The War on Disco | Chapter 1 | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | PBS

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  • Опубліковано 27 жов 2024

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  • @kenmcbreairty7878
    @kenmcbreairty7878 Рік тому +58

    I grew up with Soul Train and Headbangers Ball. Gen X got the best of both worlds

    • @09rja
      @09rja 8 місяців тому +3

      I liked both too. I still remember the first time I saw GN'R on headbangers ball.

    • @brianrodriguez6897
      @brianrodriguez6897 8 місяців тому +2

      Gen X might as well be the forgotten generation

    • @kenmcbreairty7878
      @kenmcbreairty7878 8 місяців тому +1

      @@09rja Funny, I don't remember much, but I remember exactly where I was when I first saw that video. Game changer.

    • @91dodgespiritrt
      @91dodgespiritrt Місяць тому

      "Soul Train" was 70s and "Headbangers Ball" was 90s - so it must've taken you QUITE a LONG TIME to "grow up". HA, HA

  • @bahiras
    @bahiras Рік тому +95

    I love disco and I love rock & roll; they’re both good ol’ American music!😊

    • @QwanJones
      @QwanJones Рік тому

      You meant to say black American music?Right! Racist punk!

    • @QwanJones
      @QwanJones Рік тому

      You meant to say black American music?Right! Racist punk!

    • @LLS710
      @LLS710 Рік тому +10

      Even as a young teen in the late 70s, I openly loved both. People would just say that disco sucked but no one ever gave me any grief about it beyond that, as I obviously loved the rock bands. I guess you could say it wasn't that unusual to like both, and to listen to disco with your family and in the car and rock with your friends in their cars.

    • @RobertaFierro-mc1ub
      @RobertaFierro-mc1ub 3 місяці тому

      You're absolutely right! The miracle of ear pods! Life is short! Enjoy! If you're happy, I'm happy!

  • @johnjohnson3709
    @johnjohnson3709 Рік тому +33

    I loved disco but at the same time I loved rock music.

  • @SteveBonario
    @SteveBonario Рік тому +19

    I was 14 in 1979. I loved Donna Summer and the Bee Gees, and I loved Supertramp and the Rolling Stones. Still do.

  • @15halerobert
    @15halerobert Рік тому +32

    I spent my teen years in the 70’s. I was a hard core rock and roller. But my reeducation started in the 80’s with new wave, from progressive rock to jazz, and love of history to bluegrass. Now in my 60’s I find I like all kinds of music, disco included. There is now very little music I find offensive. Where every it’s from, what ever part of the world, it all has merit.

  • @Peter1999Videos
    @Peter1999Videos Рік тому +24

    ... DISCO never died : Freestyle, Italo disco, EuroDance, House Music

    • @brianrodriguez6897
      @brianrodriguez6897 8 місяців тому +3

      The BeeGees would be insulted at this comparison

    • @ArnoldVeeman
      @ArnoldVeeman 6 місяців тому

      Don’t forget the entire development to hardstyle 🎉

    • @erwingalgo3264
      @erwingalgo3264 5 місяців тому

      Also, Manila Sound

    • @johnmiller4282
      @johnmiller4282 4 місяці тому

      It just smells funny

  • @user-hs7ry4nx7l
    @user-hs7ry4nx7l Рік тому +115

    Disco never died. It simply changed its name to protect the innocent.

    • @mackdaddyg321
      @mackdaddyg321 Рік тому +11

      I like that. Well said.

    • @mauriceortiz8817
      @mauriceortiz8817 Рік тому +4

      Haha nice

    • @TeePole59
      @TeePole59 Рік тому +3

      This music was ignored by those of us who, instead hanging out in flashy, coke-fueled discotheques, sat in dingy stoner dens listening to Floyd, Petty, and Eagles while blowing our lungs out smoking piles of ‘lumbo Gold through our US Bongs.
      Yeah….

    • @mauriceortiz8817
      @mauriceortiz8817 Рік тому +4

      @@TeePole59 too stoned to get out of mom's basement, eh. Well, at least too lazy to get behind the wheel and endanger others.

    • @jazziccoolcat
      @jazziccoolcat Рік тому

      And the "Not so innocent"....Lol!: Gloria Gaynor

  • @laurachristianson1688
    @laurachristianson1688 Рік тому +26

    I remember those days, that old saw those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. So many songs from the mid seventies are still resonate today….for instance Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”. So heartbreaking to live through it all twice in one lifetime……

    • @LLS710
      @LLS710 Рік тому +1

      Yep. I happened upon a short clip of how trance is making a comeback and one purveyor and performer of it (27 year old girl) said that she hates techno and this kind of sound is corny, blah blah blah and I just thought, "Young people are ridiculous".

  • @jilllovesbeegees70
    @jilllovesbeegees70 11 місяців тому +11

    BEE GEEs are sooo much more than ‘disco” i still love that era and music.

  • @mackpines
    @mackpines Рік тому +25

    Can’t wait for this!
    God, the music was incredible back then.

  • @matt3024
    @matt3024 Рік тому +17

    I didn't care for it myself but I didn't understand the need to attack it either. It was just another form of music.

    • @ryanjacobson2508
      @ryanjacobson2508 Рік тому +1

      A lot of the hostility was due to the generally decadent and perverted vibe of the late 70's.... Disco was associated with that.

  • @genevacordoba5959
    @genevacordoba5959 Рік тому +17

    I STILL LOVE DISCO AND ROCK AND ROLL..LOVED 70S AND 80S❤❤❤

  • @yerabbit
    @yerabbit Рік тому +21

    I've seen lots of rock and roll documentaries, but most never touch on this stuff. This looks very interesting

    • @TinLeadHammer
      @TinLeadHammer 11 місяців тому

      There are tons of disco documentaries.

    • @yerabbit
      @yerabbit 11 місяців тому

      @@TinLeadHammer probably, haha, but I have not seen them. i have come across a lot of rock and roll docs, though, I think there are just more of them

  • @seattlebeard
    @seattlebeard Рік тому +19

    Not all of us homosexuals loved Disco. The backlash had a lot to do with its saturation. It was unavoidable. Everywhere you went, every store, restaurant, EVERYWHERE you heard it. Disco's culture / fashion screamed conformity, even in the gay clubs, I'm sorry to say. I grew up with Motown, and couldn't stand disco's empty-headed soulless simplicity. Fortunately for me Punk Rock became a potent antidote.

    • @Daveomabegin
      @Daveomabegin 11 місяців тому +3

      Thank you for sharing your homosexual perspective--it means a lot to one who was too young to experience disco. I felt like this trailer is saturated with politics instead of actual history.
      For the readers of this comment, I recommend watching The Secret Disco Revolution. In it, there's more accurate cultural context given by actual historians, not activists proselytizing beliefs in intersectional power structure politics du jure.

    • @11dsw
      @11dsw 7 місяців тому +3

      Soulless ? Simplicity ?.... Seriously ? I think it may be as complicated as it could possibly be w/real people playing real instruments. Look at MFSB performing or The Love Unlimited Orchestra..MASSIVLEY complicated arrangements. Loves Theme, TSOP, K-jee, The Love I Lost, Love Train ...soulless? NO WAY . Maybe by 1979 but not in the nascent disco era...Nothing but luscious, SOULFUl, R&B flavored flowing orchestral masterpieces.. get your head out of 80s post-disco...that was soulless.

  • @JohnnyAngel8
    @JohnnyAngel8 Рік тому +18

    I was at college living in a dorm when disco was big. I loved disco but I didn't dare play it on my radio. The all-male dorm was full of rock music at all hours and the students were unkind to anyone who wasn't like them.

    • @tonyfan3
      @tonyfan3 11 місяців тому +7

      I can’t imagine being surrounded by 50+ Steve Dahls in a building! 😬

  • @mauriceortiz8817
    @mauriceortiz8817 Рік тому +29

    The best thing about Disco is that it was performed by real musicians and not computers. Even bands like the Rolling Stones, Kiss, Aerosmith, Tod Stewart, Maurice Ortiz joined the band wagon.
    A lot of session musicians who became jazz greats like Alan Holdsworth played disco sessions.
    When you play music live and people start dancing or singing to what you are playing it's the biggest high.

    • @mauriceortiz8817
      @mauriceortiz8817 Рік тому +3

      Even the Clash!

    • @ManChan-w5p
      @ManChan-w5p 11 місяців тому +1

      Ever heard of Queen?

    • @mauriceortiz8817
      @mauriceortiz8817 11 місяців тому +1

      @@ManChan-w5p pardon Mua Miss Grundy, I didn't know I had to list every artist. I will but you first.

    • @ManChan-w5p
      @ManChan-w5p 11 місяців тому

      They had one of the biggest disco hit. I thought they were black too.

    • @mauriceortiz8817
      @mauriceortiz8817 11 місяців тому +3

      @@ManChan-w5p Another Dust Biter lead to the I'll fated, R and B, pop/Dance genre exploring Hot space debacle which, if weren't for Under Pressure, would have alienated Queen's audience further.

  • @hamburg1306
    @hamburg1306 Рік тому +23

    Back then I wondered why in the 80’s The Bee Gees gave some great songs like islands in the stream and woman in love to Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers and Barbra Streisand. But then I realized they were ostracized because of their connection to disco and they wrote songs for other artists.

    • @musicisgoodforthesoul999
      @musicisgoodforthesoul999 Рік тому +3

      gad if they were "ostracized" what should they do with the "artists" in music today ??

    • @tonyfan3
      @tonyfan3 11 місяців тому +2

      Yea disco demolition effectively shut down their careers and in Chicago we hated The Bee Gees

  • @lauranowak3632
    @lauranowak3632 8 місяців тому +4

    Born in 1969. I was exposed to every type of music from day 1. I grew to love every format. I remember the 70’s, and I listened to anything that was on the radio. Disco was fun, so was rock, pop, soul, country. I never understood the great disdain for Disco. Music, any genre, is the only international language. What one person chooses to listen to doesn’t necessarily make a different format wrong. I will always treasure my musical indoctrination forever. ✨🎶✨

  • @nilsanarvaez7947
    @nilsanarvaez7947 Рік тому +18

    I love Disco! ❤

  • @craigbenz4835
    @craigbenz4835 Рік тому +18

    Jimmy Carter and disco: How could life get any better?

  • @tod3msn
    @tod3msn Рік тому +10

    Disco was not over because future Trump voters dressed in baseball caps with beer bellies could not get into Studio 54. Heck, Nile Rogers said himself he was denied entrance to Studio 54. Disco did not end because drunken losers at Comiskey Park went wild destroying records. Disco was a phase in music and it had it’s run in the 70’s making The Bee Gees and Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager wealthy among many others. Van Morrison’s “The Hustle” kicked off its run and it lasted till 1980 which about 6 years. It’s longer than punk or new wave. The reality is disco had a very long run dominating music and it was a great form of music.

    • @b.deville3236
      @b.deville3236 Рік тому

      "Van Morrison's 'The Hustle'"?!? Idiot.

    • @ryanjacobson2508
      @ryanjacobson2508 Рік тому

      New Wave ultimately was the winner..... Early 80's pop is still finding new fans among new generations, the vast majority of Disco on the other hand has been consigned to the cultural trash bin.

    • @b.deville3236
      @b.deville3236 Рік тому

      @@ryanjacobson2508 You wish all of that were true. Nothing's more dated than stuff like "Cars" by Gary Numan or "Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles. New Wave sounded so futuristic in the early 1980's, and now is about as contemporyry as the Jetsons.

    • @markstevenson6635
      @markstevenson6635 11 місяців тому

      Van Morrison's The Hustle. Oh my. That's not the real McCoy.

  • @GeorgeWashington1777
    @GeorgeWashington1777 Рік тому +18

    Disco is a cool music genre

  • @toastnjam7384
    @toastnjam7384 Рік тому +12

    I'm a rocker but I liked Disco. At the height of Disco in 1978 there was an explosion of Disco's opening in LA which were mostly restaurants adding a dance floor and DJ. We went to one and when the DJ played a song from the just released Rolling Stone album, Some Girls (which I really liked) the dance floor emptied. I was a bit stunned and thought "Is this the end of Rock?"

    • @LLS710
      @LLS710 Рік тому +3

      But "Miss You" soon after is to me one of the best disco songs ever. Even all the blacks into more funk and whatnot on my street LOVED that Rolling Stone song.

    • @tomodonovan5931
      @tomodonovan5931 Рік тому +2

      @@LLS710 But they loved Bowie with the song, Fame. They
      also were crazy with Queen's, Another One Bites The Dust. Also,
      We Will Rock You. I went to a largely African American populated
      school, and you heard these songs a whole lot. I don't remember
      hearing the Stones at school, but it does not mean they were not
      listening to them. Funk was Parliament, or Bootsy's Rubber Band.
      And a lot of whites listened to that on the opposite. If it sounded
      good, you pretty much listened to the music. Soul Train had a few
      white artists performing on it's show. And all the sista's were hot
      over Gino Vannelli. I can't mention the things they said they would
      do to him if they got their hands on him. lol!

    • @tomodonovan5931
      @tomodonovan5931 Рік тому +2

      You thought that for maybe a few days, until you put Van Halen
      on your turntable. Then all those thoughts vanished the second
      you heard Eruption screaming from the speakers.

    • @LLS710
      @LLS710 Рік тому

      Well Gino Vannelli was hot. Blacks around here loved that George Michael song that was titled One More Chance or something like that. I remember straight up THUGS blasting that from their cars. I never got it. I hated that stupid slow song.
      Also, when George Michael won black male artist of the year in 88 or 89, I was with a mixed group of whites and blacks and I was just dumbstruck and the black dudes were speechless. Even though they loved that stupid song it was beyond dumb to name him black male artist of the year, smh.@@tomodonovan5931

    • @toastnjam7384
      @toastnjam7384 11 місяців тому +2

      @@tomodonovan5931
      Yes, Van Halen, followed by AC/DC.

  • @donaldfeger91
    @donaldfeger91 10 місяців тому +3

    This only tells one tiny piece of that time ,punk rock and rap/hip hop was beginning,not to mention the country music scene - i was there i lived it!
    Long live rock and roll baby!

  • @chriscraver4070
    @chriscraver4070 Рік тому +13

    I loved disco and rock and roll. Fighting over what kind of music you listen to was and is ridiculous.

  • @lorigarry5585
    @lorigarry5585 7 місяців тому +3

    I didn't realize as a teenager in the 70's, but it is clearer now that Disco hatred was both racist and anti gay.

    • @legrandfromage6450
      @legrandfromage6450 4 місяці тому

      I also didn't think much of it at the time, but it's obvious now looking back on it.
      A lot of the rock crowd will vehemently deny the homophobic undertone of the anti-disco backlash. I can remember as a kid (12-13) in the early 80s that mentioning that I liked Saturday Night Fever would risk public ridicule or even getting beat up. Best just to bang your head up and down and repeat along with every one else, "Motley Crue/KISS/ACDC/Quiet Riot, etc. rules!"

  • @Strik9
    @Strik9 11 місяців тому +6

    I hear this and I remember school dances. Hate against disco was in big Yankee places mostly. Funky, disco, boogie, all the same good dance music.

  • @betsypinina1948
    @betsypinina1948 Рік тому +12

    I love disco music, it is great to dance to

  • @kaboombox1581
    @kaboombox1581 Рік тому +5

    I loved/love disco. Same for Rock. I never understood the backlash at the time. Looking back at it over time, yeah, it wasn’t solely about the music.

    • @teastrainer3604
      @teastrainer3604 11 місяців тому +1

      It got hyped and played too much. And it didn't much appeal to straight white males. You know, like what Disney is making now.

  • @TinLeadHammer
    @TinLeadHammer 11 місяців тому +3

    Tell a European that disco was killed in 1979, he will laugh in your face. The U.S. should stop consider itself the center of the world.

  • @chrishenniker5944
    @chrishenniker5944 9 місяців тому +2

    As I understand it, the backlash against disco wasn’t necessarily racist or homophobic. That was a vocal minority. It was more about market saturation and the elitism of disco culture, as well as its vapid nature. Even Ethel Merman released a disco record. There were also legitimate artistic and political reasons to be critical of disco. The punks were (and are) critical of disco, but so were those who made up the early hip hop scene. Jello Biafra wrote a song called Saturday Night Holocaust that likened disco to the cabaret of Weimar Germany for its political apathy and escapism, which is a great song. Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo saw it as vapid, Likening disco to “a beautiful woman with a great body and no brains “. Even Frank Zappa wrote Dancing Fool, which sends up the disco fad. The twist is that Zappa, Biafra and Mothersbaugh are supporters of gay rights.
    The crux of what makes disco suck is that it was middle and upper class escapism while the working class suffered the consequences of bad economic and social policies. Not even Rock Against Racism, as well as a number of people on the political left as a whole, wouldn’t touch the stuff with a ten foot barge pole for that very reason. It focused on punk and reggae, which the biggest critics of disco often supported. Especially reggae, the biggest critics of disco were the biggest supporters of reggae.

  • @charlessmith263
    @charlessmith263 3 дні тому

    Yes. I studied "Disco Demolition" so deeply, because I went to a White Sox game in 1975, a home run was hit - and BOOM! went the fireworks! The sound of the fireworks were nearly as loud as the ground salute booms that happened in July 12, 1979 at Sox park that ended disco forever, but I was not at Demolition, so I avoided the riot--just saw only video footage of that very crazy anti-disco event.
    I also delved into Saturday Night Fever too. Yes, it caused a very meteoric explosion of discotheques spreading out all over the USA. Discotheques even went international--into Europe. And even into Iran! Thanks to that flick!
    But I saw a few tip-offs of the beginning of the undercurrent of hatred of the disco mania in the movie. The unplanned sex, the illegal drugs, the moving lights/disco ball/lighted floor causing the overindulgence, and of course--the rubbers! Yep! Condoms! Also--the fictional Barracuda street gang in that movie may have also led to that hatred that started too.

  • @Fernando-tr7ki
    @Fernando-tr7ki Рік тому +5

    Great documentary the writing was on the wall!!

  • @bbbro34
    @bbbro34 Рік тому +5

    Also as a subtext, look at the NYC of then, the home of Disco, Hip Hop and Punk Rock, the birthplace of all of them...now look at it today. It's purely economic. Flowers do NOT grow in sterile environments, there must be organic substances around for that to happen.
    Then look at all the "Rock and Rollers" heading to Studio 54 during that time. Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Elton John, and the list goes on. KISS doing a disco (tried to anyway) album, Rod Stewart had one, Stones tried, even Pink Floyd had a disco beat going on one of their chart toppers. Music was alive then a great time for it, so much to pick through.

    • @edkollin
      @edkollin Рік тому +1

      Rockers doing disco or disco influeced songs were viewed as sell outs, traitors. They were flooded with hate mail.

  • @centredoorplugsthornton4112
    @centredoorplugsthornton4112 Рік тому +4

    America had disco, economic stagnation, racial strife, energy crunches during the 70s. Britain had all but the first. Britain had punk bands such as the Sex Pistols. America had the bicentennial, Britain had the queen's jubilee.

  • @oobrocks
    @oobrocks 10 місяців тому +3

    One huge factor: some rockers felt threatened by the success of disco including Tom Petty. It’s terrible because the world is plenty big for both

    • @B4iJump
      @B4iJump 4 місяці тому

      Where did you read that Tom Petty hated disco?

    • @oobrocks
      @oobrocks 4 місяці тому

      On the radio

  • @timmytube12
    @timmytube12 Рік тому +2

    I ❤ disco and Rock and I didnt live though the 70's . But born at the end of the (1970's) in December/29/(1979). And learned about the era in the (1990's) mostly. Especally from (1992) - (1997). When I was 17 in (1997) I fell in love hearing (1970's) early late (1980's) in the (1990's) my late teens ever since. In late night infomercials & movies , Black esploitation movies , early era commercials , music channels like, MTV & VH1 at the time and now internet streaming, like UA-cam . Ive might have born in a era when disco was was starting to die. But I'm glad It didn't and still lives from the (1980's)-(1990's)-(2000's)-(2010's)-(2020's) and beyond. Im proud to say I was born in the late(1970's) disco-metal-punk,rock Pop & R&B Hip-Hop & Rap era baby.❤😊❤😊

  • @maryjayneconway9140
    @maryjayneconway9140 Рік тому +5

    Dance music helps us keep moving and stay healthy!

  • @timward3116
    @timward3116 Рік тому +9

    I loved GOOD disco but not BAD disco. Let's not overestimate the significance of the culture skirmish over it. Radio stations played a lot of it, and some people never liked it and some others got tired of it. "Love to love you, baby" was hardly a cultural anthem.

  • @Macarena22279
    @Macarena22279 Рік тому +3

    I was at comisky pk. That night...still one of the wildest scenes in my 63 years... crazy!... but I was 18 and knew everything

    • @tonyfan3
      @tonyfan3 11 місяців тому

      This was exactly the attitude of Chicago at the time. Always felt they knew everything and were always right about rock being the best and that it would be forever - guys like Dahl swayed a whole city and yet was vilified for good reasons- it all brought a lot of opinions to the table

  • @charlessomerset9754
    @charlessomerset9754 5 місяців тому +1

    I've heard it said that everyone who showed up for Disco demolition night was somebody turned away by Marc Benecke at Studio 54.

  • @arajoaina
    @arajoaina 8 місяців тому +2

    Disco is just danceable rock

  • @samanthab1923
    @samanthab1923 Рік тому +2

    I graduated HS in ‘77. NJ suburbs no disco ever. All rock all the time. It wasn’t till Donna Summer that we started listening. Liked the Stones try at it & even Rod Stewart. Blondie ⭐️

  • @wildflowers5555
    @wildflowers5555 6 місяців тому +1

    ....Those that hated Disco had two major reasons #1)They were too afraid to actually learn to dance! #2) They were too afraid and too lazy to dress nicer ,and keep their hair neater! (&) What killed it later for those who had loved it ; is when it turned Vulgar and Crude in it's Lyrics and Dance Floor Moves....then it simply ended.

    • @peterjohnson1734
      @peterjohnson1734 5 місяців тому

      #3) as music, it just wasn't very good #4) The 1970s was probably the best decade for Rock and music lovers knew Disco was simply inferior. #5) The cool kids listened to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, etc...

  • @austinitesince1979
    @austinitesince1979 Рік тому +2

    the official Roy Orbison youtube channel has only one track (uploaded in 2020) from his 1979 Laminar Flow album, look for the track called Easy Way Out to hear one of the "Class of '55" Rockers doing a legit disco dance boogie number!

  • @annrodriguez2891
    @annrodriguez2891 11 місяців тому +2

    Best soundtrack EVER ❤...Bar none

  • @latoshawhite8495
    @latoshawhite8495 4 місяці тому +1

    Donna and KC and Gloria the bee gees and chic was the best Disco music ever 👡

  • @dawhitemomma
    @dawhitemomma Рік тому +1

    Totally stoked to see my photos that can be seen in the War on Disco ❤

  • @BlueAlien1313
    @BlueAlien1313 Рік тому +2

    I still love Disco.

  • @charlesprice925
    @charlesprice925 11 місяців тому +2

    Insecurity is the touch tone here. I grew up dancing with my mother in the 50's and 60's. Disco was the natural progression. It was a uniting force between all people to dance. It was not a threat to rock and roll becasue rock and roll was an escalating, listening, venue. To kill disco was to kill people getting together to dance. No dance came after it. What always gets ignored is that there was a control faction that entered America, after WWII, to destabilize, dismantle and divide it between a small, select, elite. Question that? They made billions off backing both sides of the war. When Baby boomers questioned them over Vet Nam, they attacked. To continue making money. It's what Eisenhauer called the Military Industrial Complex. They are still attacking. and they own every aspect of life we know of, and they engineer it all for insecurity, so we will do what they want.

  • @inkedbeast76
    @inkedbeast76 Рік тому +14

    If you like disco go see soul train the hippest trip in America 🇺🇸 it’s a great tribute to disco

    • @delawaresurf5422
      @delawaresurf5422 Рік тому

      Watch soul train with the volume turned off. It’s fun

    • @Cathy-xi8cb
      @Cathy-xi8cb Рік тому +8

      Soul Train was about more than disco. It was about funk and rap as well. And being seen.

  • @bltvd
    @bltvd Рік тому +6

    I would imagine the people who felt they were not included in disco clubs failed to understand that it was a dance club and not a bar or rock club.

    • @DonS-yp5kp
      @DonS-yp5kp 11 місяців тому

      No one misunderstood it was dance music. The mafia controlled discos as the distribution point for cocaine. They excluded people who wanted to get in based on income- don’t have an Armani suit? No Studio 54 for you- except for people who dressed outlandishly as eye candy. It was creepy- look at the Steve Rubell scene in the documentary- he’s a creepy acting guy who got arrested to tax fraud- the backlash against disco was entirely valid because by 1977 it ceased to be about dancing and was all about selling cocaine. That’s why the FBI shut down Studio 54- because it was a criminal enterprise that got busted for tax evasion

  • @johnnystaccata
    @johnnystaccata Рік тому +2

    in 1975 I dug disco,
    By 1978, I hated it. When the Bee Gees came in, that was it for me.

  • @jilllovesbeegees70
    @jilllovesbeegees70 11 місяців тому +2

    I was surprised how much this was about gay and disco .

  • @dyskelia
    @dyskelia Рік тому

    I’m ready to watch this on Monday 💕😌

  • @v.a.993
    @v.a.993 Рік тому

    YYYAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSS to this documentary!!!!!

  • @michaelrochester48
    @michaelrochester48 11 місяців тому +2

    They are incorrect that disco was the first clamoring for something white. In fact, the first clamoring for something light was the nostalgia boom especially after 1973’s American graffiti. 50s groups suddenly became cool and they were having sock hops again in high schools and the 50s theme went all the way into 1978 with the movie grease.

  • @rafaeltorres3121
    @rafaeltorres3121 2 місяці тому

    In the early 80’s mainstream disco became post-disco, boogie, dance-pop and then by the mid-1980’s underground, it became house.

  • @pabloalvez915
    @pabloalvez915 2 місяці тому

    Even though Disco Music was initially associated with fringe populations such as Negroes, Latinos and Gays, it was quickly perceived by the mainstream society as mass - appealing, catchy and highly marketable!

  • @donaldfeger91
    @donaldfeger91 11 місяців тому +2

    Working class kids like my self did not like Disco it had nothing to do racism!
    Worked in factory and drank beer smoked weed and listened to Led Zeppelin Iggy and Stooges whatever FM Radio and watched them blow up disco records on tv,then got laid off from my job and joined the Marines !

  • @duanedorman6134
    @duanedorman6134 11 місяців тому +1

    Some people forget or never knew that the White Sox were forced to forfeit the second game of that doubleheader

  • @rickybobby6579
    @rickybobby6579 Рік тому +1

    I was "tween" age when disco was huge....I used to hide my disco records when friends came over, so they wouldn't know I liked disco...in my town , it was Bob Seger and Tom Petty all the way

  • @grandkhanonizegypt
    @grandkhanonizegypt Рік тому +2

    truth be told, john travolta was taught to dance by Don Campbell of the Lockers not Denny Terio

  • @BeefSupreme-vk9sz
    @BeefSupreme-vk9sz Рік тому +10

    There was no latin X crap back then, they were latin people

  • @lgriffin904
    @lgriffin904 10 місяців тому +1

    I was going to go. My mom prevented it. I was ten. Years later I had a Teenage Radiation T Shirt. Somebody stole it. Crazy Times

  • @Davey-TheDJ
    @Davey-TheDJ Рік тому +3

    In the beginning there was house music and house music has its own groove. But I have to say contrary to that song, in the beginning there was disco and disco begot house music

  • @donsmith1182
    @donsmith1182 11 місяців тому +1

    This seriously oversells the cultural importance of late period disco.
    Underground clubs in 1973 were undoubtedly liberating- but disco from 1977 - 1980 was only, only about wealthy mainstream groups selling cocaine. Clubs that banned patrons that weren’t wearing expensive designer clothes, clubs owned by the mafia for the purposes of cocaine distribution, record labels fronted by the mafia, and of course public sex- that creeped me out at age 10-11-12. Disco was, in its heart, very creepy from 77-80 and not worth saving.
    New wave and punk, however, was the real revolutionary sound of the late 70s- the real feminism and the real music of liberation without organized crime. And disco was in every variety tv show, regardless of how little we wanted it to be.
    So while it once stood for something, at the time of the war on disco, it would be a bald-faced lie to suggest it still stood for anything other than cocaine.
    So let’s not engage in revisionism- I hated disco but loved the funnier rap songs of 1980. I hated disco but loved the feminism of Blondie and the Runaways. I hated disco but enjoyed hearing the more meaningful lyrics of Dolly Parton or the Americana fantasies of Kenny Rogers. I hated disco, but I loved Nike Rogers and Chic or George Clinton and Funkadelic, whose music was funky but authentic and cautionary. And I liked 50s-60s music and our school dances in 1980 focused more on oldies than you would think. As kids we hated disco because it was three piece suits, Harvey wall bangers and cocktails, and lines of cocaine. Disco, after all, sucked

    • @donsmith1182
      @donsmith1182 11 місяців тому

      Please pardon the typos

  • @jakrispy5918
    @jakrispy5918 Рік тому +6

    Wait, wasn’t the late 1970’s the punk era? Sex Pistols, the Stooges, Ramona’s, etc? THAT was the trend that time.

    • @v.a.993
      @v.a.993 Рік тому +8

      Yes. Both genres were happening at the same time. Punk was not mainstream, but Disco was.

    • @jakrispy5918
      @jakrispy5918 Рік тому

      @@v.a.993 Because I was also wondering why Elvis Costello wasn't mentioned. He was huge and mainstream. Top 10 charts from the late 70's.

    • @ryanjacobson2508
      @ryanjacobson2508 Рік тому

      Those groups barely sold any records.

    • @edkollin
      @edkollin Рік тому

      @@v.a.993Punk was big the UK at the time, not in America. In America it was this weird thing happening in England, it was ignored by radio stations. In that pre internet era if you were not played on the radio the most you could be was a cult act.

    • @dawnkindnesscountsmost5991
      @dawnkindnesscountsmost5991 11 місяців тому +1

      Punk wasn't mainstream in America; punk barely got any radio airplay on mainstream, top 40 radio in the US, except possibly the largest cities like LA & NYC; some college radio stations were probably playing punk, but very few mainstream radio stations in the US were. Disco & rock comprised American mainstream music in the late 70s, as far as I can remember. Blondie got a fair amount of radio airplay, and their disco song, _Heart of Glass,_ was a big hit, and they were the only band with punk roots that I recall hearing on the radio at the time. I heard of The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Stooges, The Talking Heads, and others in the punk scene at the time, in a piece on the ABC news magazine show, 20/20, in December 1979; Blondie was also featured, but I already knew of them from the radio, and my Parallel Lines cassette received for Christmas in '78. It wasn't until the mid-80s, when a commercial alternative music radio station was started in Pittsburgh, that I heard the other bands mentioned, though around the same time, The Talking Heads did have a song on mainstream radio for the first time, that I recall.

  • @NEPhillyRadio
    @NEPhillyRadio 8 місяців тому

    What is the music playing at 7:16? It has a Northern Soul beat.

  • @NoManClatuer-pd8ck
    @NoManClatuer-pd8ck 10 місяців тому +1

    Death before disco.

  • @anthonypanneton923
    @anthonypanneton923 9 місяців тому

    Its usually about the money. A live band cost money. A DJ spinning records cost less. People who were up and dancing were going to drink more than people sitting down and listening to a live band. In clubs and bars, its ALL about alcohol sales, and what does or doesn't promote that. In the '70s clubs realized they didn't need live musicians - they had disco.

  • @11dsw
    @11dsw 8 місяців тому +1

    When is this on ?

  • @tonyfan3
    @tonyfan3 Рік тому +1

    Gosh being a kid in the 70s our adults really prospected us from the awful things we didn’t understand!

    • @tonyfan3
      @tonyfan3 11 місяців тому

      *protected

  • @The1973Drummer
    @The1973Drummer Рік тому +2

    Latinx?

  • @michaelrochester48
    @michaelrochester48 11 місяців тому

    Abba was not a disco group, but they put out some of the best disco of that particular

  • @Tsip89
    @Tsip89 11 місяців тому +1

    The War on Disco put the word "sucks" out into the open and into the everyday American lexicon, unfortunately.

  • @cpj83
    @cpj83 Рік тому

    As a musician, I hate disco. Synthesized crap. Disco was never meant to be a radio format. It’s club music, like today’s club music. Dance to it,enjoy it in the clubs. There was a feeling that disco was being shoved down our throat.

    • @ryanjacobson2508
      @ryanjacobson2508 Рік тому

      Nothing wrong with synthesizers, it's how they are used! A lot of cool Prog, techno, industrial, etc. bands use synthesizers.
      But Disco was a colossal waste of whatever instruments were used in the making of it.... Just tacky, decadent, and repetitive music for Generation Jones idiots.

  • @ingridtullos1360
    @ingridtullos1360 Рік тому +2

    Disco will live forever!!!

  • @eileenhetherington3704
    @eileenhetherington3704 Рік тому +5

    People I know quit listening to new music after 2000. We listen to real songs with melodies that tell a story. Those songs were written from the mid sixties to about 1995. I grew up in the 60s and 70s. We have a disco club where I live, and it is consistently voted the best dance club in town.

    • @imayeseekay
      @imayeseekay Рік тому

      People I know - Anecdotal evidence

    • @david-z1m6t
      @david-z1m6t Рік тому +1

      the music is underground now

    • @eileenhetherington3704
      @eileenhetherington3704 Рік тому +1

      @imayeseekay I am a dance instructor in Oklahoma City. The club is called Groovy's. Google will give you the ratings. I guess you mistrust everyone.

    • @praketingrichraft6181
      @praketingrichraft6181 Рік тому +1

      There's great music being created every day. You just have to sift through more of it to find the good stuff. A closed mind is nothing to be proud of.

    • @david-z1m6t
      @david-z1m6t Рік тому

      Facts!!, i had to take a break from bandcamp because i was discovering so much great music.@@praketingrichraft6181

  • @HairyPinkTroll
    @HairyPinkTroll Рік тому

    7:23 and taking time to just look fabulous for all the strangers you are about to let loose with! 🥂

  • @We_Seek_Truth
    @We_Seek_Truth 11 місяців тому +2

    I was there. Turned 20 in 75.
    -- DISCO DID SUCK --

  • @starcrib
    @starcrib Рік тому +1

    Definitely: an early version of the ugly upcoming tsunami "Culture Wars"...HANDS down ....especially in the repugnant rust belt . 🦖☄️

  • @williamp1955
    @williamp1955 5 місяців тому

    You just explained why people hated it thank you !

  • @atrocchia
    @atrocchia Рік тому +2

    Why couldn't disco music and rock music coexist?

    • @dawnkindnesscountsmost5991
      @dawnkindnesscountsmost5991 11 місяців тому

      I agree infinity ♾ percent!!!
      I turned 12 in the early spring of 1979; at that time, I was "in luuuuv" 😊 with Shaun Cassidy and Andy Gibb, had albums by both of them that I listened to regularly, AND, I first heard _One Way or Another_ by Blondie the previous summer, loved the song, recieved their 1978 album _Parallel Lines_ for Christmas '78, loved it and listened to it regularly, too. I also got my own radio that Christmas, after taking my mom's radio upstairs to listen for a couple of hours every evening after supper through '78 (with my mom's permission). Radio stations seemed to play more of a variety of types of music then, compared to a gradual shift through the 1980s to radio stations narrowing their scope to a specific type of music that different "subcultures" of people listened to; I guess that boosted ratings enough to be the done thing, so fair enough.
      My early radio-listening days exposed me to a wide variety of different music genres (many of which I'd heard before, to a lesser extent, with other people choosing the radio stations when I was a younger kid), including what's now known as classic rock, early rock'n'roll of the late 50s & 60s, baroque rock of the late 60s, folk, soft rock, disco, new wave/new romantics, maybe a little bit of punk, prog rock, hard rock, metal (if it was called that in the late 70s; I don't remember), one station that literally played elevator music (soft & soothing instrumental versions of popular songs), classical, jazz, country, and straight-up Top 40 pop, counted down by Casey Kasem on American Top 40, every Sunday afternoon on a local radio station. I didn't like _everything_ that I heard, but it was an interesting experience, and there wasn't a whole lot that I didn't like.
      Plus, I was a dial surfer with both my mom's radio and my own; I went from one end of the FM dial to the other, just to hear what all the different radio stations were in my area (Pittsburgh, PA and northern West Virginia). I knew there was at least one classical station, at least one jazz station (and one rock station played jazz for a few hours every Sunday morning), a couple of country stations, and most were rock stations; some stations were just static, but I tried to fine-tune their signals with the thumb-dial on my radio (something digital doesn't really accommodate much; the signal is either there or it ain't), just to hear what they were playing. With a bigger radio I bought in my late teens, I learned that my area also had a few college stations, an alternative (new wave, new romantic, punk, post-punk, rock music outside of the mainstream) station that began about that time (it took over the "elevator music" frequency! 😂), but still a few static-y stations. Oh well; they weren't unheard from my lack of trying. 🤷🏼‍♀️
      I never disliked disco; I liked it and listened to it alongside other subgenres of rock music. I like a lot of several of those subgenres, others aren't my favorites, but there's very little that I strongly dislike or despise.
      If you've read this far, thank you for your patience with my long-winded-ness.
      You're very kind. ☮🌻🎼🎵🎶📻🎧🎙🎸🎹🥁🎻🎺🎷 Long live music!!! 💖

  • @macdisciple
    @macdisciple 8 місяців тому

    Disco Duck and Disco-rilla pushed it over the edge. Became comical.

  • @alexthompson9516
    @alexthompson9516 8 місяців тому +1

    Not everyone who thought disco was lame was a racist homophobe.

  • @maga6252
    @maga6252 11 місяців тому

    When you mention disco I automatically think the Bee Gees and all other acts of the genre fall under them. Maybe it's just me. Still love it! 1🇺🇲

  • @paulomilan515
    @paulomilan515 Рік тому +1

    That was good to watch

  • @richardgillette5759
    @richardgillette5759 Рік тому +13

    where is our mumble rap sucks rally?

  • @smacwhinnie
    @smacwhinnie 9 місяців тому

    Over analyzing it. People just got tired of being over saturated in every medium. It was interesting as an urban branch of popular music, but when every TV show featured it and suburban couples became obsessed with it, their kids turned against it.

  • @Bill-cv1xu
    @Bill-cv1xu Місяць тому

    Part 2?

  • @redjupiter2
    @redjupiter2 Рік тому +1

    House Music is Disco's revenge - Frankie Knuckles R.I.P.

  • @stevensica89
    @stevensica89 Рік тому +8

    Very good. I loathed disco back then but this doc should and could have been much longer.

    • @AmericanExperiencePBS
      @AmericanExperiencePBS  Рік тому +12

      Make sure to tune in for the full documentary airing Monday, October 30th on PBS and streaming on PBS.org and the PBS App!

    • @Chad-Giga.
      @Chad-Giga. Рік тому +4

      So you gonna tune in?

    • @stevensica89
      @stevensica89 Рік тому +4

      @@Chad-Giga. Absolutely. And I hated disco with a passion.

    • @starcrib
      @starcrib Рік тому

      You were probably such an 🍑' 🕳- and probably still are. Hahahahahahha

  • @dawnkindnesscountsmost5991
    @dawnkindnesscountsmost5991 11 місяців тому

    The backlash & vilification of disco never made sense to me. Of course not everyone likes it; is there a genre of music that _everyone_likes? Nope, not that I'm aware of.
    In my opinion, disco is a specific word for a specific dance music of a specific era. There has always been dance music; the styles, the sounds, the beats, the dances have all changed over the years, but it's dance music. _Mozart_ wrote dance music- of a different style than in the previous 60+ years, of course, with different styles of dancing, but it's all dance music. If one is creative enough, or doesn't care what others think, one can dance to any music, so technically _any_ music is dance music, and disco is merely one of many styles of dance music.
    💃🏼🕺🏻🕺🏽💃🏿💃🕺🏾💃🏻🕺🏿💃🏽🕺🏻
    LONG LIVE MUSIC!!! 💖💖💖

  • @uchihadabba699
    @uchihadabba699 Рік тому +9

    7:23 “Latinx communities…” Que es eso?

  • @allynfornow
    @allynfornow 9 місяців тому +1

    I need more!! Haha

    • @AmericanExperiencePBS
      @AmericanExperiencePBS  9 місяців тому

      THE WAR ON DISCO is currently available to stream with PBS Passport if you want to watch the full film! www.pbs.org/video/the-war-on-disco-qe827k/

  • @dangreene3895
    @dangreene3895 11 місяців тому

    I was a young man in 1977, and disco was silly ,indulgent, narcissistic, sexually promiscuous ,drug infueled time , and it was Fun .

  • @derrickbperry
    @derrickbperry 11 місяців тому

    I always thought the backlash to disco was a little over the top. Rock & Roll survived the movement; the 80s were saturated with metal, the 90s...grunge. Truth be known...I think boy bands in the late 90s and 2000s did more damage.

  • @ArnoldVeeman
    @ArnoldVeeman 6 місяців тому

    Where is the rest?

    • @AmericanExperiencePBS
      @AmericanExperiencePBS  6 місяців тому

      You can currently stream the full film with PBS Passport: www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/war-disco/

  • @stevehurl298
    @stevehurl298 Рік тому +8

    An unususally bad documentary from the otherwise high-quality American Experience series. Full of exaggeration, and false connections. Most people who hated disco didn't burn disco records or attack disco fans. They just avoided it, whenever possible. It was annoting when you couldn't avoid it, but not a social problem like unemployment.