The Night a Baseball Stadium Burned Music - July 12, 1979
About this episode
The episode explores the cultural implications of a 1979 event where a DJ's destruction of disco records led to a riot at a baseball game.
On July 12, 1979, a Chicago radio DJ named Steve Dahl blew up a crate of disco records at Comiskey Park between games of a White Sox doubleheader, and 50,000 people rioted. Most Americans remember it as a drunken baseball stunt. But when you look at what disco actually was, who made it, and who it belonged to, a different story emerges, one about culture war, manufactured outrage, and the price paid by communities who never got to vote on whether their music would be destroyed. And here's what keeps me up about it: the mechanics of that night in 1979 are still running.
People in this episode
Host: Richard G Backus
Topics covered
- disco music
- cultural conflict
- community impact
- 1970s history
- music destruction
- outrage culture
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: White Sox
Books & works: disco records
Places: Comiskey Park, Chicago
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