Blondie’s Parallel Lines mixed punk, disco and radio-friendly FM rock with nostalgic influences from 1960s pop and girl group hits. This 1978 album kept one foot planted firmly in the past while remaining quite forward-looking, an impulse that can be heard in its electronic dance music hit Heart of Glass. Bubblegum music maven Mike Chapman produced Parallel Lines, which was the first massive hit by a group from the CBGB punk underworld. By embracing the diversity of New York City’s varied music scenes, Blondie embodied many of the tensions that played out at the time between fans of disco, punk, pop and mainstream rock.

Debbie Harry’s campy glamor and sassy snarl shook up the rock’n’roll boy’s club during a growing backlash against the women’s and gay liberation movements, which helped fuel the disco sucks battle cry in the late 1970s. Despite disco’s roots in a queer, black and L