Earth, Wind and Pyre

Candi Staton examines the event that marked the death of disco. In 1979 the disco industry was worth an estimated four billion dollars - more than movies, television or professional sport - and accounted for up to 40 per cent of the singles chart. The same year in Chicago, Steve Dahl, a disgruntled rock DJ, left his WDAI radio show in protest at its switch to an all-disco play list. A switch to a rival station resulted in an audacious publicity stunt that signalled the death knell of disco: for 98 cents, listeners could bring all their unwanted disco records to the Comiskey Stadium and watch them being blown up by Dahl and his chums.