Videri - User contributions [en]

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

2017-10-04T15:38:23Z

Cjackson122:

{{Infobox book
| name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983
| author = Tim Lawrence
| publisher = Duke University Press
| pub_date = 2016
| pages = 600
| isbn = 9780822361862
| image = [[File:LADOTNYDF.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

When the subject of disco is covered in many non-dance music focused historical texts, typically only its death at
[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Steve_Dahl Steve Dahl's] infamous [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Disco_Demolition_Night Disco Demolition Night] is discussed. While there have been many books that cover the cultural histories of the rise of fall of disco of disco, such as Peter Shapiro’s [https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Beat-Around-History-Disco/dp/0571219233 ''Turn the Beat Around''] and Alice Echols’ [https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Stuff-Remaking-American-Culture/dp/0393338916 ''Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture''], there have been relatively few texts which fully investigate what happened to the disco scene and its key players after its collapse. Rarer still are history books that attempt to “bridge the gap”, or explain how and why dance music culture changed from the 1970s to the 1980s and how it changed American culture. Tim Lawrence’s 2003 book, [https://www.amazon.com/Love-Saves-Day-American-1970-1979/dp/0822331985 ''Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture''], begins to explain these key concepts in the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, but of course far more detailed analysis is required to understand the true significance of post-disco era.

Tim Lawrence’s ''Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983'' concerns a transitional era in American history and how the change in national politics, the shift from industrialism to post-industrialism to neo-liberalism, the shock of the “death” of disco, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic, forever changed New York City’s -- and by extension the world’s -- urban nightlife and popular culture. At its core, Life and Death is a chronicle of New York City’s “lost” post-disco era and how these socio-political and economic changes along with cultural pluralism, multicultural appreciation, and artistic experimentation intermingled to birth not only a creative and active community but also a unique and vibrant nightlife in New York City in the early 1980s. In addition, through extensive use of oral history, Lawrence argues that some of the participants of the post-disco era had a troubled relationship with disco -- many of them still loved it, but because of big label “gentrification” of the sound and venues and the removal of blackness from it sonically and in some cases physically, many abandoned it for something to call their own. [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Universal_Zulu_Nation Zulu Nation’s] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Afrika_Islam Afrika Islam] explains in an interview with Lawrence, “We were anti-disco because disco was John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Studio_54 Studio 54]...We were wearing Levi’s jeans and Pumas so we didn’t look like John Travolta, but it didn’t mean we didn’t listen to the music or dance to it.” (94) Furthermore, ''Life and Death'' explains how this community and the events following disco’s “collapse” in particular are responsible for the rise of several new popular music and art genres, including hip-hop.

The narrative is not without fault, however. As dance music culture is largely ephemeral, Lawrence’s narrative relies heavily on oral history, which he admits, “relies heavily on recollections that can only be filtered through the present and are to varying degrees partial.” (13) It should be understood that these oral histories are taken from people who spent many late nights on the town with all the vices that it offers. As such, some of the accounts are very general, and to be taken with a grain of salt. However, Lawrence’s reliance on oral histories and club tracklistings provide the reader with a deep understanding of the ephemeral and often visceral nature of dance music culture. Although rich detail is welcome, Lawrence at times offers too much detail and introduces so many colorful characters and lists of celebrity club goers and performers that it often obfuscates his main arguments. Furthermore, he rarely uses specific statistics when discussing economics. In doing so, the book sometimes reads more like a learned cultural tour of New York’s early 1980s underground dance music scene, rather than a concise laser focused historiographic. Still, Lawrence gives us quite a bit of cultural history with economic sociopolitical commentary worth reading.

Lawrence makes several arguments -- to varying success -- in ''Life and Death''. Most important of these is that the dance music community in New York City in the early 1980s fostered a “cultural renaissance...that stands as one of the most influential in its, and perhaps any city’s history.” (13) The renaissance was only possible because of the low rents, which were a result of the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial city. Lawrence further argues that the dance music scene’s ultimate collapse was a result in part because of the increase in property values after [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ed_Koch Mayor Ed Koch] introduced neoliberal policies, spurned by the Reagan Administration’s $700 billion budget cut which, “introduced generous tax abatements worth several hundred of millions of dollars to property developers in an attempt to create future employment and revenue streams that would help the disadvantaged.” (133) These policies, as Lawrence argues, were a reaction to perceived and realized economic failures of the 1970s and were the start of a mass gentrification of New York’s cultural center. (11)

Lawrence also takes great effort to argue that cultural amalgamation and social networks within the community were the engine that built the post-disco cultural renaissance, so much so that it really is the star theme of the narrative. In several instances and in a variety of ways, he explains that “the party culture of the early 1980s is of interest not in spite of its lack of generic clarity but because its itinerant leanings opened up so many social and sonic possibilities.” (9) These social and sonic possibilities were also economic boons for the communities, not only because of the many new dance clubs that opened and attracted people from all walks of life as he describes in part III, but also due to major labels abandoning dance music sales almost entirely. In his discussion about the decline of major label interest in disco music in the late 1970s, Lawrence explains that independent record labels seized the opportunity of the new dance music boom in the early 1980s, where large record labels were, “oblivious to the dance storm that was about to unfold.” (25) New and independent labels like [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/ZE_Records ZE Records,] which championed a new kind of American dance music -- a blend of disco, punk, new wave, funk and Latin ethnic dance music -- or “mutant disco,” and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prelude_Records_(record_label) Prelude Records,] which “distanced [itself] from disco’s commercially driven lurch into join-the-dots monotony by ramping up the funk and R&B elements of their output.” (110) He further explains that as late as 1982, “The relative absence of the corporates provided labels such as [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Island_Records Island,] Prelude, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sleeping_Bag_Records Sleeping Bag,] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tommy_Boy_Records Tommy Boy,] and ZE with the kind of market freedom that had last existed during the first half of the 1970s, when the majors were even more clueless about the percolating energy that was coursing through the city’s nascent DJ-led dance scene.”(337) Not to mention the several hip-hop independents, like Sugar Hill Records, that started during the same period.

As readers, we have the benefit of knowledge of history. In particular, we now know the overall successes and failures of these labels and the culture after the early 80s. Unfortunately, Lawrence does not provide specifics on the economics of these record labels. We are only given only implications -- major label disinterest in disco after the collapse, the music’s quick adoption by radio, anecdotes of a few thousand copies sold in a few record shops near [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Paradise_Garage Paradise Garage,] and repeated mention of these labels throughout the work. It is hard to determine precisely how successful these labels were in comparison to the major labels because of the lack of specific financial data. Its inclusion would have strengthened his argument.

The book is separated into 4 main parts, each covering approximately one year, with several thematic chapters in each section. In part I, Lawrence argues that while Americans were reeling from political scandal, war, and economic uncertainty in the late 1979, discos still maintained an audience because New York, “housed the highest concentration of gay men, people of color and women in the United States,” who were also the foundation of the early disco movement in the 1970s, many of whom adopted New York’s disco scene as a way of life. (14) Lawrence further explains that because New York was already a cultural hub and because rents remained low, artists and musicians could live cheaply in the city and pursue their art and participate in the city’s nightly offerings rather easily. Following that, the high concentration of creatives from all walks of life frequented the myriad of nightlife offerings. In the loud colorful dance clubs, patrons often formed diverse social networks and collaborated on art, music, and politics. Many of these collaborations were unimaginable amalgamations of ideas -- in art, music, politics, and culture that previously did not exist. Lawrence argues, “Already widespread during the first half of the 1970s and reinvigorated when the big money drained out of disco, the democratic modus operandi of its party spaces contributed to the city’s integration and sense of well-being by encouraging people from different backgrounds to meet and get along in an informal setting.” (132)

[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mudd_Club The Mudd Club,] founded by Steve Mass, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Club_57 Club 57,] curated by [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ann_Magnuson Ann Magnuson,] and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Danceteria Pravada] founded by Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper are central to part I’s narrative. Lawrence argues that these clubs were ground zero of cultural melding and artistic evolution in New York’s subterranean dance music scene. Lawrence explains that these clubs were places “where a small amount of capital unleashed a disproportionate amount of cultural capital.”(59) He also discusses the continued importance of [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/David_Mancuso David Mancuso’s Loft,] a holdover from the pre-disco era -- and central focus of ''Love Saves the Day'' -- and Paradise Garage, where DJ [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Larry_Levan Larry Levan] introduced black gay patrons to a variety of new sounds. The philosophies of all of these people helped to shape and define the post-disco era. Lawrence explains that “even if it was inevitably incomplete and flawed, the shift toward democracy and integration was hardly coincidental inasmuch as Mancuso was a self-identifying child of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rainbow_Coalition_(Fred_Hampton) Rainbow Coalition;] ...Mass drew on [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Situationist_International Situationism], punk, the downtown art scene, civil rights, and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Third-wave_feminism third-wave feminism;] Magnuson was imbued with the ethos of the countercultural movement and iconoclastic theater; Fouratt was a co-founder of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Youth_International_Party Yippies] and the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gay_Liberation_Front# Gay Liberation Front;] and Piper cultivated a philosophy of decadent freedom that rejected outmoded institutions and practices.” (132) Lawrence showcases the importance of each club proprietor philosophy by explaining how those philosophies helped to create the identities of each club -- and by extension the cultural renaissance in New York during this era.

Part II details the fruits of the collaborations made in part I. It concerns the rise of hip-hop, art collaboration between high art and so-called lowbrow graffiti, and the acceptance of musical and artistic collaboration by patrons and the mainstream and the shift from live instrumentation to drum machines and synthesizers in dance music. Here again, Lawrence uses expansive oral histories to detail various collaborative art shows, film, and the increase in club openings in 1981. While the oral histories are interesting, He does not provide specifics where necessary. For example, in his discussion of the “explosion of clubs”, Lawrence lists an exhaustive list of new clubs that opened in 1981, but he fails to provide any details on how much opening one of these clubs actually costs attendance or operating budgets. Favoring the pure oral history style, Lawrence quotes an anecdote from Steve Mass instead: “Everyone was starting a club based on the fact that it cost no money. One of my bartenders went down the block and started doing nights in a strip club.” (158) In the closing chapter of part II, Lawrence explains many of the political, social and economic forces that would eventually bring this era to a close, namely the Reagan administration’s abandonment of a strong federal government, Koch’s neo-liberal economic plan to draw more tax revenue from real estate developers, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. In contrast, as Lawrence explains, “The surging real estate market would go on to suffocate large sections of the city’s party scene, but for now, the scene continued to flourish.” (246) Lawrence’s use of oral history is very effective here -- it not only gives us the sequence of events as historical narratives generally do, but it also gives us a sense of what New York scenesters were feeling in late 1981. Many of the quotes used in Part II’s closing pages describe the virus as a mystery with a hint of fear and anxiety.

Part III and IV cover the final 2 years of the cultural renaissance, which focuses on the spread of cultural convergence, and then the overall decline of the scene in 1983. Lawrence argues that in 1982, the idea of cultural mixing hit its high point, that across three categories, musical, social and production, mixing of cultures was ubiquitous. Part III continues Lawrence’s argument of how diverse patrons of social clubs came together to exchange ideas and collaborate, but also covers how DJs attracted new clientele by eschewing formulaic commercial disco beats in favor of a wide-ranging musical program, and how studio producers “explored mixing as a form of sonic integration that could inspire parallel social developments” (341) Because of this cultural integration, Lawrence argues, “the New York sound also assumed a kaleidoscopic brilliance that crossed between genres as it surged through dance floors, boom boxes, and car stereos. It had, quite simply, come to embody and express the diversity and complexity of the city’s population.” (342)

In the final segment of ''Life or Death'', titled “The Genesis of Division,” Lawrence discusses how the AIDS, crack, lack of federal assistance not only decimated the community but also stifled, what seemed to be at the time, a new cultural juggernaut. In the chapter “Sex and Death,” Lawrence does not make much of an argument, but he does provide a relief map of the reactions of gay male club patrons to the growing AIDS crisis. At [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Saint_(club) The Saint nightclub,] some wanted to continue with their sexual freedom, while others, frightened by virus stigmatized them. Paradise Garage, one of the most famous clubs of the disco and post-disco era lost many patrons to the disease. In one interview quote, the interviewee states: “Lots of people died, a lot were sick, and a lot of the friends of the members who had died or were sick stopped coming because it was too painful to go to a place with so many memories of the fun times they had enjoyed with their friends and lovers.” (426) Again, Lawrence’s use of oral history interviews here is deeply impactful, as it gives the reader a visceral feeling that all of the inspirational convergence and optimism of the previous years was indeed coming to an end.

Continuing with the theme of the end of the scene, and a bittersweet reversal of trends during this era, Lawrence covers the release of Michael Jackson’s ''Thriller'' to highlight how the commercial music industry co-opted the sonic collaborative efforts of the New York scene which led to corporate label’s renewed interest in dance music. Unfortunately, they made the same kinds of profit inspired mistakes as they did at the end of the disco era: a glut of formulaic dance music that almost always featured white and European artists, rather than African-American artists. Lawrence states, “although more dance records were coming out than at any time since 1979, a higher percentage were deemed unplayable by New York’s party DJs than had been the case at any time since the peak of disco.” (437)

Furthermore, Lawrence argues that at the time MTV was also a contributor to the scene’s demise. First, he explains that MTV was guilty of taking blackness out of popular music because of the channel’s refusal to air black rhythm and blues videos during the station’s infancy. Following that, Lawrence describes how the national appeal of MTV forced some club owners to adapt to mimicking trends shown on the channel -- a large departure from the grassroots collaborative culture that had grown in the city in years prior. Of course, led to many of the scene’s founders to lose interest.

Lawrence’s book is filled with a staggering level of detail of four years of a city’s nightlife. In the epilogue, he is somewhat defiant and hopeful, explaining that in his visit to some of the old sites of dance music history, a majority are totally gentrified and the old creative energies have moved to the outskirts of the city to Williamsburg. Yet, he feels that it is possible for the “full-throttle expressivity and immersive community,” that “forged a democratic, pluralistic movement that seemed to know no limit,” of early 80s New York can happen again, although he provides no specifics ideas on how to accomplish that daunting task. (473) His solution is to hope -- that based on people’s current desire to dance, listen to music, and collaborate they will eventually want to recreate this golden era again -- under the “right conditions”. (474) In a sense, ''Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor'' is a guide as much as it is a history book.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]

[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Tim Lawrence]]

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

2017-10-04T15:36:40Z

Cjackson122:

{{Infobox book
| name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983
| author = Tim Lawrence
| publisher = Duke University Press
| pub_date = 2016
| pages = 600
| isbn = 9780822361862
| image = [[File:LADOTNYDF.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

When the subject of disco is covered in many non-dance music focused historical texts, typically only its death at
[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Steve_Dahl Steve Dahl's] infamous [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Disco_Demolition_Night Disco Demolition Night] is discussed. While there have been many books that cover the cultural histories of the rise of fall of disco of disco, such as Peter Shapiro’s [https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Beat-Around-History-Disco/dp/0571219233 ''Turn the Beat Around''] and Alice Echols’ [https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Stuff-Remaking-American-Culture/dp/0393338916 ''Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture''], there have been relatively few texts which fully investigate what happened to the disco scene and its key players after its collapse. Rarer still are history books that attempt to “bridge the gap”, or explain how and why dance music culture changed from the 1970s to the 1980s and how it changed American culture. Tim Lawrence’s 2003 book, [https://www.amazon.com/Love-Saves-Day-American-1970-1979/dp/0822331985 ''Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture''], begins to explain these key concepts in the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, but of course far more detailed analysis is required to understand the true significance of post-disco era.

Tim Lawrence’s ''Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983'' concerns a transitional era in American history and how the change in national politics, the shift from industrialism to post-industrialism to neo-liberalism, the shock of the “death” of disco, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic, forever changed New York City’s -- and by extension the world’s -- urban nightlife and popular culture. At its core, Life and Death is a chronicle of New York City’s “lost” post-disco era and how these socio-political and economic changes along with cultural pluralism, multicultural appreciation, and artistic experimentation intermingled to birth not only a creative and active community but also a unique and vibrant nightlife in New York City in the early 1980s. In addition, through extensive use of oral history, Lawrence argues that some of the participants of the post-disco era had a troubled relationship with disco -- many of them still loved it, but because of big label “gentrification” of the sound and venues and the removal of blackness from it sonically and in some cases physically, many abandoned it for something to call their own. [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Universal_Zulu_Nation Zulu Nation’s] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Afrika_Islam Afrika Islam] explains in an interview with Lawrence, “We were anti-disco because disco was John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Studio_54 Studio 54]...We were wearing Levi’s jeans and Pumas so we didn’t look like John Travolta, but it didn’t mean we didn’t listen to the music or dance to it.” (94) Furthermore, ''Life and Death'' explains how this community and the events following disco’s “collapse” in particular are responsible for the rise of several new popular music and art genres, including hip-hop.

The narrative is not without fault, however. As dance music culture is largely ephemeral, Lawrence’s narrative relies heavily on oral history, which he admits, “relies heavily on recollections that can only be filtered through the present and are to varying degrees partial.” (13) It should be understood that these oral histories are taken from people who spent many late nights on the town with all the vices that it offers. As such, some of the accounts are very general, and to be taken with a grain of salt. However, Lawrence’s reliance on oral histories and club tracklistings provide the reader with a deep understanding of the ephemeral and often visceral nature of dance music culture. Although rich detail is welcome, Lawrence at times offers too much detail and introduces so many colorful characters and lists of celebrity club goers and performers that it often obfuscates his main arguments. Furthermore, he rarely uses specific statistics when discussing economics. In doing so, the book sometimes reads more like a learned cultural tour of New York’s early 1980s underground dance music scene, rather than a concise laser focused historiographic. Still, Lawrence gives us quite a bit of cultural history with economic sociopolitical commentary worth reading.

Lawrence makes several arguments -- to varying success -- in ''Life and Death''. Most important of these is that the dance music community in New York City in the early 1980s fostered a “cultural renaissance...that stands as one of the most influential in its, and perhaps any city’s history.” (13) The renaissance was only possible because of the low rents, which were a result of the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial city. Lawrence further argues that the dance music scene’s ultimate collapse was a result in part because of the increase in property values after [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ed_Koch Mayor Ed Koch] introduced neoliberal policies, spurned by the Reagan Administration’s $700 billion budget cut which, “introduced generous tax abatements worth several hundred of millions of dollars to property developers in an attempt to create future employment and revenue streams that would help the disadvantaged.” (133) These policies, as Lawrence argues, were a reaction to perceived and realized economic failures of the 1970s and were the start of a mass gentrification of New York’s cultural center. (11)

Lawrence also takes great effort to argue that cultural amalgamation and social networks within the community were the engine that built the post-disco cultural renaissance, so much so that it really is the star theme of the narrative. In several instances and in a variety of ways, he explains that “the party culture of the early 1980s is of interest not in spite of its lack of generic clarity but because its itinerant leanings opened up so many social and sonic possibilities.” (9) These social and sonic possibilities were also economic boons for the communities, not only because of the many new dance clubs that opened and attracted people from all walks of life as he describes in part III, but also due to major labels abandoning dance music sales almost entirely. In his discussion about the decline of major label interest in disco music in the late 1970s, Lawrence explains that independent record labels seized the opportunity of the new dance music boom in the early 1980s, where large record labels were, “oblivious to the dance storm that was about to unfold.” (25) New and independent labels like [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/ZE_Records ZE Records,] which championed a new kind of American dance music -- a blend of disco, punk, new wave, funk and Latin ethnic dance music -- or “mutant disco,” and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prelude_Records_(record_label) Prelude Records,] which “distanced [itself] from disco’s commercially driven lurch into join-the-dots monotony by ramping up the funk and R&B elements of their output.” (110) He further explains that as late as 1982, “The relative absence of the corporates provided labels such as [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Island_Records Island,] Prelude, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sleeping_Bag_Records Sleeping Bag,] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tommy_Boy_Records Tommy Boy,] and ZE with the kind of market freedom that had last existed during the first half of the 1970s, when the majors were even more clueless about the percolating energy that was coursing through the city’s nascent DJ-led dance scene.”(337) Not to mention the several hip-hop independents, like Sugar Hill Records, that started during the same period.

As readers, we have the benefit of knowledge of history. In particular, we now know the overall successes and failures of these labels and the culture after the early 80s. Unfortunately, Lawrence does not provide specifics on the economics of these record labels. We are only given only implications -- major label disinterest in disco after the collapse, the music’s quick adoption by radio, anecdotes of a few thousand copies sold in a few record shops near [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Paradise_Garage Paradise Garage,] and repeated mention of these labels throughout the work. It is hard to determine precisely how successful these labels were in comparison to the major labels because of the lack of specific financial data. Its inclusion would have strengthened his argument.

The book is separated into 4 main parts, each covering approximately one year, with several thematic chapters in each section. In part I, Lawrence argues that while Americans were reeling from political scandal, war, and economic uncertainty in the late 1979, discos still maintained an audience because New York, “housed the highest concentration of gay men, people of color and women in the United States,” who were also the foundation of the early disco movement in the 1970s, many of whom adopted New York’s disco scene as a way of life. (14) Lawrence further explains that because New York was already a cultural hub and because rents remained low, artists and musicians could live cheaply in the city and pursue their art and participate in the city’s nightly offerings rather easily. Following that, the high concentration of creatives from all walks of life frequented the myriad of nightlife offerings. In the loud colorful dance clubs, patrons often formed diverse social networks and collaborated on art, music, and politics. Many of these collaborations were unimaginable amalgamations of ideas -- in art, music, politics, and culture that previously did not exist. Lawrence argues, “Already widespread during the first half of the 1970s and reinvigorated when the big money drained out of disco, the democratic modus operandi of its party spaces contributed to the city’s integration and sense of well-being by encouraging people from different backgrounds to meet and get along in an informal setting.” (132)

[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mudd_Club The Mudd Club,] founded by Steve Mass, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Club_57 Club 57,] curated by [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ann_Magnuson Ann Magnuson,] and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Danceteria Pravada] founded by Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper are central to part I’s narrative. Lawrence argues that these clubs were ground zero of cultural melding and artistic evolution in New York’s subterranean dance music scene. Lawrence explains that these clubs were places “where a small amount of capital unleashed a disproportionate amount of cultural capital.”(59) He also discusses the continued importance of [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/David_Mancuso David Mancuso’s Loft,] a holdover from the pre-disco era -- and central focus of ''Love Saves the Day'' -- and Paradise Garage, where DJ [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Larry_Levan Larry Levan] introduced black gay patrons to a variety of new sounds. The philosophies of all of these people helped to shape and define the post-disco era. Lawrence explains that “even if it was inevitably incomplete and flawed, the shift toward democracy and integration was hardly coincidental inasmuch as Mancuso was a self-identifying child of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rainbow_Coalition_(Fred_Hampton) Rainbow Coalition;] ...Mass drew on [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Situationist_International Situationism], punk, the downtown art scene, civil rights, and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Third-wave_feminism third-wave feminism;] Magnuson was imbued with the ethos of the countercultural movement and iconoclastic theater; Fouratt was a co-founder of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Youth_International_Party Yippies] and the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gay_Liberation_Front# Gay Liberation Front;] and Piper cultivated a philosophy of decadent freedom that rejected outmoded institutions and practices.” (132) Lawrence showcases the importance of each club proprietor philosophy by explaining how those philosophies helped to create the identities of each club -- and by extension the cultural renaissance in New York during this era.

Part II details the fruits of the collaborations made in part I. It concerns the rise of hip-hop, art collaboration between high art and so-called lowbrow graffiti, and the acceptance of musical and artistic collaboration by patrons and the mainstream and the shift from live instrumentation to drum machines and synthesizers in dance music. Here again, Lawrence uses expansive oral histories to detail various collaborative art shows, film, and the increase in club openings in 1981. While the oral histories are interesting, He does not provide specifics where necessary. For example, in his discussion of the “explosion of clubs”, Lawrence lists an exhaustive list of new clubs that opened in 1981, but he fails to provide any details on how much opening one of these clubs actually costs attendance or operating budgets. Favoring the pure oral history style, Lawrence quotes an anecdote from Steve Mass instead: “Everyone was starting a club based on the fact that it cost no money. One of my bartenders went down the block and started doing nights in a strip club.” (158) In the closing chapter of part II, Lawrence explains many of the political, social and economic forces that would eventually bring this era to a close, namely the Reagan administration’s abandonment of a strong federal government, Koch’s neo-liberal economic plan to draw more tax revenue from real estate developers, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. In contrast, as Lawrence explains, “The surging real estate market would go on to suffocate large sections of the city’s party scene, but for now, the scene continued to flourish.” (246) Lawrence’s use of oral history is very effective here -- it not only gives us the sequence of events as historical narratives generally do, but it also gives us a sense of what New York scenesters were feeling in late 1981. Many of the quotes used in Part II’s closing pages describe the virus as a mystery with a hint of fear and anxiety.

Part III and IV cover the final 2 years of the cultural renaissance, which focuses on the spread of cultural convergence, and then the overall decline of the scene in 1983. Lawrence argues that in 1982, the idea of cultural mixing hit its high point, that across three categories, musical, social and production, mixing of cultures was ubiquitous. Part III continues Lawrence’s argument of how diverse patrons of social clubs came together to exchange ideas and collaborate, but also covers how DJs attracted new clientele by eschewing formulaic commercial disco beats in favor of a wide-ranging musical program, and how studio producers “explored mixing as a form of sonic integration that could inspire parallel social developments” (341) Because of this cultural integration, Lawrence argues, “the New York sound also assumed a kaleidoscopic brilliance that crossed between genres as it surged through dance floors, boom boxes, and car stereos. It had, quite simply, come to embody and express the diversity and complexity of the city’s population.” (342)

In the final segment of ''Life or Death'', titled “The Genesis of Division,” Lawrence discusses how the AIDS, crack, lack of federal assistance not only decimated the community but also stifled, what seemed to be at the time, a new cultural juggernaut. In the chapter “Sex and Death,” Lawrence does not make much of an argument, but he does provide a relief map of the reactions of gay male club patrons to the growing AIDS crisis. At [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Saint_(club) The Saint nightclub,] some wanted to continue with their sexual freedom, while others, frightened by virus stigmatized them. Paradise Garage, one of the most famous clubs of the disco and post-disco era lost many patrons to the disease. In one interview quote, the interviewee states: “Lots of people died, a lot were sick, and a lot of the friends of the members who had died or were sick stopped coming because it was too painful to go to a place with so many memories of the fun times they had enjoyed with their friends and lovers.” (426) Again, Lawrence’s use of oral history interviews here is deeply impactful, as it gives the reader a visceral feeling that all of the inspirational convergence and optimism of the previous years was indeed coming to an end.

Continuing with the theme of the end of the scene, and a bittersweet reversal of trends during this era, Lawrence covers the release of Michael Jackson’s ''Thriller'' to highlight how the commercial music industry co-opted the sonic collaborative efforts of the New York scene which led to corporate label’s renewed interest in dance music. Unfortunately, they made the same kinds of profit inspired mistakes as the end of the disco era: a glut of formulaic dance music that almost always featured white and European artists, rather than African-American artists. Lawrence states, “although more dance records were coming out than at any time since 1979, a higher percentage were deemed unplayable by New York’s party DJs than had been the case at any time since the peak of disco.” (437)

Furthermore, Lawrence argues that at the time MTV was also a contributor to the scene’s demise. First, he explains that MTV was guilty of taking blackness out of popular music because of the channel’s refusal to air black rhythm and blues videos during the station’s infancy. Following that, Lawrence describes how the national appeal of MTV forced some club owners to adapt to mimicking trends shown on the channel -- a large departure from the grassroots collaborative culture that had grown in the city in years prior. Of course, led to many of the scene’s founders to lose interest.

Lawrence’s book is filled with a staggering level of detail of four years of a city’s nightlife. In the epilogue, he is somewhat defiant and hopeful, explaining that in his visit to some of the old sites of dance music history, a majority are totally gentrified and the old creative energies have moved to the outskirts of the city to Williamsburg. Yet, he feels that it is possible for the “full-throttle expressivity and immersive community,” that “forged a democratic, pluralistic movement that seemed to know no limit,” of early 80s New York can happen again, although he provides no specifics ideas on how to accomplish that daunting task. (473) His solution is to hope -- that based on people’s current desire to dance, listen to music, and collaborate they will eventually want to recreate this golden era again -- under the “right conditions”. (474) In a sense, ''Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor'' is a guide as much as it is a history book.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]

[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Tim Lawrence]]

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

2017-10-04T15:35:13Z

Cjackson122:

{{Infobox book
| name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983
| author = Tim Lawrence
| publisher = Duke University Press
| pub_date = 2016
| pages = 600
| isbn = 9780822361862
| image = [[File:LADOTNYDF.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

When the subject of disco is covered in many non-dance music focused historical texts, typically only its death at
[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Steve_Dahl Steve Dahl's] infamous [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Disco_Demolition_Night Disco Demolition Night] is discussed. While there have been many books that cover the cultural histories of the rise of fall of disco of disco, such as Peter Shapiro’s [https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Beat-Around-History-Disco/dp/0571219233 ''Turn the Beat Around''] and Alice Echols’ [https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Stuff-Remaking-American-Culture/dp/0393338916 ''Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture''], there have been relatively few texts which fully investigate what happened to the disco scene and its key players after its collapse. Rarer still are history books that attempt to “bridge the gap”, or explain how and why dance music culture changed from the 1970s to the 1980s and how it changed American culture. Tim Lawrence’s 2003 book, [https://www.amazon.com/Love-Saves-Day-American-1970-1979/dp/0822331985 ''Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture''], begins to explain these key concepts in the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, but of course far more detailed analysis is required to understand the true significance of post-disco era.

Tim Lawrence’s ''Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983'' concerns a transitional era in American history and how the change in national politics, the shift from industrialism to post-industrialism to neo-liberalism, the shock of the “death” of disco, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic, forever changed New York City’s -- and by extension the world’s -- urban nightlife and popular culture. At its core, Life and Death is a chronicle of New York City’s “lost” post-disco era and how these socio-political and economic changes along with cultural pluralism, multicultural appreciation, and artistic experimentation intermingled to birth not only a creative and active community but also a unique and vibrant nightlife in New York City in the early 1980s. In addition, through extensive use of oral history, Lawrence argues that some of the participants of the post-disco era had a troubled relationship with disco -- many of them still loved it, but because of big label “gentrification” of the sound and venues and the removal of blackness from it sonically and in some cases physically, many abandoned it for something to call their own. [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Universal_Zulu_Nation Zulu Nation’s] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Afrika_Islam Afrika Islam] explains in an interview with Lawrence, “We were anti-disco because disco was John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Studio_54 Studio 54]...We were wearing Levi’s jeans and Pumas so we didn’t look like John Travolta, but it didn’t mean we didn’t listen to the music or dance to it.” (94) Furthermore, ''Life and Death'' explains how this community and the events following disco’s “collapse” in particular are responsible for the rise of several new popular music and art genres, including hip-hop.

The narrative is not without fault, however. As dance music culture is largely ephemeral, Lawrence’s narrative relies heavily on oral history, which he admits, “relies heavily on recollections that can only be filtered through the present and are to varying degrees partial.” (13) It should be understood that these oral histories are taken from people who spent many late nights on the town with all the vices that it offers. As such, some of the accounts are very general, and to be taken with a grain of salt. However, Lawrence’s reliance on oral histories and club tracklistings provide the reader with a deep understanding of the ephemeral and often visceral nature of dance music culture. Although rich detail is welcome, Lawrence at times offers too much detail and introduces so many colorful characters and lists of celebrity club goers and performers that it often obfuscates his main arguments. Furthermore, he rarely uses specific statistics when discussing economics. In doing so, the book sometimes reads more like a learned cultural tour of New York’s early 1980s underground dance music scene, rather than a concise laser focused historiographic. Still, Lawrence gives us quite a bit of cultural history with economic sociopolitical commentary worth reading.

Lawrence makes several arguments -- to varying success -- in ''Life and Death''. Most important of these is that the dance music community in New York City in the early 1980s fostered a “cultural renaissance...that stands as one of the most influential in its, and perhaps any city’s history.” (13) The renaissance was only possible because of the low rents, which were a result of the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial city. Lawrence further argues that the dance music scene’s ultimate collapse was a result in part because of the increase in property values after [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ed_Koch Mayor Ed Koch] introduced neoliberal policies, spurned by the Reagan Administration’s $700 billion budget cut which, “introduced generous tax abatements worth several hundred of millions of dollars to property developers in an attempt to create future employment and revenue streams that would help the disadvantaged.” (133) These policies, as Lawrence argues, were a reaction to perceived and realized economic failures of the 1970s and were the start of a mass gentrification of New York’s cultural center. (11)

Lawrence also takes great effort to argue that cultural amalgamation and social networks within the community were the engine that built the post-disco cultural renaissance, so much so that it really is the star theme of the narrative. In several instances and in a variety of ways, he explains that “the party culture of the early 1980s is of interest not in spite of its lack of generic clarity but because its itinerant leanings opened up so many social and sonic possibilities.” (9) These social and sonic possibilities were also economic boons for the communities, not only because of the many new dance clubs that opened and attracted people from all walks of life as he describes in part III, but also due to major labels abandoning dance music sales almost entirely. In his discussion about the decline of major label interest in disco music in the late 1970s, Lawrence explains that independent record labels seized the opportunity of the new dance music boom in the early 1980s, where large record labels were, “oblivious to the dance storm that was about to unfold.” (25) New and independent labels like [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/ZE_Records ZE Records,] which championed a new kind of American dance music -- a blend of disco, punk, new wave, funk and Latin ethnic dance music -- or “mutant disco,” and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prelude_Records_(record_label) Prelude Records,] which “distanced [itself] from disco’s commercially driven lurch into join-the-dots monotony by ramping up the funk and R&B elements of their output.” (110) He further explains that as late as 1982, “The relative absence of the corporates provided labels such as [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Island_Records Island,] Prelude, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sleeping_Bag_Records Sleeping Bag,] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tommy_Boy_Records Tommy Boy,] and ZE with the kind of market freedom that had last existed during the first half of the 1970s, when the majors were even more clueless about the percolating energy that was coursing through the city’s nascent DJ-led dance scene.”(337) Not to mention the several hip-hop independents, like Sugar Hill Records, that started during the same period.

As readers, we have the benefit of knowledge of history. In particular, we now know the overall successes and failures of these labels and the culture after the early 80s. Unfortunately, Lawrence does not provide specifics on the economics of these record labels. We are only given only implications -- major label disinterest in disco after the collapse, the music’s quick adoption by radio, anecdotes of a few thousand copies sold in a few record shops near [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Paradise_Garage Paradise Garage,] and repeated mention of these labels throughout the work. It is hard to determine precisely how successful these labels were in comparison to the major labels because of the lack of specific financial data. Its inclusion would have strengthened his argument.

The book is separated into 4 main parts, each covering approximately one year, with several thematic chapters in each section. In part I, Lawrence argues that while Americans were reeling from political scandal, war, and economic uncertainty in the late 1979, discos still maintained an audience because New York, “housed the highest concentration of gay men, people of color and women in the United States,” who were also the foundation of the early disco movement in the 1970s, many of whom adopted New York’s disco scene as a way of life. (14) Lawrence further explains that because New York was already a cultural hub and because rents remained low, artists and musicians could live cheaply in the city and pursue their art and participate in the city’s nightly offerings rather easily. Following that, the high concentration of creatives from all walks of life frequented the myriad of nightlife offerings. In the loud colorful dance clubs, patrons often formed diverse social networks and collaborated on art, music, and politics. Many of these collaborations were unimaginable amalgamations of ideas -- in art, music, politics, and culture that previously did not exist. Lawrence argues, “Already widespread during the first half of the 1970s and reinvigorated when the big money drained out of disco, the democratic modus operandi of its party spaces contributed to the city’s integration and sense of well-being by encouraging people from different backgrounds to meet and get along in an informal setting.” (132)

[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mudd_Club The Mudd Club,] founded by Steve Mass, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Club_57 Club 57,] curated by [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ann_Magnuson Ann Magnuson,] and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Danceteria Pravada] founded by Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper are central to part I’s narrative. Lawrence argues that these clubs were ground zero of cultural melding and artistic evolution in New York’s subterranean dance music scene. Lawrence explains that these clubs were places “where a small amount of capital unleashed a disproportionate amount of cultural capital.”(59) He also discusses the continued importance of [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/David_Mancuso David Mancuso’s Loft,] a holdover from the pre-disco era -- and central focus of ''Love Saves the Day'' -- and Paradise Garage, where DJ [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Larry_Levan Larry Levan] introduced black gay patrons to a variety of new sounds. The philosophies of all of these people helped to shape and define the post-disco era. Lawrence explains that “even if it was inevitably incomplete and flawed, the shift toward democracy and integration was hardly coincidental inasmuch as Mancuso was a self-identifying child of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rainbow_Coalition_(Fred_Hampton) Rainbow Coalition;] ...Mass drew on [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Situationist_International Situationism], punk, the downtown art scene, civil rights, and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Third-wave_feminism third-wave feminism;] Magnuson was imbued with the ethos of the countercultural movement and iconoclastic theater; Fouratt was a co-founder of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Youth_International_Party Yippies] and the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gay_Liberation_Front# Gay Liberation Front;] and Piper cultivated a philosophy of decadent freedom that rejected outmoded institutions and practices.” (132) Lawrence showcases the importance of each club proprietor philosophy by explaining how those philosophies helped to create the identities of each club -- and by extension the cultural renaissance in New York during this era.

Part II details the fruits of the collaborations made in part I. It concerns the rise of hip-hop, art collaboration between high art and so-called lowbrow graffiti, and the acceptance of musical and artistic collaboration by patrons and the mainstream and the shift from live instrumentation to drum machines and synthesizers in dance music. Here again, Lawrence uses expansive oral histories to detail various collaborative art shows, film, and the increase in club openings in 1981. While the oral histories are interesting, He does not provide specifics where necessary. For example, in his discussion of the “explosion of clubs”, Lawrence lists an exhaustive list of new clubs that opened in 1981, but he fails to provide any details on how much opening one of these clubs actually costs attendance or operating budgets. Favoring the pure oral history style, Lawrence quotes an anecdote from Steve Mass instead: “Everyone was starting a club based on the fact that it cost no money. One of my bartenders went down the block and started doing nights in a strip club.” (158) In the closing chapter of part II, Lawrence explains many of the political, social and economic forces that would eventually bring this era to a close, namely the Reagan administration’s abandonment of a strong federal government, Koch’s neo-liberal economic plan to draw more tax revenue from real estate developers, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. In contrast, as Lawrence explains, “The surging real estate market would go on to suffocate large sections of the city’s party scene, but for now, the scene continued to flourish.” (246) Lawrence’s use of oral history is very effective here -- it not only gives us the sequence of events as historical narratives generally do, but it also gives us a sense of what New York scenesters were feeling in late 1981. Many of the quotes used in Part II’s closing pages describe the virus as a mystery with a hint of fear and anxiety.

Part III and IV cover the final 2 years of the cultural renaissance, which focuses on the spread of cultural convergence, and then the overall decline of the scene in 1983. Lawrence argues that in 1982, the idea of cultural mixing hit its high point, that across three categories, musical, social and production, mixing of cultures was ubiquitous. Part III continues Lawrence’s argument of how diverse patrons of social clubs came together to exchange ideas and collaborate, but also covers how DJs attracted new clientele by eschewing formulaic commercial disco beats in favor of a wide-ranging musical program, and how studio producers “explored mixing as a form of sonic integration that could inspire parallel social developments” (341) Because of this cultural integration, Lawrence argues, “the New York sound also assumed a kaleidoscopic brilliance that crossed between genres as it surged through dance floors, boom boxes, and car stereos. It had, quite simply, come to embody and express the diversity and complexity of the city’s population.” (342)

In the final segment of ''Life or Death'', titled “The Genesis of Division,” Lawrence discusses how the AIDS, crack, lack of federal assistance not only decimated the community but also stifled, what seemed to be at the time, a new cultural juggernaut. In the chapter “Sex and Death,” Lawrence does not make much of an argument, but he does provide a relief map of the reactions of gay male club patrons to the growing AIDS crisis. At [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Saint_(club) The Saint nightclub,] some wanted to continue with their sexual freedom, while others, frightened by virus stigmatized them. Paradise Garage, one of the most famous clubs of the disco and post-disco era lost many patrons to the disease. In one interview quote, the interviewee states: “Lots of people died, a lot were sick, and a lot of the friends of the members who had died or were sick stopped coming because it was too painful to go to a place with so many memories of the fun times they had enjoyed with their friends and lovers.” (426) Again, Lawrence’s use of oral history interviews here is deeply impactful, as it gives the reader a visceral feeling that all of the inspirational convergence and optimism of the previous years was indeed coming to an end.

Continuing with the theme of the end of the scene, and a bittersweet reversal of trends during this era, Lawrence covers the release of Michael Jackson’s ''Thriller'' to highlight how the commercial music industry co-opted the sonic collaborative efforts of the New York scene which led to corporate label’s renewed interest in dance music. Unfortunately, they made the same kinds of profit inspired mistakes as the end of the disco era: formulaic dance music, almost always featuring white and European artists, rather than African-American artists. Lawrence states, “although more dance records were coming out than at any time since 1979, a higher percentage were deemed unplayable by New York’s party DJs than had been the case at any time since the peak of disco.” (437)

Furthermore, Lawrence argues that at the time MTV was also a contributor to the scene’s demise. First, he explains that MTV was guilty of taking blackness out of popular music because of the channel’s refusal to air black rhythm and blues videos during the station’s infancy. Following that, Lawrence describes how the national appeal of MTV forced some club owners to adapt to mimicking trends shown on the channel -- a large departure from the grassroots collaborative culture that had grown in the city in years prior. Of course, led to many of the scene’s founders to lose interest.

Lawrence’s book is filled with a staggering level of detail of four years of a city’s nightlife. In the epilogue, he is somewhat defiant and hopeful, explaining that in his visit to some of the old sites of dance music history, a majority are totally gentrified and the old creative energies have moved to the outskirts of the city to Williamsburg. Yet, he feels that it is possible for the “full-throttle expressivity and immersive community,” that “forged a democratic, pluralistic movement that seemed to know no limit,” of early 80s New York can happen again, although he provides no specifics ideas on how to accomplish that daunting task. (473) His solution is to hope -- that based on people’s current desire to dance, listen to music, and collaborate they will eventually want to recreate this golden era again -- under the “right conditions”. (474) In a sense, ''Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor'' is a guide as much as it is a history book.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]

[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Tim Lawrence]]

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

2017-10-04T14:53:37Z

Cjackson122:

{{Infobox book
| name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983
| author = Tim Lawrence
| publisher = Duke University Press
| pub_date = 2016
| pages = 600
| isbn = 9780822361862
| image = [[File:LADOTNYDF.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

When the subject of disco is covered in many non-dance music focused historical texts, typically only its death at
[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Steve_Dahl Steve Dahl's] infamous [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Disco_Demolition_Night Disco Demolition Night] is discussed. While there have been many books that cover the cultural histories of the rise of fall of disco of disco, such as Peter Shapiro’s [https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Beat-Around-History-Disco/dp/0571219233 ''Turn the Beat Around''] and Alice Echols’ [https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Stuff-Remaking-American-Culture/dp/0393338916 ''Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture''], there have been relatively few texts which fully investigate what happened to the disco scene and its key players after its collapse. Rarer still are history books that attempt to “bridge the gap”, or explain how and why dance music culture changed from the 1970s to the 1980s and how it changed American culture. Tim Lawrence’s 2003 book, [https://www.amazon.com/Love-Saves-Day-American-1970-1979/dp/0822331985 ''Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture''], begins to explain these key concepts in the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, but of course far more detailed analysis is required to understand the true significance of post-disco era.

Tim Lawrence’s ''Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983'' concerns a transitional era in American history and how the change in national politics, the shift from industrialism to post-industrialism to neo-liberalism, the shock of the “death” of disco, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic, forever changed New York City’s -- and by extension the world’s -- urban nightlife and popular culture. At its core, Life and Death is a chronicle of New York City’s “lost” post-disco era and how these socio-political and economic changes along with cultural pluralism, multicultural appreciation, and artistic experimentation intermingled to birth not only a creative and active community but also a unique and vibrant nightlife in New York City in the early 1980s. In addition, through extensive use of oral history, Lawrence argues that some of the participants of the post-disco era had a troubled relationship with disco -- many of them still loved it, but because of big label “gentrification” of the sound and venues and the removal of blackness from it sonically and in some cases physically, many abandoned it for something to call their own. [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Universal_Zulu_Nation Zulu Nation’s] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Afrika_Islam Afrika Islam] explains in an interview with Lawrence, “We were anti-disco because disco was John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Studio_54 Studio 54]...We were wearing Levi’s jeans and Pumas so we didn’t look like John Travolta, but it didn’t mean we didn’t listen to the music or dance to it.” (94) Furthermore, ''Life and Death'' explains how this community and the events following disco’s “collapse” in particular are responsible for the rise of several new popular music and art genres, including hip-hop.

The narrative is not without fault, however. As dance music culture is largely ephemeral, Lawrence’s narrative relies heavily on oral history, which he admits, “relies heavily on recollections that can only be filtered through the present and are to varying degrees partial.” (13) It should be understood that these oral histories are taken from people who spent many late nights on the town with all the vices that it offers. As such, some of the accounts are very general, and to be taken with a grain of salt. However, Lawrence’s reliance on oral histories and club tracklistings provide the reader with a deep understanding of the ephemeral and often visceral nature of dance music culture. Although rich detail is welcome, Lawrence at times offers too much detail and introduces so many colorful characters and lists of celebrity club goers and performers that it often obfuscates his main arguments. Furthermore, he rarely uses specific statistics when discussing economics. In doing so, the book sometimes reads more like a learned cultural tour of New York’s early 1980s underground dance music scene, rather than a concise laser focused historiographic. Still, Lawrence gives us quite a bit of cultural history with economic sociopolitical commentary worth reading.

Lawrence makes several arguments -- to varying success -- in ''Life and Death''. Most important of these is that the dance music community in New York City in the early 1980s fostered a “cultural renaissance...that stands as one of the most influential in its, and perhaps any city’s history.” (13) The renaissance was only possible because of the low rents, which were a result of the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial city. Lawrence further argues that the dance music scene’s ultimate collapse was a result in part because of the increase in property values after [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ed_Koch Mayor Ed Koch] introduced neoliberal policies, spurned by the Reagan Administration’s $700 billion budget cut which, “introduced generous tax abatements worth several hundred of millions of dollars to property developers in an attempt to create future employment and revenue streams that would help the disadvantaged.” (133) These policies, as Lawrence argues, were a reaction to perceived and realized economic failures of the 1970s and were the start of a mass gentrification of New York’s cultural center. (11)

Lawrence also takes great effort to argue that cultural amalgamation and social networks within the community were the engine that built the post-disco cultural renaissance, so much so that it really is the star theme of the narrative. In several instances and in a variety of ways, he explains that “the party culture of the early 1980s is of interest not in spite of its lack of generic clarity but because its itinerant leanings opened up so many social and sonic possibilities.” (9) These social and sonic possibilities were also economic boons for the communities, not only because of the many new dance clubs that opened and attracted people from all walks of life as he describes in part III, but also due to major labels abandoning dance music sales almost entirely. In his discussion about the decline of major label interest in disco music in the late 1970s, Lawrence explains that independent record labels seized the opportunity of the new dance music boom in the early 1980s, where large record labels were, “oblivious to the dance storm that was about to unfold.” (25) New and independent labels like [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/ZE_Records ZE Records,] which championed a new kind of American dance music -- a blend of disco, punk, new wave, funk and Latin ethnic dance music -- or “mutant disco,” and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prelude_Records_(record_label) Prelude Records,] which “distanced [itself] from disco’s commercially driven lurch into join-the-dots monotony by ramping up the funk and R&B elements of their output.” (110) He further explains that as late as 1982, “The relative absence of the corporates provided labels such as [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Island_Records Island,] Prelude, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sleeping_Bag_Records Sleeping Bag,] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tommy_Boy_Records Tommy Boy,] and ZE with the kind of market freedom that had last existed during the first half of the 1970s, when the majors were even more clueless about the percolating energy that was coursing through the city’s nascent DJ-led dance scene.”(337) Not to mention the several hip-hop independents, like Sugar Hill Records, that started during the same period.

As readers, we have the benefit of knowledge of history. In particular, we now know the overall successes and failures of these labels and the culture after the early 80s. Unfortunately, Lawrence does not provide specifics on the economics of these record labels. We are only given only implications -- major label disinterest in disco after the collapse, the music’s quick adoption by radio, anecdotes of a few thousand copies sold in a few record shops near [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Paradise_Garage Paradise Garage,] and repeated mention of these labels throughout the work. It is hard to determine precisely how successful these labels were in comparison to the major labels because of the lack of specific financial data. Its inclusion would have strengthened his argument.

The book is separated into 4 main parts, each covering approximately one year, with several thematic chapters in each section. In part I, Lawrence argues that while Americans were reeling from political scandal, war, and economic uncertainty in the late 1979, discos still maintained an audience because New York, “housed the highest concentration of gay men, people of color and women in the United States,” who were also the foundation of the early disco movement in the 1970s, many of whom adopted New York’s disco scene as a way of life. (14) Lawrence further explains that because New York was already a cultural hub and because rents remained low, artists and musicians could live cheaply in the city and pursue their art and participate in the city’s nightly offerings rather easily. Following that, the high concentration of creatives from all walks of life frequented the myriad of nightlife offerings. In the loud colorful dance clubs, patrons often formed diverse social networks and collaborated on art, music, and politics. Many of these collaborations were unimaginable amalgamations of ideas -- in art, music, politics, and culture that previously did not exist. Lawrence argues, “Already widespread during the first half of the 1970s and reinvigorated when the big money drained out of disco, the democratic modus operandi of its party spaces contributed to the city’s integration and sense of well-being by encouraging people from different backgrounds to meet and get along in an informal setting.” (132)

[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mudd_Club The Mudd Club,] founded by Steve Mass, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Club_57 Club 57,] curated by [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ann_Magnuson Ann Magnuson,] and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Danceteria Pravada] founded by Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper are central to part I’s narrative. Lawrence argues that these clubs were ground zero of cultural melding and artistic evolution in New York’s subterranean dance music scene. Lawrence explains that these clubs were places “where a small amount of capital unleashed a disproportionate amount of cultural capital.”(59) He also discusses the continued importance of [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/David_Mancuso David Mancuso’s Loft,] a holdover from the pre-disco era -- and central focus of ''Love Saves the Day'' -- and Paradise Garage, where DJ [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Larry_Levan Larry Levan] introduced black gay patrons to a variety of new sounds. The philosophies of all of these people helped to shape and define the post-disco era. Lawrence explains that “even if it was inevitably incomplete and flawed, the shift toward democracy and integration was hardly coincidental inasmuch as Mancuso was a self-identifying child of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rainbow_Coalition_(Fred_Hampton) Rainbow Coalition;] ...Mass drew on [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Situationist_International Situationism], punk, the downtown art scene, civil rights, and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Third-wave_feminism third-wave feminism;] Magnuson was imbued with the ethos of the countercultural movement and iconoclastic theater; Fouratt was a co-founder of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Youth_International_Party Yippies] and the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gay_Liberation_Front# Gay Liberation Front;] and Piper cultivated a philosophy of decadent freedom that rejected outmoded institutions and practices.” (132) Lawrence showcases the importance of each club proprietor philosophy by explaining how those philosophies helped to create the identities of each club -- and by extension the cultural renaissance in New York during this era.

Part II details the fruits of the collaborations made in part I. It concerns the rise of hip-hop, art collaboration between high art and so-called lowbrow graffiti, and the acceptance of musical and artistic collaboration by patrons and the mainstream and the shift from live instrumentation to drum machines and synthesizers in dance music. Here again, Lawrence uses expansive oral histories to detail various collaborative art shows, film, and the increase in club openings in 1981. While the oral histories are interesting, He does not provide specifics where necessary. For example, in his discussion of the “explosion of clubs”, Lawrence lists an exhaustive list of new clubs that opened in 1981, but he fails to provide any details on how much opening one of these clubs actually costs attendance or operating budgets. Favoring the pure oral history style, Lawrence quotes an anecdote from Steve Mass instead: “Everyone was starting a club based on the fact that it cost no money. One of my bartenders went down the block and started doing nights in a strip club.” (158) In the closing chapter of part II, Lawrence explains many of the political, social and economic forces that would eventually bring this era to a close, namely the Reagan administration’s abandonment of a strong federal government, Koch’s neo-liberal economic plan to draw more tax revenue from real estate developers, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. In contrast, as Lawrence explains, “The surging real estate market would go on to suffocate large sections of the city’s party scene, but for now, the scene continued to flourish.” (246) Lawrence’s use of oral history is very effective here -- it not only gives us the sequence of events as historical narratives generally do, but it also gives us a sense of what New York scenesters were feeling in late 1981. Many of the quotes used in Part II’s closing pages describe the virus as a mystery with a hint of fear and anxiety.

Part III and IV cover the final 2 years of the cultural renaissance, which focuses on the spread of cultural convergence, and then the overall decline of the scene in 1983. Lawrence argues that in 1982, the idea of cultural mixing hit its high point, that across three categories, musical, social and production, mixing of cultures was ubiquitous. Part III continues Lawrence’s argument of how diverse patrons of social clubs came together to exchange ideas and collaborate, but also covers how DJs attracted new clientele by eschewing formulaic commercial disco beats in favor of a wide-ranging musical program, and how studio producers “explored mixing as a form of sonic integration that could inspire parallel social developments” (341) Because of this cultural integration, Lawrence argues, “the New York sound also assumed a kaleidoscopic brilliance that crossed between genres as it surged through dance floors, boom boxes, and car stereos. It had, quite simply, come to embody and express the diversity and complexity of the city’s population.” (342)

In the final segment of ''Life or Death'', titled “The Genesis of Division,” Lawrence discusses how the AIDS, crack, lack of federal assistance not only decimated the community but also stifled, what seemed to be at the time, a new cultural juggernaut. In the chapter “Sex and Death,” Lawrence does not make much of an argument, but he does provide a relief map of the reactions of gay male club patrons to the growing AIDS crisis. At [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Saint_(club) The Saint nightclub,] some wanted to continue with their sexual freedom, while others, frightened by virus stigmatized them. Paradise Garage, one of the most famous clubs of the disco and post-disco era lost many patrons to the disease. In one interview quote, the interviewee states: “Lots of people died, a lot were sick, and a lot of the friends of the members who had died or were sick stopped coming because it was too painful to go to a place with so many memories of the fun times they had enjoyed with their friends and lovers.” (426) Again, Lawrence’s use of oral history interviews here is deeply impactful, as it gives the reader a visceral feeling that all of the inspirational convergence and optimism of the previous years was indeed coming to an end.

Continuing with the theme of the end of the scene, and a bittersweet reversal of trends during this era, Lawrence covers the release of Michael Jackson’s ''Thriller'' to highlight how the commercial music industry co-opted the sonic collaborative efforts of the New York scene which led to corporate label’s renewed interest in dance music. Unfortunately, they made the same mistakes as the end of the disco era: formulaic dance music, often led by white and European artists. Lawrence states, “although more dance records were coming out than at any time since 1979, a higher percentage were deemed unplayable by New York’s party DJs than had been the case at any time since the peak of disco.” (437)

Furthermore, Lawrence argues that at the time MTV was also a contributor to the scene’s demise. First, he explains that MTV was guilty of taking blackness out of popular music because of the channel’s refusal to air black rhythm and blues videos during the station’s infancy. Following that, Lawrence describes how the national appeal of MTV forced some club owners to adapt to mimicking trends shown on the channel -- a large departure from the grassroots collaborative culture that had grown in the city in years prior. Of course, led to many of the scene’s founders to lose interest.

Lawrence’s book is filled with a staggering level of detail of four years of a city’s nightlife. In the epilogue, he is somewhat defiant and hopeful, explaining that in his visit to some of the old sites of dance music history, a majority are totally gentrified and the old creative energies have moved to the outskirts of the city to Williamsburg. Yet, he feels that it is possible for the “full-throttle expressivity and immersive community,” that “forged a democratic, pluralistic movement that seemed to know no limit,” of early 80s New York can happen again, although he provides no specifics ideas on how to accomplish that daunting task. (473) His solution is to hope -- that based on people’s current desire to dance, listen to music, and collaborate they will eventually want to recreate this golden era again -- under the “right conditions”. (474) In a sense, ''Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor'' is a guide as much as it is a history book.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]

[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Tim Lawrence]]

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

2017-10-04T14:46:31Z

Cjackson122:

{{Infobox book
| name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983
| author = Tim Lawrence
| publisher = Duke University Press
| pub_date = 2016
| pages = 600
| isbn = 9780822361862
| image = [[File:LADOTNYDF.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

When the subject of disco is covered in many non-dance music focused historical texts, typically only its death at
[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Steve_Dahl Steve Dahl's] infamous [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Disco_Demolition_Night Disco Demolition Night] is discussed. While there have been many books that cover the cultural histories of the rise of fall of disco of disco, such as Peter Shapiro’s [https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Beat-Around-History-Disco/dp/0571219233 ''Turn the Beat Around''] and Alice Echols’ [https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Stuff-Remaking-American-Culture/dp/0393338916 ''Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture''], there have been relatively few texts which fully investigate what happened to the disco scene and its key players after its collapse. Rarer still are history books that attempt to “bridge the gap”, or explain how and why dance music culture changed from the 1970s to the 1980s and how it changed American culture. Tim Lawrence’s 2003 book, [https://www.amazon.com/Love-Saves-Day-American-1970-1979/dp/0822331985 ''Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture''], begins to explain these key concepts in the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, but of course far more detailed analysis is required to understand the true significance of post-disco era.

Tim Lawrence’s ''Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983'' concerns a transitional era in American history and how the change in national politics, the shift from industrialism to post-industrialism to neo-liberalism, the shock of the “death” of disco, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic, forever changed New York City’s -- and by extension the world’s -- urban nightlife and popular culture. At its core, Life and Death is a chronicle of New York City’s “lost” post-disco era and how these socio-political and economic changes along with cultural pluralism, multicultural appreciation, and artistic experimentation intermingled to birth not only a creative and active community but also a unique and vibrant nightlife in New York City in the early 1980s. In addition, through extensive use of oral history, Lawrence argues that some of the participants of the post-disco era had a troubled relationship with disco -- many of them still loved it, but because of big label “gentrification” of the sound and venues and the removal of blackness from it sonically and in some cases physically, many abandoned it for something to call their own. [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Universal_Zulu_Nation Zulu Nation’s] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Afrika_Islam Afrika Islam] explains in an interview with Lawrence, “We were anti-disco because disco was John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Studio_54 Studio 54]...We were wearing Levi’s jeans and Pumas so we didn’t look like John Travolta, but it didn’t mean we didn’t listen to the music or dance to it.” (94) Furthermore, ''Life and Death'' explains how this community and the events following disco’s “collapse” in particular are responsible for the rise of several new popular music and art genres, including hip-hop.

The narrative is not without fault, however. As dance music culture is largely ephemeral, Lawrence’s narrative relies heavily on oral history, which he admits, “relies heavily on recollections that can only be filtered through the present and are to varying degrees partial.” (13) It should be understood that these oral histories are taken from people who spent many late nights on the town with all the vices that it offers. As such, some of the accounts are very general, and to be taken with a grain of salt. However, Lawrence’s reliance on oral histories and club tracklistings provide the reader with a deep understanding of the ephemeral and often visceral nature of dance music culture. Although rich detail is welcome, Lawrence at times offers too much detail and introduces so many colorful characters and lists of celebrity club goers and performers that it often obfuscates his main arguments. Furthermore, he rarely uses specific statistics when discussing economics. In doing so, the book sometimes reads more like a learned cultural tour of New York’s early 1980s underground dance music scene, rather than a concise laser focused historiographic. Still, Lawrence gives us quite a bit of cultural history with economic sociopolitical commentary worth reading.

Lawrence makes several arguments -- to varying success -- in ''Life and Death''. Most important of these is that the dance music community in New York City in the early 1980s fostered a “cultural renaissance...that stands as one of the most influential in its, and perhaps any city’s history.” (13) The renaissance was only possible because of the low rents, which were a result of the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial city. Lawrence further argues that the dance music scene’s ultimate collapse was a result in part because of the increase in property values after [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ed_Koch Mayor Ed Koch] introduced neoliberal policies, spurned by the Reagan Administration’s $700 billion budget cut which, “introduced generous tax abatements worth several hundred of millions of dollars to property developers in an attempt to create future employment and revenue streams that would help the disadvantaged.” (133) These policies, as Lawrence argues, were a reaction to perceived and realized economic failures of the 1970s and were the start of a mass gentrification of New York’s cultural center. (11)

Lawrence also takes great effort to argue that cultural amalgamation and social networks within the community were the engine that built the post-disco cultural renaissance, so much so that it really is the star theme of the narrative. In several instances and in a variety of ways, he explains that “the party culture of the early 1980s is of interest not in spite of its lack of generic clarity but because its itinerant leanings opened up so many social and sonic possibilities.” (9) These social and sonic possibilities were also economic boons for the communities, not only because of the many new dance clubs that opened and attracted people from all walks of life as he describes in part III, but also due to major labels abandoning dance music sales almost entirely. In his discussion about the decline of major label interest in disco music in the late 1970s, Lawrence explains that independent record labels seized the opportunity of the new dance music boom in the early 1980s, where large record labels were, “oblivious to the dance storm that was about to unfold.” (25) New and independent labels like [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/ZE_Records ZE Records,] which championed a new kind of American dance music -- a blend of disco, punk, new wave, funk and Latin ethnic dance music -- or “mutant disco,” and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prelude_Records_(record_label) Prelude Records,] which “distanced [itself] from disco’s commercially driven lurch into join-the-dots monotony by ramping up the funk and R&B elements of their output.” (110) He further explains that as late as 1982, “The relative absence of the corporates provided labels such as [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Island_Records Island,] Prelude, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sleeping_Bag_Records Sleeping Bag,] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tommy_Boy_Records Tommy Boy,] and ZE with the kind of market freedom that had last existed during the first half of the 1970s, when the majors were even more clueless about the percolating energy that was coursing through the city’s nascent DJ-led dance scene.”(337) Not to mention the several hip-hop independents, like Sugar Hill Records, that started during the same period.

As readers, we have the benefit of knowledge of history. In particular, we now know the overall successes and failures of these labels and the culture after the early 80s. Unfortunately, Lawrence does not provide specifics on the economics of these record labels. We are only given only implications -- major label disinterest in disco after the collapse, the music’s quick adoption by radio, anecdotes of a few thousand copies sold in a few record shops near [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Paradise_Garage Paradise Garage,] and repeated mention of these labels throughout the work. It is hard to determine precisely how successful these labels were in comparison to the major labels because of the lack of specific financial data. Its inclusion would have strengthened his argument.

The book is separated into 4 main parts, each covering approximately one year, with several thematic chapters in each section. In part I, Lawrence argues that while Americans were reeling from political scandal, war, and economic uncertainty in the late 1979, discos still maintained an audience because New York, “housed the highest concentration of gay men, people of color and women in the United States,” who were also the foundation of the early disco movement in the 1970s, many of whom adopted New York’s disco scene as a way of life. (14) Lawrence further explains that because New York was already a cultural hub and because rents remained low, artists and musicians could live cheaply in the city and pursue their art and participate in the city’s nightly offerings rather easily. Following that, the high concentration of creatives from all walks of life frequented the myriad of nightlife offerings. In the loud colorful dance clubs, patrons often formed diverse social networks and collaborated on art, music, and politics. Many of these collaborations were unimaginable amalgamations of ideas -- in art, music, politics, and culture that previously did not exist. Lawrence argues, “Already widespread during the first half of the 1970s and reinvigorated when the big money drained out of disco, the democratic modus operandi of its party spaces contributed to the city’s integration and sense of well-being by encouraging people from different backgrounds to meet and get along in an informal setting.” (132)

[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mudd_Club The Mudd Club,] founded by Steve Mass, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Club_57 Club 57,] curated by [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ann_Magnuson Ann Magnuson,] and Pravada founded by Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper are central to part I’s narrative. Lawrence argues that these clubs were ground zero of cultural melding and artistic evolution in New York’s subterranean dance music scene. Lawrence explains that these clubs were places “where a small amount of capital unleashed a disproportionate amount of cultural capital.”(59) He also discusses the continued importance of [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/David_Mancuso David Mancuso’s Loft,] a holdover from the pre-disco era -- and central focus of ''Love Saves the Day'' -- and Paradise Garage, where DJ [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Larry_Levan Larry Levan] introduced black gay patrons to a variety of new sounds. The philosophies of all of these people helped to shape and define the post-disco era. Lawrence explains that “even if it was inevitably incomplete and flawed, the shift toward democracy and integration was hardly coincidental inasmuch as Mancuso was a self-identifying child of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rainbow_Coalition_(Fred_Hampton) Rainbow Coalition;] ...Mass drew on [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Situationist_International Situationism], punk, the downtown art scene, civil rights, and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Third-wave_feminism third-wave feminism;] Magnuson was imbued with the ethos of the countercultural movement and iconoclastic theater; Fouratt was a co-founder of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Youth_International_Party Yippies] and the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gay_Liberation_Front# Gay Liberation Front;] and Piper cultivated a philosophy of decadent freedom that rejected outmoded institutions and practices.” (132) Lawrence showcases the importance of each club proprietor philosophy by explaining how those philosophies helped to create the identities of each club -- and by extension the cultural renaissance in New York during this era.

Part II details the fruits of the collaborations made in part I. It concerns the rise of hip-hop, art collaboration between high art and so-called lowbrow graffiti, and the acceptance of musical and artistic collaboration by patrons and the mainstream and the shift from live instrumentation to drum machines and synthesizers in dance music. Here again, Lawrence uses expansive oral histories to detail various collaborative art shows, film, and the increase in club openings in 1981. While the oral histories are interesting, He does not provide specifics where necessary. For example, in his discussion of the “explosion of clubs”, Lawrence lists an exhaustive list of new clubs that opened in 1981, but he fails to provide any details on how much opening one of these clubs actually costs attendance or operating budgets. Favoring the pure oral history style, Lawrence quotes an anecdote from Steve Mass instead: “Everyone was starting a club based on the fact that it cost no money. One of my bartenders went down the block and started doing nights in a strip club.” (158) In the closing chapter of part II, Lawrence explains many of the political, social and economic forces that would eventually bring this era to a close, namely the Reagan administration’s abandonment of a strong federal government, Koch’s neo-liberal economic plan to draw more tax revenue from real estate developers, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. In contrast, as Lawrence explains, “The surging real estate market would go on to suffocate large sections of the city’s party scene, but for now, the scene continued to flourish.” (246) Lawrence’s use of oral history is very effective here -- it not only gives us the sequence of events as historical narratives generally do, but it also gives us a sense of what New York scenesters were feeling in late 1981. Many of the quotes used in Part II’s closing pages describe the virus as a mystery with a hint of fear and anxiety.

Part III and IV cover the final 2 years of the cultural renaissance, which focuses on the spread of cultural convergence, and then the overall decline of the scene in 1983. Lawrence argues that in 1982, the idea of cultural mixing hit its high point, that across three categories, musical, social and production, mixing of cultures was ubiquitous. Part III continues Lawrence’s argument of how diverse patrons of social clubs came together to exchange ideas and collaborate, but also covers how DJs attracted new clientele by eschewing formulaic commercial disco beats in favor of a wide-ranging musical program, and how studio producers “explored mixing as a form of sonic integration that could inspire parallel social developments” (341) Because of this cultural integration, Lawrence argues, “the New York sound also assumed a kaleidoscopic brilliance that crossed between genres as it surged through dance floors, boom boxes, and car stereos. It had, quite simply, come to embody and express the diversity and complexity of the city’s population.” (342)

In the final segment of ''Life or Death'', titled “The Genesis of Division,” Lawrence discusses how the AIDS, crack, lack of federal assistance not only decimated the community but also stifled, what seemed to be at the time, a new cultural juggernaut. In the chapter “Sex and Death,” Lawrence does not make much of an argument, but he does provide a relief map of the reactions of gay male club patrons to the growing AIDS crisis. At [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Saint_(club) The Saint nightclub,] some wanted to continue with their sexual freedom, while others, frightened by virus stigmatized them. Paradise Garage, one of the most famous clubs of the disco and post-disco era lost many patrons to the disease. In one interview quote, the interviewee states: “Lots of people died, a lot were sick, and a lot of the friends of the members who had died or were sick stopped coming because it was too painful to go to a place with so many memories of the fun times they had enjoyed with their friends and lovers.” (426) Again, Lawrence’s use of oral history interviews here is deeply impactful, as it gives the reader a visceral feeling that all of the inspirational convergence and optimism of the previous years was indeed coming to an end.

Continuing with the theme of the end of the scene, and a bittersweet reversal of trends during this era, Lawrence covers the release of Michael Jackson’s ''Thriller'' to highlight how the commercial music industry co-opted the sonic collaborative efforts of the New York scene which led to corporate label’s renewed interest in dance music. Unfortunately, they made the same mistakes as the end of the disco era: formulaic dance music, often led by white and European artists. Lawrence states, “although more dance records were coming out than at any time since 1979, a higher percentage were deemed unplayable by New York’s party DJs than had been the case at any time since the peak of disco.” (437)

Furthermore, Lawrence argues that at the time MTV was also a contributor to the scene’s demise. First, he explains that MTV was guilty of taking blackness out of popular music because of the channel’s refusal to air black rhythm and blues videos during the station’s infancy. Following that, Lawrence describes how the national appeal of MTV forced some club owners to adapt to mimicking trends shown on the channel -- a large departure from the grassroots collaborative culture that had grown in the city in years prior. Of course, led to many of the scene’s founders to lose interest.

Lawrence’s book is filled with a staggering level of detail of four years of a city’s nightlife. In the epilogue, he is somewhat defiant and hopeful, explaining that in his visit to some of the old sites of dance music history, a majority are totally gentrified and the old creative energies have moved to the outskirts of the city to Williamsburg. Yet, he feels that it is possible for the “full-throttle expressivity and immersive community,” that “forged a democratic, pluralistic movement that seemed to know no limit,” of early 80s New York can happen again, although he provides no specifics ideas on how to accomplish that daunting task. (473) His solution is to hope -- that based on people’s current desire to dance, listen to music, and collaborate they will eventually want to recreate this golden era again -- under the “right conditions”. (474) In a sense, ''Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor'' is a guide as much as it is a history book.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]

[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Tim Lawrence]]

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

2017-10-04T03:38:31Z

Cjackson122:

{{Infobox book
| name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983
| author = Tim Lawrence
| publisher = Duke University Press
| pub_date = 2016
| pages = 600
| isbn = 9780822361862
| image = [[File:LADOTNYDF.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

When the subject of disco is covered in many non-dance music focused historical texts, typically only its death at
[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Steve_Dahl Steve Dahl's] infamous [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Disco_Demolition_Night Disco Demolition Night] is discussed. While there have been many books that cover the cultural histories of the rise of fall of disco of disco, such as Peter Shapiro’s [https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Beat-Around-History-Disco/dp/0571219233 ''Turn the Beat Around''] and Alice Echols’ [https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Stuff-Remaking-American-Culture/dp/0393338916 ''Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture''], there have been relatively few texts which fully investigate what happened to the disco scene and its key players after its collapse. Rarer still are history books that attempt to “bridge the gap”, or explain how and why dance music culture changed from the 1970s to the 1980s and how it changed American culture. Tim Lawrence’s 2003 book, [https://www.amazon.com/Love-Saves-Day-American-1970-1979/dp/0822331985 ''Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture''], begins to explain these key concepts in the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, but of course far more detailed analysis is required to understand the true significance of post-disco era.

Tim Lawrence’s ''Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983'' concerns a transitional era in American history and how the change in national politics, the shift from industrialism to post-industrialism to neo-liberalism, the shock of the “death” of disco, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic, forever changed New York City’s -- and by extension the world’s -- urban nightlife and popular culture. At its core, Life and Death is a chronicle of New York City’s “lost” post-disco era and how these socio-political and economic changes along with cultural pluralism, multicultural appreciation, and artistic experimentation intermingled to birth not only a creative and active community but also a unique and vibrant nightlife in New York City in the early 1980s. In addition, through extensive use of oral history, Lawrence argues that some of the participants of the post-disco era had a troubled relationship with disco -- many of them still loved it, but because of big label “gentrification” of the sound and venues and the removal of blackness from it sonically and in some cases physically, many abandoned it for something to call their own. [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Universal_Zulu_Nation Zulu Nation’s] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Afrika_Islam Afrika Islam] explains in an interview with Lawrence, “We were anti-disco because disco was John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Studio_54 Studio 54]...We were wearing Levi’s jeans and Pumas so we didn’t look like John Travolta, but it didn’t mean we didn’t listen to the music or dance to it.” (94) Furthermore, ''Life and Death'' explains how this community and the events following disco’s “collapse” in particular are responsible for the rise of several new popular music and art genres, including hip-hop.

The narrative is not without fault, however. As dance music culture is largely ephemeral, Lawrence’s narrative relies heavily on oral history, which he admits, “relies heavily on recollections that can only be filtered through the present and are to varying degrees partial.” (13) It should be understood that these oral histories are taken from people who spent many late nights on the town with all the vices that it offers. As such, some of the accounts are very general, and to be taken with a grain of salt. However, Lawrence’s reliance on oral histories and club tracklistings provide the reader with a deep understanding of the ephemeral and often visceral nature of dance music culture. Although rich detail is welcome, Lawrence at times offers too much detail and introduces so many colorful characters and lists of celebrity club goers and performers that it often obfuscates his main arguments. Furthermore, he rarely uses specific statistics when discussing economics. In doing so, the book sometimes reads more like a learned cultural tour of New York’s early 1980s underground dance music scene, rather than a concise laser focused historiographic. Still, Lawrence gives us quite a bit of cultural history with economic sociopolitical commentary worth reading.

Lawrence makes several arguments -- to varying success -- in ''Life and Death''. Most important of these is that the dance music community in New York City in the early 1980s fostered a “cultural renaissance...that stands as one of the most influential in its, and perhaps any city’s history.” (13) The renaissance was only possible because of the low rents, which were a result of the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial city. Lawrence further argues that the dance music scene’s ultimate collapse was a result in part because of the increase in property values after [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ed_Koch Mayor Ed Koch] introduced neoliberal policies, spurned by the Reagan Administration’s $700 billion budget cut which, “introduced generous tax abatements worth several hundred of millions of dollars to property developers in an attempt to create future employment and revenue streams that would help the disadvantaged.” (133) These policies, as Lawrence argues, were a reaction to perceived and realized economic failures of the 1970s and were the start of a mass gentrification of New York’s cultural center. (11)

Lawrence also takes great effort to argue that cultural amalgamation and social networks within the community were the engine that built the post-disco cultural renaissance, so much so that it really is the star theme of the narrative. In several instances and in a variety of ways, he explains that “the party culture of the early 1980s is of interest not in spite of its lack of generic clarity but because its itinerant leanings opened up so many social and sonic possibilities.” (9) These social and sonic possibilities were also economic boons for the communities, not only because of the many new dance clubs that opened and attracted people from all walks of life as he describes in part III, but also due to major labels abandoning dance music sales almost entirely. In his discussion about the decline of major label interest in disco music in the late 1970s, Lawrence explains that independent record labels seized the opportunity of the new dance music boom in the early 1980s, where large record labels were, “oblivious to the dance storm that was about to unfold.” (25) New and independent labels like [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/ZE_Records ZE Records,] which championed a new kind of American dance music -- a blend of disco, punk, new wave, funk and Latin ethnic dance music -- or “mutant disco,” and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prelude_Records_(record_label) Prelude Records,] which “distanced [itself] from disco’s commercially driven lurch into join-the-dots monotony by ramping up the funk and R&B elements of their output.” (110) He further explains that as late as 1982, “The relative absence of the corporates provided labels such as [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Island_Records Island,] Prelude, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sleeping_Bag_Records Sleeping Bag,] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tommy_Boy_Records Tommy Boy,] and ZE with the kind of market freedom that had last existed during the first half of the 1970s, when the majors were even more clueless about the percolating energy that was coursing through the city’s nascent DJ-led dance scene.”(337) Not to mention the several hip-hop independents, like Sugar Hill Records, that started during the same period.

As readers, we have the benefit of knowledge of history. In particular, we now know the overall successes and failures of these labels and the culture after the early 80s. Unfortunately, Lawrence does not provide specifics on the economics of these record labels. We are only given only implications -- major label disinterest in disco after the collapse, the music’s quick adoption by radio, anecdotes of a few thousand copies sold in a few record shops near [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Paradise_Garage Paradise Garage,] and repeated mention of these labels throughout the work. It is hard to determine precisely how successful these labels were in comparison to the major labels because of the lack of specific financial data. Its inclusion would have strengthened his argument.

The book is separated into 4 main parts, each covering approximately one year, with several thematic chapters in each section. In part I, Lawrence argues that while Americans were reeling from political scandal, war, and economic uncertainty in the late 1979, discos still maintained an audience because New York, “housed the highest concentration of gay men, people of color and women in the United States,” who were also the foundation of the early disco movement in the 1970s, many of whom adopted New York’s disco scene as a way of life. (14) Lawrence further explains that because New York was already a cultural hub and because rents remained low, artists and musicians could live cheaply in the city and pursue their art and participate in the city’s nightly offerings rather easily. Following that, the high concentration of creatives from all walks of life frequented the myriad of nightlife offerings. In the loud colorful dance clubs, patrons often formed diverse social networks and collaborated on art, music, and politics. Many of these collaborations were unimaginable amalgamations of ideas -- in art, music, politics, and culture that previously did not exist. Lawrence argues, “Already widespread during the first half of the 1970s and reinvigorated when the big money drained out of disco, the democratic modus operandi of its party spaces contributed to the city’s integration and sense of well-being by encouraging people from different backgrounds to meet and get along in an informal setting.” (132)

[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mudd_Club The Mudd Club,] founded by Steve Mass, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Club_57 Club 57,] curated by [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ann_Magnuson Ann Magnuson,] and Pravada founded by Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper are central to part I’s narrative. Lawrence argues that these clubs were ground zero of cultural melding and artistic evolution in New York’s subterranean dance music scene. Lawrence explains that these clubs were places “where a small amount of capital unleashed a disproportionate amount of cultural capital.”(59) He also discusses the continued importance of [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/David_Mancuso David Mancuso’s Loft,] a holdover from the pre-disco era -- and central focus of ''Love Saves the Day'' -- and Paradise Garage, where DJ [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Larry_Levan Larry Levan] introduced black gay patrons to a variety of new sounds. The philosophies of all of these people helped to shape and define the post-disco era. Lawrence explains that “even if it was inevitably incomplete and flawed, the shift toward democracy and integration was hardly coincidental inasmuch as Mancuso was a self-identifying child of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rainbow_Coalition_(Fred_Hampton) Rainbow Coalition;] ...Mass drew on [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Situationist_International Situationism], punk, the downtown art scene, civil rights, and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Third-wave_feminism third-wave feminism;] Magnuson was imbued with the ethos of the countercultural movement and iconoclastic theater; Fouratt was a co-founder of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Youth_International_Party Yippies] and the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gay_Liberation_Front# Gay Liberation Front;] and Piper cultivated a philosophy of decadent freedom that rejected outmoded institutions and practices.” (132) Lawrence showcases the importance of each club proprietor philosophy by explaining how those philosophies helped to create the identities of each club -- and by extension the cultural renaissance in New York during this era.

Part II details the fruits of the collaborations made in part I. It concerns the rise of hip-hop, art collaboration between high art and so-called lowbrow graffiti, and the acceptance of musical and artistic collaboration by patrons and the mainstream and the shift from live instrumentation to drum machines and synthesizers in dance music. Here again, Lawrence uses expansive oral histories to detail various collaborative art shows, film, and the increase in club openings in 1981. While the oral histories are interesting, He does not provide specifics where necessary. For example, in his discussion of the “explosion of clubs”, Lawrence lists an exhaustive list of new clubs that opened in 1981, but he fails to provide any details on how much opening one of these clubs actually costs attendance or operating budgets. Favoring the pure oral history style, Lawrence quotes an anecdote from Steve Mass instead: “Everyone was starting a club based on the fact that it cost no money. One of my bartenders went down the block and started doing nights in a strip club.” (158) In the closing chapter of part II, Lawrence explains many of the political, social and economic forces that would eventually bring this era to a close, namely the Reagan administration’s abandonment of a strong federal government, Koch’s neo-liberal economic plan to draw more tax revenue from real estate developers, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. In contrast, as Lawrence explains, “The surging real estate market would go on to suffocate large sections of the city’s party scene, but for now, the scene continued to flourish.” (246) Lawrence’s use of oral history is very effective here -- it not only gives us the sequence of events as historical narratives generally do, but it also gives us a sense of what New York scenesters were feeling in late 1981. Many of the quotes used in Part II’s closing pages describe the virus as a mystery with a hint of fear and anxiety.

Part III and IV cover the final 2 years of the cultural renaissance, which focuses on the spread of cultural convergence, and then the overall decline of the scene in 1983. Lawrence argues that in 1982, the idea of cultural mixing hit its high point, that across three categories, musical, social and production, mixing of cultures was ubiquitous. Part III continues Lawrence’s argument of how diverse patrons of social clubs came together to exchange ideas and collaborate, but also covers how DJs attracted new clientele by eschewing formulaic commercial disco beats in favor of a wide-ranging musical program, and how studio producers “explored mixing as a form of sonic integration that could inspire parallel social developments” (341) Because of this cultural integration, Lawrence argues, “the New York sound also assumed a kaleidoscopic brilliance that crossed between genres as it surged through dance floors, boom boxes, and car stereos. It had, quite simply, come to embody and express the diversity and complexity of the city’s population.” (342)

In the final segment of ''Life or Death'', titled “The Genesis of Division,” Lawrence discusses how the AIDS, crack, lack of federal assistance not only decimated the community but also stifled, what seemed to be at the time, a new cultural juggernaut. In the chapter “Sex and Death,” Lawrence does not make much of an argument, but he does provide a relief map of the reactions of gay male club patrons to the growing AIDS crisis. At [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Saint_(club) The Saint nightclub,] some wanted to continue with their sexual freedom, while others, frightened by virus stigmatized them. Paradise Garage, one of the most famous clubs of the disco and post-disco era lost many patrons to the disease. In one interview quote, the interviewee states: “Lots of people died, a lot were sick, and a lot of the friends of the members who had died or were sick stopped coming because it was too painful to go to a place with so many memories of the fun times they had enjoyed with their friends and lovers.” (426) Again, Lawrence’s use of oral history interviews here is deeply impactful, as it gives the reader a visceral feeling that all of the inspirational convergence and optimism of the previous years was indeed coming to an end.

Continuing with the theme of the end of the scene, and a bittersweet reversal of trends during this era, Lawrence covers the release of Michael Jackson’s ''Thriller'' to highlight how the commercial music industry co-opted the sonic collaborative efforts of the New York scene which led to corporate label’s renewed interest in dance music. Unfortunately, they made the same mistakes as the end of the disco era: formulaic dance music, often led by white and European artists. Lawrence states, “although more dance records were coming out than at any time since 1979, a higher percentage were deemed unplayable by New York’s party DJs than had been the case at any time since the peak of disco.” (437)

Furthermore, Lawrence argues that at the time MTV was also a contributor to the scene’s demise. First, he explains that MTV was guilty of taking blackness out of popular music because of the channel’s refusal to air black rhythm and blues videos during the station’s infancy. Following that, Lawrence describes how the national appeal of MTV forced some club owners to adapt to mimicking trends shown on the channel -- a large departure from the grassroots collaborative culture that had grown in the city in years prior. Of course, led to many of the scene’s founders to lose interest.

Lawrence’s book is filled with a staggering level of detail of four years of a city’s nightlife. In the epilogue, he is somewhat defiant and hopeful, explaining that in his visit to some of the old sites of dance music history, a majority are totally gentrified and the old creative energies have moved to the outskirts of the city to Williamsburg. Yet, he feels that it is possible for the “full-throttle expressivity and immersive community,” that “forged a democratic, pluralistic movement that seemed to know no limit,” of early 80s New York can happen again, although he provides no specifics ideas on how to accomplish that daunting task. (473) His solution is to hope -- that based on people’s current desire to dance, listen to music, and collaborate they will eventually want to recreate this golden era again -- under the “right conditions”. (474) In a sense, Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor is a guide as much as it is a history book.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]

[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Tim Lawrence]]

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

2017-10-04T03:36:24Z

Cjackson122:

{{Infobox book
| name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983
| author = [http://www.timlawrence.info/bio/ Tim Lawrence]
| publisher = Duke University Press
| pub_date = 2016
| pages = 600
| isbn = 9780822361862
| image = [[File:LADOTNYDF.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

When the subject of disco is covered in many non-dance music focused historical texts, typically only its death at
[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Steve_Dahl Steve Dahl's] infamous [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Disco_Demolition_Night Disco Demolition Night] is discussed. While there have been many books that cover the cultural histories of the rise of fall of disco of disco, such as Peter Shapiro’s [https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Beat-Around-History-Disco/dp/0571219233 ''Turn the Beat Around''] and Alice Echols’ [https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Stuff-Remaking-American-Culture/dp/0393338916 ''Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture''], there have been relatively few texts which fully investigate what happened to the disco scene and its key players after its collapse. Rarer still are history books that attempt to “bridge the gap”, or explain how and why dance music culture changed from the 1970s to the 1980s and how it changed American culture. Tim Lawrence’s 2003 book, [https://www.amazon.com/Love-Saves-Day-American-1970-1979/dp/0822331985 ''Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture''], begins to explain these key concepts in the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, but of course far more detailed analysis is required to understand the true significance of post-disco era.

Tim Lawrence’s ''Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983'' concerns a transitional era in American history and how the change in national politics, the shift from industrialism to post-industrialism to neo-liberalism, the shock of the “death” of disco, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic, forever changed New York City’s -- and by extension the world’s -- urban nightlife and popular culture. At its core, Life and Death is a chronicle of New York City’s “lost” post-disco era and how these socio-political and economic changes along with cultural pluralism, multicultural appreciation, and artistic experimentation intermingled to birth not only a creative and active community but also a unique and vibrant nightlife in New York City in the early 1980s. In addition, through extensive use of oral history, Lawrence argues that some of the participants of the post-disco era had a troubled relationship with disco -- many of them still loved it, but because of big label “gentrification” of the sound and venues and the removal of blackness from it sonically and in some cases physically, many abandoned it for something to call their own. [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Universal_Zulu_Nation Zulu Nation’s] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Afrika_Islam Afrika Islam] explains in an interview with Lawrence, “We were anti-disco because disco was John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Studio_54 Studio 54]...We were wearing Levi’s jeans and Pumas so we didn’t look like John Travolta, but it didn’t mean we didn’t listen to the music or dance to it.” (94) Furthermore, ''Life and Death'' explains how this community and the events following disco’s “collapse” in particular are responsible for the rise of several new popular music and art genres, including hip-hop.

The narrative is not without fault, however. As dance music culture is largely ephemeral, Lawrence’s narrative relies heavily on oral history, which he admits, “relies heavily on recollections that can only be filtered through the present and are to varying degrees partial.” (13) It should be understood that these oral histories are taken from people who spent many late nights on the town with all the vices that it offers. As such, some of the accounts are very general, and to be taken with a grain of salt. However, Lawrence’s reliance on oral histories and club tracklistings provide the reader with a deep understanding of the ephemeral and often visceral nature of dance music culture. Although rich detail is welcome, Lawrence at times offers too much detail and introduces so many colorful characters and lists of celebrity club goers and performers that it often obfuscates his main arguments. Furthermore, he rarely uses specific statistics when discussing economics. In doing so, the book sometimes reads more like a learned cultural tour of New York’s early 1980s underground dance music scene, rather than a concise laser focused historiographic. Still, Lawrence gives us quite a bit of cultural history with economic sociopolitical commentary worth reading.

Lawrence makes several arguments -- to varying success -- in ''Life and Death''. Most important of these is that the dance music community in New York City in the early 1980s fostered a “cultural renaissance...that stands as one of the most influential in its, and perhaps any city’s history.” (13) The renaissance was only possible because of the low rents, which were a result of the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial city. Lawrence further argues that the dance music scene’s ultimate collapse was a result in part because of the increase in property values after [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ed_Koch Mayor Ed Koch] introduced neoliberal policies, spurned by the Reagan Administration’s $700 billion budget cut which, “introduced generous tax abatements worth several hundred of millions of dollars to property developers in an attempt to create future employment and revenue streams that would help the disadvantaged.” (133) These policies, as Lawrence argues, were a reaction to perceived and realized economic failures of the 1970s and were the start of a mass gentrification of New York’s cultural center. (11)

Lawrence also takes great effort to argue that cultural amalgamation and social networks within the community were the engine that built the post-disco cultural renaissance, so much so that it really is the star theme of the narrative. In several instances and in a variety of ways, he explains that “the party culture of the early 1980s is of interest not in spite of its lack of generic clarity but because its itinerant leanings opened up so many social and sonic possibilities.” (9) These social and sonic possibilities were also economic boons for the communities, not only because of the many new dance clubs that opened and attracted people from all walks of life as he describes in part III, but also due to major labels abandoning dance music sales almost entirely. In his discussion about the decline of major label interest in disco music in the late 1970s, Lawrence explains that independent record labels seized the opportunity of the new dance music boom in the early 1980s, where large record labels were, “oblivious to the dance storm that was about to unfold.” (25) New and independent labels like [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/ZE_Records ZE Records,] which championed a new kind of American dance music -- a blend of disco, punk, new wave, funk and Latin ethnic dance music -- or “mutant disco,” and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prelude_Records_(record_label) Prelude Records,] which “distanced [itself] from disco’s commercially driven lurch into join-the-dots monotony by ramping up the funk and R&B elements of their output.” (110) He further explains that as late as 1982, “The relative absence of the corporates provided labels such as [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Island_Records Island,] Prelude, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sleeping_Bag_Records Sleeping Bag,] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tommy_Boy_Records Tommy Boy,] and ZE with the kind of market freedom that had last existed during the first half of the 1970s, when the majors were even more clueless about the percolating energy that was coursing through the city’s nascent DJ-led dance scene.”(337) Not to mention the several hip-hop independents, like Sugar Hill Records, that started during the same period.

As readers, we have the benefit of knowledge of history. In particular, we now know the overall successes and failures of these labels and the culture after the early 80s. Unfortunately, Lawrence does not provide specifics on the economics of these record labels. We are only given only implications -- major label disinterest in disco after the collapse, the music’s quick adoption by radio, anecdotes of a few thousand copies sold in a few record shops near [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Paradise_Garage Paradise Garage,] and repeated mention of these labels throughout the work. It is hard to determine precisely how successful these labels were in comparison to the major labels because of the lack of specific financial data. Its inclusion would have strengthened his argument.

The book is separated into 4 main parts, each covering approximately one year, with several thematic chapters in each section. In part I, Lawrence argues that while Americans were reeling from political scandal, war, and economic uncertainty in the late 1979, discos still maintained an audience because New York, “housed the highest concentration of gay men, people of color and women in the United States,” who were also the foundation of the early disco movement in the 1970s, many of whom adopted New York’s disco scene as a way of life. (14) Lawrence further explains that because New York was already a cultural hub and because rents remained low, artists and musicians could live cheaply in the city and pursue their art and participate in the city’s nightly offerings rather easily. Following that, the high concentration of creatives from all walks of life frequented the myriad of nightlife offerings. In the loud colorful dance clubs, patrons often formed diverse social networks and collaborated on art, music, and politics. Many of these collaborations were unimaginable amalgamations of ideas -- in art, music, politics, and culture that previously did not exist. Lawrence argues, “Already widespread during the first half of the 1970s and reinvigorated when the big money drained out of disco, the democratic modus operandi of its party spaces contributed to the city’s integration and sense of well-being by encouraging people from different backgrounds to meet and get along in an informal setting.” (132)

[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mudd_Club The Mudd Club,] founded by Steve Mass, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Club_57 Club 57,] curated by [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ann_Magnuson Ann Magnuson,] and Pravada founded by Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper are central to part I’s narrative. Lawrence argues that these clubs were ground zero of cultural melding and artistic evolution in New York’s subterranean dance music scene. Lawrence explains that these clubs were places “where a small amount of capital unleashed a disproportionate amount of cultural capital.”(59) He also discusses the continued importance of [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/David_Mancuso David Mancuso’s Loft,] a holdover from the pre-disco era -- and central focus of ''Love Saves the Day'' -- and Paradise Garage, where DJ [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Larry_Levan Larry Levan] introduced black gay patrons to a variety of new sounds. The philosophies of all of these people helped to shape and define the post-disco era. Lawrence explains that “even if it was inevitably incomplete and flawed, the shift toward democracy and integration was hardly coincidental inasmuch as Mancuso was a self-identifying child of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rainbow_Coalition_(Fred_Hampton) Rainbow Coalition;] ...Mass drew on [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Situationist_International Situationism], punk, the downtown art scene, civil rights, and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Third-wave_feminism third-wave feminism;] Magnuson was imbued with the ethos of the countercultural movement and iconoclastic theater; Fouratt was a co-founder of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Youth_International_Party Yippies] and the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gay_Liberation_Front# Gay Liberation Front;] and Piper cultivated a philosophy of decadent freedom that rejected outmoded institutions and practices.” (132) Lawrence showcases the importance of each club proprietor philosophy by explaining how those philosophies helped to create the identities of each club -- and by extension the cultural renaissance in New York during this era.

Part II details the fruits of the collaborations made in part I. It concerns the rise of hip-hop, art collaboration between high art and so-called lowbrow graffiti, and the acceptance of musical and artistic collaboration by patrons and the mainstream and the shift from live instrumentation to drum machines and synthesizers in dance music. Here again, Lawrence uses expansive oral histories to detail various collaborative art shows, film, and the increase in club openings in 1981. While the oral histories are interesting, He does not provide specifics where necessary. For example, in his discussion of the “explosion of clubs”, Lawrence lists an exhaustive list of new clubs that opened in 1981, but he fails to provide any details on how much opening one of these clubs actually costs attendance or operating budgets. Favoring the pure oral history style, Lawrence quotes an anecdote from Steve Mass instead: “Everyone was starting a club based on the fact that it cost no money. One of my bartenders went down the block and started doing nights in a strip club.” (158) In the closing chapter of part II, Lawrence explains many of the political, social and economic forces that would eventually bring this era to a close, namely the Reagan administration’s abandonment of a strong federal government, Koch’s neo-liberal economic plan to draw more tax revenue from real estate developers, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. In contrast, as Lawrence explains, “The surging real estate market would go on to suffocate large sections of the city’s party scene, but for now, the scene continued to flourish.” (246) Lawrence’s use of oral history is very effective here -- it not only gives us the sequence of events as historical narratives generally do, but it also gives us a sense of what New York scenesters were feeling in late 1981. Many of the quotes used in Part II’s closing pages describe the virus as a mystery with a hint of fear and anxiety.

Part III and IV cover the final 2 years of the cultural renaissance, which focuses on the spread of cultural convergence, and then the overall decline of the scene in 1983. Lawrence argues that in 1982, the idea of cultural mixing hit its high point, that across three categories, musical, social and production, mixing of cultures was ubiquitous. Part III continues Lawrence’s argument of how diverse patrons of social clubs came together to exchange ideas and collaborate, but also covers how DJs attracted new clientele by eschewing formulaic commercial disco beats in favor of a wide-ranging musical program, and how studio producers “explored mixing as a form of sonic integration that could inspire parallel social developments” (341) Because of this cultural integration, Lawrence argues, “the New York sound also assumed a kaleidoscopic brilliance that crossed between genres as it surged through dance floors, boom boxes, and car stereos. It had, quite simply, come to embody and express the diversity and complexity of the city’s population.” (342)

In the final segment of ''Life or Death'', titled “The Genesis of Division,” Lawrence discusses how the AIDS, crack, lack of federal assistance not only decimated the community but also stifled, what seemed to be at the time, a new cultural juggernaut. In the chapter “Sex and Death,” Lawrence does not make much of an argument, but he does provide a relief map of the reactions of gay male club patrons to the growing AIDS crisis. At [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Saint_(club) The Saint nightclub,] some wanted to continue with their sexual freedom, while others, frightened by virus stigmatized them. Paradise Garage, one of the most famous clubs of the disco and post-disco era lost many patrons to the disease. In one interview quote, the interviewee states: “Lots of people died, a lot were sick, and a lot of the friends of the members who had died or were sick stopped coming because it was too painful to go to a place with so many memories of the fun times they had enjoyed with their friends and lovers.” (426) Again, Lawrence’s use of oral history interviews here is deeply impactful, as it gives the reader a visceral feeling that all of the inspirational convergence and optimism of the previous years was indeed coming to an end.

Continuing with the theme of the end of the scene, and a bittersweet reversal of trends during this era, Lawrence covers the release of Michael Jackson’s ''Thriller'' to highlight how the commercial music industry co-opted the sonic collaborative efforts of the New York scene which led to corporate label’s renewed interest in dance music. Unfortunately, they made the same mistakes as the end of the disco era: formulaic dance music, often led by white and European artists. Lawrence states, “although more dance records were coming out than at any time since 1979, a higher percentage were deemed unplayable by New York’s party DJs than had been the case at any time since the peak of disco.” (437)

Furthermore, Lawrence argues that at the time MTV was also a contributor to the scene’s demise. First, he explains that MTV was guilty of taking blackness out of popular music because of the channel’s refusal to air black rhythm and blues videos during the station’s infancy. Following that, Lawrence describes how the national appeal of MTV forced some club owners to adapt to mimicking trends shown on the channel -- a large departure from the grassroots collaborative culture that had grown in the city in years prior. Of course, led to many of the scene’s founders to lose interest.

Lawrence’s book is filled with a staggering level of detail of four years of a city’s nightlife. In the epilogue, he is somewhat defiant and hopeful, explaining that in his visit to some of the old sites of dance music history, a majority are totally gentrified and the old creative energies have moved to the outskirts of the city to Williamsburg. Yet, he feels that it is possible for the “full-throttle expressivity and immersive community,” that “forged a democratic, pluralistic movement that seemed to know no limit,” of early 80s New York can happen again, although he provides no specifics ideas on how to accomplish that daunting task. (473) His solution is to hope -- that based on people’s current desire to dance, listen to music, and collaborate they will eventually want to recreate this golden era again -- under the “right conditions”. (474) In a sense, Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor is a guide as much as it is a history book.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]

[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Tim Lawrence]]

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

2017-10-04T03:32:40Z

Cjackson122:

{{Infobox book
| name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983
| author = Tim Lawrence
| publisher = Duke University Press
| pub_date = 2016
| pages = 600
| isbn = 9780822361862
| image = [[File:LADOTNYDF.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

When the subject of disco is covered in many non-dance music focused historical texts, typically only its death at
[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Steve_Dahl Steve Dahl's] infamous [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Disco_Demolition_Night Disco Demolition Night] is discussed. While there have been many books that cover the cultural histories of the rise of fall of disco of disco, such as Peter Shapiro’s [https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Beat-Around-History-Disco/dp/0571219233 ''Turn the Beat Around''] and Alice Echols’ [https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Stuff-Remaking-American-Culture/dp/0393338916 ''Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture''], there have been relatively few texts which fully investigate what happened to the disco scene and its key players after its collapse. Rarer still are history books that attempt to “bridge the gap”, or explain how and why dance music culture changed from the 1970s to the 1980s and how it changed American culture. Tim Lawrence’s 2003 book, [https://www.amazon.com/Love-Saves-Day-American-1970-1979/dp/0822331985 ''Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture''], begins to explain these key concepts in the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, but of course far more detailed analysis is required to understand the true significance of post-disco era.

Tim Lawrence’s ''Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983'' concerns a transitional era in American history and how the change in national politics, the shift from industrialism to post-industrialism to neo-liberalism, the shock of the “death” of disco, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic, forever changed New York City’s -- and by extension the world’s -- urban nightlife and popular culture. At its core, Life and Death is a chronicle of New York City’s “lost” post-disco era and how these socio-political and economic changes along with cultural pluralism, multicultural appreciation, and artistic experimentation intermingled to birth not only a creative and active community but also a unique and vibrant nightlife in New York City in the early 1980s. In addition, through extensive use of oral history, Lawrence argues that some of the participants of the post-disco era had a troubled relationship with disco -- many of them still loved it, but because of big label “gentrification” of the sound and venues and the removal of blackness from it sonically and in some cases physically, many abandoned it for something to call their own. [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Universal_Zulu_Nation Zulu Nation’s] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Afrika_Islam Afrika Islam] explains in an interview with Lawrence, “We were anti-disco because disco was John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Studio_54 Studio 54]...We were wearing Levi’s jeans and Pumas so we didn’t look like John Travolta, but it didn’t mean we didn’t listen to the music or dance to it.” (94) Furthermore, ''Life and Death'' explains how this community and the events following disco’s “collapse” in particular are responsible for the rise of several new popular music and art genres, including hip-hop.

The narrative is not without fault, however. As dance music culture is largely ephemeral, Lawrence’s narrative relies heavily on oral history, which he admits, “relies heavily on recollections that can only be filtered through the present and are to varying degrees partial.” (13) It should be understood that these oral histories are taken from people who spent many late nights on the town with all the vices that it offers. As such, some of the accounts are very general, and to be taken with a grain of salt. However, Lawrence’s reliance on oral histories and club tracklistings provide the reader with a deep understanding of the ephemeral and often visceral nature of dance music culture. Although rich detail is welcome, Lawrence at times offers too much detail and introduces so many colorful characters and lists of celebrity club goers and performers that it often obfuscates his main arguments. Furthermore, he rarely uses specific statistics when discussing economics. In doing so, the book sometimes reads more like a learned cultural tour of New York’s early 1980s underground dance music scene, rather than a concise laser focused historiographic. Still, Lawrence gives us quite a bit of cultural history with economic sociopolitical commentary worth reading.

Lawrence makes several arguments -- to varying success -- in ''Life and Death''. Most important of these is that the dance music community in New York City in the early 1980s fostered a “cultural renaissance...that stands as one of the most influential in its, and perhaps any city’s history.” (13) The renaissance was only possible because of the low rents, which were a result of the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial city. Lawrence further argues that the dance music scene’s ultimate collapse was a result in part because of the increase in property values after [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ed_Koch Mayor Ed Koch] introduced neoliberal policies, spurned by the Reagan Administration’s $700 billion budget cut which, “introduced generous tax abatements worth several hundred of millions of dollars to property developers in an attempt to create future employment and revenue streams that would help the disadvantaged.” (133) These policies, as Lawrence argues, were a reaction to perceived and realized economic failures of the 1970s and were the start of a mass gentrification of New York’s cultural center. (11)

Lawrence also takes great effort to argue that cultural amalgamation and social networks within the community were the engine that built the post-disco cultural renaissance, so much so that it really is the star theme of the narrative. In several instances and in a variety of ways, he explains that “the party culture of the early 1980s is of interest not in spite of its lack of generic clarity but because its itinerant leanings opened up so many social and sonic possibilities.” (9) These social and sonic possibilities were also economic boons for the communities, not only because of the many new dance clubs that opened and attracted people from all walks of life as he describes in part III, but also due to major labels abandoning dance music sales almost entirely. In his discussion about the decline of major label interest in disco music in the late 1970s, Lawrence explains that independent record labels seized the opportunity of the new dance music boom in the early 1980s, where large record labels were, “oblivious to the dance storm that was about to unfold.” (25) New and independent labels like [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/ZE_Records ZE Records,] which championed a new kind of American dance music -- a blend of disco, punk, new wave, funk and Latin ethnic dance music -- or “mutant disco,” and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prelude_Records_(record_label) Prelude Records,] which “distanced [itself] from disco’s commercially driven lurch into join-the-dots monotony by ramping up the funk and R&B elements of their output.” (110) He further explains that as late as 1982, “The relative absence of the corporates provided labels such as [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Island_Records Island,] Prelude, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sleeping_Bag_Records Sleeping Bag,] [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tommy_Boy_Records Tommy Boy,] and ZE with the kind of market freedom that had last existed during the first half of the 1970s, when the majors were even more clueless about the percolating energy that was coursing through the city’s nascent DJ-led dance scene.”(337) Not to mention the several hip-hop independents, like Sugar Hill Records, that started during the same period.

As readers, we have the benefit of knowledge of history. In particular, we now know the overall successes and failures of these labels and the culture after the early 80s. Unfortunately, Lawrence does not provide specifics on the economics of these record labels. We are only given only implications -- major label disinterest in disco after the collapse, the music’s quick adoption by radio, anecdotes of a few thousand copies sold in a few record shops near [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Paradise_Garage Paradise Garage,] and repeated mention of these labels throughout the work. It is hard to determine precisely how successful these labels were in comparison to the major labels because of the lack of specific financial data. Its inclusion would have strengthened his argument.

The book is separated into 4 main parts, each covering approximately one year, with several thematic chapters in each section. In part I, Lawrence argues that while Americans were reeling from political scandal, war, and economic uncertainty in the late 1979, discos still maintained an audience because New York, “housed the highest concentration of gay men, people of color and women in the United States,” who were also the foundation of the early disco movement in the 1970s, many of whom adopted New York’s disco scene as a way of life. (14) Lawrence further explains that because New York was already a cultural hub and because rents remained low, artists and musicians could live cheaply in the city and pursue their art and participate in the city’s nightly offerings rather easily. Following that, the high concentration of creatives from all walks of life frequented the myriad of nightlife offerings. In the loud colorful dance clubs, patrons often formed diverse social networks and collaborated on art, music, and politics. Many of these collaborations were unimaginable amalgamations of ideas -- in art, music, politics, and culture that previously did not exist. Lawrence argues, “Already widespread during the first half of the 1970s and reinvigorated when the big money drained out of disco, the democratic modus operandi of its party spaces contributed to the city’s integration and sense of well-being by encouraging people from different backgrounds to meet and get along in an informal setting.” (132)

[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mudd_Club The Mudd Club,] founded by Steve Mass, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Club_57 Club 57,] curated by [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ann_Magnuson Ann Magnuson,] and Pravada founded by Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper are central to part I’s narrative. Lawrence argues that these clubs were ground zero of cultural melding and artistic evolution in New York’s subterranean dance music scene. Lawrence explains that these clubs were places “where a small amount of capital unleashed a disproportionate amount of cultural capital.”(59) He also discusses the continued importance of [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/David_Mancuso David Mancuso’s Loft,] a holdover from the pre-disco era -- and central focus of ''Love Saves the Day'' -- and Paradise Garage, where DJ [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Larry_Levan Larry Levan] introduced black gay patrons to a variety of new sounds. The philosophies of all of these people helped to shape and define the post-disco era. Lawrence explains that “even if it was inevitably incomplete and flawed, the shift toward democracy and integration was hardly coincidental inasmuch as Mancuso was a self-identifying child of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rainbow_Coalition_(Fred_Hampton) Rainbow Coalition;] ...Mass drew on [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Situationist_International Situationism], punk, the downtown art scene, civil rights, and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Third-wave_feminism third-wave feminism;] Magnuson was imbued with the ethos of the countercultural movement and iconoclastic theater; Fouratt was a co-founder of the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Youth_International_Party Yippies] and the [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gay_Liberation_Front# Gay Liberation Front;] and Piper cultivated a philosophy of decadent freedom that rejected outmoded institutions and practices.” (132) Lawrence showcases the importance of each club proprietor philosophy by explaining how those philosophies helped to create the identities of each club -- and by extension the cultural renaissance in New York during this era.

Part II details the fruits of the collaborations made in part I. It concerns the rise of hip-hop, art collaboration between high art and so-called lowbrow graffiti, and the acceptance of musical and artistic collaboration by patrons and the mainstream and the shift from live instrumentation to drum machines and synthesizers in dance music. Here again, Lawrence uses expansive oral histories to detail various collaborative art shows, film, and the increase in club openings in 1981. While the oral histories are interesting, He does not provide specifics where necessary. For example, in his discussion of the “explosion of clubs”, Lawrence lists an exhaustive list of new clubs that opened in 1981, but he fails to provide any details on how much opening one of these clubs actually costs attendance or operating budgets. Favoring the pure oral history style, Lawrence quotes an anecdote from Steve Mass instead: “Everyone was starting a club based on the fact that it cost no money. One of my bartenders went down the block and started doing nights in a strip club.” (158) In the closing chapter of part II, Lawrence explains many of the political, social and economic forces that would eventually bring this era to a close, namely the Reagan administration’s abandonment of a strong federal government, Koch’s neo-liberal economic plan to draw more tax revenue from real estate developers, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. In contrast, as Lawrence explains, “The surging real estate market would go on to suffocate large sections of the city’s party scene, but for now, the scene continued to flourish.” (246) Lawrence’s use of oral history is very effective here -- it not only gives us the sequence of events as historical narratives generally do, but it also gives us a sense of what New York scenesters were feeling in late 1981. Many of the quotes used in Part II’s closing pages describe the virus as a mystery with a hint of fear and anxiety.

Part III and IV cover the final 2 years of the cultural renaissance, which focuses on the spread of cultural convergence, and then the overall decline of the scene in 1983. Lawrence argues that in 1982, the idea of cultural mixing hit its high point, that across three categories, musical, social and production, mixing of cultures was ubiquitous. Part III continues Lawrence’s argument of how diverse patrons of social clubs came together to exchange ideas and collaborate, but also covers how DJs attracted new clientele by eschewing formulaic commercial disco beats in favor of a wide-ranging musical program, and how studio producers “explored mixing as a form of sonic integration that could inspire parallel social developments” (341) Because of this cultural integration, Lawrence argues, “the New York sound also assumed a kaleidoscopic brilliance that crossed between genres as it surged through dance floors, boom boxes, and car stereos. It had, quite simply, come to embody and express the diversity and complexity of the city’s population.” (342)

In the final segment of ''Life or Death'', titled “The Genesis of Division,” Lawrence discusses how the AIDS, crack, lack of federal assistance not only decimated the community but also stifled, what seemed to be at the time, a new cultural juggernaut. In the chapter “Sex and Death,” Lawrence does not make much of an argument, but he does provide a relief map of the reactions of gay male club patrons to the growing AIDS crisis. At [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Saint_(club) The Saint nightclub,] some wanted to continue with their sexual freedom, while others, frightened by virus stigmatized them. Paradise Garage, one of the most famous clubs of the disco and post-disco era lost many patrons to the disease. In one interview quote, the interviewee states: “Lots of people died, a lot were sick, and a lot of the friends of the members who had died or were sick stopped coming because it was too painful to go to a place with so many memories of the fun times they had enjoyed with their friends and lovers.” (426) Again, Lawrence’s use of oral history interviews here is deeply impactful, as it gives the reader a visceral feeling that all of the inspirational convergence and optimism of the previous years was indeed coming to an end.

Continuing with the theme of the end of the scene, and a bittersweet reversal of trends during this era, Lawrence covers the release of Michael Jackson’s ''Thriller'' to highlight how the commercial music industry co-opted the sonic collaborative efforts of the New York scene which led to corporate label’s renewed interest in dance music. Unfortunately, they made the same mistakes as the end of the disco era: formulaic dance music, often led by white and European artists. Lawrence states, “although more dance records were coming out than at any time since 1979, a higher percentage were deemed unplayable by New York’s party DJs than had been the case at any time since the peak of disco.” (437)

Furthermore, Lawrence argues that at the time MTV was also a contributor to the scene’s demise. First, he explains that MTV was guilty of taking blackness out of popular music because of the channel’s refusal to air black rhythm and blues videos during the station’s infancy. Following that, Lawrence describes how the national appeal of MTV forced some club owners to adapt to mimicking trends shown on the channel -- a large departure from the grassroots collaborative culture that had grown in the city in years prior. Of course, led to many of the scene’s founders to lose interest.

Lawrence’s book is filled with a staggering level of detail of four years of a city’s nightlife. In the epilogue, he is somewhat defiant and hopeful, explaining that in his visit to some of the old sites of dance music history, a majority are totally gentrified and the old creative energies have moved to the outskirts of the city to Williamsburg. Yet, he feels that it is possible for the “full-throttle expressivity and immersive community,” that “forged a democratic, pluralistic movement that seemed to know no limit,” of early 80s New York can happen again, although he provides no specifics ideas on how to accomplish that daunting task. (473) His solution is to hope -- that based on people’s current desire to dance, listen to music, and collaborate they will eventually want to recreate this golden era again -- under the “right conditions”. (474) In a sense, Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor is a guide as much as it is a history book.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]

[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Tim Lawrence]]

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

2017-10-04T02:42:41Z

Cjackson122:

{{Infobox book
| name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983
| author = Tim Lawrence
| publisher = Duke University Press
| pub_date = 2016
| pages = 600
| isbn = 9780822361862
| image = [[File:LADOTNYDF.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

When the subject of disco is covered in many non-dance music focused historical texts, typically only its death at Steve Dahl’s infamous Disco Demolition Night is discussed. While there have been many books that cover the cultural histories of the rise of fall of disco of disco, such as Peter Shapiro’s ''Turn the Beat Around'' and Alice Echols’ ''Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture'', there have been relatively few texts which fully investigate what happened to the disco scene and its key players after its collapse. Rarer still are history books that attempt to “bridge the gap”, or explain how and why dance music culture changed from the 1970s to the 1980s and how it changed American culture. Tim Lawrence’s 2003 book, ''Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture'', begins to explain these key concepts in the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, but of course far more detailed analysis is required to understand the true significance of post-disco era.

Tim Lawrence’s ''Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983'' concerns a transitional era in American history and how the change in national politics, the shift from industrialism to post-industrialism to neo-liberalism, the shock of the “death” of disco, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic, forever changed New York City’s -- and by extension the world’s -- urban nightlife and popular culture. At its core, Life and Death is a chronicle of New York City’s “lost” post-disco era and how these socio-political and economic changes along with cultural pluralism, multicultural appreciation, and artistic experimentation intermingled to birth not only a creative and active community but also a unique and vibrant nightlife in New York City in the early 1980s. In addition, through extensive use of oral history, Lawrence argues that some of the participants of the post-disco era had a troubled relationship with disco -- many of them still loved it, but because of big label “gentrification” of the sound and venues and the removal of blackness from it sonically and in some cases physically, many abandoned it for something to call their own. Zulu Nation’s Afrika Islam explains in an interview with Lawrence, “We were anti-disco because disco was John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever and Studio 54...We were wearing Levi’s jeans and Pumas so we didn’t look like John Travolta, but it didn’t mean we didn’t listen to the music or dance to it.” (94) Furthermore, ''Life and Death'' explains how this community and the events following disco’s “collapse” in particular are responsible for the rise of several new popular music and art genres, including hip-hop.

The narrative is not without fault, however. As dance music culture is largely ephemeral, Lawrence’s narrative relies heavily on oral history, which he admits, “relies heavily on recollections that can only be filtered through the present and are to varying degrees partial.” (13) It should be understood that these oral histories are taken from people who spent many late nights on the town with all the vices that it offers. As such, some of the accounts are very general, and to be taken with a grain of salt. However, Lawrence’s reliance on oral histories and club tracklistings provide the reader with a deep understanding of the ephemeral and often visceral nature of dance music culture. Although rich detail is welcome, Lawrence at times offers too much detail and introduces so many colorful characters and lists of celebrity club goers and performers that it often obfuscates his main arguments. Furthermore, he rarely uses specific statistics when discussing economics. In doing so, the book sometimes reads more like a learned cultural tour of New York’s early 1980s underground dance music scene, rather than a concise laser focused historiographic. Still, Lawrence gives us quite a bit of cultural history with economic sociopolitical commentary worth reading.

Lawrence makes several arguments -- to varying success -- in ''Life and Death''. Most important of these is that the dance music community in New York City in the early 1980s fostered a “cultural renaissance...that stands as one of the most influential in its, and perhaps any city’s history.” (13) The renaissance was only possible because of the low rents, which were a result of the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial city. Lawrence further argues that the dance music scene’s ultimate collapse was a result in part because of the increase in property values after Mayor Ed Koch introduced neoliberal policies, spurned by the Reagan Administration’s $700 billion budget cut which, “introduced generous tax abatements worth several hundred of millions of dollars to property developers in an attempt to create future employment and revenue streams that would help the disadvantaged.” (133) These policies, as Lawrence argues, were a reaction to perceived and realized economic failures of the 1970s and were the start of a mass gentrification of New York’s cultural center. (11)

Lawrence also takes great effort to argue that cultural amalgamation and social networks within the community were the engine that built the post-disco cultural renaissance, so much so that it really is the star theme of the narrative. In several instances and in a variety of ways, he explains that “the party culture of the early 1980s is of interest not in spite of its lack of generic clarity but because its itinerant leanings opened up so many social and sonic possibilities.” (9) These social and sonic possibilities were also economic boons for the communities, not only because of the many new dance clubs that opened and attracted people from all walks of life as he describes in part III, but also due to major labels abandoning dance music sales almost entirely. In his discussion about the decline of major label interest in disco music in the late 1970s, Lawrence explains that independent record labels seized the opportunity of the new dance music boom in the early 1980s, where large record labels were, “oblivious to the dance storm that was about to unfold.” (25) New and independent labels like ZE Records, which championed a new kind of American dance music -- a blend of disco, punk, new wave, funk and Latin ethnic dance music -- or “mutant disco,” and Prelude Records, which “distanced [itself] from disco’s commercially driven lurch into join-the-dots monotony by ramping up the funk and R&B elements of their output.” (110) He further explains that as late as 1982, “The relative absence of the corporates provided labels such as Island, Prelude, Sleeping Bag, Tommy Boy, and ZE with the kind of market freedom that had last existed during the first half of the 1970s, when the majors were even more clueless about the percolating energy that was coursing through the city’s nascent DJ-led dance scene.”(337) Not to mention the several hip-hop independents, like Sugar Hill Records, that started during the same period.

As readers, we have the benefit of knowledge of history. In particular, we now know the overall successes and failures of these labels and the culture after the early 80s. Unfortunately, Lawrence does not provide specifics on the economics of these record labels. We are only given only implications -- major label disinterest in disco after the collapse, the music’s quick adoption by radio, anecdotes of a few thousand copies sold in a few record shops near Paradise Garage, and repeated mention of these labels throughout the work. It is hard to determine precisely how successful these labels were in comparison to the major labels because of the lack of specific financial data. Its inclusion would have strengthened his argument.

The book is separated into 4 main parts, each covering approximately one year, with several thematic chapters in each section. In part I, Lawrence argues that while Americans were reeling from political scandal, war, and economic uncertainty in the late 1979, discos still maintained an audience because New York, “housed the highest concentration of gay men, people of color and women in the United States,” who were also the foundation of the early disco movement in the 1970s, many of whom adopted New York’s disco scene as a way of life. (14) Lawrence further explains that because New York was already a cultural hub and because rents remained low, artists and musicians could live cheaply in the city and pursue their art and participate in the city’s nightly offerings rather easily. Following that, the high concentration of creatives from all walks of life frequented the myriad of nightlife offerings. In the loud colorful dance clubs, patrons often formed diverse social networks and collaborated on art, music, and politics. Many of these collaborations were unimaginable amalgamations of ideas -- in art, music, politics, and culture that previously did not exist. Lawrence argues, “Already widespread during the first half of the 1970s and reinvigorated when the big money drained out of disco, the democratic modus operandi of its party spaces contributed to the city’s integration and sense of well-being by encouraging people from different backgrounds to meet and get along in an informal setting.” (132)

The Mudd Club, founded by Steve Mass, Club 57, curated by Ann Magnuson, and Pravada founded by Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper are central to part I’s narrative. Lawrence argues that these clubs were ground zero of cultural melding and artistic evolution in New York’s subterranean dance music scene. Lawrence explains that these clubs were places “where a small amount of capital unleashed a disproportionate amount of cultural capital.”(59) He also discusses the continued importance of David Mancuso’s Loft, a holdover from the pre-disco era -- and central focus of Love Saves the Day -- and Paradise Garage, where DJ Larry Levan introduced black gay patrons to a variety of new sounds. The philosophies of all of these people helped to shape and define the post-disco era. Lawrence explains that “even if it was inevitably incomplete and flawed, the shift toward democracy and integration was hardly coincidental inasmuch as Mancuso was a self-identifying child of the Rainbow Coalition; ...Mass drew on Situationism, punk, the downtown art scene, civil rights, and third-wave feminism; Magnuson was imbued with the ethos of the countercultural movement and iconoclastic theater; Fouratt was a co-founder of the Yippies and the Gay Liberation Front; and Piper cultivated a philosophy of decadent freedom that rejected outmoded institutions and practices.” (132) Lawrence showcases the importance of each club proprietor philosophy by explaining how those philosophies helped to create the identities of each club -- and by extension the cultural renaissance in New York during this era.

Part II details the fruits of the collaborations made in part I. It concerns the rise of hip-hop, art collaboration between high art and so-called lowbrow graffiti, and the acceptance of musical and artistic collaboration by patrons and the mainstream and the shift from live instrumentation to drum machines and synthesizers in dance music. Here again, Lawrence uses expansive oral histories to detail various collaborative art shows, film, and the increase in club openings in 1981. While the oral histories are interesting, He does not provide specifics where necessary. For example, in his discussion of the “explosion of clubs”, Lawrence lists an exhaustive list of new clubs that opened in 1981, but he fails to provide any details on how much opening one of these clubs actually costs attendance or operating budgets. Favoring the pure oral history style, Lawrence quotes an anecdote from Steve Mass instead: “Everyone was starting a club based on the fact that it cost no money. One of my bartenders went down the block and started doing nights in a strip club.” (158) In the closing chapter of part II, Lawrence explains many of the political, social and economic forces that would eventually bring this era to a close, namely the Reagan administration’s abandonment of a strong federal government, Koch’s neo-liberal economic plan to draw more tax revenue from real estate developers, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. In contrast, as Lawrence explains, “The surging real estate market would go on to suffocate large sections of the city’s party scene, but for now, the scene continued to flourish.” (246) Lawrence’s use of oral history is very effective here -- it not only gives us the sequence of events as historical narratives generally do, but it also gives us a sense of what New York scenesters were feeling in late 1981. Many of the quotes used in Part II’s closing pages describe the virus as a mystery with a hint of fear and anxiety.

Part III and IV cover the final 2 years of the cultural renaissance, which focuses on the spread of cultural convergence, and then the overall decline of the scene in 1983. Lawrence argues that in 1982, the idea of cultural mixing hit its high point, that across three categories, musical, social and production, mixing of cultures was ubiquitous. Part III continues Lawrence’s argument of how diverse patrons of social clubs came together to exchange ideas and collaborate, but also covers how DJs attracted new clientele by eschewing formulaic commercial disco beats in favor of a wide-ranging musical program, and how studio producers “explored mixing as a form of sonic integration that could inspire parallel social developments” (341) Because of this cultural integration, Lawrence argues, “the New York sound also assumed a kaleidoscopic brilliance that crossed between genres as it surged through dance floors, boom boxes, and car stereos. It had, quite simply, come to embody and express the diversity and complexity of the city’s population.” (342)

In the final segment of ''Life or Death'', titled “The Genesis of Division,” Lawrence discusses how the AIDS, crack, lack of federal assistance not only decimated the community but also stifled, what seemed to be at the time, a new cultural juggernaut. In the chapter “Sex and Death,” Lawrence does not make much of an argument, but he does provide a relief map of the reactions of gay male club patrons to the growing AIDS crisis. At The Saint nightclub, some wanted to continue with their sexual freedom, while others, frightened by virus stigmatized them. Paradise Garage, one of the most famous clubs of the disco and post-disco era lost many patrons to the disease. In one interview quote, the interviewee states: “Lots of people died, a lot were sick, and a lot of the friends of the members who had died or were sick stopped coming because it was too painful to go to a place with so many memories of the fun times they had enjoyed with their friends and lovers.” (426) Again, Lawrence’s use of oral history interviews here is deeply impactful, as it gives the reader a visceral feeling that all of the inspirational convergence and optimism of the previous years was indeed coming to an end.

Continuing with the theme of the end of the scene, and a bittersweet reversal of trends during this era, Lawrence covers the release of Michael Jackson’s thriller to highlight how the commercial music industry co-opted the sonic collaborative efforts of the New York scene which led to corporate label’s renewed interest in dance music. Unfortunately, they made the same mistakes as the end of the disco era: formulaic dance music, often led by white and European artists. Lawrence states, “although more dance records were coming out than at any time since 1979, a higher percentage were deemed unplayable by New York’s party DJs than had been the case at any time since the peak of disco.” (437)

Furthermore, Lawrence argues that at the time MTV was also a contributor to the scene’s demise. First, he explains that MTV was guilty of taking blackness out of popular music because of the channel’s refusal to air black rhythm and blues videos during the station’s infancy. Following that, Lawrence describes how the national appeal of MTV forced some club owners to adapt to mimicking trends shown on the channel -- a large departure from the grassroots collaborative culture that had grown in the city in years prior. Of course, led to many of the scene’s founders to lose interest.

Lawrence’s book is filled with staggering detail of four years of a city’s nightlife. In the epilogue, he is somewhat defiant and hopeful, explaining that in his visit to some of the old sites of dance music history, a majority are totally gentrified and the old creative energies have moved to the outskirts of the city to Williamsburg. Yet, he feels that it is possible for the “full-throttle expressivity and immersive community,” that “forged a democratic, pluralistic movement that seemed to know no limit,” of early 80s New York can happen again, although he provides no specifics ideas on how to accomplish that daunting task. (473) His solution is to hope -- that based on people’s current desire to dance, listen to music, and collaborate they will eventually want to recreate this golden era again -- under the “right conditions”. (474) In a sense, Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor is a guide as much as it is a history book.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]

[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Tim Lawrence]]

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

2017-10-04T02:18:08Z

Cjackson122:

{{Infobox book
| name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983
| author = Tim Lawrence
| publisher = Duke University Press
| pub_date = 2016
| pages = 600
| isbn = 9780822361862
| image = [[File:LADOTNYDF.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

When the subject of disco is covered in many non-dance music focused historical texts, typically only its death at Steve Dahl’s infamous Disco Demolition Night is discussed. While there have been many books that cover the cultural histories of the rise of fall of disco of disco, such as Peter Shapiro’s Turn the Beat Around and Alice Echols’ Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture, there have been relatively few texts which fully investigate what happened to the disco scene and its key players after its collapse. Rarer still are history books that attempt to “bridge the gap”, or explain how and why dance music culture changed from the 1970s to the 1980s and how it changed American culture. Tim Lawrence’s 2003 book, Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, begins to explain these key concepts in the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, but of course far more detailed analysis is required to understand the true significance of post-disco era.

Tim Lawrence’s Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983 concerns a transitional era in American history and how the change in national politics, the shift from industrialism to post-industrialism to neo-liberalism, the shock of the “death” of disco, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic, forever changed New York City’s -- and by extension the world’s -- urban nightlife and popular culture. At its core, Life and Death is a chronicle of New York City’s “lost” post-disco era and how these socio-political and economic changes along with cultural pluralism, multicultural appreciation, and artistic experimentation intermingled to birth not only a creative and active community but also a unique and vibrant nightlife in New York City in the early 1980s. In addition, through extensive use of oral history, Lawrence argues that some of the participants of the post-disco era had a troubled relationship with disco -- many of them still loved it, but because of big label “gentrification” of the sound and venues and the removal of blackness from it sonically and in some cases physically, many abandoned it for something to call their own. Zulu Nation’s Afrika Islam explains in an interview with Lawrence, “We were anti-disco because disco was John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever and Studio 54...We were wearing Levi’s jeans and Pumas so we didn’t look like John Travolta, but it didn’t mean we didn’t listen to the music or dance to it.” (94) Furthermore, Life and Death explains how this community and the events following disco’s “collapse” in particular are responsible for the rise of several new popular music and art genres, including hip-hop.

The narrative is not without fault, however. As dance music culture is largely ephemeral, Lawrence’s narrative relies heavily on oral history, which he admits, “relies heavily on recollections that can only be filtered through the present and are to varying degrees partial.” (13) It should be understood that these oral histories are taken from people who spent many late nights on the town with all the vices that it offers. As such, some of the accounts are very general, and to be taken with a grain of salt. However, Lawrence’s reliance on oral histories and club tracklistings provide the reader with a deep understanding of the ephemeral and often visceral nature of dance music culture. Although rich detail is welcome, Lawrence at times offers too much detail and introduces so many colorful characters and lists of celebrity club goers and performers that it often obfuscates his main arguments. Furthermore, he rarely uses specific statistics when discussing economics. In doing so, the book sometimes reads more like a learned cultural tour of New York’s early 1980s underground dance music scene, rather than a concise laser focused historiographic. Still, Lawrence gives us quite a bit of cultural history with economic sociopolitical commentary worth reading.

Lawrence makes several arguments -- to varying success -- in Life and Death. Most important of these is that the dance music community in New York City in the early 1980s fostered a “cultural renaissance...that stands as one of the most influential in its, and perhaps any city’s history.” (13) The renaissance was only possible because of the low rents, which were a result of the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial city. Lawrence further argues that the dance music scene’s ultimate collapse was a result in part because of the increase in property values after Mayor Ed Koch introduced neoliberal policies, spurned by the Reagan Administration’s $700 billion budget cut which, “introduced generous tax abatements worth several hundred of millions of dollars to property developers in an attempt to create future employment and revenue streams that would help the disadvantaged.” (133) These policies, as Lawrence argues, were a reaction to perceived and realized economic failures of the 1970s and were the start of a mass gentrification of New York’s cultural center. (11)

Lawrence also takes great effort to argue that cultural amalgamation and social networks within the community were the engine that built the post-disco cultural renaissance, so much so that it really is the star theme of the narrative. In several instances and in a variety of ways, he explains that “the party culture of the early 1980s is of interest not in spite of its lack of generic clarity but because its itinerant leanings opened up so many social and sonic possibilities.” (9) These social and sonic possibilities were also economic boons for the communities, not only because of the many new dance clubs that opened and attracted people from all walks of life as he describes in part III, but also due to major labels abandoning dance music sales almost entirely. In his discussion about the decline of major label interest in disco music in the late 1970s, Lawrence explains that independent record labels seized the opportunity of the new dance music boom in the early 1980s, where large record labels were, “oblivious to the dance storm that was about to unfold.” (25) New and independent labels like ZE Records, which championed a new kind of American dance music -- a blend of disco, punk, new wave, funk and Latin ethnic dance music -- or “mutant disco,” and Prelude Records, which “distanced [itself] from disco’s commercially driven lurch into join-the-dots monotony by ramping up the funk and R&B elements of their output.” (110) He further explains that as late as 1982, “The relative absence of the corporates provided labels such as Island, Prelude, Sleeping Bag, Tommy Boy, and ZE with the kind of market freedom that had last existed during the first half of the 1970s, when the majors were even more clueless about the percolating energy that was coursing through the city’s nascent DJ-led dance scene.”(337) Not to mention the several hip-hop independents, like Sugar Hill Records, that started during the same period.

As readers, we have the benefit of knowledge of history. In particular, we now know the overall successes and failures of these labels and the culture after the early 80s. Unfortunately, Lawrence does not provide specifics on the economics of these record labels. We are only given only implications -- major label disinterest in disco after the collapse, the music’s quick adoption by radio, anecdotes of a few thousand copies sold in a few record shops near Paradise Garage, and repeated mention of these labels throughout the work. It is hard to determine precisely how successful these labels were in comparison to the major labels because of the lack of specific financial data. Its inclusion would have strengthened his argument.

The book is separated into 4 main parts, each covering approximately one year, with several thematic chapters in each section. In part I, Lawrence argues that while Americans were reeling from political scandal, war, and economic uncertainty in the late 1979, discos still maintained an audience because New York, “housed the highest concentration of gay men, people of color and women in the United States,” who were also the foundation of the early disco movement in the 1970s, many of whom adopted New York’s disco scene as a way of life. (14) Lawrence further explains that because New York was already a cultural hub and because rents remained low, artists and musicians could live cheaply in the city and pursue their art and participate in the city’s nightly offerings rather easily. Following that, the high concentration of creatives from all walks of life frequented the myriad of nightlife offerings. In the loud colorful dance clubs, patrons often formed diverse social networks and collaborated on art, music, and politics. Many of these collaborations were unimaginable amalgamations of ideas -- in art, music, politics, and culture that previously did not exist. Lawrence argues, “Already widespread during the first half of the 1970s and reinvigorated when the big money drained out of disco, the democratic modus operandi of its party spaces contributed to the city’s integration and sense of well-being by encouraging people from different backgrounds to meet and get along in an informal setting.” (132)

The Mudd Club, founded by Steve Mass, Club 57, curated by Ann Magnuson, and Pravada founded by Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper are central to part I’s narrative. Lawrence argues that these clubs were ground zero of cultural melding and artistic evolution in New York’s subterranean dance music scene. Lawrence explains that these clubs were places “where a small amount of capital unleashed a disproportionate amount of cultural capital.”(59) He also discusses the continued importance of David Mancuso’s Loft, a holdover from the pre-disco era -- and central focus of Love Saves the Day -- and Paradise Garage, where DJ Larry Levan introduced black gay patrons to a variety of new sounds. The philosophies of all of these people helped to shape and define the post-disco era. Lawrence explains that “even if it was inevitably incomplete and flawed, the shift toward democracy and integration was hardly coincidental inasmuch as Mancuso was a self-identifying child of the Rainbow Coalition; ...Mass drew on Situationism, punk, the downtown art scene, civil rights, and third-wave feminism; Magnuson was imbued with the ethos of the countercultural movement and iconoclastic theater; Fouratt was a co-founder of the Yippies and the Gay Liberation Front; and Piper cultivated a philosophy of decadent freedom that rejected outmoded institutions and practices.” (132) Lawrence showcases the importance of each club proprietor philosophy by explaining how those philosophies helped to create the identities of each club -- and by extension the cultural renaissance in New York during this era.

Part II details the fruits of the collaborations made in part I. It concerns the rise of hip-hop, art collaboration between high art and so-called lowbrow graffiti, and the acceptance of musical and artistic collaboration by patrons and the mainstream and the shift from live instrumentation to drum machines and synthesizers in dance music. Here again, Lawrence uses expansive oral histories to detail various collaborative art shows, film, and the increase in club openings in 1981. While the oral histories are interesting, He does not provide specifics where necessary. For example, in his discussion of the “explosion of clubs”, Lawrence lists an exhaustive list of new clubs that opened in 1981, but he fails to provide any details on how much opening one of these clubs actually costs attendance or operating budgets. Favoring the pure oral history style, Lawrence quotes an anecdote from Steve Mass instead: “Everyone was starting a club based on the fact that it cost no money. One of my bartenders went down the block and started doing nights in a strip club.” (158) In the closing chapter of part II, Lawrence explains many of the political, social and economic forces that would eventually bring this era to a close, namely the Reagan administration’s abandonment of a strong federal government, Koch’s neo-liberal economic plan to draw more tax revenue from real estate developers, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. In contrast, as Lawrence explains, “The surging real estate market would go on to suffocate large sections of the city’s party scene, but for now, the scene continued to flourish.” (246) Lawrence’s use of oral history is very effective here -- it not only gives us the sequence of events as historical narratives generally do, but it also gives us a sense of what New York scenesters were feeling in late 1981. Many of the quotes used in Part II’s closing pages describe the virus as a mystery with a hint of fear and anxiety.

Part III and IV cover the final 2 years of the cultural renaissance, which focuses on the spread of cultural convergence, and then the overall decline of the scene in 1983. Lawrence argues that in 1982, the idea of cultural mixing hit its high point, that across three categories, musical, social and production, mixing of cultures was ubiquitous. Part III continues Lawrence’s argument of how diverse patrons of social clubs came together to exchange ideas and collaborate, but also covers how DJs attracted new clientele by eschewing formulaic commercial disco beats in favor of a wide-ranging musical program, and how studio producers “explored mixing as a form of sonic integration that could inspire parallel social developments” (341) Because of this cultural integration, Lawrence argues, “the New York sound also assumed a kaleidoscopic brilliance that crossed between genres as it surged through dance floors, boom boxes, and car stereos. It had, quite simply, come to embody and express the diversity and complexity of the city’s population.” (342)

In the final segment of Life or Death, titled “The Genesis of Division,” Lawrence discusses how the AIDS, crack, lack of federal assistance not only decimated the community but also stifled, what seemed to be at the time, a new cultural juggernaut. In the chapter “Sex and Death,” Lawrence does not make much of an argument, but he does provide a relief map of the reactions of gay male club patrons to the growing AIDS crisis. At The Saint nightclub, some wanted to continue with their sexual freedom, while others, frightened by virus stigmatized them. Paradise Garage, one of the most famous clubs of the disco and post-disco era lost many patrons to the disease. In one interview quote, the interviewee states: “Lots of people died, a lot were sick, and a lot of the friends of the members who had died or were sick stopped coming because it was too painful to go to a place with so many memories of the fun times they had enjoyed with their friends and lovers.” (426) Again, Lawrence’s use of oral history interviews here is deeply impactful, as it gives the reader a visceral feeling that all of the inspirational convergence and optimism of the previous years was indeed coming to an end.

Continuing with the theme of the end of the scene, and a bittersweet reversal of trends during this era, Lawrence covers the release of Michael Jackson’s thriller to highlight how the commercial music industry co-opted the sonic collaborative efforts of the New York scene which led to corporate label’s renewed interest in dance music. Unfortunately, they made the same mistakes as the end of the disco era: formulaic dance music, often led by white and European artists. Lawrence states, “although more dance records were coming out than at any time since 1979, a higher percentage were deemed unplayable by New York’s party DJs than had been the case at any time since the peak of disco.” (437)

Furthermore, Lawrence argues that at the time MTV was also a contributor to the scene’s demise. First, he explains that MTV was guilty of taking blackness out of popular music because of the channel’s refusal to air black rhythm and blues videos during the station’s infancy. Following that, Lawrence describes how the national appeal of MTV forced some club owners to adapt to mimicking trends shown on the channel -- a large departure from the grassroots collaborative culture that had grown in the city in years prior. Of course, led to many of the scene’s founders to lose interest.

Lawrence’s book is filled with staggering detail of four years of a city’s nightlife. In the epilogue, he is somewhat defiant and hopeful, explaining that in his visit to some of the old sites of dance music history, a majority are totally gentrified and the old creative energies have moved to the outskirts of the city to Williamsburg. Yet, he feels that it is possible for the “full-throttle expressivity and immersive community,” that “forged a democratic, pluralistic movement that seemed to know no limit,” of early 80s New York can happen again, although he provides no specifics ideas on how to accomplish that daunting task. (473) His solution is to hope -- that based on people’s current desire to dance, listen to music, and collaborate they will eventually want to recreate this golden era again -- under the “right conditions”. (474) In a sense, Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor is a guide as much as it is a history book.

[[Category:Twentieth Century United States]]

[[Category:Wikify]]
[[Category:Book Summaries]]
[[Category:Tim Lawrence]]

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

2017-10-04T02:14:41Z

Cjackson122:

{{Infobox book
| name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983
| author = Tim Lawrence
| publisher = Duke University Press
| pub_date = 2016
| pages = 600
| isbn = 9780822361862
| image = [[File:LADOTNYDF.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}

When the subject of disco is covered in many non-dance music focused historical texts, typically only its death at Steve Dahl’s infamous Disco Demolition Night is discussed. While there have been many books that cover the cultural histories of the rise of fall of disco of disco, such as Peter Shapiro’s Turn the Beat Around and Alice Echols’ Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture, there have been relatively few texts which fully investigate what happened to the disco scene and its key players after its collapse. Rarer still are history books that attempt to “bridge the gap”, or explain how and why dance music culture changed from the 1970s to the 1980s and how it changed American culture. Tim Lawrence’s 2003 book, Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, begins to explain these key concepts in the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, but of course far more detailed analysis is required to understand the true significance of post-disco era.

Tim Lawrence’s Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983 concerns a transitional era in American history and how the change in national politics, the shift from industrialism to post-industrialism to neo-liberalism, the shock of the “death” of disco, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic, forever changed New York City’s -- and by extension the world’s -- urban nightlife and popular culture. At its core, Life and Death is a chronicle of New York City’s “lost” post-disco era and how these socio-political and economic changes along with cultural pluralism, multicultural appreciation, and artistic experimentation intermingled to birth not only a creative and active community but also a unique and vibrant nightlife in New York City in the early 1980s. In addition, through extensive use of oral history, Lawrence argues that some of the participants of the post-disco era had a troubled relationship with disco -- many of them still loved it, but because of big label “gentrification” of the sound and venues and the removal of blackness from it sonically and in some cases physically, many abandoned it for something to call their own. Zulu Nation’s Afrika Islam explains in an interview with Lawrence, “We were anti-disco because disco was John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever and Studio 54...We were wearing Levi’s jeans and Pumas so we didn’t look like John Travolta, but it didn’t mean we didn’t listen to the music or dance to it.” (94) Furthermore, Life and Death explains how this community and the events following disco’s “collapse” in particular are responsible for the rise of several new popular music and art genres, including hip-hop.

The narrative is not without fault, however. As dance music culture is largely ephemeral, Lawrence’s narrative relies heavily on oral history, which he admits, “relies heavily on recollections that can only be filtered through the present and are to varying degrees partial.” (13) It should be understood that these oral histories are taken from people who spent many late nights on the town with all the vices that it offers. As such, some of the accounts are very general, and to be taken with a grain of salt. However, Lawrence’s reliance on oral histories and club tracklistings provide the reader with a deep understanding of the ephemeral and often visceral nature of dance music culture. Although rich detail is welcome, Lawrence at times offers too much detail and introduces so many colorful characters and lists of celebrity club goers and performers that it often obfuscates his main arguments. Furthermore, he rarely uses specific statistics when discussing economics. In doing so, the book sometimes reads more like a learned cultural tour of New York’s early 1980s underground dance music scene, rather than a concise laser focused historiographic. Still, Lawrence gives us quite a bit of cultural history with economic sociopolitical commentary worth reading.

Lawrence makes several arguments -- to varying success -- in Life and Death. Most important of these is that the dance music community in New York City in the early 1980s fostered a “cultural renaissance...that stands as one of the most influential in its, and perhaps any city’s history.” (13) The renaissance was only possible because of the low rents, which were a result of the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial city. Lawrence further argues that the dance music scene’s ultimate collapse was a result in part because of the increase in property values after Mayor Ed Koch introduced neoliberal policies, spurned by the Reagan Administration’s $700 billion budget cut which, “introduced generous tax abatements worth several hundred of millions of dollars to property developers in an attempt to create future employment and revenue streams that would help the disadvantaged.” (133) These policies, as Lawrence argues, were a reaction to perceived and realized economic failures of the 1970s and were the start of a mass gentrification of New York’s cultural center. (11)

Lawrence also takes great effort to argue that cultural amalgamation and social networks within the community were the engine that built the post-disco cultural renaissance, so much so that it really is the star theme of the narrative. In several instances and in a variety of ways, he explains that “the party culture of the early 1980s is of interest not in spite of its lack of generic clarity but because its itinerant leanings opened up so many social and sonic possibilities.” (9) These social and sonic possibilities were also economic boons for the communities, not only because of the many new dance clubs that opened and attracted people from all walks of life as he describes in part III, but also due to major labels abandoning dance music sales almost entirely. In his discussion about the decline of major label interest in disco music in the late 1970s, Lawrence explains that independent record labels seized the opportunity of the new dance music boom in the early 1980s, where large record labels were, “oblivious to the dance storm that was about to unfold.” (25) New and independent labels like ZE Records, which championed a new kind of American dance music -- a blend of disco, punk, new wave, funk and Latin ethnic dance music -- or “mutant disco,” and Prelude Records, which “distanced [itself] from disco’s commercially driven lurch into join-the-dots monotony by ramping up the funk and R&B elements of their output.” (110) He further explains that as late as 1982, “The relative absence of the corporates provided labels such as Island, Prelude, Sleeping Bag, Tommy Boy, and ZE with the kind of market freedom that had last existed during the first half of the 1970s, when the majors were even more clueless about the percolating energy that was coursing through the city’s nascent DJ-led dance scene.”(337) Not to mention the several hip-hop independents, like Sugar Hill Records, that started during the same period.

As readers, we have the benefit of knowledge of history. In particular, we now know the overall successes and failures of these labels and the culture after the early 80s. Unfortunately, Lawrence does not provide specifics on the economics of these record labels. We are only given only implications -- major label disinterest in disco after the collapse, the music’s quick adoption by radio, anecdotes of a few thousand copies sold in a few record shops near Paradise Garage, and repeated mention of these labels throughout the work. It is hard to determine precisely how successful these labels were in comparison to the major labels because of the lack of specific financial data. Its inclusion would have strengthened his argument.

The book is separated into 4 main parts, each covering approximately one year, with several thematic chapters in each section. In part I, Lawrence argues that while Americans were reeling from political scandal, war, and economic uncertainty in the late 1979, discos still maintained an audience because New York, “housed the highest concentration of gay men, people of color and women in the United States,” who were also the foundation of the early disco movement in the 1970s, many of whom adopted New York’s disco scene as a way of life. (14) Lawrence further explains that because New York was already a cultural hub and because rents remained low, artists and musicians could live cheaply in the city and pursue their art and participate in the city’s nightly offerings rather easily. Following that, the high concentration of creatives from all walks of life frequented the myriad of nightlife offerings. In the loud colorful dance clubs, patrons often formed diverse social networks and collaborated on art, music, and politics. Many of these collaborations were unimaginable amalgamations of ideas -- in art, music, politics, and culture that previously did not exist. Lawrence argues, “Already widespread during the first half of the 1970s and reinvigorated when the big money drained out of disco, the democratic modus operandi of its party spaces contributed to the city’s integration and sense of well-being by encouraging people from different backgrounds to meet and get along in an informal setting.” (132)

The Mudd Club, founded by Steve Mass, Club 57, curated by Ann Magnuson, and Pravada founded by Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper are central to part I’s narrative. Lawrence argues that these clubs were ground zero of cultural melding and artistic evolution in New York’s subterranean dance music scene. Lawrence explains that these clubs were places “where a small amount of capital unleashed a disproportionate amount of cultural capital.”(59) He also discusses the continued importance of David Mancuso’s Loft, a holdover from the pre-disco era -- and central focus of Love Saves the Day -- and Paradise Garage, where DJ Larry Levan introduced black gay patrons to a variety of new sounds. The philosophies of all of these people helped to shape and define the post-disco era. Lawrence explains that “even if it was inevitably incomplete and flawed, the shift toward democracy and integration was hardly coincidental inasmuch as Mancuso was a self-identifying child of the Rainbow Coalition; ...Mass drew on Situationism, punk, the downtown art scene, civil rights, and third-wave feminism; Magnuson was imbued with the ethos of the countercultural movement and iconoclastic theater; Fouratt was a co-founder of the Yippies and the Gay Liberation Front; and Piper cultivated a philosophy of decadent freedom that rejected outmoded institutions and practices.” (132) Lawrence showcases the importance of each club proprietor philosophy by explaining how those philosophies helped to create the identities of each club -- and by extension the cultural renaissance in New York during this era.

Part II details the fruits of the collaborations made in part I. It concerns the rise of hip-hop, art collaboration between high art and so-called lowbrow graffiti, and the acceptance of musical and artistic collaboration by patrons and the mainstream and the shift from live instrumentation to drum machines and synthesizers in dance music. Here again, Lawrence uses expansive oral histories to detail various collaborative art shows, film, and the increase in club openings in 1981. While the oral histories are interesting, He does not provide specifics where necessary. For example, in his discussion of the “explosion of clubs”, Lawrence lists an exhaustive list of new clubs that opened in 1981, but he fails to provide any details on how much opening one of these clubs actually costs attendance or operating budgets. Favoring the pure oral history style, Lawrence quotes an anecdote from Steve Mass instead: “Everyone was starting a club based on the fact that it cost no money. One of my bartenders went down the block and started doing nights in a strip club.” (158) In the closing chapter of part II, Lawrence explains many of the political, social and economic forces that would eventually bring this era to a close, namely the Reagan administration’s abandonment of a strong federal government, Koch’s neo-liberal economic plan to draw more tax revenue from real estate developers, and the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. In contrast, as Lawrence explains, “The surging real estate market would go on to suffocate large sections of the city’s party scene, but for now, the scene continued to flourish.” (246) Lawrence’s use of oral history is very effective here -- it not only gives us the sequence of events as historical narratives generally do, but it also gives us a sense of what New York scenesters were feeling in late 1981. Many of the quotes used in Part II’s closing pages describe the virus as a mystery with a hint of fear and anxiety.

Part III and IV cover the final 2 years of the cultural renaissance, which focuses on the spread of cultural convergence, and then the overall decline of the scene in 1983. Lawrence argues that in 1982, the idea of cultural mixing hit its high point, that across three categories, musical, social and production, mixing of cultures was ubiquitous. Part III continues Lawrence’s argument of how diverse patrons of social clubs came together to exchange ideas and collaborate, but also covers how DJs attracted new clientele by eschewing formulaic commercial disco beats in favor of a wide-ranging musical program, and how studio producers “explored mixing as a form of sonic integration that could inspire parallel social developments” (341) Because of this cultural integration, Lawrence argues, “the New York sound also assumed a kaleidoscopic brilliance that crossed between genres as it surged through dance floors, boom boxes, and car stereos. It had, quite simply, come to embody and express the diversity and complexity of the city’s population.” (342)

In the final segment of Life or Death, titled “The Genesis of Division,” Lawrence discusses how the AIDS, crack, lack of federal assistance not only decimated the community but also stifled, what seemed to be at the time, a new cultural juggernaut. In the chapter “Sex and Death,” Lawrence does not make much of an argument, but he does provide a relief map of the reactions of gay male club patrons to the growing AIDS crisis. At The Saint nightclub, some wanted to continue with their sexual freedom, while others, frightened by virus stigmatized them. Paradise Garage, one of the most famous clubs of the disco and post-disco era lost many patrons to the disease. In one interview quote, the interviewee states: “Lots of people died, a lot were sick, and a lot of the friends of the members who had died or were sick stopped coming because it was too painful to go to a place with so many memories of the fun times they had enjoyed with their friends and lovers.” (426) Again, Lawrence’s use of oral history interviews here is deeply impactful, as it gives the reader a visceral feeling that all of the inspirational convergence and optimism of the previous years was indeed coming to an end.

Continuing with the theme of the end of the scene, and a bittersweet reversal of trends during this era, Lawrence covers the release of Michael Jackson’s thriller to highlight how the commercial music industry co-opted the sonic collaborative efforts of the New York scene which led to corporate label’s renewed interest in dance music. Unfortunately, they made the same mistakes as the end of the disco era: formulaic dance music, often led by white and European artists. Lawrence states, “although more dance records were coming out than at any time since 1979, a higher percentage were deemed unplayable by New York’s party DJs than had been the case at any time since the peak of disco.” (437)

Furthermore, Lawrence argues that at the time MTV was also a contributor to the scene’s demise. First, he explains that MTV was guilty of taking blackness out of popular music because of the channel’s refusal to air black rhythm and blues videos during the station’s infancy. Following that, Lawrence describes how the national appeal of MTV forced some club owners to adapt to mimicking trends shown on the channel -- a large departure from the grassroots collaborative culture that had grown in the city in years prior. Of course, led to many of the scene’s founders to lose interest.

Lawrence’s book is filled with staggering detail of four years of a city’s nightlife. In the epilogue, he is somewhat defiant and hopeful, explaining that in his visit to some of the old sites of dance music history, a majority are totally gentrified and the old creative energies have moved to the outskirts of the city to Williamsburg. Yet, he feels that it is possible for the “full-throttle expressivity and immersive community,” that “forged a democratic, pluralistic movement that seemed to know no limit,” of early 80s New York can happen again, although he provides no specifics ideas on how to accomplish that daunting task. (473) His solution is to hope -- that based on people’s current desire to dance, listen to music, and collaborate they will eventually want to recreate this golden era again -- under the “right conditions”. (474) In a sense, Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor is a guide as much as it is a history book.

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

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Cjackson122: Created page with "{{Infobox book | name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983 | author = Tim Lawrence | publisher = Duke University Press | pub_date..."

Twentieth Century United States

2017-10-03T14:50:49Z

Cjackson122:

==Book Summaries==
* Donna Alvah. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/women-and-children-first-the-importance-of-gender-and-military-families-in-the-cold-war-era/ Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946-1965] (2007).
* Luis Alvarez. [[The Power of the Zoot|The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II]] (2008).
* Karen Anderson. [[Wartime Women|Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II]] (1981).
* Michael Aronson. [[Nickelodeon City|Nickelodeon City: Pittsburgh at the Movies, 1905-1929]] (2008).
* Eric Avila. [[Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight|Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles]] (2004).
* Beth Bailey. [[America’s Army|America’s Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force]] (2009).
* Beth Bailey & David Farber. [[The First Strange Place|The First Strange Place: The Alchemy of Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii]] (1992).
* Beth Bailey. [[From Front Porch to Back Seat|From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America]] (1989).
* Mark Brilliant. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/californication-race-ethnicity-and-unity-in-twentieth-century-california/ Californication: Race, Ethnicity, and Unity in Twentieth Century California] (2012).
* Amy Bridges. [[Morning Glories]] (1999).
* Laura Briggs. [[Reproducing Empire|Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico]] (2002).
* Alan Brinkley. [[Voices of Protest|Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, & the Great Depression]] (1983).
* Charlotte Brooks. [[Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends|Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends: Asian Americans, Housing, and the Transformation of Urban California]] (2009).
* William Fitzhugh Brundage. [[The Southern Past|The Southern Past: a Clash of Race and Memory]] (2005).
* Catherine Fisher Collins. [[The Imprisonment of African American Women| The Imprisonment of African American Women: Causes, Conditions, and Future Implications]] (1997).
* Robert Caro. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/dog-days-classics-robert-caros-controversial-portrait-of-robert-moses-and-new-york/ The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York](1974)
* Shawn Clements. [[Deaf in America|Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture]](1988).
* Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/dog-days-classics-political-boss-and-midwestern-pharaoh-richard-j-daleys-chicago-legacy/ American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for the Nation and Chicago] (2001)
* Lizabeth Cohen. [[A Consumers’ Republic|A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America]] (2003).
* Lizabeth Cohen. [[Making a New Deal|Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939]] (2008).
* Stephanie Coontz. [[The Way We Never Were|The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap]] (1992).
* Nancy F. Cott. [[Public Vows|Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation]] (2002).
* Pete Daniel, [[Lost Revolutions|Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s]] (2000)
* Mike Davis. [[City of Quartz|City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles]] (2006).
* Mike Davis & Michael Sprinker. [[Magical Urbanism|Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US Big City]] (2001).
* Michael J. Dear. [[The Postmodern Urban Condition]] (2001).
* Robert C. Donnelly. [[Dark Rose]] (2011).
* Steven Erie. [[Globalizing L.A.|Globalizing L.A.: Trade, Infrastructure, and Regional Development]] (2004).
* Steven P. Erie. [[Beyond Chinatown|Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District, Growth, and the Environment in Southern California]] (2006).
* Elizabeth Ewen. [[Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars]] (1985).
* Dannelly Farrow. [[Dixie's Daughters]] (2003).
* Barbara Ferman. [[Challenging the Growth Machine|Challenging the Growth Machine: Neighborhood Politics in Chicago and Pittsburgh]] (1996).
* Marcie Ferris and Mark Greenberg. [[Jewish Roots in Southern Soil|Jewish Roots in Southern Soil: A New History]] (2006).
* John M. Findlay. [[Magic Lands|Magic Lands: Western Cityscapes and American Culture After 1940]] (1993).
* Christina Greene. [[Our Separate Ways|Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina]] (2005).
* Steven Gregory. [[Black Corona|Black Corona: Race and the Politics of Place in an Urban Community]] (1999).
* Jason Hackworth. [[The Neoliberal City|The Neoliberal City: Governance, Ideology, and Development in American Urbanism]] (2006).
* William Ivy Hair. [[Carnival of Fury|Carnival of Fury: Robert Charles and the New Orleans Race Riot of 1900]] (2008).
* Tona J. Hangen. [[Redeeming the Dial|Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion, and Popular Culture in America]] (2013).
* Andrew Hartman. [[A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars]] (2015)
* Chester W. Hartman. [[Yerba Buena|Yerba Buena: land grab and community resistance in San Francisco,]] (1974).
* Georgina Hickey. [[Hope and Danger in the New South City|Hope and Danger in the New South City: Working-Class Women and Urban Development in Atlanta, 1890-1940]] (2005).
* Richard Hofstadter. [[The American Political Tradition|The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made it]] (1989).
* Daniel Horowitz. [[Betty Friedan and the Making of “The Feminine Mystique”|Betty Friedan and the Making of “The Feminine Mystique”: The American Left, the Cold War, and Modern Feminism]] (2000).
* John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle. [[Lots of Parking|Lots of Parking: Land Use in a Car Culture]] (2004).
* Daniel Martinez HoSang. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/erasing-race-whiteness-california-and-the-colorblind-bind/ Racial Propositions: Ballot Initiatives and the Making of Postwar California](2010)
* Jonathan Hughes (Editor)& Simon Sadler (Editor).[[Non-Plan|Non-Plan: Essays on Freedom, Participation and Change in Modern Architecture and Urbanism]] (2000).
* Daniel Hurewitz. [[Bohemian Los Angeles|Bohemian Los Angeles: and the Making of Modern Politics]] (2007).
* Marilynn S. Johnson. [[The Second Gold Rush|The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War II]] (1994).
* Sharon Foster Jones. [[Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Avenue: A History]] (2012)
* Tony Judt. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/neoliberalisms-license-to-ill/ Ill Fares the Land] (2011).
* Lucy Kaylin. [[For the Love of God | For the Love of God: The Faith and Future of the American Nun]] (2000)
* Larry D. Kramer. [[The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review]] (2004).
* Joel Kotkin. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/americas-ace-in-the-hole-is-of-course-its-awesomeness/ The Next Hundred Million:America in 2050] (2010)
* Kevin M. Kruse. [[White Flight|White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism]] (2007).
* Matthew D. Lassiter. [[The Silent Majority|The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South]] (2007).
* Tim Lawrence. [[Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983|Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-83]] (2016).
*Gary L. Lehring. [[Officially Gay|The Political Construction of Sexuality by the U. S. Military]] (2003).
* William R. Leach. [[Land of Desire|Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture]] (1994).
* Michael F. Logan. [[Fighting Sprawl and City Hall|Fighting Sprawl and City Hall: Resistance to Urban Growth in the Southwest]] (1995).
* Fredrik Logevall. [[Choosing War|Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam]] (1999).
* Roger W. Lotchin. [[Fortress California, 1910-1961|Fortress California, 1910-1961: From Warfare to Welfare]] (2002).
* Lisa Lowe. [[Immigrant Acts|Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics]] (1996).
* Robert S. Lynd & Helen Merrell Lynd. [[Middletown|Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture]] (1959).
* Catherine Lutz. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/3187/ Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century] (2001).
* Nancy MacLean. [[Freedom Is Not Enough|Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace]] (2008).
* Isaac Martin. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/stalking-the-tax-man-the-pervasive-influence-of-the-property-tax-revolt/ The Permanent Tax Revolt: How Property Tax Transformed America] (2008).
* Douglas Massey & Nancy Denton. [[American Apartheid|American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass]] (1993).
* Elaine Tyler May. [[America and The Pill|America and The Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation]] (2010).
* Carol Lynn McKibben. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/3187/ Racial Beachhead: Diversity and Democracy in a Military Town] (2012).
* Lisa McGirr. [[Suburban Warriors|Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right]] (2002).
* James Miller. [[Flowers in the Dustbin|Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977]] (2000).
* Glen M. Mimura. [[Ghostlife of the Third Cinema|Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Film and Video]] (2009).
* John Hull Mollenkopf. [[The Contested City]] (1983).
* Maggi M. Morehouse. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/double-victory-from-wwii-to-the-avf-african-americans-and-the-u-s-military/ Fighting in the Jim Crow Army: Black Man and Women Remember World War II] (2000).
* Edward P. Morgan. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/a-mediating-mess-how-american-post-wwii-media-undermined-democracy/ What Really Happened to the Sixties: How Mass Media Culture Failed American Democracy] (2011)
* Charles Moskos Jr. and John Sibley Butler. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/double-victory-from-wwii-to-the-avf-african-americans-and-the-u-s-military/ All That We Can Be: Black Leadership and Racial Integration the Army Way] (1996).
* Andrew H. Myers. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/3187/ Black, White, and Olive Drab: Racial Integration at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and the Civil Rights Movement] (2006).
* Armando Navarro. [[The Cristal Experiment|The Cristal Experiment: A Chicano Struggle for Community Control]] (1998).
* Becky M. Nicolaides. [[My Blue Heaven|My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the Working-Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920-1965]] (2002).
* Anthony M. Petro. [[After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion]] (2015).
* Margaret Pugh O’Mara. [[Cities of Knowledge|Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley]] (2004).
* Gilbert Osofsky. [[Harlem|Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto : Negro New York, 1890-1930]] (1996).
* Rick Perlstein. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/essence-precedes-existence-the-problem-of-identity-politics-in-hurewitzs-bohemian-la/ Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America](2009).
* Patrick Phillips. [[Blood at the Root|Blood at the Root: Racial Cleansing in America]] (2016).
* Rebecca Jo Plant. [[Mom|Mom: The Transformation of Motherhood in Modern America]] (2012).
* Brenda Gayle Plummer. [[Window on Freedom|Window on Freedom: Race, Civil Rights, and Foreign Affairs, 1945-1988]] (2003).
* Jerald E. Podair. [[The Strike that Changed New York|The Strike that Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis]] (2002).
* Doris Marie Provine. [[Unequal Under Law|Unequal Under Law: Race in the War on Drugs]] (2007).
* Daniel T. Rodgers. [[Contested Truths|Contested Truths: Keywords in American Politics Since Independence]] (1998).
* David Roediger. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/dog-days-classics-the-wages-of-whiteness-and-the-white-people-who-love-them/ The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class] (1991).
* Adam Rome. [[The Bulldozer in the Countryside|The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism]] (2001).
* Richard Ronald. [[The Ideology of Home Ownership|The Ideology of Home Ownership: Homeowner Societies and the Role of Housing]] (2008).
* Jake Rosenfeld. [[What Unions No Longer Do]] (2014).
* Peter Henry Rossi & Robert A. Dentler. [[The Politics of Urban Renewal|The Politics of Urban Renewal: The Chicago Findings]] (1981).
* Sheila Rowbotham [[Dreamers of a New Day|Dreamers of a New Day: Women Who Invented the Twentieth Century]] (2010).
* Mike Royko. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/dog-days-classics-political-boss-and-midwestern-pharaoh-richard-j-daleys-chicago-legacy/ Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago] (1971)
* Roger Sanjek. [[The Future of Us All|The Future of Us All: Race and Neighborhood Politics in New York City]] (1998).
* Jennifer Scanlon. [[Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown, the Woman Behind Cosmopolitan Magazine]] (2009).
* Bruce Schulman & Bruce J. Schulman. [[The Seventies|The Seventies: The Great Shift In American Culture, Society, And Politics]] (2002).
* Joel Schwartz. [[The New York Approach|The New York Approach: Robert Moses, Urban Liberals, and Redevelopment of the Inner City]] (1993).
*Gary S. Selby [[Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights]] (2008)
* Josh Sides. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/making-san-francisco-josh-sides-erotic-city/ Erotic City: Sexual Revolutions and the Making of Modern San Francisco] (2009).
* Nayan Shah. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/intimate-citizenship-the-influence-of-marriage-sexuality-and-transience-on-national-membership/Stranger Intimacy:Contesting Race, Sexuality and Law in the American Northwest] (2012).
* David J. Silbey. [[A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899-1902]] (2007).
* Rickie Solinger. [[Beggars and Choosers|Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the United States]] (2002).
* Allan H. Spear. [[Black Chicago|Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto, 1890-1920]] (1969).
* Ann Laura Stoler. [[Haunted by Empire|Haunted by Empire: Geographies of Intimacy in North American History]] (2006).
* Todd Swanstrom. [[The Crisis of Growth Politics|The Crisis of Growth Politics: Cleveland, Kucinich, and the Challenge of Urban Populism]] (1988).
* Ronald Takaki. [[Hiroshima|Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb]] (1996).
* Penny M. Von Eschen. [[Satchmo Blows Up The World|Satchmo Blows Up The World: Jazz Ambassadors Play The Cold War]] (2004).
* Robert Wiebe. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/dog-day-classics-robert-h-wiebe-and-the-search-for-order/ The Search for Order, 1877 - 1920] (1967).
* Andrew Wiese. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/getting-to-the-mountaintop-the-suburban-dreams-of-african-americans/ Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century] (2004)
* Rhonda Y. Williams. [[The Politics of Public Housing|The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women’s Struggles Against Urban Inequality]] (2004).
* William Appleman Williams. [[The Tragedy of American Diplomacy]] (2009).
*Kayla R. Wirtz [[Environmental Values in American Culture]] (1999)
* Gwendolyn Wright. [[Building the Dream|Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America]] (1983).
*Young B. Marilyn. [[The Vietnam Wars|The Vietnam Wars 1945-1990]] (1991).
*Zimmerman, Andrew. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/the-ties-that-bind-the-transnational-trick-of-immobilizing-the-mobile/ Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South] (2010).
*Washington Harriet. [[Medical Apartheid|Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present]] (2006)

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-83

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Cjackson122:

File:LADOTNYDF.jpg

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Cjackson122:

Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-83

2017-10-03T14:48:03Z

Cjackson122: Created page with "{{Infobox book | name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-83 | author = Tim Lawrence | publisher = Duke University Press | pub_date = 2016..."

{{Infobox book
| name = Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-83
| author = Tim Lawrence
| publisher = Duke University Press
| pub_date = 2016
| pages = 600
| isbn = 9780822361862
| image = [[File:LADOTNYDF.jpg|200px|alt=cover]]
}}

Twentieth Century United States

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Cjackson122: /* Book Summaries */

==Book Summaries==
* Donna Alvah. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/women-and-children-first-the-importance-of-gender-and-military-families-in-the-cold-war-era/ Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946-1965] (2007).
* Luis Alvarez. [[The Power of the Zoot|The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II]] (2008).
* Karen Anderson. [[Wartime Women|Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II]] (1981).
* Michael Aronson. [[Nickelodeon City|Nickelodeon City: Pittsburgh at the Movies, 1905-1929]] (2008).
* Eric Avila. [[Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight|Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles]] (2004).
* Beth Bailey. [[America’s Army|America’s Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force]] (2009).
* Beth Bailey & David Farber. [[The First Strange Place|The First Strange Place: The Alchemy of Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii]] (1992).
* Beth Bailey. [[From Front Porch to Back Seat|From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America]] (1989).
* Mark Brilliant. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/californication-race-ethnicity-and-unity-in-twentieth-century-california/ Californication: Race, Ethnicity, and Unity in Twentieth Century California] (2012).
* Amy Bridges. [[Morning Glories]] (1999).
* Laura Briggs. [[Reproducing Empire|Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico]] (2002).
* Alan Brinkley. [[Voices of Protest|Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, & the Great Depression]] (1983).
* Charlotte Brooks. [[Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends|Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends: Asian Americans, Housing, and the Transformation of Urban California]] (2009).
* William Fitzhugh Brundage. [[The Southern Past|The Southern Past: a Clash of Race and Memory]] (2005).
* Catherine Fisher Collins. [[The Imprisonment of African American Women| The Imprisonment of African American Women: Causes, Conditions, and Future Implications]] (1997).
* Robert Caro. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/dog-days-classics-robert-caros-controversial-portrait-of-robert-moses-and-new-york/ The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York](1974)
* Shawn Clements. [[Deaf in America|Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture]](1988).
* Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/dog-days-classics-political-boss-and-midwestern-pharaoh-richard-j-daleys-chicago-legacy/ American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for the Nation and Chicago] (2001)
* Lizabeth Cohen. [[A Consumers’ Republic|A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America]] (2003).
* Lizabeth Cohen. [[Making a New Deal|Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939]] (2008).
* Stephanie Coontz. [[The Way We Never Were|The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap]] (1992).
* Nancy F. Cott. [[Public Vows|Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation]] (2002).
* Pete Daniel, [[Lost Revolutions|Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s]] (2000)
* Mike Davis. [[City of Quartz|City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles]] (2006).
* Mike Davis & Michael Sprinker. [[Magical Urbanism|Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US Big City]] (2001).
* Michael J. Dear. [[The Postmodern Urban Condition]] (2001).
* Robert C. Donnelly. [[Dark Rose]] (2011).
* Steven Erie. [[Globalizing L.A.|Globalizing L.A.: Trade, Infrastructure, and Regional Development]] (2004).
* Steven P. Erie. [[Beyond Chinatown|Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District, Growth, and the Environment in Southern California]] (2006).
* Elizabeth Ewen. [[Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars]] (1985).
* Dannelly Farrow. [[Dixie's Daughters]] (2003).
* Barbara Ferman. [[Challenging the Growth Machine|Challenging the Growth Machine: Neighborhood Politics in Chicago and Pittsburgh]] (1996).
* Marcie Ferris and Mark Greenberg. [[Jewish Roots in Southern Soil|Jewish Roots in Southern Soil: A New History]] (2006).
* John M. Findlay. [[Magic Lands|Magic Lands: Western Cityscapes and American Culture After 1940]] (1993).
* Christina Greene. [[Our Separate Ways|Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina]] (2005).
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* Jason Hackworth. [[The Neoliberal City|The Neoliberal City: Governance, Ideology, and Development in American Urbanism]] (2006).
* William Ivy Hair. [[Carnival of Fury|Carnival of Fury: Robert Charles and the New Orleans Race Riot of 1900]] (2008).
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* Andrew Hartman. [[A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars]] (2015)
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* Daniel Horowitz. [[Betty Friedan and the Making of “The Feminine Mystique”|Betty Friedan and the Making of “The Feminine Mystique”: The American Left, the Cold War, and Modern Feminism]] (2000).
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