Boogie Wonderland: The Rise and Fall of Disco in 1970s Chicago

Abstract

This paper explores the evolution of disco music in Chicago during the 1970s. Considered one of the twentieth century's biggest musical and cultural phenomena, there has been surprisingly little historical and musical scholarship on disco. The scholarship that does exist is quite narrow, as it mostly revolves around New York City where the genre was founded. This geographical gap erases the stories of people all around the country who voraciously consumed disco throughout the decade. This paper therefore turns its focus to Chicago, a hub for the nation’s popular music scene. Disco scholarship around Chicago largely focuses on Disco Demolition Night in July 1979, when tens of thousands of people came to the Chicago White Sox's Comiskey Park to destroy disco vinyl records. By examining newspaper and magazine articles, archival material, and video footage, this paper follows disco's rise throughout the decade and the simultaneously growing antipathy towards the genre, eventually culminating in the explosive reckoning in 1979.