Disco's Death Knell
Dancehalls, Glitterballs and DJs - From the Pleasure Garden to the Discotheque - Bruce Lindsay
Bruce Lindsay [+]
Music Journalist and Social Historian
Description
Disco’s pre-eminence among music fans was relatively short-lived. In the USA, an aggressive ‘anti-disco’ movement grew up at the end of the 1970s, particularly among rock fans, effectively killing off the music as a major force in entertainment. There was no British equivalent of this movement, but in the UK disco’s acceptance by the mainstream did much to diminish its cultural credence and it was openly disdained by many of its early fans as songs such as ‘Disco Duck’ became dancefloor, and chart, hits, while popular entertainers such as The Two Ronnies, the Hee Bee Gee Bees and the ‘musical’ duo of Hylda Baker and Arthur Mullard satirised the scene. Economic and social problems caused their own difficulties as the 1970s progressed: disco music may have been a diversion from these problems, but unemployment and crime kept people away from the venues. Disco fell from the pop charts, making way for new dance-oriented musics with a cooler reputation.