When Worlds Collide -OR- Hot Time Summer In The City

That Blowed up Real Good!

July 12, 1979

Another futile exercise in perspective. 30 years ago, in Chicago, the continuation of the hangover from 1968 resurfaced. A confluence of insanities. Fresh off the success of Animal House, there were two clear sides. Dean Wormer versus Bluto and the Delts. Rock and Roll versus DISCO. Thousands of Rebels with a cause enlisted in the movement. The lines were drawn, the lines were clear. This would be an epic struggle for control and direction.

No single image captures the times better than this one. It was a turning point that's still turning today. When I look back on it now, this is when the war was lost. When our train derailed. The anti-disco movement was a surrender. The mainstream was ceded to the same smarmy mentality that cooked up our current situation. The Disco kids asserted their claim to be the new ruling class and you were either with them or against them.

Or you said fuck `em, we're just gonna do OUR thing. Our Way. Outside of the mainstream. "If that's what YOU want, fine. Just don't expect ME to participate."
Nothing screamed overblown commercialism/consumerism like Disco Music. To join, you had to buy. You had to commit time, energy and resources to erect the facade. You had to pretend, you had to suspend disbelief.

The cultural rift between real and phony, cemented into history. Dismissing, deriding, insulting and BLAMING the DFHs, Punks and Nerds as some inconsequential sub-class of the human race while its rightful OWNERS remained in control.

Everywhere you look today, you see the product and scions of Disco. They dominate the media and everyday life. The exceptions proving the rule.