre permeates throughout American society. While the disco era was virtually over by the start of the 1980s, disco had entirely changed the cultural fabric of America. At this point, the cultural progression of the United States could be divided into two halves, pre-disco and post-disco. In the post-disco era, one could observe the effects that disco had on all aspects of American society. The African-American, Latinx and queer community had carved out other underground subcultures through music and dance inspired by disco, such as ballroom culture and the growing house and techno scene which both rose to prominence in the 1980s. Disco’s most important impact upon American society was the work that it did to inspire critique of American society and the work it did to promote sexual liberation, racial and sexual equality, and radical self-expression. While many would characterize the era as merely a release, an era characterized by indulgence and opulence, disco had established a space of radical equality at a time where these spaces were almost nonexistent in the United States. Disco entirely shifts what it meant to be radical in its joyous and creative revolution–it emphasized the power of cultural revolution that would become so prevalent in current American society and American liberation movements.