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Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
3 Episodes 2023 - 2023
Episode 1
Rock the Boat
Tue, Jun 18, 2024
The genesis of disco is discussed, specifically the factors that led to its rise from 1969 to 1973. Somewhat an offshoot of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, it is the dance music of the disenfranchised in the US, most specifically homosexuals, blacks and Latinos. Most specifically with homosexuals, it was all the more important because same-sex dancing in public was illegal, dancing which gay bars generally did not allow to stay under the radar of the police. David Mancuso could overcome many of these prohibitions by hosting by invitation only private dance parties in what was then the decaying inner city West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, the music played what was then considered danceable rhythm and blues. His and similar such underground parties, which became the "in" social gatherings, brought the rise of the DJ, whose goal was to maintain a continuous dance without breaks, leading to what would become the extended mix. A distinctive sound which would become associated with what was eventually coined disco (shortened from discotheque, where much of this music was played) emerged and largely credited to drummer Earl Young. As this music became increasingly popular, it started to break out from its underground status to become mainstream.
Episode 2
Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now
Tue, Jun 4, 2024
The mid-period of the disco revolution is presented, specifically the years 1973 to 1977. Still largely dance music for the marginalized populations of gays, blacks and Latinos who were trying to find an escape from the world's problems (i.e. Vietnam, Watergate) as well as their own, disco in this era spawned the disco diva, primarily comprised of one of the most marginalized, the black woman, who were largely blamed, at least by academics, for the problems of the black population in America in general while having no voice in society. Morphing from the wholesome Motown girl groups of the 1960s, the disco diva sang boldly about the experience she faced in society. The disco diva also took a turn midway through this period with the arrival onto the scene of Donna Summer and "Love to Love You Baby", she who in this period sang often about one of those escapes, namely sex in owning the pleasure of it like only men were allowed to previously, with some declaring "Love to Love You Baby" to be a seventeen minute orgasm. The end of this era, arguably the height of the disco movement, brought about the two most iconic items of disco: Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", which became an anthem not only for those marginalized that fostered disco, but for society in general; and the phenomenon that became Saturday Night Fever (1977), especially its soundtrack primarily of music by The Bee Gees. The latter centered on a highly sexualized straight, white male, it made disco as mainstream as it would become and gave license to any musical act wanting to revive their career permission to go disco, if only temporarily.
Episode 3
Stayin' Alive
Tue, Jul 2, 2024
The tail end of the what would be officially considered the disco era is discussed, from 1979 to the early 1980s. Commercialism overtook disco with it infiltrating almost every aspect of society. With the music itself, independent record labels were trying to mimic any successful songs spawning a plethora of one hit wonders in they not interested nurturing musical acts. Acts were manufactured, one of the most popular being The Village People (who was somewhat of a contradiction in perpetuating especially the gay origins of disco, but to a straight, white, middle American market), and much of the music veered into novelty (think "Disco Duck"), as far away as disco's origins as those originators could have imagined. With this commercialism, disco became seen as for the privileged class witnessed by those that could not enter what was the most popular venue, Studio 54. The backlash, broadly the "disco sucks" movement, fostered largely by the white, male, working class of traditional rock, was once again the oppression of the historically marginalized, the originators of disco. Arguably, one of the key reasons disco as it was known never reemerged was the decimation of one of its key constituents, the gay population, in the early 1980s with the AIDS epidemic. The musical aspect of the original disco that was still progressing was that of the DJ/producer at the dance clubs, they who were choosing and mixing what was played at the clubs. The most influential spawned what would be house music. Commentators conclude the discussion stating that disco has never gone away, even into this first quarter of the twenty-first century, it just coined something else.
