Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution

This mini-series almost effortlessly joins the dots between how the social movements and protests that shaped the USA when the sixties segued into the seventies affected popular culture and how music created space for more liberated identities even during a time when the economy was shipwrecked and trust in the political leadership almost collapsed with Watergate et cetera. The series comes across as a visualization of the tomes written around the turn of the millennium about disco, from Timothy Lawrence's "Love Saves The Day", Peter Shapiro's "Turn The Beat Around" and Vince Aletti's "The Disco Files". Lovely attention to detail at times, without getting lost in it. Illuminating about the culture that developed in the intersection of the civil rights movement, the gay pride movement and the women's liberation movement.

"Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution" (single season, June 2024, 3 eps, PBS) We were really looking forward to this short mini-series to recapture the excitement and frivolity of the disco era. The series synopsis states: "From the sweaty basement bars of 70s New York to the glittering peak of the global charts, how disco conquered the world - its origins, its triumphs, its fall and its legacy." However, the series instead focuses on its intersection with the LGxxx culture. So yeh, bait and switch - that is so below the standards of PBS to do that. The producers and studio execs apparently were convinced the only way to get viewership for this type of content is to hoodwink the public into watching it, gross, and shame on PBS.

It's a 3-part BBC series documenting the origin, the rise, and the fall of disco. It starts in the early 70's with various minority groups struggling for recognition and their rights in the face of an entrenched religious and political establishment. The rebels are gays, blacks, Latinos, women, and others. A few start hosting parties in New York where dance music gets played. That music seeps onto the radio and soon there are disco hits. Eventually, the straight, the white, rock & roll, and general oversaturation led it to its end. Next, the show spends some time on the AIDS epidemic. While I understand its significance on the club and gay culture, I would like for it to concentrate more on the music. It does go into Chicago House Music, but from there, this yadada everything else to relate it to the present day music. I guess some people are still denying that The Village People are gay. So, the presentation of disco as a gay-led movement would grate on those folks. For me, it's a clarification and a bit of simplification in the social academic exploration. This is less than three hours. Some simplifications are necessary.

This documentary is more about culture than Disco music. Nice work on the civil rights movement, the gay pride movement, and the women's liberation movement.

The title should reflect that instead of misleading people to believe the revolution is about music.

It would be much more informative to include statistics such as the percentage of Disco musicians believing they were part of the above mentioned movements. Or the percentage of the songs related or substantively influenced by the movements.

Comparison to the statistics from Soul music would help determine whether Disco was appropriated or not.