STAX: Soulsville U.S.A.

Interracial underdog label Stax Records takes its growing influence on the Black music scene and attempts to break into mainstream media.

Though Stax gains headway in the white market, Otis Redding’s death and intensifying racial tensions in Memphis reveal signs of trouble.

Despite severe business setbacks, Stax Records rises again with Isaac Hayes’s Oscar® and Grammy®-winning work for the 1971 smash hit Shaft.

By the 1970s, a booming Stax expands to Los Angeles and gives back to the Black community with the benefit concert Wattstax. But when their bank goes under and the company faces other legal setbacks, Stax prepares to shutter its doors.