The dance club is no longer an exclusive venue drawing together people with similar musical interests. Instead, it has become the commercialized superclub, where profit rather than music is the bottom line. As a space traditionally influenced by homosexuals becomes a major business opportunity, this commercialization has led to the inclusion of gay subcultures within mainstream American society. However, this process has served to reinforce social stigma and stereotypes. The advertising and club environment designed to “sell” the experience to the gay customer is founded on the overtly sexual club culture of the 1970s and early 80s. On the dance floor the constructed image of the club combines with the inherent sexual and mind-altering nature of the dance experience to create a space filled with the language of desire. However, the seeming break from the hetero-centric world sold to homosexuals through the club experience does not offer actual escape. The superclubs foster an environment where physical connection between two men is seemingly encouraged while mental and emotional engagement is suppressed.
Drugs, Rock and Roll, Badass, Vegas Hoes, Late Nights, Booty Calls, Shiny Disco Balls
As these lyrics by Subliminal Sessions, whispered in a hissing, syllabic voice, poured out of the speakers at 6:32 am, I realized this was a fitting description of clubland nightlife. The venue that night was Aria, an after-hours superclub located on St. Catherine Street in Montreal, however, the throbbing beat accompanying the words could have been found in any club from Moscow to New York City. Electronica, ambient, garage, hard-house and other forms of dance music are now mainstream. Gone are the days of disco where small groups of devot...
... middle of paper ...
...esleyan.
Clendinen, Dudley (1999, 28 November). Anita Bryant, b. 1940, Singer and Crusader. St. Petersburg Times Online. Retrieved March 20, 2003, from http://
www.sptimes.com/News/112899/news_pf/Floridian/Anita_Bryant_b_1940_.shtml
Ewen, Stewart (2003). Hard bodies. In Syracuse University Writing Program Committee (Ed.), Critical Convergences (pp. 235-238). Boston: Pearson Custom
Publishing.
Lee, Denny (2003, February 23). Flower district: a club is reborn, but critics say a landmark now looks cheap. New York Times, p. P6.
Owen, Frank (2003, February 26 – March 4). Magic carpet ride: clubland potentate David Marvisi gets the rug pulled out from him. Village Voice. Retrieved March 4, 2003, from http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0309/owen.php
Weinraub, Bernard (2002, December 10). Here’s to disco, it never could say goodbye. New York Times, p. E1.
In Justin Pearson's memoir, From the Graveyard of the arousal Industry, he recounts the events that occured from his early years of adolesence to the latter years of his adulthood telling the story of his unforgiving and candid life. Set in the late 1970s "Punk" rock era, From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry offers a valuable perspective about the role culture takes in our lives, how we interact with it and how it differs from ideology.
Hine, Thomas. The Great Funk: Falling Apart and Coming Together (on a Shag Rug) in the Seventies. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.
Kidd expands on society’s sexual perspectives in mass media and illuminates the stress pushed towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population. He outlines sexuality as one of many influences on the ways we interpret the culture we consume. He supposes that popular culture has five major social roles: generating basic social norms, producing social boundaries, producing rituals that generate social solidarity, generating modernization, and generating social progress. He pays particular attention to Emilie Durkeim and connects his sociological
Warwick, Jacqueline. ““You Can’t Win, Child, You Can’t Get Out of the Game”: Michael Jackson’s Transition from Child Star to Superstar.” Popular Music and Society, 35:2 (May 2012): 241-258. Accessed April 27, 2014. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2011.618052.
...r scene was instrumental in the development of a culture and identity for homosexuals. In today's contemporary world, we see the effects of what was done during the late 1800's and early 1900's. Today, there are numerous balls in which homosexuals are able to gather on a larger scale and engage in almost ritual practices. The bar scene has flourished well beyond the Bowery and into mainstream culture. Despite this, I have personally seen a new trend of bars opening up in areas, namely the less economically stable areas of New York City, that cater primarily to homosexuals. In these areas, homosexuality is shunned far more harshly than in areas with financial stability. Overall, the foundation that was built at the turn of the century are still being built upon by those of the contemporary age, and are trying to gain more notoriety, further the homosexual identity.
Inside the album jacket, Serch sums up hip-hop in ‘89: “There was a time when nothing was more important than the New York Rap Scene.” It’s dilluted, but not divided.” To hip-hop afficionados, Serch’s quote sounds like the equivalent to a Vietnam soldier’s letter home. Obviously, the group saw the possibility of the hip-hop culture being tainted.
Modern homelessness in the United States is conventionally thought of as arising in the 1980s, a period of dramatic demographic transformation in the homeless population. Traditionally dominated by single men, the homeless population was augmented by an increase in homeless families. This phenomenon can be attributed to a few major structural changes in American society. The first is economic restructuring which influenced the decline of the middle class and growing socioeconomic inequality. Consequently, more people turned to welfare in order make ends meet. Unfortunately, the welfare system had essentially eliminated funding for subsidized housing and adopted increasingly
McNamara, Robert Hartmann. "Homelessness." Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues. Ed. Michael Shally-Jensen. Vol. 3: Family and Society. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. 1024-1031. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 May 2014. .
Ryback, Timothy. Rock around the Bloc: A History of Rock Music in Eastern Europe. New York: Oxford UP, 1990.
van Elteren, Mel. “The subculture of the Beats: a sociological revisit.” Journal of American Culture, Fall 1999, v 22, i3, pg 71.
Homelessness is a vast predicament in America and around the world. It is severely overlooked as people don’t really think of homelessness as real world problem. However, there have been ways that people have tried to fix the problem. They have come up with homeless shelters, emergency shelters, food banks and soup kitchens. These solutions have limitations though, which will hopefully come to an end.
McLeese, Don. “The Spirit of a Rocker.” New York Times. 18 October 1987. Web. 11
Firstly, the group of friends and writers most commonly known as the Beats evolved dramatically in focal points such as Greenwich Village and Columbia University, and subsequently spread their political and cultural views to a wider audience. The three Beat figureheads William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac each perceived an agenda within American society to clamp down on those who were in some way different from the accepted ‘norm’, and in response deliberately flirted with the un-American practices of Buddhism, drug use, homosexuality and the avant-garde. Ginsberg courted danger by lending a voice to the homosexual subculture that had been marginalised by repressive social traditions and cultural patterns within the United States.
Armesto, Felipe. The Spanish Armada: The Experince of War in 1588. 1. 1. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1988. 268-01. Print.
“Sex and the Social Dance” was a streaming video which examined the sexuality of social dances around the world. Regardless of geographical location or decade of popularity, dance conveyed social values. In particular, the sexuality was expressed through physical contact or lack thereof, in the gender roles of the dance, and in the purpose of the dance.