All language subtitles for Disco.Soundtrack.of.a.Revolution.S01E03.720p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RNG_track3_[eng]

# Oh, freak out!
Le freak, c'est chic... #

The sound of disco was everywhere.

It was huge.

# Oh... #

We made people realise
that they could be themselves.

# Freak out! #

It started in the underground,
and then it became mainstream.

# Have you heard
about the new dance craze...? #

Last night, 29 of the 43
Grammy Awards

went to disco artists and songs.

Just a further indication
of how disco fever

has swept the country.

# Surely can be done... #

We have created a culture
that's unstoppable.

Exercise classes work out
to the beat.

The fashion industry has created
clothes to match the music.

National magazines do cover stories
about it, and business has never

been better for dancing instructors.

Once it started happening,
a lot of people wanted

to capitalise on that.

Disco got bloated.
It also got rich.

You had songs out there
that was powerful.

Then you come with corny songs,
you kill the whole vibe

of what disco was.

In every successful thing, it has
the seeds of its own destruction.

That was personal.

Disco started with soul,
but totally lost it.

This was, "We want the money,
so let's do this bullshit."

Not going to work.

# Oh, freak out! #

The Beatles, 15 years ago, had five
tracks on the chart.

They also had the number
one that week -

I Want To Hold Your Hand.

Our number one this week is,

of course, Village People.

# There's no need to feel
down, I said, young man... #

You've brought the Australian
audiences very much great pleasure.

I'd just like to walk back
and I'd like you to take

a bow for us.

# No need to be unhappy,
young man

# There's a place you can go

# I said, young man

# When you're short on your dough

# You can stay there

# And I'm sure you will find many
ways... #

What would you like to sing
if you would decide yourself?

YMCA.

Let's hear it. OK.

The Village People were
a studio band.

That means that they were

a group of musicians picked
to record a song

that a producer wanted to make.

# It's fun to stay at the YMCA... #

The answer with a record company
is if there's money in it,

I'm interested.

People wanted it, they made it.

I want to present to you the record
producer who is responsible

for creating the Village People.

Here from France
is record producer Jacques Morali.

I met Jacques Morali in New York
in the '70s.

He came to me and he said,
"I had a dream about you.

"I wanted to build this new group
that I have an idea

"about around you.

"I'll come get you and I'll make
you a star."

And Jacques had put

an ad into
the trades asking for young men

with moustaches to come to see
if they wanted to be a part

of this group.

The Village People
was from Greenwich Village.

It's always been a place in New York
for alternative lifestyle.

But this was a disco group put
together for the mainstream.

They took all of the stereotypes
within gay culture,

the cowboy,

the construction worker,

the leather man,

and presented it to the mainstream
in a very tongue-in-cheek way.

The first album was basically
about gay life.

When I wrote the second album,

I had to broaden the spectrum

of it because I wasn't gay.

When I would write lyrics,

it could be taken by any type

of lifestyle, more than just one.

I wanted to write it to where it
could be comfortable for gay people

or it could be comfortable
for straight.

They were a great group of guys
and they were a lot of fun.

They brought energy to a room
or to an audience and they knew

how to perform.

# Where can you find pleasure

# Search the world for treasure

# Learn science, technology...? #

Their songs are very repeatable
and singalong.

In The Navy or YMCA

was universally loved

and universally flew under the radar

and still does, weirdly.

But everybody who got it

kind of couldn't believe

how popular it became.

# In the Navy

# Yes, you can sail the seven seas

# In the Navy

# Yes, you can put your mind at ease

# In the Navy

# Come on now, people,
make a stand

# In the Navy, in the Navy... #

And what are the audiences like?

Is it as much fun
as what we're seeing here?

Oh, yeah, everywhere. They just love
the music and the group.

Everywhere we go,

places where they don't even
speak English,

people just react to the music
and to the energy.

And we have the same reaction.

The US Navy wanted to use
In The Navy as a recruitment tool.

The agreement was they would allow
us to use one of their ships

to shoot the video if we allowed
them to use the song.

They gave us the destroyer
The Reasoner, and at the end of it,

they gave us jets that flew over.

And it just proved to me
that the US Navy didn't get

that the group was filled with gay
stereotypes and that it was kind

of a off-colour joke to a lot
of people.

# In the Navy

# Yes, you can sail
the seven seas... #

So mainstream audiences
didn't realise

that the guys behind the scene
probably couldn't have gotten

into the Navy just because they were
out and they were gay.

# Can't you see we need a hand?
In the Navy... #

Not a lot of people understood.

And I say "hooray" to that.

It was quite a Trojan horse.

# In the Navy... #

Gold represents $1,000,000
worth of sales in albums,

and platinum means that two
of your albums have sold

a million albums!

Think what a great corporate entity

you particular freaks are, you know?

Now you're establishment
and you're worth millions

and zillions of dollars.

The Village People!

The Village People and YMCA
and Macho Man and all of those

sorts of things,

you know, that was great, but that
was literally for people in Kansas.

Queer people of colour, you know,
we weren't listening

to those kinds of records
in the clubs.

This was a time when New York
was the clubbing capital

of the world.

The club culture was just wide open.

There were no holds barred.

You know, a lot of people
lived for nights at Studio 54

or Paradise Garage.

The Paradise Garage for a lot
of people was church.

Paradise Garage was an old garage
that was converted into this dance

space, and it had the ramp that
you'd walk up to.

You could hear the bass
through the wall.

Whoomm! It's like, wow.

It was extremely loud
and the quality of the sound

was really, really good.

My friends and I, we used to come
with different outfits.

We made those outfits for the night.

They had nothing to do with fashion.

We came up with a theme
and we'd dress like fantasy.

A lot of people who came
there, that was their life.

They would become a persona
that made them feel free.

There were no clocks,
there were no windows.

There were no mirrors.

There was no alcohol.

Hmmm. What could they have done
to stay awake...?!

Could it have been drugs? Ohh!

There was a smell of poppers
in the air.

There was the smell of marijuana.

And they say that the punch
was spiked with acid.

Grace Jones, Mick Jagger,
Boy George, Michael Jackson -

they would all come and hang out
at the Paradise Garage.

Gay, straight. Any colour.

It was mostly gay.

Back in the day, the best
crowd WAS the gay crowd.

Never any violence.
Never any arguments.

Never any drama.

It was quite a place.

Then I started to hear
about Larry Levan,

who was the DJ at Paradise Garage.

Larry was always up front
and grand entrance.

And I'm here.

I'm queer. Get used to it.

Larry and I were friends.

And one afternoon Larry said to me,

"Nicky, would you teach me
how to play records?"

From that moment on,

I would work
with him on mixing techniques,

on how to beat match, how to pick
the next record.

Immediately, I saw in Larry

that eye for making stuff
become fabulous.

# Have a good time... #

No other clubs had a DJ like Larry

who played the kind of music
Larry played,

who made the decisions
that he made,

who was as much in charge
of the night as Larry.

He would be messing with the sound
system as people were coming

into the club.

That's how obsessed he was

with making sure that the sound

wrenched your guts out.

He could do anything.

Larry could stop a room cold
and people would just start,

"Larry, Larry," just waiting for the
next thing that he was going to do.

And he might just not do anything.

He'd stop the music, get out
a ladder and clean the mirror ball

at two o'clock in the morning with
1,000 people sitting on the floor.

And then he'd take the ladder down,
shut the lights, put a record on,

and the place would go crazy.

Larry definitely controlled
the crowd.

He had magic.

He would remix, he would play
new things all the time.

He would tell you stories.

He got the idea of saying,
"Look, I want to play stuff

"that I feel strongly about."

You've got the trend of music
that you didn't hear no place else.

It was incredible.

Larry was way ahead of his time.

The first DJ remixer,

the first DJ producer,
the first DJ artist.

He is the modern template
of what a DJ is now.

Larry would often go into
the recording studio,

see through all the excess tracks,

and pull out the gold
that would make a hit.

# Oh, baby... #

Ain't No Mountain High is
what we call a "Garage classic".

So if you've ever heard the record,

it starts off with just
ta-da-da-da...

..da-da-da-da...

And then Jocelyn Brown sang...

# Oooh, I ain't going nowhere... #

What a great voice.

# I'll be right here

# As long as you want me, baby... #

Ain't No Mountain High Enough
had been such a huge song

back in the day, in the '60s.

But Larry took risks.
He didn't care.

He thought this was something
that he could turn into a signature

piece for her.

# Ain't no mountain high enough

# Ain't no valley low enough... #

Larry Levan allowed me to sing
it the way I sang it, and it allowed

another generation of time
to come back around,

but in a different manner.

It might not have been number one,
but it was number one in a lot

of people's heart.

And that's what was major to me,
you know?

# Cos, baby, there ain't no
mountain high enough... #

Performing the song at the Garage
was one of the most major situations

I've ever been involved in
in my life.

Everybody was singing.

It was fantastic,

and I'm trying
to stay a good girl and not cry,

because sometimes the way it musters
inside your soul

about things that were touching on
that level

because it's more spiritual
than anything else,

it tore me up, and it still
tears me up.

Fast Frankie Crocker at radio
station WMCA in New York

reaches one of the biggest and
youngest audiences in the country.

Every promoter wants his song
on Fast Frankie's show.

Frankie Crocker from WBLS, number
one radio in New York City, would

come to the Garage and steal things
from Larry or force him

to give it to him. And then the next
day, you'd hear records

on WBLS that were not going to come
out for six months

and that suddenly everybody

was crying to get a copy of

and could not buy it
because it's not out.

All these record companies
were like,

"Get Larry this record!
Get Larry this record.

"It'll be on the radio next week."

The DJ had power in those days.

Like, Larry's fame made
the Garage bigger,

then the Garage itself got so big,
it made Larry's fame even bigger.

And when I would go overseas
to work or visit other countries,

they'd be, "The Garage,
the Garage, the Garage!"

That's when I realised to myself,
I said, "Wow...

"The Garage has infiltrated Europe
and in other countries.

"This is incredible."

I mean, it's just, really,
a simple little weekend club,

but it became more than that.

At that time in the '70s,

there was this really beautiful
energy...and vibe.

Corporations did come in.

Record companies came in.

Clothing companies came in
and capitalised on that.

"We are part of this movement."

"We are part of this dance culture."

"We are here to make your life
beautiful."

You know, figured out ways
to market it.

Fun. That's disco. That's really
what it's all about.

It's also all about money.

It's got a lot to do with it.

Big money.

A lot of money.

Record company business was
very much like the film business

back then. The big hit
paid for the losers.

And so, record companies really went
for the big hit.

And the more you sold,
the more money you made.

# I'm glad you're home

# Now did you really miss me? #

How innocent! My goodness.

# ..you did by the look in your eye
In your eye

# Look in your eye... #

Was that Top Of The Pops?

That just came to me!

I was trying to... Top Of The Pops!

That was a big show!

# ..you and me can rock-a-bye

# You can ring my bell

# Ring my bell... #

When I was younger, I never thought
about having a hit record.

That never came to my mind at all.

I graduated from college in '78

with a degree in psychology because
I wanted to be a counsellor.

After teaching for
about four months,

Ring My Bell came out.

It was a hit overnight.

# You can ring my bell

# Ring my bell
Ring my bell

# Ding-dong-ding, ah! #

I actually would have preferred
to have done more ballads

and probably more R&B,
but everybody was doing disco.

They didn't think
they were going to make it...

..in life, if they didn't do
something disco!

They really did not push that song.

It was one of those songs
they didn't have to.

The song was such a huge success.

# Ring my, ring my, ring

# You can ring my bell

# You can ring my bell

# Ding-dong-ding, ah!

# Ring it!

# You can ring my bell any time... #

I was called a one-hit wonder,

which, in the beginning,
when I was trying,

I'm saying,
"Well, that's not very nice."

# Ding-dong-ding, ah! #

"You're a commodity.
That's what you are.

"You're just the latest new car
that came out."

But the song was in 14 movies.

If that's the kind of
one-hit wonder...

I don't think that's too bad.

OK!

# Ah! Ring it!

# You can ring my bell
Any time, anywhere... #

They weren't seen as artists,
per se.

They were seen by the
record company owners

as vehicles for the producers,

which was a very,
very different thing.

# You can ring my bell
Any time, anywhere... #

Most of the one-hit wonders
were on independent labels.

Independent labels were always
looking for the next hit.

They weren't looking
to develop the artists.

Did you get a chance to listen
to that Tuxedo Junction,

Chattanooga Choo Choo single?

Chances are you haven't
heard about Butterfly Records.

Well, it was put together last
summer, mostly with borrowed money.

Since then, they've put out
five albums, four of them disco.

All they wanted to know was,
what songs do people want?

And we did a lot of music testing
as to which songs people liked,

and there was kind of a
universal like for the same songs.

So they looked for more artists
who sounded like that.

And that's always
the route to mediocrity.

It's like making
multiple copies of something -

eventually, they start to fade.

The popularity of disco can be seen
right here in Billboard,

which is the Bible of the music
industry.

In its chart of the 100 top hits
across the country today,

at least 50 of them
are disco recordings.

That's what the record labels do.

They didn't understand
what was going on half the time.

They oversaturated a market
that was...that couldn't absorb it.

Everything became disco,
disco, disco.

So much money to be made
from the business of disco.

Now the sales are going
to substantially increase.

They had commercialised it
so massively

that every record was sounding
exactly the same.

And I no longer had interest in
words that said,

"Shake your booty,"
or, "Get up and disco dance."

I didn't want to hear about it.

I thought,
"This is turning into a shitshow."

# ..to a party the other night...

# All the ladies were treating me
right... #

There was novelty songs,

and I think that's what people

were starting to get upset about.

You took away...
like, the feeling of what disco was.

# Disco, disco duck... #

# Disco, disco duck... #

You had garbage cash-grab music
coming out of

garbage cash-grab record labels.

# Disco duck... #

All right!

I really hated it...

It was just so corny to me,
you know, like...

# Disco, disco duck... #

There were some goofy disco songs.

# When the music stopped
I returned to my seat

# But there's no stoppin' a duck
and his beat... #

Artists could not get
their music out!

You put out a record and you were
just a regular ballad singer

or a regular folk singer,
country singer.

You couldn't get your music out!

People wouldn't listen
to your music.

They were too busy disco-ing,
you know?

So...

It had a real impact
on the music industry.

It was too much.
I think people were sick of it.

I think if...if you're going to
oversaturate...

..the culture with a sound to that
degree,

people are going to turn on it.

The fact that rock and roll was

overtaken, for a while, by disco

to a lot of people in the country

had a really negative effect.

People saw disco as a threat to a
hegemony that white straight people

had had for the better part of
a decade, decade and a half.

And so, I think there was
a racial backlash because so many

of the disco stars,
like Donna Summer,

Gloria Gaynor, were black

and they were huge, huge stars.

And I don't think that white
rock-and-roll America

was really ready for that
in the '70s.

Eventually, there became a lot of
negative backlash.

Like, "You sold me a record
with a disco banner

"that was absolute crap."

"My girlfriend went out again with
those fucking gay guys

"to go out dancing
instead of being home with me!"

And then you had Studio 54 turning
away about 1,000 people a night.

It's three in the morning
in Manhattan and still,

at Studio 54, people crowd the doors
hoping to get in.

But first they have to do
something even harder

than finding a place to park here,
and that's to win the approval

of the owner, 28-year-old
Steve Rubell.

Oh, you're not shaved.
There's no way

any of you guys are going to get in.

It doesn't matter, if you're not
shaven. Listen, just go home.

So every night, almost,
the news cameras were there

showing people being turned away,

showing people being turned
into losers,

showing people being turned
into unworthy.

Now, this is a country that had
just, ten years earlier,

gone through a period of
massive inclusion where, you know,

racial walls were torn down
for the first time in a century,

everyone wanted to "kumbaya",
love their brother and sister

and sing in a circle.

And then, all of a sudden, the news
cameras all over the country

show people being excluded.

I was really not a fan of disco.

I was definitely more in
the rock category.

The Studio 54 image was terrible
among rock listeners

because you couldn't get in
unless you looked the right way

or acted the right way or just had
that we'll-let-you-in look.

America in general saw New York City
as being this very decadent,

wild, drug-taking,

everybody-sleeping-with-everybody-
else kind of place.

There was already in America a move
to turn the stations that were disco

back to a rock format.

Well, now, where're you folks
going with all that disco?

Uh, here, Oregon.

Here in Oregon, we like rock and
roll, nice and pure, KGON style.

You don't want to be bringing that
unnatural music up here now, do you?

So you had a lot of stations doing
things like disco demolitions.

# How deep is your
love? How deep is your love?

# I really need to know. #

Gimme a kiss.

There was a radio station
in Chicago in 1979, and the morning

disc jockey, a guy named Steve Dahl,
came up with the idea of, well,

let's blow up disco records
on the air.

So he'd play a few bars of
a Bee Gees song and then, boom,

blow it up.

And listeners loved it because
it was like somebody standing

up for rock and roll in the face
of this disco menace.

And that's when stations in other
markets started copying

the disco demolition idea.

Kaboom. Kaboom.

I think we'd better do it.

Not this record! Not this record!
Not this record!

Aaaah!

I think it came to a head
at Comiskey Park.

Let's go to the videotape.
Let's pick it up right here.

Comiskey Park, July 12th, 1979.

It was billed as Teen Night
at Comiskey Park for the twi-night

double-header between the Chicago
White Sox and the Detroit Tigers.

The feature attraction was
a Disco Demolition between games.

Local radio morning man
Steve Dahl was the catalyst.

He is anti disco.

Tickets were 99 cents,
which is really, really cheap.

So it was packed.

People brought their kids.
Everybody was there.

Why? 99-cent tickets.

Hard to beat, double-header.
Two games.

It's the best bargain in the world.

Chicago's a very segregated city.

90% of black people prefer
the White Sox.

The Cubs are more North Side
and have a lot more white fans.

Between games, Dahl was to lead
the crowd in song and chants

and then finish by blowing
up a box full of disco records,

which the fans were to bring
with them to the ballpark.

So you had all these white people
coming to a White Sox game to blow

up disco records.

They were really pushing it,

blowing up black people's records
on the South Side.

People were just taking an album
they didn't like and throwing it in.

They weren't throwing
anything they wanted in there,

because they just wanted
to see something blow up.

Steve Dahl goes out in Comiskey Park

in a Jeep and he's in full military
gear.

Morning radio was theatre.

Everyone knew that.

They knew it wasn't real,
but they all wanted to play along.

The listeners did.

There was a countdown on the
scoreboard, ten, nine, eight,

seven...boom...

..and the records blow up.

But it didn't stop there.

Dahl departed the field, but some
7,000 to 10,000 fans poured onto

the field, ripping up bases, setting
bonfires in centrefield and burning

more disco records, and ultimately
delaying game two for over

an hour-and-a-half.

The crowd was too big, the crowd got
too crazy, and they had to cancel

the game, which, by the way,
to this day in Chicago

was the great crime there -

was cancelling the second
game of the double-header.

You know, the people might have got
hurt or whatever.

"Oh, yeah.
But they cancelled the game."

I remember seeing it on television.

There was rioting involved
and that kind of thing.

I didn't see any rioting
on the South Side, but it was a lot

of outrage about it.

It was an amazing promotion, one
of the greatest promotions probably

in the history of radio.

It's kind of like Woodstock.
Everybody was there.

Of course they weren't.
They say they were.

And it was either the greatest
moment in rock and roll

or just evil, like burning books.

It depends who you talk to.

But at the time, it was
sort of the perfect storm.

The Christian right, or the
Bible-thumping people, were like,

"Nnnng," trying to press it down
as it was coming up

and the record companies
were pushing it.

And the crushing and the destruction
of disco, I think, was not aimed

at the singers and everything.

I think it was aimed
at the record companies.

But, of course, the singers
are the ones that get hurt.

No-one was ringing my bell any more
to check to see could I come

to a show. That wasn't happening.

And so I did go back to teaching.

I hate disco because I can't find a
white three-piece suit that fits me

off the rack that hangs well,
and I'm allergic to gold jewellery

and I don't like pina coladas.
I'm allergic to coconut.

So what does it hold for me?

Probably nothing.

Nothing.

I was so mad at him.

What is wrong with you?
Come burning all our disco records?

Shame on you, Steve.

What are you burning?

What the hell are you burning?

A song that you gave the label to
as disco. The singer didn't.

You put the name on it
and now you want to crush it?

Black, anti-gay was never
a factor in the creation

of the anti-disco movement.

It just never crossed our minds.

If anything, it was a musical thing.

Rock and roll was about guitars.

Disco wasn't.

Rock and roll was about, you know,
drummers. Disco had electronics.

Rock and roll, long hair, T-shirts,
grabbing a beer

and disco was about champagne.

And so just so many cultural
and musical factors

that really drove the whole
thing rather than racial

or sexual matters.

They just bought a black
person's record to blow up.

They didn't know
whether it was disco or not.

They just said,
"Disco sucks, disco sucks."

They didn't know
what they were blowing up.

So that's the racial edge of it.

Disco stations
all ran for their lives.

The musicians who were making
that music were shifting

to something else.

You didn't have another
hit disco movie.

It was kind of end of an era.

Someone came up to me in '79
at the DJ booth and said, "Nicky,

"they're saying disco is dead.

"What do you think?"

I said, "It's pretty much dead."

Scientists at the National Centers
for Disease Control in Atlanta today

released the results of a study
which shows that the lifestyle

of some male homosexuals
has triggered an epidemic of a rare

form of cancer.

Robert Bazell now in Atlanta.

It was happening in San
Francisco and California,

and then it started to hit New York.

They were talking about this
gay cancer and how friends

of theirs had it and how friends
of theirs were dying.

This suggested to Dr Dritz
and her colleagues at the Centers

for Disease Control that their
worst-case scenario was the answer -

a new and lethal infectious agent.

A virus was loose
in the gay community.

I was scared to death.

We didn't know how it was spread
or...

..whether it was really going

to be fatal for everybody.

It was a horrific time.

There is a one-in-five chance
a victim will die

within the first year of
the illness.

We quickly learned that
having a diagnosis of Aids meant

you had two years to live.

In the past six months,
the number of people who have come

down with Aids has nearly doubled.

The vast majority of those people
will eventually die.

So as the numbers increase,
so does something else -

and that is fear.

Gays became stigmatised
because of it.

People who would go out to clubs
at night didn't necessarily

want to go out to clubs
because at that point in time,

you didn't know
how you contracted Aids.

It was scary shit because people
who you've known for decades

all of a sudden, you know,
were gone.

I lost two partners from Aids.

So...

So many people disappeared.

It's like coming back from a war.

Seeing people like,
"Oh, you made it out."

And I'm serious,
you made it out of a war.

During that period, I lost friends.

I lost my business partner to that.

You know, my business partner,
he was my partner from

New York with me.

And I was scared to even go
over to his house or touch him,

you know, and he was like, "Why are
you acting funny?" You know?

But that was because of my ignorance
to the disease, you know,

I didn't exactly know what was
going on and where it came from.

It was, like, overwhelming.

Three years ago,
I was just one of the guys.

I was one of the people
in the crowds.

And then this diagnosis came
along and all of a sudden

I was stereotyped as a fast-lane
liver, as the sick person

that was going to bring contagion
to the rest of the world.

What was awful about it was
the ostracism, the incomprehension

and the total lack of any empathy
whatsoever

from the general US population.

"Yeah, you're gay, you deserve it,"
or whatever.

You know, "Good riddance."

It was just bad in every way.

There was never a moment the Garage
looked emptier, but you'd notice one

person not in that group,
and you would say, "Where is he?"

And they would look at you sad,
and you knew he's either very sick

or he died.

And that would start to happen once
a month, twice a month, three times

a month, two different groups
in a month.

It was happening more and more.

Most of my friends
have died of Aids.

David Rodriguez, one of the greatest
people - funny, DJ -

was the first person I knew
close to me died of Aids.

Walter Gibbons,
fabulous DJ, died of Aids.

Michael Brody, the owner
of the Paradise Garage.

Steve Rubell, the builder
and owner of Studio 54.

The list goes on and on of talented,
artistic people

who were lost to Aids.

It got so bad that I started,
like, a notebook and I would write

somebody's name on it and then put
down my personal thoughts

about that person
so I wouldn't forget them.

It got really overwhelming.

That was a huge part of what changed

the club culture during that time,

and that's about the time
that Ronald Reagan came into power.

I consider the trust that
you have placed in me sacred.

And I give you my sacred oath
that I will do my utmost

to justify your faith.

It was like we needed somebody
strong. It was right after Carter.

I mean, he was the cowboy
that fought the Indians.

He was strong in his image.

One of the worst days of my life was
watching Ronald Reagan get elected.

I knew how bad it was going to be.

Angry demonstrators
managed to close down

the Food and Drug Administration
today.

They accused the agency
under President Reagan of wasting

time in the war against Aids.

For some of the protesters,
time is a precious commodity.

Storm the NIH!
Storm the NIH!

The Government was not
very concerned about Aids

because it was affecting
a population that they didn't want

to talk about.

Seize control of the FDA!
52 will die today!

Ronald Reagan was hoisted in effigy
this morning as hundreds of Aids

activists descended on
the Food and Drug Administration.

The demand - that the FDA speed
up approval of drugs that show

any promise against Aids.

Seize control of the FDA!

Ronald Reagan wouldn't close
the blood banks, and blood

was being transfused, and straights
then started getting HIV and Aids,

and it all fell on Reagan
as being anti-gay and everything.

What do we want? Money for
Aids. When do we want it? Now.

I remember where I was when Ronald
Reagan first said the word Aids.

That was a very historic moment.

We'll not stop, we'll not rest,
until we've sent Aids the way of

smallpox and polio.

I'm not sure how much the disco
world came back after the Aids

crisis began to dissipate.

I don't think it did.

Sex is the other major way
to transmit Aids.

Bathhouses and nightclubs
that cater to casual sex

are going out of business.

Casual sex has become
a fearful thing.

The hardcore disco life
in Manhattan changed.

Kind of felt a little frivolous
going out to dance

when, you know, so many people who
used to be there with you

are no longer there.

But unless you want to sit home
and dwell on yourself

and be miserable,
people had to live, you know,

you just keep it moving.

As we all know, the music industry
is always on the lookout

for new million-sellers.

I went to America to look at
the latest sound to make an impact

on the charts, which has its origins
in Chicago's black gay scene.

You can't stop creativity.

Yeah, you got rid of the disco.

Now, wait till you see
what's coming next!

We, as poor and moderate-income
people, cannot afford condominiums.

But we need some place to live.

We want to stay in the city,
where transportation is.

Chicago was an interesting place
because you had the migration

of the South, you know, people
that came up from Mississippi

and that kind of thing or, you know,
came from west, you know, Kansas.

Like, my folks are from Kansas.

But the city
is more industrialised.

There's more opportunities,
you know, to not be busting

your hands out with cotton
and breaking your back in the sun

and this kind of thing, you know.

So, a combination of factory work,
bartending, you know, whatever.

Also, let's be clear, there was just
a big budding scene, if you will,

that was happening on the
underground outside of the factory.

You know, you could be a musician.

What happened in Chicago
is what African-Americans do.

We take the scraps off the table
and we turn them into something

high cuisine, if you will.

And that's exactly what
house music is.

Oh, that's a nice tight kick.

A house record is the coolest

underground dance music.

So I have the four on the floor
right now.

Next, I select another instrument.

I'm going to select
the snare drum now.

OK.

A house record is anything that Ron
Hardy, David Mancuso, Larry Levan

or Frankie Knuckles would
have played at their clubs.

Next, I'll bring in
a closed hi-hat.

Frankie Knuckles is considered
the godfather of house.

And so if you know anything
about early house music,

it was basically disco breaks
in R&B songs, and Frankie Knuckles

used to play a lot of things
on reel-to-reel,

and he had early drum machines.

And so he was using these drum
machines and these disco break

loops, and he was creating
this new genre of music

without anyone really knowing it.

Frankie worked at the Warehouse,
and house music,

the term house music,
came from the Warehouse.

Then later it became synonymous
with a style or genre

that was being created
out of Chicago producers

that were influenced by the music
that Frankie was playing.

House music was disco's revenge.

The very parts of disco
that were lost, the parts of black

and brown creativity,
its queerness,

its ways that disco was part of
a soundtrack of exploration

before its whitewashing,

house music kind of picked that up
and ran off with it.

And there you have
your basic house beat.

Now you can bring in different stuff
after that.

Bring in claps

and other instruments.

That's house music.

Underground, cool dance.

Oh, man, I might put this track out.

Listen to the crescendo.

When the disco sucks movement came,
all the budgets got cut.

You know, strings were such
a big part of disco music

in the '70s, and suddenly there was
no money for them any more.

But I think those cut budgets
made people have to become

more innovative with the sound.

Back in the day, obviously, the,
you know, the four on the floor,

you know, boom, boom, boom, boom,

it might have been a drum machine
and one keyboard or, you know,

one turntable.

Whatever you could
kind of get your hands on.

We're talking about teenagers.

We're talking about people
that don't have money trying

to figure out how to express
themselves with this equipment.

It was unique. It was different.

It was fresh off the block.

Sort of in the same way that
hip-hop grew out of the physical

disinvestment in the black and brown
communities in New York,

house music also grew out of
these neglected spaces and became

spaces of community and creativity,
and also entrepreneurship.

I didn't go to Chicago to open a
club, but when we saw this

little Art Deco building,
which was 206 South Jefferson,

and I was like,

"Oh, that's
a cute building. It's for rent."

We ended up getting it.

The Warehouse was primarily a gay

club with African-American members,

though other folks came as well,
and it was a place where you could

go and dance, and feel safe.

I asked Larry Levan, "Would
you come out and look at the club

"and possibly think about
playing for me?"

And he replied with, "No, Robert.

"The way you talked about Chicago
the last time you were there."

I was like, "Oh, darn."

The only person I thought
was Frankie.

That was Frankie's entree to
Chicago, was when Larry said no.

Your Love
by Jamie Principle
& Frankie Knuckles

I didn't get drawn into the whole
culture until I met Frankie.

I wanted to do something
a little bit different.

I didn't want to be, like, the norm.

# When I'm with you I believe

# That your love is true

# When we love you turn me out

# You know what to do... #

How do I feel about being the first
house vocalist?

I didn't know I was going
to be the figurehead

of that, because I look at myself,
I sing all right, but I've heard

other singers and they do great.

Maybe I was the first person
that people gravitated

towards that they could actually see
and feel connected with.

# I begin to sweat

# When we touch I lose control

# Now you know what's next

# Fantasising all the time... #

His sound was ethereal.

It's got, like, somewhat of
a rock drum line.

I mean, it's real basic,
you know what I'm saying?

But the strings and the bass line
and then his vocals -

it was something else.

# Well, I need your love

# I need your love... #

It's a formula that Jamie
put together that I don't think

people really understand.

It's very simple, but very powerful.

# Don't make me wait too long... #

Your Love was actually
a three-minute song,

but Frankie wanted it to have a
certain feel in his club, so he said

he was going to strip certain parts
down and bring in certain things.

He wanted it to build.

So it was mostly an arrangement
thing, but all of the writing

and playing is me.

Frankie Knuckles would do a mix tape
and give one copy to someone.

And from that copy there would be,
like, 10,000 other copies!

That was our version of going viral.

That's what the DJ is doing,
is actually taking the music

and presenting it to the people,
and that's how a lot of records got

introduced to the public.

I didn't know how, like, popular
the song was.

But there was a traffic
jam on a Saturday.

Me and my boy was in the car,
and he was like,

"That's your song playing."

And it was jumping from one car
to another car to another car,

and we were, like, stuck in traffic.
He was like, "You should tell
them that's your song."

I was like, "Really? You think
they're going to believe
that that's me?"

But I was hearing Your Love
and all of the songs,

like, being played at the same time.

That's when I kind of, like, figured
how widespread it was becoming.

Crocodile Rock
by Elton John

# I remember when rock was young

# Me and Susie had so much fun

# Holding hands... #

I just love piano because of
Elton John.

It sounded like he came
straight out of the church, right?

Elton John had so much soul
in the '70s,

they had to put him on Soul Train.

It really affected my music-making.

That's where the house piano
came from.

Marshall's a smart man and he came
up with something, you know,

that changed the pulse.

At that time, there was nothing
even remotely resembling

piano in house music.

I was at work on a letter-sorting
machine, and a song came to me.

You would type in the postcodes
on the keys

midnight to 8:30am every night.

The graveyard shift.

It was as boring as it sounds.

I'm hearing music
cos I'm making music now.

"Oh, this is a cut."

# Gotta have house music

# All night long... #

# Give me that house music
to set me free

# Lost in house music
is where I wanna be. #

And that's it. Four lines.

Trick was getting home
and recording it before I forgot it.

I have this thing called
a Yamaha QX1,

two keyboards,

a Prophet 2000, a Roland JX-8P,

a drum machine, 707. That's it.

The entire session, recording
and mixing, took about two hours

and we were gone for the day.

# Rock your body
Rock your body

# It's gonna set you free... #

I still hadn't been asleep yet.

I said, "I've got to give it to
Ron Hardy at the Music Box."

Ron Hardy listens to it.

Plays it six times in a row.

Everybody, "Aaaaah!"

And that's been the default
response ever

since for the following
30-plus years.

# Move your body

# Sexy body. #

Very underground. It was different.

There was nothing like it.

This freedom of expression certainly
seems to be selling house records.

But is it a passing fad?

No.

It's like... It's reminiscent
of the old disco.

It's the kind of music that is just
simple music that's exciting

and gets people moving.

And that's why it's going
to be around for a while.

And it will become classic music,
classic disco music,

because it has an energy of its own.

Probably April or May of 1986
is when it started really blowing

up and leaving the city.

And that's because all these
magazines flew to Chicago

and started interviewing me.

They started interviewing
everybody else

that had something to do
with house music.

All of us just got record deals
and with major labels.

And that's when it really
started blowing up.

House music started becoming
the big thing.

But Larry hated the word house
because we played house music

that came out of Chicago,
that came out of the Warehouse,

and then suddenly all kind of dance
music, because the word house

was cute, was put under the umbrella
of house.

So if that means EDM, that means
Afro house, that means tech house...

There was Latin house,
there was soul house...

..Nu-disco. That means hip house.

..my house, there was your house,
there was Aunt Ethel's house.

You have this whole alternative

expression where people

were marrying punk and disco

and new wave.

It was just a wildly, wildly
creative time.

Disco didn't go away.
Just the name went away.

The beat, the rhythm,
the sounds of disco carried on.

Everybody stands on
somebody's shoulders.

Let's be very clear.

Hell, talk about hip-hop.

I used to be into disco rap.

That's how I got started.

Later '80s, early '90s,

here comes rave culture.

The scene is now being taken
over by this new crop of people.

It turned into another whole thing.

Now the story is being rewritten
a bit.

But if you take all the music today,
every genre of electronic music owes

everything to disco.

If it wasn't for Mancuso,
or if it wasn't for Siano,

if it wasn't for Levan
and Francois, and those DJs

that first went in the studio
and mixed records and made hits,

all these big DJs nowadays
that really produce music and travel

the world and make millions
of dollars wouldn't happen.

Never in a million years
would have thought that my world

would have the impact of
how it is now.

Today, disco has a real resurgence.

People love to dance.

You know, we're all going out
and we're all dancing to a variation

of what disco was.

It just always evokes something
in you somehow.

There's a lot of new artists
that are coming

through that are still carrying
that torch.

Like Bruno Mars.

And Madonna continues to do
it in different ways as well.

Rihanna and Beyonce, they are making
this same type of music

we were making back in the '70s.

Different lyrics, same beat.

Beyonce is doing a great job
at saying

remember the Loleatta Holloways,

remember the Anita Wards,

remember the Sisters Sledges.

It's their voices that you dance to.

Dance floors do what religions
and governments do not.

They bring people together
from all walks of life.

As a trans woman of colour
this is where I found home.

This is where I found my community.

And I was celebrated for who I was.

# I think I deserve
to be choosy... #

Everything that we do now as queer
people living freely, being able

to live our truth,

has come from the people
at Stonewall,

fighting for their right to just be.

Today, the mainstream culture
has sort of caught

up to what happened back
in the '70s in New York.

The consciousness that, like,
OK, we're all here together

and we're all having fun.
It's all OK.

That person is definitely different
than me, but that's OK.

They're cool, you know?

That's what's so nice about it.

Disco's legacy is there to teach,
educate, inspire, elevate.

And I think a dance floor
that's playing disco is always

going to be a generous, joyful
and liberating space,

a safe space, a fun space.

It must be protected at all costs.

The future of disco is more disco.

Don't Leave Me This Way
by Thelma Houston

I'm very thankful for
the forefathers.

I'm very thankful for the kings and
queens and everything in between.

Let's continue the legacy
of great dance music made

by queer people -

for, by, with, all of those things.

Thank you to everyone for having me,
for doing this, for making a record

of times gone by, because it's so
important that people know this.

This is history. I thank you.

# Don't leave me this way... #

Bye.

# I can't survive

# I can't stay alive
without your love

# Oh, baby

# Don't leave me this way

# No, I can't exist

# I'll surely miss your tender kiss

# Don't leave me this way

# Ahhh, baby!

# My heart is full of love
and desire for you... #