Sound Barrier: Sylvester
By Spotify Studios
SOUND BARRIER is a new documentary podcast about artists who break barriers in music and culture. Season 1 is about Sylvester— a musician who is perhaps even more relevant today than in the 70s and 80s. Imagine: before Elton John was out of the closet, before androgynous performers of color like Prince were in the mainstream, there was an openly gay Black man who dressed in drag. Sound Barrier delves deep into his music and his life, showing him in all his genre and gender-bending glory. Discover the Black queer ancestor who paved the way for today's most innovative artists.
Latest episode
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Never Grow Old
With his most commercial record in years, Sylvester signs with a major label, becomes the face of a movement, plants a flag for Black musical excellence with an iconic performance, and is honored by his chosen hometown. In the season finale, Sylve… -
Hard Up
Sylvester goes broke, makes history on MTV and returns to his Pentecostal roots as AIDS ravages his community. But at the same time, Sylvester discovers the greatest love of his life – and makes some of the most meaningful m… -
Stormy Weather Girls
Sylvester loses some of his closest creative collaborators — some to success, others to a mysterious disease that doesn’t have a name yet — and he starts a new chapter with a small label run by old friends. -
Backlash Blues
Between the racist backlash to disco, the late ‘70s record industry collapse, and a bizarre case of mistaken identity, superstardom is a mixed blessing for Sylvester. His follow-up album is an expensive commercial disappointment, and he’s got to s… -
Giant Step
Sylvester always thought disco was tacky, but he really wants a hit record. So he finally embraces the popular sound – and rockets to superstardom. He’s the toast of Europe. His songs win Grammys. But at the same time, mistrust and shady dealings … -
Castro Famous
A legendary Motown producer signs Sylvester to a record deal, and a new band helps him build a passionate local fanbase. Now he’s just gotta break through to the pop charts. But for an intersectional artist who’s too Black for mainstream radio, an… -
Warming Up the Hot Band
Sylvester tries to make it as a glam rock star, but ends up self-sabotaging on an epic scale: spending his advance on clothes, not paying his band, and fleeing to Paris when he can’t stand the heat. This episode includes a lost demo from his early… -
A Night at the Opera
Sylvester moves from South Central LA to join a performance-art commune in San Francisco that’s mostly made up of white hippies in drag. But for Sylvester, being fabulous isn’t an outrageous game of dress-up. It’s for real — and so ultimately, he … -
Welcome to the Fabulous World of Sylvester
If you know Sylvester at all, you know him as the gender-bending Queen of Disco whose hit song “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) has lit up many a dance floor. But he was so much more than that. As a queer person of color – way before “gender-fluid”…
