Disco music was born in the early seventies in black, Hispanic and gay clubs. It permeated the mainstream with the 1977 release of Saturday Night Fever, whose soundtrack album became the biggest-selling album of all time in the United States.

In 1979, a Chicago rock radio station hosted an anti-disco demonstration. Tens of thousands of people brought disco records that were set ablaze while the crowd chanted “disco sucks.” I’d posit that anti-gay and anti-black sentiments played a part in the anti-disco movement.

After that, disco retreated from the mainstream in the U.S. but remained popular in gay clubs, evolving into house music and hi-nrg.

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