My guess what did disco in: the total untoppability of Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing." Twenty-nine years on that song is as new as on its drop date. Completely infectious and yet a total surprise every time.

Of course it might just have been the backlash at the world disco proposed, in which there were people who happened to be not-straight not-white not-male. Anxiety at difference -- a difference that speaks up about sex? Yeah, I think that's much more likely than the problem being the weird squeaky high voices -- which sublated straight into metal Axl Rose the fourth Bee GEE! -- or the beats, which drove new wave.

Did they ever get that vinyl char out of the astroturf at whatever stadium had the disco inferno, by the way?