Disco: Soundtrack Of A Revolution

[DanaK]

PBS 3-part documentary series that premieres nationally June 25, but check your local listings as various stations are playing it earlier or later. It’s already premiered on one of my local stations and will be premiering on another local station starting Sunday

The series is about the rise and fall and enduring legacy of Disco

[Bastet]

The first part has already aired here, and I watched it tonight on the PBS app and enjoyed it.

I like at least a little bit of pretty much every genre of music, and while disco is several rungs down my favorites list, I like more than a little bit of it.  I understand and agree with some of the criticism, while finding some of it overblown, because I enjoy what I enjoy of it -- it's fun.  I like that this documentary started out by setting the social stage of the '70s, so that what disco originally meant to marginalized communities, rather than critique of its later mainstream popularity, is centered .

I'm a child of the '70s, but in LA, not NY or even Philadelphia, so disco was just highly danceable music (especially to a kid who had little dance aptitude) on the radio to me.  I later learned that discos were something of a haven for Black, Latin, and LGBTQ+ communities*, but I'm not well versed in the details to this day.  Producers had me when they started with the Stonewall rebellion, and how much of that was rooted in the simple desire to be able to dance with each other, then how the loft parties became clubs immune to police raids -- people took a risk getting there, but once they were behind those private doors, they were safe for the night.  I had no idea about restaurants, hit by the beef crisis, renting out their venues after hours as party spaces.

*How those communities wound up co-mingling, and how an underground dance culture became a distinctive sound, those are details I didn't know and the kind of thing I look forward to learning as this documentary plays on.

[Raja]

I was just thinking about disco recently. Now that the rioters are at least 65yrs I wonder how many still stay proudly in the disco sucks camp and will go on a documentary camera to say so.. When you count in the roots of disco  those  in the counter revolution movement/Chicago riot could be seen like their parents on camera 40 years later admitting they tried to keep Black kids in segregated schools.

[DanaK]

I’ve watched Parts 1 and 2 so far and it’s definitely interesting, especially how it all started

[Raja]

I was amused in part 2 that Dinah Shore seemed to be always doing the interviews and having the Disco stars as her guest as the genre peaked. There has to be tape with them on Mike and Merv along with other talk/variety shows of the 70s.

Edited July 2 by Raja

[DoctorAtomic]

I always liked disco. The first record I ever listened to was Hot Stuff. 

There's not too much I didn't know. 

I'm surprised they didn't tie in disco and hip hop more because they kind of came up together and for common reasons. 

One thing I thought was interesting was that there was bad hip hop like there was bad disco, but hip hop still endured while disco didn't. I suppose being just on the tail end of I, I can't inherently grasp how big it was. So maybe hip hop got more time to breathe. 

However, what I didn't know was that disco really evolved into House and all that came from there. So disco is really still with us. 

I really liked seeing the drummer that literally invented 4 on the floor. 

Edited July 4 by DoctorAtomic

[Raja]

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I'm surprised they didn't tie in disco and hip hop more because they kind of came up together and for common reasons. 

One thing I thought was interesting was that there was bad hip hop like there was bad disco, but hip hop still endured while disco didn't. I suppose being just on the tail end of I, I can't inherently grasp how big it was. So maybe hip hop got more time to breathe. 

Go with the main thesis of the PBS doc. It wasn't the music, it was fears of miscegenation and gay panic that killed Disco, or at least caused a rebranding. While the first generation of Hip Hop was as much straight dance and party music as Disco the second generation got increasingly hard for the Rock fans and it wasn't until Elton John almost officially forgave Eminem and the entire genre decades later at an awards show for anti LGBTQ themes in the music.

Meanwhile rock bands were not making Hip Hop, like many "sold out" to Disco but were collaborating with acts for a decade until the generation raised with both musics came of age together.

[DanaK]

I finally just finished Part 3. I had known that Disco had morphed into the Dance music of today but I didn’t know the details so that was interesting

I was a pre-teen and young teen in the 70s and I recall liking a variety of music, including Disco, Barry Manilow’s songs, soft rock, and several country artists like Dolly Party and John Denver. It’s sad that the record companies came in and ended up oversaturating and cheapening the Disco market, but who knows what trajectory it would have taken otherwise or whether there would have ever been a backlash to it by the Rock crowd. It’s sad that AIDS came along and destroyed the gay club scene at the time. But Disco’s spirit rose again over time and became the dance music of today or at least part of it

Really good and enlightening doc series. I really appreciate PBS putting out this kind of programming

[Raja]

If Dinah Shore represented TV in part 2 color me surprised when Merv Griffith and Mike Douglas shows showed up for the Village People segment in part 3.

In my location it wasn't the Rock station, not that I was ever listening to Rock aside from Casey Kasem's American Top 40 weekly show, but one of the local Top 40 and a local R&B stations that went full time Disco.  As Disco was a full 50% of the Top 40 at its peak meant not much difference in the show, but I remembered that it how it was advertised.

8 hours ago, DanaK said:

I was a pre-teen and young teen in the 70s and I recall liking a variety of music, including Disco, Barry Manilow’s songs, soft rock, and several country artists like Dolly Party and John Denver. It’s sad that the record companies came in and ended up oversaturating and cheapening the Disco market, but who knows what trajectory it would have taken otherwise or whether there would have ever been a backlash to it by the Rock crowd.

On a different doc Janice-Maria Johnson and Carlita Dorhan of A Taste of Honey along with Nile Rogers of Chic pointed their anger at Rick Dees, who later took over Casey Kasem's national radio American Top 40 show, and his Disco Duck novelty hit along with the riot for spiking their careers. I did notice as soon as the Rock fan put out it wasn't race or gay that caused a backlash the very next interview was the claim that Black artist who had hit the mainstream charts with R&B/Pop during peak of Disco where like the Disco artist and  snapped away  for a period.. 

I was surprised as they bypassed early Hip Hop to go straight to House music

Edited July 5 by Raja

[DoctorAtomic]

I only meant both genres came from marginalized people in a depressed NYC, but the gay panic was certainly real. But both do have commonalities. So maybe that's why hip hop was allowed to breathe more. 

I'm not knocking one or the other. I like both. I grew up with both. 

I think I could have gone for another hour at least. 

[DoctorAtomic]

In light of the evolution of disco to house, I've been listening to the bangers when I was coming up, and it's clearly four on the floor disco. You Don't Know Me. Stardust. All of that. I backed up my friend when he DJ-ed and needed a break for 10 minutes way back then. It's all disco.