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THE DISCO DEMOLITION: THE DAY THAT DISCO DIED

“One of the Top Ten Most Shocking Moments in Baseball History” Turns 25

On July 12, 1979, while music was blaring at the legendary Studio 54 in New York City and “Saturday Night Fever” records were being played in homes across the country, another movement was taking place; thousands of people gathered on the South Side of Chicago chanting “Disco Sucks.” The night was orchestrated by then 24-year-old DJ Steve Dahl, and became known forever after as the Disco Demolition.

What began as an effort to sell seats at a White Sox/Detroit Tigers double-header turned into a mass anti-disco movement that would later be credited as the official “day that disco died.” Fans were encouraged to show up with an admission of $0.98 and a disco record that would be blown up at center field between the games; chaos ensued when an estimated 90,000 baseball fans and listeners crammed the ballpark, the surrounding neighborhood streets and the Dan Ryan expressway, creating traffic jams for miles.

Leading the fans in a “Disco Sucks” chant, Dahl headed out to center field in military regalia to blow up the thousands of disco records that had been brought to the ball park for the rally. What he didn’t anticipate was that tens of thousands of eager fans would storm the field. Announcer Harry Caray tried to calm the crowd by leading the park in the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” but order could not be restored, and the White Sox were forced to forfeit the next game. Because American League games are virtually never forfeited or cancelled ESPN dubbed Disco Demolition as “One of the Top Ten Most Shocking Moments in Baseball History.”

Dahl admits that the cultural phenomenon that sparked the end of the disco era began simply as his response to losing a job at a radio station that had turned to an all-disco format. Even though disco music had become the unofficial soundtrack of the 1970s, his “disco sucks” mantra struck a nerve because so many Midwesterners simply didn’t ‘get it.’

“The average guy in Chicago didn’t have the right clothes, couldn’t get into the right clubs, and thought he’d never get laid again because of disco,” says Dahl.

The Disco Demolition and Steve Dahl became national news the next morning, and the event’s legacy survives to this day – disco bands including ABBA and K.C. and the Sunshine Band agree that the event was the beginning of the end for disco.