Preface ix

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction 1

Part I. 1980: The Recalibration of Disco

1. Stylistic Coherence Didn't Matter at All 11

2. The Basement Den at Club 57 30

3. Danceteria: Midtown Feels the Downtown Storm 48

4. Subterranean Dance 60

5. The Bronx-Brooklyn Approach 73

6. The Sound Became More Real 92

7. Major-Label Calculations 105

8. The Saint Peter of Discos 111

9. Lighting the Fuse 122

Part II. 1981: Accelerating Toward Pluralism

10. Explosion of Clubs 135

11. Artistic Maneuvers in the Dark 155

12. Downton Configures Hip Hop 170

13. The Sound of a Transcendent Future 184

14. The New Urban Street Sound 199

15. It Wasn't Rock and Roll and It Wasn't Disco 210

16. Frozen in Time or Freed into Infinity 221

17. It Felt Like the Whole City Was Listening 232

18. Shrouded Abatements and Mysterious Deaths 239

Part III. 1982: Dance Culture Seizes the City

19. All We Had Was the Club 245

20. Inverted Pyramid 257

21. Roxy Music 271

22. The Garage: Everybody Was Listening to Everything 279

23. The Planet Rock Groove 288

24. Techno Funksters 304

25. Taste Segues 314

26. Stormy Weather 320

27. Cusp of an Important Fusion 331

Part IV. 1983: The Genesis of Division

28. Cristal for Everyone 343

29. Dropping the Pretense and the Flashy Suits 369

30. Straighten It Out with Larry Levan 381

31. Stripped-Down and Scrambled Sounds 400

32. We Became Part of This Energy 419

33. Sex and Dying 430

34. We Got the Hits, We Got the Future 438

35. Behind the Groove 449

Epilogue. Life, Death, and the Hereafter 458

Notes 485

Selected Discography 515

Selected Filmography 529

Selected Bibliography 521

Index 537