Back To the Underground

Following the collapse of the 70's Disco empire, the sound of disco did not die, but much of it returned back into clubs away from the mainstream music industry, or what was known as the underground. Much like in the early 70's, during the early 80's dance clubs became the key locations for hearing and experiencing the latest in Dance music. Dance music had largely disappeared from movies and television and was on life support on radio. Key clubs, however, continued to thrive. Among these were 3 New York clubs, the FunHouse, Paradise Garage, and The Saint, which live on in memories and legends as well as their impact in development of specific genres of Dance music.

The FunHouse opened in the spring of 1979 just as the Disco backlash was beginning. The design of the club was dominated by an enormous clown face. The DJs would spin records from the gaping mouth of the clown. Early on, the FunHouse had a number of DJs keeping crowds happy, but in April of 1981 John 'Jellybean' Benitez took over duties as the resident DJ. By the summer of 1982 Jellybean began playing Electro, the style influenced by Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock and producer Arthur Baker 's breakbeat experiments. By the mid 80's the FunHouse was consider a center for Latin Freestyle with Jellybean becoming one of the key Freestyle producers after leaving the FunHouse in 1984.

The Paradise Garage is one of the most fondly remembered of all of the great dance clubs of the 70's and 80's. The Garage, as it was fondly known, opened in 1976 and Larry Levan became its resident DJ in 1977. Already a veteran of the New York Disco scene, Levan soon became known for idiosyncratic sets that would enthrall dancers for hours. His encyclopedic knowledge of Dance music ranged across a multitude of genres, but by the early 80's Levan became identified with a developing style that would eventually be labeled Garage out of respect for Paradise Garage. Garage bore similarities to House, which was developing in Chicago, but was not as sparse and had more of an emphasis on the vocals and soulful connections to earlier Disco. Although this style of music is far from representative of the range of music played by Larry Levan, it is a fitting tribute to the man who passed away in 1992.

Another of the great clubs of the early 80's was The Saint. The Saint opened in September of 1980. Catering almost exclusively to a gay audience, the Saint was enormous in dimensions. Among the club's features were a 4800 square foot dancefloor, nearly 40 foot high dome on which to project light shows, over 1500 lights, and a planetarium style device to create the illusion of stars and planets across the dome. The favored style of music at the Saint evolved from the EuroDisco of the 70's. It featured quick tempos with rich melody. In the early 80's the style would become known as Hi-NRG and was closely identified with The Saint.

With the return of Dance music to the underground the close ties between Dance audiences, DJs and the Dance music being recorded and released was re-established. Gone were gimmicky attempts by major record labels to cash in on a trend. Independent record labels began to garner more attention once more as the opinions of individual DJs again were very important in breaking new Dance hits. Dance music was being created primarily for the dancefloor and its development influenced by the reaction of audiences in the club.