In the late '60s, Soul gave way to funk and ska gave way to reggae.
"The U.K. likes discovering trends," Rushton says. "Because of the way that the media works, dance culture happens very quickly. It's not hard to hype something up." House slotted right into the mainstream English pop taste for fast, four-on-the-floor black dance music that began with Tamla in the early sixties(for many English people the first black music they heard). In the '70s, obscure mid-'60s Detroit area records had been turned into a way of life, a religion even, in the style called "Northern Soul" by dance writer Dave Godin.
21 June, 1969: The Stonewall was a gay bar in Greenwich Village that was raided--for no apparent reason--by the police in the late 60's for being a gay establishment. Several customers were badly beaten by the cops, and a full riot erupted on the streets of the Village. The Stonewall Riots are considered the birth of militant gay rights and ushered in the era of gay pride.