Re-examinining club culture's queer roots

January 28, 2014 4:26 PM

Luis-Manuel Garcia has written a detailed article for Resident Advisor reviewing the role of homosexuality and the evolution of club culture: An alternate history of sexuality in club culture. There are links (largely Wikipedia, some French) to collate references to particular clubs, individuals, articles, books, and songs inside.

Intro
Clubs
Berghain, Harry Klein, Output / The Panther Room, A Club Called Rhonda (NSFW)

DJs/Producers/Musicians
Goddollars


New York disco and garage
Clubs
The Loft, Studio 54, The Paradise Garage, The EndUp, Trocadero Transfer, The Saint (The closing party), Club Zanzibar, The Sound Factory, Twilo

DJs/Producers/Musicians
David Mancuso, Nicky Siano, Donna Summer, Chic, The Bee Gees, KC And The Sunshine Band, Larry Levan

Books & Articles
Discotheque Rock '72: Paaaaarty!, Hot Stuff: Disco And The Remaking Of American Culture

Disco Demolition Night
ESPN flashback, local coverage at the time, "Where were you on Disco Demolition Night?", The Night Disco Went Up In Smoke (New York Times, retrospective)

Chicago House
Clubs
The Warehouse (The Music Box)

DJs/Producers/Musicians
Frankie Knuckles, Ron Hardy


Detroit Techno
Clubs
Todd's

DJs/Producers/Musicians
Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Sauderson, Morris Mitchell

Books & Articles
Energy Flash, Techno Rebels, Out Come The Freaks: Electronic Dance Music And The Making Of Detroit After Motown (forthcoming)


Acid house and rave
Clubs
Heaven,Shoom, Medusa's, Smart Bar

DJs/Producers/Musicians
Danny Rampling, Paul Oakenfold, Nicky Holloway, Tronco Traxx, Kevin Aviance, E.G. Fullalove, Masters At Work

Books & Articles
Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital, Rave America


Drag balls
Documentaries
Paris Is Burning

Books & Articles
Gender Trouble

Songs
Vogue, Walk For Me, Cunty, Didn't I Know (Divas To The Dancefloor...Please), The Ha Dance


Deep house in Midtown Manhattan
Clubs
Sally's II, Edelweiss (NYT)

DJs/Producers/Musicians
DJ Sprinkles / Terre Thaemlitz

Album
Midtown 120 Blues


Lesbian clubbing in Paris
Clubs
Le Pulp, Le Troisième Lieu

DJs/Producers/Musicians
Jennifer Cardini, DJ SexToy, Ivan Smagghe, Chloé, Clara Moto, Scratch Massive, Fantômette, Léonie Pernet


House and kwaito in Johannesburg
Videos
Love Can't Turn Around

Books & Articles
"No easy rave to freedom" - The South African Youth Revolution (not cited in article, but more relevant than links to club websites)

posted by Going To Maine (24 comments total)

Very interesting, thanks!
posted by jeffburdges at 5:03 PM on January 28, 2014

Yes, very interesting. The photos look fun and make me wish I was a younger, party like a rockstar person.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:09 PM on January 28, 2014

Mefi's own.
posted by bibliogrrl at 5:10 PM on January 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Holy shit! I'm on the blue. Thanks bibliogrrl and Going to Maine. Now, y'all tell me where I !@#$ed up. I'm counting on you, MeFi...
posted by LMGM at 5:13 PM on January 28, 2014 [5 favorites]

(p.s., this FPP would have been amazing without my RA piece, btw. Thanks for the kickass framing, Going to Maine!)
posted by LMGM at 5:14 PM on January 28, 2014

Awesome post about a fantastic article. A better link for Loren/Goddollars is probably his Twitter, which is generally pretty amusing.
posted by cell divide at 5:19 PM on January 28, 2014

There's a lot to like about the RA piece, and this is a delightful post built around it. Woo.

I was happy to see friends/acquaintances involved in the newer parties mentioned at Smart Bar get a shout. Queen is pretty much my favorite regular party in Chicago at the moment... Assuming said friends don't get me drunk enough to make the following Monday uncomfortable (oof did that recent Frankie Knuckles birthday party shown in the last couple SMRTBR photos do a number on me). I'm not sure if I have a number 2, but Hugo Ball would be a definite candidate.

It did seem a little weird to skip on mentioning GHE20 GOTH1K or Fade To Mind when mentioning NYC or LA stuff (that said, I know a lot less about those scenes than Chicago), but I suppose the piece can only be so long, and the rest of it is so well-done that this is a minor complaint for me.
posted by sparkletone at 5:19 PM on January 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

By the way, for extra points: I'm in the background of one of the photos in the article, getting my smooch on. +10 MeFi points to whomever can find me. It's like Where's Waldo with a queer Latino dude!

And thanks for the mention of GHE20 GOTH1K and Fade to Mind, @sparkletone. As you surmised, there were limits on length (as it is, this article is WAY over RA's usual word-count limits). And a lot of what I covered was decided by who was available to speak with me, what cities I know more about (like Chicago & Paris), and what events I've been to. But I think it's actually a great sign that there's currently too many interesting queer dance-y nightlife going on for any essay to cover it all; it's just remarkable that all of this sparkly queer nocturnal ferment remains mostly hidden when "EDM" has become such a mainstream thing.
posted by LMGM at 5:40 PM on January 28, 2014 [4 favorites]

Really excited to read this, thanks :) (Makes me miss Shade...)
posted by en forme de poire at 5:51 PM on January 28, 2014

I'm in the background of one of the photos in the article, getting my smooch on.

As someone who's pathologically averse to having their photo taken, I'm glad I wasn't in the background of any of the smartbar photos. I usually either block my face or make sure I'm not going to be in frame, but accidents do happen...

And thanks for the mention of GHE20 GOTH1K and Fade to Mind, @sparkletone. As you surmised, there were limits on length (as it is, this article is WAY over RA's usual word-count limits)

Yeah. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the length/depth of this one. The most common response to one of RA's, typically quite brief, pieces on a specific city is, "How could you not mention $PERSON_PLACE_OR_THING!?!?!?!" The comment thread for the Chicago one a couple years ago is particularly hilarious in this regard. You did a great job with the space you had, given the amount of history and everything.
posted by sparkletone at 6:05 PM on January 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

Cool! That's my Medusa's piece, BTW, and here's my Warehouse one, also for RA.
posted by hyperizer at 7:15 PM on January 28, 2014

Also important to Chicago, Club LaRay and the Music Box.
posted by hyperizer at 7:18 PM on January 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Shoot, forgot the Bistro. OK, I'm done.
posted by hyperizer at 7:19 PM on January 28, 2014

Don't know if this fits, but I just found a doc on West-end record's Mel Cheren youtube.
posted by jade east at 7:35 PM on January 28, 2014

Speaking of Fade To Mind, a bunch of them are streaming some DJing right now.
posted by sparkletone at 7:39 PM on January 28, 2014

Wow! Exciting to discover that I've posted something with two authors on MeFi. In truth, for the Medusa's link I just mined the original RA article; my ability to google was failing me, and there was this huge article about the place right there. Now I'll have to read all those other RA features... (I've also just located this article on Medusa's, so my internet search abilities have perhaps returned.)
posted by Going To Maine at 8:56 PM on January 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Dance music was born in LGBT communities, but has this been forgotten?

Not by anyone with ears or a brain, no.

why do today's audiences need to be reminded of it?

Is this a thing.
Sadly, I am old enough to remember disco, and so between YMCA and Sylvester, I am surprised there is any question of this fact. But I am old and unhip.

"We're currently experiencing a total mainstreaming of dance music in America," he says.

It's like that horrid Macklemore person winning that rap award and having the audacity to be WHITE.
(I know, shocking, but I saw a mainstream website wail about that.)

Things change, as they do. The bigger absorbs the smaller.

Fantastic article though LMGM. I am not a fan of gay club culture (because this is the music it gets played at more often than not, and it is far from my specific tastes), and I am not especially interested, but I enjoyed the article anyway because it's interesting to place things in some sort of context, especially since I've always thought gay culture's role in influencing the sorts of places I went to may have been over-stated. Perhaps not.
posted by Mezentian at 2:56 AM on January 29, 2014

Lovely to read the history of lesbian clubbing in Paris, it's very true that it is declining, even La Rosa Bonheur is mostly men on their mixed nights. Hadn't heard of Le Pulp before so nice to have another place to check out.
posted by ellieBOA at 3:59 AM on January 29, 2014

Promomixes is a relevant recent mix series. The concept was that each DJ should pick a club and a year, and put together the mix that they would have passed off to the promoter in order to get booked there.
posted by Hubajube at 6:30 AM on January 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

That site (while sparse) could be an FPP! Looks great.
posted by Going To Maine at 6:49 AM on January 29, 2014

This article from Fact should probably go here: The Essential… Terre Thaemlitz
posted by Going To Maine at 10:12 PM on January 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

From The Guardian: Acid house and the dawn of a rave new world
posted by Going To Maine at 9:31 AM on February 23, 2014

So, it's nearly a month later, but for those who dig Terre Thaemlitz's critical interventions, here's the full, unabridged interview that I conducted with her for the article. I sent him a few questions, and this 6,500-word missive is what I got back.
posted by LMGM at 12:25 PM on February 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

WOO.
posted by Going To Maine at 12:37 PM on February 27, 2014 [1 favorite]