Clubbing

Over the past two decades, clubbing has become a nearly global signifier of going out dancing in the context of youth nightlife culture. Since the 1990s, clubbing scenes have emerged especially, but not only, in major cities in Europe (foremost in the United Kingdom, but also in Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, Belgrade, St. Petersburg, Istanbul, among many others), North America (e.g., Vancouver, Montréal, San Francisco, New York), Australia (Sidney), Asia (e.g., Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore, Bombay), Latin America (e.g., Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Sao Paolo), and the Middle East (e.g., in Lebanon or Israel). Nightclubbing culture is a global phenomenon (even though significant parts of the world are still untouched by it), but its semantics are geographically diverse. Due to its transgressive and playful elements as well as its endorsement of hedonism and sensual immersion, clubbing can be seen as a feature of postmodern consumer culture.

Broadly speaking, clubbing denotes a cultural and social practice that combines (mainly) electronic, beat-centered music of various genres (and their subgenres), such as techno, house, garage, drum and bass, R&B, electro, dubstep, grime, global beats, different styles of dance, fashion, drugs, and often a sexualized atmosphere in varied temporal and spatial contexts of copresence. Despite these common elements, the particular practices, social actors, spatial settings, and modes of sociality that clubbing refers to in different national contexts vary enormously. This presents ample opportunity for comparative research into the local cultures of clubbing and their particular societal significance and pathways of development in certain political, economic, and social structures.

While clubbing in the United Kingdom is a common leisure activity of young people from all social groups (though middle-income groups are [Page 180]predominant), clubbing in Istanbul, for example, is associated with nighttime entertainment of wealthy middle- and upper-class youth. Clubbing may refer to dance and music events in venues of variable sizes and capacities (from super clubs with a capacity of several thousand to smaller, more alternative venues or hybrid bar-clubs that integrate eating, drinking, socializing, and dancing in one place). Clubbing is mostly associated with events in licensed venues in urban, especially metropolitan contexts, but mobile sound system technologies make it possible to transform the countryside, beaches, mountains, boats, parking lots, train and underground stations, and even aircrafts into clubbing sceneries. Clubbing has also become an important aspect of the holiday business in seaside resorts (Ibiza, Gran Canaria, Faliraki, Malia, Mykonos, Aya Napa, in Croatia, at the Black Sea Coast, the Baltic Coast, Crimea, and Goa, among many others).

Clubbing culture stands in the legacy of earlier youth dance and music cultures. This includes the British Northern Soul amphetamine-based weekenders and all-nighters of the late 1960s, 1970s disco, the Detroit techno and the gay Chicago house music scenes of the 1980s, and the Ibiza-influenced, ecstasy-based British acid-house and rave culture movement that became popular in Britain in 1988 to 1989. In the mid-1990s, after the clampdown on the British rave scene that had staged unlicensed parties in disused warehouses and open-air sites, music and dance culture was forced to revert to licensed venues. In the late 1990s, Britain saw an unprecedented rise of club and dance culture and the emergence of high-capacity, well-equipped super clubs. Compared to overall consumer spending on leisure and recreation in Britain, clubbing is a fairly marginal leisure activity. However, for young people, it has become a major leisure or holiday activity; expenditure on nightclub admission in the United Kingdom has almost reached the same level as cinema consumption.

...