Originating in underground Black and gay clubs, disco had unseated rock as America’s most popular music by the late 1970s. But many diehard rock fans viewed disco, with its repetitive beat and culture that emphasized pleasure, as shallow and superficial.
A story that’s about much more than music, THE WAR ON DISCO explores how the powerful anti-disco backlash revealed a cultural divide that to some seemed to be driven by racism and homophobia. The hostility came to a head on July 12, 1979, when a riot broke out at “Disco Demolition Night” during a baseball game in Chicago.
Watch THE WAR ON DISCO live and stream anytime beginning Monday, October 30th at 9/8c on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS App.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/war-disco/
