Dance, Drugs and Escape: The Club Scene in Literature, Film and Television Since the Late 1980s

223 Pages·2007·1.878 MB·English

by  Stan Beeler

Dance, Drugs
and Escape

Dance, Drugs
and Escape
The Club Scene in Literature, Film
and Television Since the Late ¡980s
STAN BEELER
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Beeler, Stanley W.
Dance, drugs and escape : the club scene in literature, film and
television since the late ¡980s / Stan Beeler.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-¡3: 978-0-7864-300¡-7
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
¡. Subculture. 2. Discotheques—Social aspects.
3. Subculture films. I. Title.
HM646.B44 2007
306'.¡09045—dc22 20070¡6929
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2007 Stan Beeler. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover photograph ©2007 Digital Vision
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To the ravers, clubbers, DJs and grad students
who shared their culture

Contents
Preface 1
Introduction 3
1. The Rise and Fall of Club Culture: Idealism to Economics 17
2. Crime and Club Life 51
3. Whose Club Is It Anyway? Ethnicity and Club Culture 74
4. It’s Raining Men: Representations of Gay Lifestyle
in Club Fiction 94
5. Drugs, Sex and Disco Dancing 115
6. Take the Money and Run: Exploitation of Rave Culture 152
Conclusion 182
Notes 185
Bibliography 195
Index 201
vii

Preface
Club culture as defined in this book is the rave and dance club phe-
nomenon that arose in the late ¡980s in the United Kingdom. Based upon
the laid-back attitudes and eclectic music selections encountered by young
tourists on the Spanish resort island of Ibiza, club culture developed around
a combination of idealistic do-it-yourself philosophy and a rejection of an
entertainment industry dominated by multinational music corporations.
Club culture’s initial relationship with the drug called ecstasy is also an
important component in its historical progress from a relatively small sub-
culture to a mass-marketed popular culture. As club culture rapidly devel-
oped an international following, it naturally garnered the interest of
novelists, screen writers, producers and directors who attempted to reflect
the subcultural phenomenon in their works. Club culture has tradition-
ally resisted mainstream culture, and therefore secondary representations
in literature, film and television have been viewed with some suspicion by
the initial participants in the subculture. In fact, as club culture became
the subject of artistic representations it was transformed into a pop-cul-
ture behemoth with powerful links to the entertainment industry estab-
lishment. This study deals with the secondary phenomena of film,
television and literature and their e›ects on the development of club cul-
ture.
Dance, Drugs and Escape: The Club Scene in Literature, Film and Tele-
vision Since the Late ¡980sis divided into sections that deal with the most
significant thematic aspects of club culture fiction. Beginning with a chap-
ter on artistic representations of the idealistic early stages of the movement,
this study traces club culture’s development as a subject for film, televi-
sion and literature. Club culture has progressed from a subject of interest
1