fgrampone Review of The Secret Disco Revolution

The Secret Disco Revolution (2012)

Entertaining But With Some Historical Inaccuracies

[6/10 · 31 October 2020]

This documentary gets 8 stars purely for the entertainment factor, certainly if you were a fan of Disco music, the dancing, the clubs, the entire era; for which I was. But it lost two stars for a few inaccuracies, some blatant and some not so obvious. This movie attempts to provide the chronological history of Disco from it's birth, throughout the height of its popularity, and eventually ending with its death. The story was told by a director that has likely only read books about the topic and conducted some interviews rather having lived through it; for which I did. The story of Disco's birth and eventual rise to fame was fairly accurate, though failing to mention some key artists. However, the tale of it's 'death' were greatly exaggerated. It did not end as abruptly as it was stated and it did not end because of the Disco Demolition event which took place between double-header games at Chicago's Comiskey Park in 1979. The music genre lost its popularity because of over saturation. The music became too main stream, too formulaic, and contrived. Everyone looked to capitalize on the craze. Music artists were re-releasing almost comical Disco versions of their old songs by just applying a '4-on-the-floor' beat (see Ethel Merman), while Rock-oriented artists such as Kiss, the Rolling Stones, and Rod Stewart, wrote Disco songs, which annoyed their true fans despite the songs becoming big hits. Disco was everywhere; in TV commercials, cartoons, variety shows, advertisements. Well-established TV series, like Chips and Charlie's Angels, even had Disco-themed episodes. The closing of Studio 54, which was a result of ownership tax issues and not due to the music genre, somehow marked a moment in Disco's mythical death. What is most interesting, and inaccurate, is the premise that Disco had died, along with discotheques, and the entire art of getting dressed up and going dancing. It was even stated in the documentary that "all the clubs closed". While this makes for an interesting little docudrama, it was simply not true. What is true, is that Disco was re-branded in the early 80's as 'club music' or 'dance music' of which later evolved into other forms of dance such as 'free-style'. Discos were now referred to as 'clubs', and any 20-something or 30-something person in the 80s can attest that the scene was indeed alive and well, especially in NYC and in Long Island; for where I frequented. These 'clubs' were popular and packed each weekend, and were playing the most popular dance music of the day. Most notably, there was nothing 'underground' about the scene nor the sound which frequented Billboard charts and radio stations. Though clothing styles had changed and the music had evolved (personally I thought the dance music of the 80's, particularly freestyle, was even better than the 70s), it was no different than the Disco craze of the late 70s, except without the over-exposure and, more importantly, without the 'Disco' name label which had become a dirty word and a moniker for a bygone era.