The Disco Sucks! campaign 30 years on. In his new book Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age, the US writer Steve Knopper gives an articulate overview of the mechanics of a contemporary business in a constant state of flux and panic.
Knopper identifies numerous much-discussed factors as being to blame for the state of confusion in the music industry over the past decade – Napster, iTunes and corporate greed among them – but he also reminds us that 30 years ago the biggest threat to music was music itself. Specifically, disco. Back in the summer of 1979, the Detroit rock radio DJ Steve Dahl was so aggrieved that his beloved Stones and Zeppelin were being dropped from playlists in favour of Village People, Donna Summer and Chic, that he launched his "Disco sucks! " Musical history: Seven seconds of fire. Black Music "Des chaînes de fer aux chaînes en or" CAN'T GET NO SATISFACTION