Was it Steve Dahl (Disco Demolition) that took down disco or was he merely the catalyst for the inevitable pushback of a genre that had come to be a parody of itself.
People didn't "backlash" against disco in the sense that people who used to like it started disliking it because of changes within the genre. People who culturally identified with rock never liked disco and never would, to a significant extent because it was very black and pretty gay. And as popular music it was already in significant decline. Dahl harnessed lynch mob energy to allow people to do something they had always wanted to do.
Was it Steve Dahl (Disco Demolition) that took down disco or was he merely the catalyst for the inevitable pushback of a genre that had come to be a parody of itself.