A
nightclub (or
night club or
club) is a
drinking,
dancing and entertainment
venue which does its primary business after dark. People who frequent nightclubs are known as
clubbers. A nightclub is usually distinguished from
bars,
pubs or
taverns by the inclusion of a
dance floor and a
DJ booth, where a DJ plays recorded dance and
pop music.
The music in nightclubs is either
live bands or, more commonly a mix of songs played by a
DJ through a powerful
PA system. Most clubs or club nights cater to certain
music genres, such as
techno,
house music,
heavy metal,
garage,
hip hop,
salsa,
dancehall, or
soca music.
Types
Major cities in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States often have a variety of nightclubs, and some small towns and cities also have nightclubs. Nightclubs often feature
lighting and other effects, to enhance the dancing experience. Lighting and effects include flashing colored lights, moving light beams,
laser light shows,
strobe lights, mirror-covered
disco balls, or
foam, and
smoke machines.
left|thumb|[[Dance|Dancing in a
gay nightclub.]]
Nightclub hours vary widely across the world; in areas with strict liquor regulations in place, nightclubs may have a legal requirement to close at a certain hour. These cities sometimes have illegal "after hours" clubs that stay open and serve alcohol after this legal closing time. In non-regulated areas, nightclubs stay open all night and into early daylight hours.
Entertainment is the main attraction at some types of nightclubs. One type of club is a concert club, which specializes in hosting performances of live music. In contrast to regular night clubs, concert clubs are usually only open when a performance is scheduled. Other types of clubs include "all-ages" clubs, which allow non-drinking age attendees.
Dancers move to the beat of a DJ's dance music at a nightclub
Nightclubs can be built in former
warehouses and
cinemas, deconsecrated churches, underground buildings, and custom-built buildings, and generally have thick insulated walls and few or no windows, so that the neighboring buildings will not be disturbed by the powerful beat of the dance music, the flashing lights and crowd noise generated throughout the night. This style of construction also keeps light and noise from the street from entering the club.
This allows the nightclub to turn the dance floor into an alternate, illusory realm of timelessness. Even if an all-night
rave at a nightclub lasts until 6 a.m., when it is light outside, to the clubgoers, it is still dark inside the club, and the partying and dancing continue. In most cases, entering a night club requires a flat fee called a
cover charge. Early arrivers and women often have cover waived (in the
United Kingdom, this latter option is illegal under the
Sex Discrimination Act 1975). Friends of the
doorman or the club owner may gain free entrance. Sometimes, especially at larger clubs, one only gets a
pay card at the entrance, on which all money spent in the discothèque (often including the entrance fee) is marked. Sometimes, entrance fee and wardrobe costs are paid by cash and only the drinks in the club are paid using a pay card.
History
Early history
Clubgoers dancing at an upscale nightclub
During US
Prohibition, nightclubs went underground as illegal
speakeasy bars. With the
repeal of Prohibition in February 1933 nightclubs were revived, such as New York's
Stork Club,
21 Club,
El Morocco and the
Copacabana. In
Harlem, the
Cotton Club and
Connie's Inn were popular venues for white audiences. Before 1953 and even some years thereafter, most bars and nightclubs used a jukebox or mostly live bands. In Paris, at a club named
Whisky à Gogo,
Régine laid down a dance-floor, suspended coloured lights and replaced the juke-box with two turntables which she operated herself so there would be no breaks between the music. The Whisky à Gogo set into place the standard elements of the modern
discothèque-style nightclub. In the early 1960s,
Mark Birley opened a members-only discothèque nightclub,
Annabel's, in Berkeley Square, London. However, the first
rock and roll generation preferred rough and tumble bars and taverns to nightclubs, and the nightclub did not attain mainstream popularity until the 1970s
disco era.
1970s: Disco
By the late 1970s many major US cities had thriving disco club scenes which were centered around
discothèques, nightclubs, and private loft parties where
DJs would play disco hits through powerful
PA systems for the dancers. The DJs played "... a smooth mix of long single records to keep people 'dancing all night long'" Some of the most prestigious clubs had elaborate lighting systems that throbbed to the beat of the music.
Some cities had disco dance instructors or
dance schools which taught people how to do popular disco dances such as "
touch dancing", the "
hustle" and the "
cha cha". There were also disco fashions that discothèque-goers wore for nights out at their local disco, such as sheer, flowing
Halston dresses for women and shiny polyester
Qiana shirts for men. Disco clubs and "...hedonistic loft parties" had a club culture which had many
African American,
gay and
Hispanic people.
In addition to the dance and fashion aspects of the disco club scene, there was also a thriving
drug subculture, particularly for
recreational drugs that would enhance the experience of dancing to the loud music and the flashing lights, such as
cocaine (nicknamed "blow"), amyl nitrite "
poppers" , and the "...other quintessential 1970s club drug
Quaalude, which suspended motor coordination and turned one's arms and legs to Jell-O".
The "massive quantities of drugs ingested in
discothèques by newly liberated gay men produced the next cultural phenomenon of the disco era: rampant
promiscuity and
public sex. While the dance floor was the central arena of seduction, actual sex usually took place in the nether regions of the disco: bathroom stalls, exit stairwells, and so on. In other cases the disco became a kind of "main course" in a
hedonist's menu for a night out."
Famous 1970s discothèques included "...cocaine-filled
celeb hangouts such as
Manhattan's
Studio 54 ", which was operated by
Steve Rubell and
Ian Schrager. Studio 54 was notorious for the hedonism that went on within; the balconies were known for sexual encounters, and drug use was rampant. Its dance floor was decorated with an image of the "Man in the Moon" that included an animated
cocaine spoon. Other famous discothèques included
The Loft, the
Paradise Garage, and
Aux Puces, one of the first gay disco bars. By the early 1980s, the term "disco" had largely fallen out of favor in North America.
1980s New York, London & Europe
During the 1980s, during the
New Romantic movement,
London had a vibrant nightclub scene, which included clubs like
The Blitz,
the Batcave, the
Camden Palace and
Club for Heroes. Both music and fashion embraced the aesthetics of the movement. Bands included
Depeche Mode,
The Human League,
Duran Duran,
Blondie,
Eurythmics and
Ultravox.
Reggae-influenced bands included
Boy George and
Culture Club, and electronic vibe bands included
Visage. At London nightclubs, young men would often wear make-up and young women would wear mens' suits.
The largest
UK cities like
Liverpool,
Quadrant Park and 051,
Swansea,
Manchester (
The Haçienda) and several key European places like
Paris (
Les Bains Douches),
Berlin,
Ibiza (
Pacha),
Rimini etc also played a significant role in the evolution of clubbing,
DJ culture and
nightlife.
Significant New York nightclubs of the period were
Area,
Danceteria, and
The Limelight.
1990s and 2000s
In Europe and North America, nightclubs play disco-influenced dance music such as
house music,
techno, and other dance music styles such as
Electronica and
Trance. Most nightclubs in the U.S. major cities play
hip hop,
house and
trance music. These clubs are generally the largest and most frequented of all of the different types of clubs. The emergence of the
Superclub created a global phenomenon, with Ministry of Sound (London), Idols (Swansea)
Cream (nightclub) (Liverpool) and Pacha (Ibiza).
In most other languages, nightclubs are referred to as "discos" or "
discothèques" (;
Italian and
Spanish:
discoteca, antro (Common in Mexico only), and "boliche" (Common in Argentina only), "discos" is commonly used in all others in Latinamerica; or ). In
Japanese ディスコ,
disuko refers to an older, smaller, less fashionable venue; while クラブ,
kurabu refers to a more recent, larger, more popular venue. The term
night is used to refer to an evening focusing on a specific genre, such as "
retro music night" or a "singles night."
After the
fall of communism in the
Czech Republic, "nightclub" or "night club" became a common
euphemism for a
brothel.
A recent trend in the North American nightclub industry is the usage of video. Instead of audio-only, DJ's are now using video and "mixing" music videos and related songs together in an audio/visual presentation. This harks back to the stage shows of 1970s rock tours and also incorporates influences from
video art. In contrast, a new trend, developed recently in South Wales, is the use of string to create unusual aesthetically pleasing movements.
Accidents
Accidents at nightclubs can occur for many reasons. The most disastrous accidents were fires at well-visited nightclubs, so
fire safety prevention has to be taken with great care.
- February 1990 - Stage collapse at a discothèque at Bilbao, Spain, 13 injured;
- 13 October 2001 - Stage toggled at Zapata discothèque Stuttgart, Germany, several people hurt;
- 21 December 2001 - At Club "Indigo", Sofia, Bulgaria, in an early party for minors, the huge crowd pushing their way to get in collapses down the frosty stairs and crushes 7 children (ages between 10 and 14) to death;
- 2002 - several people climb in a nightclub at Oberhausen, Germany, on a 120 kg heavy loudspeaker box and fell down with the box, 4 killed;
- 31 December 2005 - a circular crossbar fell down from the roof of a nightclub at Ibbenbüren, Germany, 4 people hurt;
- 24 July 2009 - a man bled to death at a pool party in Perkins Park nightclub, Stuttgart, Germany after he made a head dive into a swimming pool in which there were fragments of glass.
