When Disco Ruled the World

1972. The counterculture is in full retreat from the free love/hippie era with Nixon’s reelection and the lingering Vietnam war. High taxes, gas prices and inflation cast a pall over the nation. But in the underground of New York City, DJs have begun spinning the tunes that will unite and ignite an entire generation. 

VH1’s oral history of disco will reveal how disco music, fashion and culture evolved from the underground to the mainstream. From places like DJ David Mancuso’s Loft, the party music spread to the nation’s nightclubs. Disco record labels sprung up and made instant superstars of people like Chic and Donna Summer, whose 17-minute “Love to Love You Baby” became a disco staple. TV shows such as Disco Magic and the hugely popular Dance Fever dominated the airwaves. New dance crazes filled up Fred Astaire studios through the country as people learned The Hustle or “Le Freak.” Gay liberation entered a new, more mainstream phase through acceptance of such acts as the Village People.

Disco peaked in 1977 with the release of Saturday Night Fever which launched the career of John Travolta and caused three Bee Gee songs to reach the top ten on the charts, a feat not seen since the Beatles. The movie spawned more than 18 other disco themed flicks while the soundtrack encouraged other artists, such as Kiss, Rolling Stones, and even Barbra Streisand, to record disco tunes. During that year, Studio 54 opened and topped the hot list for fans and celebrities alike. But soon enough, the fun-loving lifestyle that sought to unify gender, race, sexuality and class took a hard turn. Drugs and an over-saturation of the disco market started to unravel the trend and foreshadowed the beginning of the end. 

By the late 1970s, a counter-reaction to disco was started by those who felt the country had lost its better judgment. Famously, fans at a Chicago baseball game put on a “disco demolition” rally, setting fire to some 10,000 records. “Disco Sucks” became an epithet. And in 1978, Studio 54 co-owner Ian Schrager was arrested for possession of cocaine putting a damper on the club scene. By 1980, disco had become a dirty word. Former stars found themselves without record labels, fortunes were lost and the nation had an oversupply of white leisure suits. 

When Disco Ruled The World will revisit that unique era and recapture the spirit of those boogie days: the how, why and who that made disco tick and take over. This is an hour devoted entirely to the subject with no narration. Just the voices of the interviewees – the DJs, label heads, TV producers, movie stars and top musical acts of the time – woven together to tell the real stories. Shot intimately and stylishly, When Disco Ruled The World captures the period and the people that made disco the supreme cultural event it was.

Interviews include:
DEBBIE HARRY - Blondie

CHARLIE ANZALONE - Club Deejay

KAREN LYNN GORNEY - Actress, Saturday Night Fever

HARRY WAYNE CASEY - KC and the Sunshine Band

DENEY TERRIO - Host, Dance Fever

GLORIA GAYNOR - Singer

JOE CAUSI - Radio Deejay

MAURICE WHITE - Earth, Wind and Fire

HENRY STONE - Founder, TK Records

STEVE MARCUS - Producer, Disco Magic

BILLY FAJARDO - Dancer

KC - KC and the Sunshine Band

BAIRD JONES - Studio 54 Doorman

MARTY ANGELO - Producer, Disco Step by Step

GIORGIO MORODER - Record Producer

ANITA POINTER - Singer, Pointer Sisters

MICHAEL MUSTO - Journalist

NILE RODGERS - Chic

JANICE-MARIE JOHNSON - A Taste of Honey

NICKY SIANO - Club Deejay

MERV GRIFFIN 

TOM MOULTON - Record Producer/Mixer

CARMEN D’ALESSIO - Co-founder, Studio 54

MICHAEL FESCO - Club Owner, Flamingo

MAURICE BRAHMS - Club Owner, Infinity

DAVID MANCUSO - Club Owner, The Loft

ANNIE SPRINKLE, PHD - Adult Entertainer

RICHARD NOTAR - Steve Rubell’s Driver