Yvonne Turner Helped Invent House Music—So Why Does No One Know Her Name?

By |2019-07-13T13:53:23-05:00July 13th, 2019|Classics, Clubs - Nightlife, Disco, DJ, Documentary, Entertaiment, House, House Music, Interviews, Music, New York|

Yvonne Turner back in the day. Graphic by Drew Litowitz.   Nineteen eighty-four is often remembered as one of pop’s most seismic years, thanks in large part to Prince and Madonna. But it was also the year that gave us house music. Jesse Saunders’ “On and On” is widely considered to be the first house [...]

‘Let’s blow up this black music!’: The ugliness and unrest of 1979’s Disco Demolition Night

By |2019-07-13T13:48:40-05:00July 13th, 2019|Chicago, Classics, Disco, Entertaiment, Interviews, mistakes, producer|

https://www.facebook.com/boilerroom.tv/videos/223659578458779/?t=0  Forty years ago, on July 12, 1979, what was supposed to be a wacky promotional stunt by shock-rock DJ Steve Dahl to sell tickets to a double-header White Sox baseball game at Chicago’s Comiskey Park turned ugly — when piles of vinyl records, many by artists of color, were destroyed as thousands of anti-disco [...]

Why Disco Should Be Taken Seriously

By |2019-07-13T13:38:53-05:00July 13th, 2019|Disco, DJ, International, Music, New York, producer|

Disco was never designed to grow old gracefully – instead, it has endured with brilliant defiance. More than four decades have now passed since its heady sound and style became a global phenomenon; its life so far has involved joy and pain, inspirational anthems and attempted murder (at 1979’s 'disco demolition night' stunt in Chicago’s [...]

Gino Soccio was the one-man-band behind countless disco gems—until he vanished

By |2019-07-13T13:34:44-05:00July 13th, 2019|Classics, Clubs - Nightlife, Disco, DJ, Music, producer|

At the board, 1981. Photo courtesy of Gino Soccio.   About a month before thousands chanted “Disco sucks!” at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, Gino Soccio was ensconced in his Montreal studio, sipping coffee with cognac and laying down tracks for his second LP. Leaning against a twenty-four-channel mixing desk, Soccio spoke like a disco evangelist during [...]

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