Disco Sucks: Why Did 70s Rock Music Hate Disco So Much?

One night in 1979, a Chicago radio DJ orchestrated a night of disco hatred called Disco Demolition Night. Four decades later, we look at why the genre was hated so much.

“Well the first thing I have against [disco] is I can never find a white three-piece suit that fits me off the rack,” jokes former radio DJ Steve Dahl to a local news camera on July 12, 1979—an evening known as Disco Demolition Night. “I hate the taste of piña coladas, I’m allergic to gold jewelry, I’m a cheapskate, I don’t like to waste a lot of money at home in terms of my electrical bill, and you have to spend so much time blow-drying your hair… It’s a waste of energy.”

Steve Dahl was working at a local radio station in the late 70s when he was fired. The reason for his dismissal? Disco. The genre was emerging as the new sound, as groovy dance floor anthems trounced the demand for the rock fare Dahl was used to championing on the air. Rather than taking it on the chin and listening to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin in the comfort of his own man cave, Dahl dubbed disco a “disease” and together with the promoter for the Chicago White Sox, sought to destroy it with actual real fire in the middle of a baseball stadium… read more >