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Maybe we need to flip the opening question on its head: if the roots of electronic music are so sexually diverse, why do today's audiences need to be reminded of it? Have we forgotten about the queer nightlife worlds of the '70s and '80s? That's the problem according to Loren Granic, AKA Goddollars, co-founder and resident of A Club Called Rhonda in Los Angeles, who doesn't mince words: "We're currently experiencing a total mainstreaming of dance music in America," he says.
"Many of these newcomers are straight/white kids who are very far removed from the LGBT community, despite fist-pumping by the millions to a music that was born from gay people of color sweating their asses off at 5 AM in a Chicago warehouse. It's easy for us to dismiss this as a corruption of the music we hold so dear by charlatans and assholes, but many of the newcomers will be drawn into the music for life, and I think it's important that we highlight the role that the gay community played and that we educate new fans of dance music to the ideals of community, equality and diversity that were so crucial to dance music's DNA from the beginning.
"And if sexual minorities were historically central to
the emergence of dance music culture, where are they now? If you take a look at
who is running the clubs, managing the labels, booking the artists, and playing
the records, the demographics are starkly different from the crowds that got
this music started. Considering how big a role the gay community played in the
genesis of the music, it's strange to see that the majority of the stakeholders
nowadays are of the straight male variety. It would be great to see promoters,
artists, producers and club owners take a stronger stand to be more inclusive
of the culture from which they take and profit so liberally."
Despite this, queer dance music scenes continue to thrive
today, even if they're mostly off the radar of mainstream dance music media.
Why and how did that happen? Part of this might have to do with the scale of
today's club culture: it's easier for minorities to remain central to a music
scene when it's small, local and personal. Once it becomes a massive global
phenomenon, it's much harder for marginalized people to stay inside the frame
of attention. But another reason for this absence is that history is written by
victors: as dance music became more mainstream and had more crossover success,
the people writing its history followed the "more relevant" threads
into primarily straight, white, middle class environments, quickly forgetting
about the more queer and colorful scenes that were still dancing and making
music.
New York disco and garage
In New York City at the beginning of the 1970s, queers of
color (primarily of African-American and Latin-Caribbean ancestry) and many
straight-but-not-narrow allies came together to create small pockets of space
in the city's harsh urban landscape—spaces where they could be safe, be
themselves, be someone else for a while, and be with others in ways not
permitted in the "normal" everyday world. Music was an essential part
of these gatherings, and the sound of these events would eventually develop
into the style called disco. The sound was a mix of soul, funk and Latin music
with a driving, four-four kick drum pattern. It took its name from discotheque,
the French word given to nightlife venues that featured recorded music instead
of live performances.
But disco didn't start in discotheques; most histories of
disco start with The Loft, David Mancuso's series of private parties held in
his apartment in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Mancuso was DJ, promoter and
master of ceremonies from the beginning to the end of the night, presiding over
a crowd of mixed sexualities, gender expressions, ethnicities and social
classes. As word got around about Mancuso's parties, discotheques in Lower and
Midtown Manhattan began to cater to this emerging sound, such as Nicky Siano's
The Gallery. By 1973, this sound had become prominent enough for music
journalist Vince Aletti to pen the first article on disco ("Discotheque
Rock '72: Paaaaarty!"), for Rolling Stone magazine. In it he described the
local disco scene as a thriving underground of "juice bars, after-hours
clubs, private lofts open on weekends to members only," populated by a
"hardcore dance crowd—blacks, Latins, gays."
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