History Film / DetroitRockCity

* InJoke[=/=]ItWillNeverCatchOn: At one point in the film Christine comments that "Disco is so huge right now it wouldn't surprise me if KISS did a disco song," prompting dismissive laughs from the guys. One year after the film takes place KISS would release the disco song "I Was Made For Loving You", much to the dismay of many of their fans.

* ShownTheirWork: The feud between disco fans and rock fans depicted in this film was a real thing. By the late 1970s anti-disco sentiment was growing across the United States, with many people wearing t-shirts bearing slogans such as "Disco Sucks" and "Death Before Disco". In 1979 the public backlash against disco resulted in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night Disco Demolition Night]], a massive anti-disco demonstration that made national news and is credited with playing a major role in Disco's fall from popularity.

''Detroit Rock City'' is a 1999 teen comedy film staring Creator/EdwardFurlong, Guiseppe Andrews, Creator/JamesDeBello, and Sam Huntington. Set in January of 1978, the film follows the journey of four high school students who are trying to gain entry to a sold-out Music/{{KISS}} concert after their tickets are destroyed by an over-zealous parent. The film was a box office flop and was met with mixed reviews from critics, but among KISS fans (as well as among people who dislike KISS/rock music in general, surprisingly) it has become a CultClassic.

* ChristianityIsCatholic: All three of the film's Christian character (Jam's mom, the headmaster at the boarding school, and the priest in the confessional) are Catholic.

[[quoteright:233:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/detroitrockcity2_1326.png]]
[[caption-width-right:233:Sometimes to be tough you need to be tender]]

''Detroit Rock City'' is a 1999 comedy film staring Creator/EdwardFurlong, Guiseppe Andrews, Creator/JamesDeBello, and Sam Huntington. Set in January of 1978, the film follows the journey of four high school students who are trying to gain entry to a sold-out Music/{{KISS}} concert after their tickets are destroyed by an over-zealous parent. The film was a box office flop and was met with mixed reviews from critics, but among KISS fans (as well as among people who dislike KISS/rock music in general, surprisingly) it has become a CultClassic.

* InJoke[[=/=]]ItWillNeverCatchOn: At one point in the film Christine comments that "Disco is so huge right now it wouldn't surprise me if KISS did a disco song," prompting dismissive laughs from the guys. One year after the film takes place KISS would release the disco song "I Was Made For Loving You", much to the dismay of many of their fans.

--> '''Jam:''' "Then all you have to do is go to church, light a candle, and pray to some stupid little statue for me and all is forgiven and forgotten, right mom? [[MoralGuardians Then you can spend your days in a guilt free pursuit of more constructive activities like telling everybody]] ''[[MoralGuardians else]]'' [[MoralGuardians how screwed up]] ''[[MoralGuardians their]]'' [[MoralGuardians lives are!]] And then you no longer need the patience and understanding required to talk to your own son on some normal plain! And then that way you don't have to ''think'' about how tough it was for you when you were growing up, and its probably a good thing too, 'cause if you did, you'd realize what a ''lousy, goddamn, shitty-ass '''parent''' you are!''"

--> '''Lex:''' "Just because she's a female gynecologist, that doesn't mean she's a lesbian. And even if she was, at least my mom didn't give birth to me while she was on ''LSD''."
--> '''Trip:''' "'Shrooms!"

** [[spoiler: The boys' plot to beat the hell out of each other and say they were mugged for their KISS tickets in a last ditch effort to get inside is about to fail, when Trip notices Chongo, his little brother, and their group of friends - who actually ''did'' mug him - in the audience. He points them out and identifies the contents of his wallet to the security guard, backing up their claim, and the boys get inside the show without a hitch.]]

* BadToTheBone: A badass moment is underscored by [[Music/BlackSabbath "Iron Man"]].

* InJoke \ ItWillNeverCatchOn: At one point in the film Christine comments that "Disco is so huge right now it wouldn't surprise me if KISS did a disco song," prompting dismissive laughs from the guys. One year after the film takes place KISS would release the disco song "I Was Made For Loving You", much to the dismay of many of their fans.

* [[CaliforniaDoubling Toronto Doubling]]: Most of the movie was filmed in Toronto, despite being set in Detroit.

** All of the KISS merchandise shown in the film is genuine, coming from a private collection, and hand picked to ensure AnachronismStew was averted. One of the DVD extras has an anecdote where someone (this troper forgets who it was) walked onto the set, spotted an almost hidden piece of merch in the background, and tosses it away, saying that it wasn't time-accurate.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:While the boys did succeed in their goal of making it to the KISS concert - as well as showing some CharacterDevelopment along the way - Jam mentions that he'll be spending the next two years of his life at a religious boarding school (that openly admitted that they have no problem punishing him for the slightest infraction, but that they'll never expel him even for the largest) where he'll be cut off from his friends and likely miserable.... or perhaps not, given that [[CallingTheOldManOut he did stand up to his mom]].]]

** Perhaps understandably, since she was by this point the mother of [[Series/GeneSimmonsFamilyJewels Nick and Sophie Simmons]]. [[spoiler: Eventually she and Gene tied the knot, too.]]

* ForWantOfANail: See CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot above.

''Detroit Rock City'' is a 1999 comedy film staring Creator/EdwardFurlong, Guiseppe Andrews, JamesDeBello, and Sam Huntington. Set in January of 1978, the film follows the journey of four high school students who are trying to gain entry to a sold-out Music/{{KISS}} concert after their tickets are destroyed by an over-zealous parent. The film was a box office flop and was met with mixed reviews from critics, but among KISS fans (as well as among people who dislike KISS/rock music in general, surprisingly) it has become a CultClassic.

* IronicEcho: "Tisk, tisk, tisk. I was really hoping things would work out for you. You got spunk." [[spoiler: First spoken by Chongo's little brother to Trip after Trip failed to come up with the $200 needed to buy his way out of an ass-kicking, and later spoken by Trip after he successfully convinced the guards that Chongo and his crew beat them up (see LaserGuidedAmnesia below) for their KISS tickets.]]

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: [[spoiler: Shortly after Chongo beat up Trip, Trip claimed that Chongo and his crew beat up the main four boys and stole their tickets.]]

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: The group would have been able to go to the concert without a hitch if Jam had hidden his records in a better hiding place than a Carly Simon album cover to avoid detection at home. Since he did, and his mom found the record, she kicked off the entire plot of the movie by dragging him home, while he has Trip's jacket, finding (and destroying) the tickets in said jacket, and sending him to boarding school.