Life and death on the New York dance floor, 1980-1983 /Tim Lawrence

Preface ix Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 Part I. 1980: The Recalibration of Disco 1. Stylistic Coherence Didn't Matter at All 11 2. The Basement Den at Club 57 30 3. Danceteria: Midtown Feels the Downtown Storm 48 4. Subterranean Dance 60 5. The Bronx-Brooklyn Approach 73 6. The Sound Became More Real 92 7. Major-Label Calculations 105 8. The Saint Peter of Discos 111 9. Lighting the Fuse 122 Part II. 1981: Accelerating Toward Pluralism 10. Explosion of Clubs 135 11. Artistic Maneuvers in the Dark 155 12. Downton Configures Hip Hop 170 13. The Sound of a Transcendent Future 184 14. The New Urban Street Sound 199 15. It Wasn't Rock and Roll and It Wasn't Disco 210 16. Frozen in Time or Freed into Infinity 221 17. It Felt Like the Whole City Was Listening 232 18. Shrouded Abatements and Mysterious Deaths 239 Part III. 1982: Dance Culture Seizes the City 19. All We Had Was the Club 245 20. Inverted Pyramid 257 21. Roxy Music 271 22. The Garage: Everybody Was Listening to Everything 279 23. The Planet Rock Groove 288 24. Techno Funksters 304 25. Taste Segues 314 26. Stormy Weather 320 27. Cusp of an Important Fusion 331 Part IV. 1983: The Genesis of Division 28. Cristal for Everyone 343 29. Dropping the Pretense and the Flashy Suits 369 30. Straighten It Out with Larry Levan 381 31. Stripped-Down and Scrambled Sounds 400 32. We Became Part of This Energy 419 33. Sex and Dying 430 34. We Got the Hits, We Got the Future 438 35. Behind the Groove 449 Epilogue. Life, Death, and the Hereafter 458 Notes 485 Selected Discography 515 Selected Filmography 529 Selected Bibliography 521 Index 537

In Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor Tim Lawrence examines the city's party, dance, music, and art culture between 1980 and 1983, tracing the rise, apex, and fall of this inventive, vibrant, and tumultuous scene.