Great topic, as a club goer, DJ and former promoter from NYC (late 80s - 2000s) you’re spot on. VIP killed the crowd, the cool kids were the funky, eccentric, creative types (Basquiat, Herring, Club Kids) which were usually the societal rejects. Once you could buy into, bypass the door people into the underground clubs it killed the crowd. Knowing what to wear, how to get chosen by the door people was an art. Sept 11th also had a huge impact on NYC nightlife, it started the death spiral of the mega clubs (Tunnel, Limelight, Sound Factory). Replaced by small lounges and bars. The music, the crowd, the energy and the vibe is what brought us together to dance, have a great time. It was our sanctuary to let off some steam dancing, drinking and having fun.
What killed nightclubs in England was government regulation and the 2007 indoor smoking ban, and more recently, people using their phones to put videos and photos on social media.
i cant say anything about in the real world, but the rave scene is alive and well in virtual reality. VRChat specifically. in fact, i have a feeling that if you looked, you could probably find a club event going on right now. as youre reading this. I think I've mentioned this before. I havent even been a part of the vr rave scene for that long, but i have a few friends who are what are known as virtual djs. i was at 2 different events on saturday with friends, and another one at saturday. the 2 on saturday were probably 3/4 full, which was probably about 60 people, the one on sunday is more of an event to enjoy music for what it is and to relax before the start of the week. that one was about half full, 40-50 people in a clib that was designed to look like a small abandoned church. sure there may not be a lot of people, but these smaller crowds are still a lot in vr, and i honestly prefer the smaller crowds anyway. theres a lot more potential for random things to happen like playing pool with one of the DJs that played at a large virtual festival, who is somehow ungodly good at it. or at said festival, having about a dozen avatars that go ragdoll (a term for when things just kinda fall over and can be thrown or kicked around and all their limbs and joints just go loose) when touched and just start kicking, punching and throwing each other into each other and having these avatars just go flying in the air. i was told that made it on the stream. oh yea, someone has made it possible to control the lights in the virtual world with real world DMX controllers. it also accepts midi, and theres an entire production studio asset that you can download and install into your world, which gives you like 10 different cameras, color changing lights, a greenscreen that can be changed to whatever color you want, among other things. as for what killed the nightclub though? i wasnt around for their prime, and growing up not liking alcohol in a family that is borderline alcoholics, i dont really like spending my time anywhere near a bar, but i would agree that the people are what changes things. i enjoy the time that i have with the cool people that i surround myself with, and when i go to a place, if i dont like the atmosphere, i will leave, but if the atmosphere is good, and the people are good, i will stay, even if my friends leave.
I remember the only time that I have been to a ""nightclub"". I had come home from the military and one of my friends told me that an old single screen movie theater had been converted into a nightclub and I should check it out. Half of the former movie theater was gutted and the other half still had the curtained walls from the theater. It looked like they stopped that project halfway through. The lighting of the place was a mix of inconsistent fixtures and lights and strings of christmas lights. The DJ was in a red carpeted booth that I am sure was salvaged from an old roller skating rink. The sound system was made out of mismatched parts and didn't sound good. Less than five people were dancing at any time. Most of the people there were standing around; huddled into groups and still wearing their winter coats. The place was dirty and poorly put together. Frankly, I was appalled that this is what the owners were charging a $3 door fee for. I told my friends that they could stay if they wanted to, but I went out to my car to read a book instead. To this day, you can't talk me into going to a nightclub because my expectations are so low. To put a name on it, this was "The Delft Nightclub" in Escanaba, MI.
I noticed the death of nightlife at the same time edm was exploding in the 2010's era. Bottle service, super clubs in Vegas, the lack of club personality, along with the music industry changing. All have a hand in the death of clubbing.
Hi Brian. I remember the clubbing scene . Lots of great music and social interaction and selection of clubs to go to. I believe the clubbing scene started closing due to ages of the demographic of the average cluber. Cost of living was on the rise. Home computers were on the rise, including chat sites. The average age of young girls that were in the clubbing scene started to decrease. Therefore, boys were left in the majority of the clubs. It was harder to maintain dj services because the average dj began a more locrius business of mobile dj. Responsible young adults began to socialize at home than at bars scene. At first the big bars started shutting down, then came the smoking prohibited from the clubs. The escalated the end of that era.
The lack of true musical artists and the underground became pop. Lack of musical variety and a lot of people are already gone disconnect from the young and “the elders”
Nightclubs were dead way before Covid started, back in the early 2000's I could go out on a Thurs to a Sunday and the club scene was bouncing and everyone loved clubbing, but we could go out on £20/ £30 and have a brilliant night and have food afterwards. These days is £7 a drink so people aren't going out as much.
What I think is you hit it right on point. Night clubs now are few and far between and the bars that have DJs are never really that crowded because of all of the things you mentioned in your video and of course Covid because people got used to staying inside the house. It’s a combination of everything you said for sure.
The VIP aspect created separation. Just because you have money doesn’t mean you can dance and doesn’t mean you can have interesting conversation. The females gravitated toward the money areas which didn’t leave a chance for the average guy who may have had those qualities. They created movies about this back in the day. Pizza delivery boy by day, best dancer in the club by night.
In my opinion the VIP section is just for showing off or a competition to see who has more money. Today instead of going to a club full of VIP sections I'd rather play some music and have a drink with my friends at home. All we can do is remember the past and be proud that we were the lucky generation.
What killed it at first in theUK was the entry charges, however now as I understand it, what keeps our nightclubs booming is the never ending supply of cocaine. I'ts so bad in the UK now that any pub/bar toilet you go in, there will be an empty baggie!
Music Piracy killed nightclubs. It used to be special to hear a DJ play a great track that had to be bought. Now there's music streaming and everybody can listen to that special track on their phone. Music Piracy: Think back to about 2007 when Flo-Rida came out with Low and Katy Perry came out with I kissed a Girl. The dance music started to get better and it last up until about 2016 then the music industry started to focus more on bubble gum pop music. The place I was playing in Tampa up until around 2016 had 2,500 people through the door every Saturday. The music industry I also believe caught on with making all of that great dance music realizing the clubs were making money off of the pirated music that DJs were playing and stopped producing it for a while and started to focus on radio listening pop music instead. Dumb Club Owners killed Nighclubs. Some owners didn't have a clue how to run club business. A lot were club owners were in the business for the popularity and they lost their shirts. Some didn't even pay attention to their bartenders stealing money from their cash registers or from giving out free drinks which is considered stealing. Dumb club owners hiring a crappy $50 DJ and not having a clue that the DJ can make or break the club. There is a lot of Great DJs out there but, there a lot of crappy ones too. The dumb club owners sometimes don't even know how good their DJs are. Like for instance I molded a crowd over time with some deep 80's Alternative tracks. When I got replace, the DJ that snaked my job couldn't handle the crowd and quit shortly after. I went back there later as a customer after and the customers were complaining how boring the music was. Even though you mention the DJ can be way up in a booth and nobody knows who they are, the customers still feel the vibe of the music and will leave and never back if the vibe isn't right. Some DJs are the glue that holds that mold of the crowd together and when the DJ is cut, the glue is gone and the mold falls apart. DUIs hurt the business too but, that goes for bars too. A lot of people ended up with one or two or a few. People drink to break to loosen up. I think a lot of people are more aware of drinking and driving now. I think also think people just aren't going out as much. A lot of people that went to nightclubs got married too and have a family to worry about and stopped going. Now we have College Football and many different sports available to us on TV. I blame sports mostly for killing the club business on Saturday nights. Sports would be my main pick for hurting night club business. It's always been a problem for decades. The night club business in the States will never be what it once was. I got a club owner friend who has Clubs in Peru and he says the people are there until 8 AM and they love the 80's by the way. So, I guess it's where the night clubs are now too.
I agree money has replaced cool but one thing I would add in is the obsession certainly in London which didn't exist before of eating out and going to restaurants which people are obsessed with.
The younger generation is socially different (even before Covid), I've seen people text each other standing literally next to each other! They don't know how to interact with each other!
Profit over people ruins everything, everywhere, every time. Some faster than others. I was a world traveling clubber all through my 20s (1990s) and each club was unique. The sum total of experiences was amazing. Most places were "come as you are". Some had a dress code. Black pants & a collared shirt got you in just about anywhere. It was about the vibe, the scene not about being seen. In fact, most of us recoiled at the sight of a camera inside the club. I witnessed the shift in early 2K in Boston. Girls would come in looking like characters from hackers. Leather pants, loud shirts & lacey undergarments clearly visable. Completely out of place, not dancing, drinking, or talking to anyone else but their friend with the camera. They were rude to everyone, including the staff only nice to those who they thought could benefit from. I witnessed a girl go around the bar posing with other people's drinks, acting like she was wasted and having a blast. Experiencing nothing...it was sad & weird. Seems like that is the norm today with most everyone glued to their phone... I pulled the plug when they banned smoking indoors.
From my perspective/viewpoint- clubbing” or a “nightclub” means just constant dancing and loud music. There really is no converse amongst people as it’s very difficult to hear unless you walk out to the main lobby where you original entered
When I think back to what it was like when I started going to clubs in the late 80s I don't see the death of THAT style as a bad thing. High entry fees, expensive drinks, awful music, unlicenced security staff, fighting, poor sanitation.. nah you can keep it. In the UK at least, it was the government changing licencing laws to let bars stay open later that had the biggest negative effect on clubs. For the longest time going to a club was almost your only option if you wanted to drink & hang out after 11pm. For that reason clubs enjoyed a captive audience. Sure there were places scattered around that were cool, with good DJs, cool music & crowds but the majority of venues were set up to monopolise on people who wanted to stay out later. Late pubs & bars seriously hurt nightclubbing when the rules changed. A lot of people only went to clubs to stay out later so when bars could stay open longer guess what? We had the rise of the so-called 'superclub' & its superstar DJs with sky high fees - this started the trend for people beginning to save themselves for bigger events - something that's still going on today. The UK-wide indoor smoking ban definitely had an effect, but so did gentrification of urban spaces. The best clubs were often in a bad part of town, surrounded by run down warehouses & whatever. Gentrification starts, the warehouses are done up & turned into apartments. Who wants to live next door to a place with pounding bass til 4 in the morning? Noise restrictions hurt a lot of venues too. Add in the cost of living these days - not as many people can afford to go out & get toasted every weekend anymore either. The last time I went to a club was back in July, to a 'pop up' club in Leeds. I hadn't been to an actual club for decades (I'm 52). What did I see? Not much dancing. A lot of people sitting down. People talking, hanging out mostly. I wondered why all these people had paid £10 entry just to sit down & hang out. I danced, I threw shapes. I got a bit drunk & had FUN. I felt I was almost in a minority there. Now aside from maybe sporadic monthly nights in small places there are huge warehouse events. Warehouse Project, Drumsheds etc with mind-boggling capacities (15,000 & up). This is what UK clubbing has become. I'm tempted to give it a try & see what it feels like.
To many People want to hear what’s on TikTok, DUI’s. Today after Covid it’s the Prices of everything, Rent, electricity, cost for the DJ, alcohol prices increased. Plus now when you go to a club, Bar, Wedding the crowds of people have their heads buried in their smart phones. Also now we would need a designated driver.
There is too much of an monopoly in every sector. They are controlling the prices and the type of entertainment. New businesses need to happen, so they can implement new ideas.
1. GREED .. which led to... 2. Getting rid of dance floors to focus only on the bar 3. All music sounds the same .. and it's all bad. 4. DJ's sound the same and only play songs you've heard all day! We used to go to parties / clubs to hear how a DJ spins or something brand new.. That is long gone. 5. DJs only play 30 second of a song 6. Promoters / club owners either paying low $$ for intro level DJ's not willing to pay at all 7. Influencers and annoying partygoers just in VIP sections just for the gram or tik tok 8. $500 Champaign bottles with sparklers that actually only costs $5 9. Everyone on the phones not dancing 10. Baller mentality 11. Spotify!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 12. Pick anything but Greed started it all!
I’m your Age Brian my two cents at least here in NYC , kids today don’t drink like our generation did , maybe The VIP thing had some to do with it but clubs in NYC had different covers at the door that priced people out the VIP was another layer .. thought clubs started dying in the late 90’s with the intro of X and other designer drugs
I think the first thing that a bad economy FX is our entertainment that's the first to go you have to decide whether you want to have a drink and have a good time or eat
I never knew who the DJ was in the 80’s and 90’s and didn’t care. It was either going off. Or it wasn’t. I liked a mix of house, pop and what we called electronica at the time. But, DUI’s while serious weren’t bankrupting. Suburbs have not helped club life. Now DJ draws aren’t DJ’s they’re producers. The kids like dubstep and dnb which isn’t conducive to clubbing in the traditional sense. I know many “nightclubs” in my area have an 18 up entry requirement. Which runs off the adults. 30 yo’s don’t wanna party with 18 yo’s generally speaking. So what we’re left with at this point is lots of open format bars, touring DJ/producers, and for the savvy club/venue owners,event nights. I will say the LGBTQ community is carrying the Rave flag onward and forward into the future. So thank LGBTQ’s for inventing and saving rave culture. In fact the last couple times I’ve been out where there was actually a packed dance floor with ppl dancing were at gay clubs. And at the end of the day, for me anyway, I just like music and dancing. So I’ll just go there. And I’d def rather DJ for them than goofballs standing around facing each other but looking down at their phones.
I'm in my mid-40s.. have been clubbing since my late teens.. I work at a nightclub.. I run the sound system and lighting system at one of the major ones in Toronto. I've seen the club scene change over the years.. and I know what killed the nightclub scene... It was YOU. hehe. No seriously, the clubbers killed the nightclubs. Patrons changed over the years.. The overhead costs changed over the years.. But alcohol sales have always been the revenue source for these venues.. they don't make money on people that just show up to dance and don't buy anything other than the tickets to get in.. But if alcohol sales are not good, that club is doomed. Drugs are the choice of many party goers. When the DJs cost $30,000 for a 1 and 1/2 hour DJ set, and the majority of the crowd pays upwards of $80 to get in.. most of that money is going to pay the cost of that DJ and whatever is left over goes to the promoter to cover their costs and whatever is left goes to the club.. often the promoter takes a loss in order for the club to get their full piece of the cake. If the bar sales hit a certain minimum, chances are the promoter will get to keep whatever they made at the door.. But with these huge international EDM and electronic music DJs that cost tens of thousands of dollars, the party crowd are there high as a fucking kite. Bar sales are shit.. everyone's buying bottles of water.. there are a few dealers that end up walking away with thousands of dollars of sales of ecstasy and cocaine and whatever the hell else they're selling. Club are big business... They need to constantly be upgrading their sound system, lighting rigs or adding some other gimmick to keep people wanting to come back.. tens of thousands of dollars of equipment, and thousands of people going through the doors.. landlord see this and they want a bigger slice of the cake so they end up charging tens of thousands of dollars per month in rent... Yet the actual revenue the club is making is going down because Their costs are going up and partiers are all bitching that $4 for coat check is too much money. TF is the matter with some people?? There are a few types of club nights that seem to make money and that is Latin and to a lesser extent hip hop. Overhead costs are high, but we'll still sell out the clubs with a local DJ that only charges 500 to 1,000 per night. Latin people like alcohol.. But they also like VIP. They love showing off just as much as the hip hop guys. They'll pay 3-4K for bottle service just so they can show off to everyone else.. That's the reason VIP exists. It's because the rest of the club goers are nickel and diming the club hits spending obscene amounts of money on drugs which the club gets absolutely no monetary benefit from.. So VIP didn't kill the clubs. It's a necessary evil to allow the clubs to survive
yup, when I was raving at clubs in the late 90's I popped a few pills, bought the $5 bottle of water which I refilled in the restroom, and leave $5 tip at the bar because I realized early on that MDMA was the game changer.
The disconnect between dancers and music, plays apart to. Compare dance shows of the past; Mtv the Grind Soul train Bandstand Countless others. Now look at boiler room. Most dancing today is relegated to strip club culture.
You're romanticizing the club experience, being admitted to a club by an underpaid bouncer is not a definition of cool, and most clubs were accessible to everyone.
Great topic, as a club goer, DJ and former promoter from NYC (late 80s - 2000s) you’re spot on. VIP killed the crowd, the cool kids were the funky, eccentric, creative types (Basquiat, Herring, Club Kids) which were usually the societal rejects. Once you could buy into, bypass the door people into the underground clubs it killed the crowd. Knowing what to wear, how to get chosen by the door people was an art. Sept 11th also had a huge impact on NYC nightlife, it started the death spiral of the mega clubs (Tunnel, Limelight, Sound Factory). Replaced by small lounges and bars. The music, the crowd, the energy and the vibe is what brought us together to dance, have a great time. It was our sanctuary to let off some steam dancing, drinking and having fun.
Brunch has become the new clubbing.
What killed nightclubs in England was government regulation and the 2007 indoor smoking ban, and more recently, people using their phones to put videos and photos on social media.
i cant say anything about in the real world, but the rave scene is alive and well in virtual reality. VRChat specifically. in fact, i have a feeling that if you looked, you could probably find a club event going on right now. as youre reading this. I think I've mentioned this before. I havent even been a part of the vr rave scene for that long, but i have a few friends who are what are known as virtual djs. i was at 2 different events on saturday with friends, and another one at saturday. the 2 on saturday were probably 3/4 full, which was probably about 60 people, the one on sunday is more of an event to enjoy music for what it is and to relax before the start of the week. that one was about half full, 40-50 people in a clib that was designed to look like a small abandoned church.
sure there may not be a lot of people, but these smaller crowds are still a lot in vr, and i honestly prefer the smaller crowds anyway. theres a lot more potential for random things to happen
like playing pool with one of the DJs that played at a large virtual festival, who is somehow ungodly good at it. or at said festival, having about a dozen avatars that go ragdoll (a term for when things just kinda fall over and can be thrown or kicked around and all their limbs and joints just go loose) when touched and just start kicking, punching and throwing each other into each other and having these avatars just go flying in the air. i was told that made it on the stream.
oh yea, someone has made it possible to control the lights in the virtual world with real world DMX controllers. it also accepts midi, and theres an entire production studio asset that you can download and install into your world, which gives you like 10 different cameras, color changing lights, a greenscreen that can be changed to whatever color you want, among other things.
as for what killed the nightclub though? i wasnt around for their prime, and growing up not liking alcohol in a family that is borderline alcoholics, i dont really like spending my time anywhere near a bar, but i would agree that the people are what changes things. i enjoy the time that i have with the cool people that i surround myself with, and when i go to a place, if i dont like the atmosphere, i will leave, but if the atmosphere is good, and the people are good, i will stay, even if my friends leave.
I remember the only time that I have been to a ""nightclub"". I had come home from the military and one of my friends told me that an old single screen movie theater had been converted into a nightclub and I should check it out. Half of the former movie theater was gutted and the other half still had the curtained walls from the theater. It looked like they stopped that project halfway through. The lighting of the place was a mix of inconsistent fixtures and lights and strings of christmas lights. The DJ was in a red carpeted booth that I am sure was salvaged from an old roller skating rink. The sound system was made out of mismatched parts and didn't sound good. Less than five people were dancing at any time. Most of the people there were standing around; huddled into groups and still wearing their winter coats. The place was dirty and poorly put together. Frankly, I was appalled that this is what the owners were charging a $3 door fee for. I told my friends that they could stay if they wanted to, but I went out to my car to read a book instead. To this day, you can't talk me into going to a nightclub because my expectations are so low.
To put a name on it, this was "The Delft Nightclub" in Escanaba, MI.
The cool people used to be the good dancers.
I noticed the death of nightlife at the same time edm was exploding in the 2010's era. Bottle service, super clubs in Vegas, the lack of club personality, along with the music industry changing. All have a hand in the death of clubbing.
Hi Brian.
I remember the clubbing scene .
Lots of great music and social interaction and selection of clubs to go to.
I believe the clubbing scene started closing due to ages of the demographic of the average cluber.
Cost of living was on the rise.
Home computers were on the rise, including chat sites.
The average age of young girls that were in the clubbing scene started to decrease. Therefore, boys were left in the majority of the clubs.
It was harder to maintain dj services because the average dj began a more locrius business of mobile dj.
Responsible young adults began to socialize at home than at bars scene.
At first the big bars started shutting down, then came the smoking prohibited from the clubs. The escalated the end of that era.
As a long time Las Vegas DJ…this is an accurate statement.
The lack of true musical artists and the underground became pop. Lack of musical variety and a lot of people are already gone disconnect from the young and “the elders”
Really interesting and you are totally right. I never looked at it like that.
Nightclubs were dead way before Covid started, back in the early 2000's I could go out on a Thurs to a Sunday and the club scene was bouncing and everyone loved clubbing, but we could go out on £20/ £30 and have a brilliant night and have food afterwards. These days is £7 a drink so people aren't going out as much.
Putting couches in the clubs no one dances anymore
Where I come from the couch makes you dance.
Smoking Bans large part. The new of age kids don't go out anymore!
People used to HOPE the DJ would play their favorite song...NOW everyone has access to any song/version ever made in their pockets!
What I think is you hit it right on point. Night clubs now are few and far between and the bars that have DJs are never really that crowded because of all of the things you mentioned in your video and of course Covid because people got used to staying inside the house. It’s a combination of everything you said for sure.
The VIP aspect created separation. Just because you have money doesn’t mean you can dance and doesn’t mean you can have interesting conversation. The females gravitated toward the money areas which didn’t leave a chance for the average guy who may have had those qualities. They created movies about this back in the day. Pizza delivery boy by day, best dancer in the club by night.
In my opinion the VIP section is just for showing off or a competition to see who has more money.
Today instead of going to a club full of VIP sections I'd rather play some music and have a drink with my friends at home.
All we can do is remember the past and be proud that we were the lucky generation.
What killed it at first in theUK was the entry charges, however now as I understand it, what keeps our nightclubs booming is the never ending supply of cocaine. I'ts so bad in the UK now that any pub/bar toilet you go in, there will be an empty baggie!
Music Piracy killed nightclubs. It used to be special to hear a DJ play a great track that had to be bought. Now there's music streaming and everybody can listen to that special track on their phone.
Music Piracy: Think back to about 2007 when Flo-Rida came out with Low and Katy Perry came out with I kissed a Girl. The dance music started to get better and it last up until about 2016 then the music industry started to focus more on bubble gum pop music. The place I was playing in Tampa up until around 2016 had 2,500 people through the door every Saturday. The music industry I also believe caught on with making all of that great dance music realizing the clubs were making money off of the pirated music that DJs were playing and stopped producing it for a while and started to focus on radio listening pop music instead.
Dumb Club Owners killed Nighclubs. Some owners didn't have a clue how to run club business. A lot were club owners were in the business for the popularity and they lost their shirts. Some didn't even pay attention to their bartenders stealing money from their cash registers or from giving out free drinks which is considered stealing.
Dumb club owners hiring a crappy $50 DJ and not having a clue that the DJ can make or break the club. There is a lot of Great DJs out there but, there a lot of crappy ones too. The dumb club owners sometimes don't even know how good their DJs are. Like for instance I molded a crowd over time with some deep 80's Alternative tracks. When I got replace, the DJ that snaked my job couldn't handle the crowd and quit shortly after. I went back there later as a customer after and the customers were complaining how boring the music was. Even though you mention the DJ can be way up in a booth and nobody knows who they are, the customers still feel the vibe of the music and will leave and never back if the vibe isn't right. Some DJs are the glue that holds that mold of the crowd together and when the DJ is cut, the glue is gone and the mold falls apart.
DUIs hurt the business too but, that goes for bars too. A lot of people ended up with one or two or a few. People drink to break to loosen up. I think a lot of people are more aware of drinking and driving now. I think also think people just aren't going out as much. A lot of people that went to nightclubs got married too and have a family to worry about and stopped going.
Now we have College Football and many different sports available to us on TV. I blame sports mostly for killing the club business on Saturday nights. Sports would be my main pick for hurting night club business. It's always been a problem for decades.
The night club business in the States will never be what it once was. I got a club owner friend who has Clubs in Peru and he says the people are there until 8 AM and they love the 80's by the way. So, I guess it's where the night clubs are now too.
I agree money has replaced cool but one thing I would add in is the obsession certainly in London which didn't exist before of eating out and going to restaurants which people are obsessed with.
The younger generation is socially different (even before Covid), I've seen people text each other standing literally next to each other! They don't know how to interact with each other!
Profit over people ruins everything, everywhere, every time.
Some faster than others.
I was a world traveling clubber all through my 20s (1990s) and each club was unique. The sum total of experiences was amazing. Most places were "come as you are". Some had a dress code. Black pants & a collared shirt got you in just about anywhere. It was about the vibe, the scene not about being seen. In fact, most of us recoiled at the sight of a camera inside the club.
I witnessed the shift in early 2K in Boston. Girls would come in looking like characters from hackers. Leather pants, loud shirts & lacey undergarments clearly visable. Completely out of place, not dancing, drinking, or talking to anyone else but their friend with the camera. They were rude to everyone, including the staff only nice to those who they thought could benefit from. I witnessed a girl go around the bar posing with other people's drinks, acting like she was wasted and having a blast. Experiencing nothing...it was sad & weird. Seems like that is the norm today with most everyone glued to their phone...
I pulled the plug when they banned smoking indoors.
From my perspective/viewpoint- clubbing” or a “nightclub” means just constant dancing and loud music. There really is no converse amongst people as it’s very difficult to hear unless you walk out to the main lobby where you original entered
The internet has and is, killing everything including, our humanity.
When I think back to what it was like when I started going to clubs in the late 80s I don't see the death of THAT style as a bad thing. High entry fees, expensive drinks, awful music, unlicenced security staff, fighting, poor sanitation.. nah you can keep it.
In the UK at least, it was the government changing licencing laws to let bars stay open later that had the biggest negative effect on clubs. For the longest time going to a club was almost your only option if you wanted to drink & hang out after 11pm. For that reason clubs enjoyed a captive audience. Sure there were places scattered around that were cool, with good DJs, cool music & crowds but the majority of venues were set up to monopolise on people who wanted to stay out later. Late pubs & bars seriously hurt nightclubbing when the rules changed. A lot of people only went to clubs to stay out later so when bars could stay open longer guess what?
We had the rise of the so-called 'superclub' & its superstar DJs with sky high fees - this started the trend for people beginning to save themselves for bigger events - something that's still going on today.
The UK-wide indoor smoking ban definitely had an effect, but so did gentrification of urban spaces. The best clubs were often in a bad part of town, surrounded by run down warehouses & whatever. Gentrification starts, the warehouses are done up & turned into apartments. Who wants to live next door to a place with pounding bass til 4 in the morning? Noise restrictions hurt a lot of venues too.
Add in the cost of living these days - not as many people can afford to go out & get toasted every weekend anymore either.
The last time I went to a club was back in July, to a 'pop up' club in Leeds. I hadn't been to an actual club for decades (I'm 52). What did I see? Not much dancing. A lot of people sitting down. People talking, hanging out mostly. I wondered why all these people had paid £10 entry just to sit down & hang out. I danced, I threw shapes. I got a bit drunk & had FUN. I felt I was almost in a minority there.
Now aside from maybe sporadic monthly nights in small places there are huge warehouse events. Warehouse Project, Drumsheds etc with mind-boggling capacities (15,000 & up). This is what UK clubbing has become. I'm tempted to give it a try & see what it feels like.
I wouldn't say it is dead. Here in San Antonio there are a lot of night clubs. I think in bigger cities it is still popular.
I miss the "Dress to impress clubs."
One thing is for sure People are missing of what Clubbing really is.....
To many People want to hear what’s on TikTok, DUI’s.
Today after Covid it’s the Prices of everything, Rent, electricity, cost for the DJ, alcohol prices increased.
Plus now when you go to a club, Bar, Wedding the crowds of people have their heads buried in their smart phones.
Also now we would need a designated driver.
There is too much of an monopoly in every sector. They are controlling the prices and the type of entertainment. New businesses need to happen, so they can implement new ideas.
Agree the club is a selfie photo show
1. GREED .. which led to...
2. Getting rid of dance floors to focus only on the bar
3. All music sounds the same .. and it's all bad.
4. DJ's sound the same and only play songs you've heard all day! We used to go to parties / clubs to hear how a DJ spins or something brand new.. That is long gone.
5. DJs only play 30 second of a song
6. Promoters / club owners either paying low $$ for intro level DJ's not willing to pay at all
7. Influencers and annoying partygoers just in VIP sections just for the gram or tik tok
8. $500 Champaign bottles with sparklers that actually only costs $5
9. Everyone on the phones not dancing
10. Baller mentality
11. Spotify!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12. Pick anything but Greed started it all!
Price of drinks, taxi's, lockdown familiarising staying in, social media.
I had a dream of djing In one of my local clubs. That dream is over
Night clubbing is alive and thriving in Paris, and. many other big cities in France.
Part of it is that the DJ Booth has been replaced by the stage. Only a few people got to get into the booth, now the stage is full of wannabes.
VIP is the worse thing that happened to night clubs.
I’m your Age Brian my two cents at least here in NYC , kids today don’t drink like our generation did , maybe The VIP thing had some to do with it but clubs in NYC had different covers at the door that priced people out the VIP was another layer .. thought clubs started dying in the late 90’s with the intro of X and other designer drugs
I couldn’t believe it when I saw couches lol
Cellphones
Damn straight
I haven't been 'clubbing' since the 90's. Is it dead everywhere or just the US? I do think it's sad that younger generations can't experience this.
I think the first thing that a bad economy FX is our entertainment that's the first to go you have to decide whether you want to have a drink and have a good time or eat
Sad so sad! But people don't know how to dance anymore! We're loosing our humanness! Scary but true! 😱🥺😖😞😩🤯
Line Array sound systems ruined the nightclub experience.
What brought up this conversation?
I never knew who the DJ was in the 80’s and 90’s and didn’t care. It was either going off. Or it wasn’t. I liked a mix of house, pop and what we called electronica at the time. But, DUI’s while serious weren’t bankrupting. Suburbs have not helped club life. Now DJ draws aren’t DJ’s they’re producers. The kids like dubstep and dnb which isn’t conducive to clubbing in the traditional sense. I know many “nightclubs” in my area have an 18 up entry requirement. Which runs off the adults. 30 yo’s don’t wanna party with 18 yo’s generally speaking. So what we’re left with at this point is lots of open format bars, touring DJ/producers, and for the savvy club/venue owners,event nights. I will say the LGBTQ community is carrying the Rave flag onward and forward into the future. So thank LGBTQ’s for inventing and saving rave culture. In fact the last couple times I’ve been out where there was actually a packed dance floor with ppl dancing were at gay clubs. And at the end of the day, for me anyway, I just like music and dancing. So I’ll just go there. And I’d def rather DJ for them than goofballs standing around facing each other but looking down at their phones.
I'm in my mid-40s.. have been clubbing since my late teens.. I work at a nightclub.. I run the sound system and lighting system at one of the major ones in Toronto. I've seen the club scene change over the years.. and I know what killed the nightclub scene... It was YOU.
hehe. No seriously, the clubbers killed the nightclubs. Patrons changed over the years.. The overhead costs changed over the years.. But alcohol sales have always been the revenue source for these venues.. they don't make money on people that just show up to dance and don't buy anything other than the tickets to get in.. But if alcohol sales are not good, that club is doomed. Drugs are the choice of many party goers. When the DJs cost $30,000 for a 1 and 1/2 hour DJ set, and the majority of the crowd pays upwards of $80 to get in.. most of that money is going to pay the cost of that DJ and whatever is left over goes to the promoter to cover their costs and whatever is left goes to the club.. often the promoter takes a loss in order for the club to get their full piece of the cake. If the bar sales hit a certain minimum, chances are the promoter will get to keep whatever they made at the door.. But with these huge international EDM and electronic music DJs that cost tens of thousands of dollars, the party crowd are there high as a fucking kite. Bar sales are shit.. everyone's buying bottles of water.. there are a few dealers that end up walking away with thousands of dollars of sales of ecstasy and cocaine and whatever the hell else they're selling.
Club are big business... They need to constantly be upgrading their sound system, lighting rigs or adding some other gimmick to keep people wanting to come back.. tens of thousands of dollars of equipment, and thousands of people going through the doors.. landlord see this and they want a bigger slice of the cake so they end up charging tens of thousands of dollars per month in rent... Yet the actual revenue the club is making is going down because Their costs are going up and partiers are all bitching that $4 for coat check is too much money. TF is the matter with some people??
There are a few types of club nights that seem to make money and that is Latin and to a lesser extent hip hop. Overhead costs are high, but we'll still sell out the clubs with a local DJ that only charges 500 to 1,000 per night. Latin people like alcohol.. But they also like VIP.
They love showing off just as much as the hip hop guys. They'll pay 3-4K for bottle service just so they can show off to everyone else..
That's the reason VIP exists. It's because the rest of the club goers are nickel and diming the club hits spending obscene amounts of money on drugs which the club gets absolutely no monetary benefit from..
So VIP didn't kill the clubs. It's a necessary evil to allow the clubs to survive
yup, when I was raving at clubs in the late 90's I popped a few pills, bought the $5 bottle of water which I refilled in the restroom, and leave $5 tip at the bar because I realized early on that MDMA was the game changer.
In a sane world, clubs should be allowed to sell mdma and other drugs instead of alcohol
@@Aquatarkus96 I read that underground clubs in Texas in the late 80's sold MDA and MDMA at the bar. Then they both became illegal in the early 90's.
Focus on fun
Weed stores !
I seriously believe what killed clubs was new generation! This new generation are finding better things to do, like drinking at home!
Shitty music, ticket and drink prices. Instagram (etc).
The disconnect between dancers and music, plays apart to. Compare dance shows of the past;
Mtv the Grind
Soul train
Bandstand
Countless others. Now look at boiler room. Most dancing today is relegated to strip club culture.
You're romanticizing the club experience, being admitted to a club by an underpaid bouncer is not a definition of cool, and most clubs were accessible to everyone.
Also, everyone is broke