The generational gap between the kids who liked rock in the 50s and 60s, and their parents despising it, is very much documented. Punk being thought of by elders as the harbinger of anarchy, especially in the UK and a genre only thugs listened to is also documented.
But, what about Disco?
What did your average person say who was at or above 50 at any point in the 70s think of that music?
As I remember it, middle aged people in the late 1970s were largely ambivalent about it. I’ve never heard any say they hated it, but then I never heard them say they loved it either. I think they respected it as a fun social sign of the times. These same people hated rock though, especially hard rock.
I don’t care for dance music and I really dislike repetition in music, so it had no appeal to me whatsoever. At the time, I was more into punk, art rock, and new wave.
However, it was clearly a fad. It had nowhere to evolve, so I knew it would die out.
It also gets at one of the reasons rock fans hated disco during the late 70s: it was safe. It was edgeless dance music that white middle-aged people wouldn’t find objectionable. Granted, there was a decadent side to disco but it was The Establishment’s form of decadence. It wasn’t like rock which was loud, discordant, and proudly reveled in anarchy (never mind the fact non-punk rock was engrained in the entertainment establishment by then).