Each episode an inspired marriage of filmmaker and subject matter, Live Nation’s documentary series Move The Needle will tell extraordinary, unexpected stories drawn from the world of music that boast a broader, lasting impact upon our culture — chronicling their significance beyond the framework of entertainment. Whether the film documents events never before exposed or tackles a well-known incident from a boldly novel angle, the aim is to challenge PR-nurtured perceptions and excavate deep beneath conventional wisdom to explore all the dramatic themes that define the human experience.

Rises. Falls. Movements. Breakthroughs. Triumphs. Losses. Explosive incidents and fateful accidents. Unsung scene makers who played instrumental roles despite not playing instruments. Seminal scandals swept under the rug. Relationships that changed the course of musical history and the soundtrack of our lives. This series will be a collection of passion projects spanning diverse genres, eras, and cinematic voices, but the common denominator backbeat driving Move The Needle towards a wider examination of music’s indelible role in shaping our world will be richly textured, provocative storytelling.

EPISODIC EXAMPLES:

Paradise Found. With his storied tenure at the Paradise Garage, Larry Levan, the Jimi Hendrix of dance music, initiated the concept of DJ as superstar before AIDS took away his landmark musical sanctuary and ultimately his life. He is the godfather of the EMD culture that now fills stadiums instead of old parking garages.

Cherry On Top. Sharp, worldly, and eloquent, former model Ava Cherry reached the top ranks of backup vocalists, singing with Luther Vandross and Chaka Khan. But during the height of 1970s hedonism she was very much front and center for an extended ménage a trios with David Bowie and Mick Jagger. Perhaps more closely than anyone else, she witnessed the queer-friendly sexual fluidity that defined glam rock before it was jarringly returned to the closet and largely wiped from pop culture consciousness in the Reagan 80s.

Hoover’s Playlist. From Woody Guthrie to Pete Seeger to the MC5 to Jim Morrison to John Lennon, the FBI took a covert interest in musical artists that J. Edgar Hoover deemed a threat. But the line between observation and action was crossed when Lennon succeeded in freeing activist, poet, and MC5 manager John Sinclair from a harsh jail sentence. With Nixon’s blessing, Hoover would take the law into his own hands.

Man On Fire. At the height of his unprecedented global fame, Michael Jackson’s painful burn injuries while filming a Pepsi commercial were not merely an embarrassing media sensation. The incident marked a fateful turning point in his career. In some ways a symbolic conflagration of deeper issues that haunted him, it was a brutal setback (introducing pain killers to his life) from which he never fully recovered.

Death To Disco. A deeper look into the literally explosive “Disco Demolition Night” baseball stadium riot and its swift and startling impact on the music business. This 1979 counterrevolution, a darkly reactionary backlash against the gays and minorities largely associated with disco culture, extended to other incidents that year, and, as one observer noted, “triggered a nationwide expression of anger against disco that caused disco to recede quickly from the American cultural landscape.”

Marvin In Exile. The greatest artist to come out of Motown was living out of a car in Hawaii. Marvin Gaye’s escape from the music business and cocaine addiction would take him on to small town Europe as well. This discreet period of exile refreshed his creative batteries, fortifying him for a final bout of glory and acclaim.

Behind The Wall. The mob and the music business have been intertwined since long before anyone thought to put the blues to a driving beat and call it rock ’n’ roll. But it was a startling display of power when organized crime-linked record promoters kept Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two” off the radio in Los Angeles despite it being the top single in every other market of the country. That crack in the “Wall” opened an investigation that would shake the industry to its core.