Encore Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025 from 7 p.m. - 10 p.m on KPBS 2 / Stream now with KPBS Passport!
From the basement bars of ‘70s New York City to the peak of the global charts, along with iconic tracks and remarkable footage, DISCO: SOUNDTRACK OF A REVOLUTION offers a powerful, revisionist history of the disco age.
EPISODE GUIDE:
Episode 1: “Rock the Boat” Encore Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025 at 7 p.m. on KPBS 2 - The opening episode of the series looks at the roots of disco – how it emerged from a basic desire for inclusion, visibility, and freedom among persecuted Black, gay, and minority ethnic communities of New York City. It tells the remarkable story of how a global phenomenon began in the loft apartments and basement bars of New York City, where a new generation of DJs and musicians, like David Mancuso, Nicky Siano, Francis Grasso, and Earl Young (The Trammps), pioneered a distinct sound and a new way of spinning records.
Episode 2: “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” Encore Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025 at 8 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Set against the backdrop of Black power and sexual liberation, the second episode takes viewers to the high watermark of disco in the mid ’70s. As disco conquers the mainstream, it turns Black women and gay men into superstars and icons. It is a world where the drag queen Sylvester was king, and Black women found a powerful new voice – one that fused Black Power with a call for sexual freedom. It was the birth of the “disco diva” from Gloria Gaynor and Candi Staton to Donna Summer and Thelma Houston. However, mainstream success by The Bee Gees’ soundtrack album “Saturday Night Fever,” The Rolling Stones’ “Miss You,” Rod Stewart’s “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,” and Studio 54 took disco further and further from its roots of inclusivity and freedom, as straight, white men started to embrace and repackage the sound.
Episode 3: “Stayin’ Alive” Encore Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025 at 9 p.m. on KPBS 2 - The final episode documents the wellspring of resentment from white, straight, male-dominated, rock-loving middle Americans, as they targeted disco for its hedonism, femininity, and queerness. A vocal “Disco Sucks” movement began to gain momentum, culminating in the “Disco Demolition Derby” at Comiskey Park Stadium in Chicago, where organizers destroyed thousands of disco records in front of a baying audience of baseball fans. In addition, the hedonism and sexual liberation embodied by disco found itself stopped in its tracks by the AIDS crisis. Pushed out of the mainstream, the pioneers of disco retreated and regrouped. Cult disco DJ Frankie Knuckles left New York for Chicago, where he remixed disco breaks with R&B to produce a new genre of dance music – house. He and other disco pioneers kept disco alive as it evolved into world electronic dance music.
Watch On Your Schedule: This series is available to stream with KPBS Passport, a benefit for members supporting KPBS at $60 or more yearly, using your computer, smartphone, tablet, Roku, AppleTV, Amazon Fire or Chromecast. Learn how to activate your benefit now.
Credits: A BBC Studios production for PBS and BBC. Produced and directed by Louise Lockwood and Shianne Brown. Catherine Abbott serves as series producer, Flora Stewart as story producer, and Becky Marshall as producer. The executive producing team is Alexander Leith as executive producer and Anna Sadowy as edit executive producer. Tom Hayward is the series director of photography and Grace Chapman is the series director. The commissioning editor for the BBC is Rachel Davies. Jonathan Rothery serves as head of popular music, TV/commissioning editor, factual, alongside Rachel Davies as commissioner.
