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The first in-depth study of underground dance music.
"You Better Work!" is the first detailed study of underground dance music or UDM, a phenomenon that has its roots in the overlap and cross-fertilization of African American and gay cultural sensibilities that have occurred since the 1970s. UDM not only predates and includes disco, but also constitutes a unique performance practice in the history of American social dance.
Taking New York City as its geographic focus, "You Better Work!" shows how UDM functions in the lives of its DJs and dancers, and how it is used as the primary identifier of an urban subculture shaped essentially by the relationships between music, dance, and marginality. Kai Fikentscher goes beyond stereotypical images of club and disco to explore the cult and culture of the DJ, the turntable and vinyl recordings as musical instruments, and the vital relationship between music and dance at underground clubs. Including interviews, photographs, and an extensive discography, this ethnographic account tells the story of a celebration of collective marginality through music and dance
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introductions
Discovering the Underground: Entry to the Field
The Objective of Investigation: Underground Dance Music
Why study Underground Dance Music? The role of New York City
Music and Marginality
The Purpose of a Study of Underground Dance Music
A Definition of Underground
A Definition of Dance Music
The Relationship of underground Dance Music to New York City
Meditated music and musical immediacy
The music-dance relationship in social dance
Research phases
Ethnography and ethno history: A brief detour
Disco: The Premise for Underground Dance Music
Literature on disco and dance music
Social dance in America: The African American continuum
Social dancing in New York: The Gay Factor
The Cult And Culture of The DJ
Vinyl records as meditated music
The disco concept: Meditated music and musical immediacy
The art of spinning: The DJ as musician
DJ technology 8 DJ repertoire: Programming versus mixing
Peaking the floor
Beyond mixing: The DJ as cultural hero
The rise of the club DJ: Remix and production work
Conclusion: Why 12-inch vinyl is critical
The Dancers: Working (It) Out
Dancing: Interactive versus collective performance
The body as musical instrument
A definition of dance
The body as social instrument
The body as social instrument: Dance, identity, marginality
Clubbing in the field: Underground dance venues in New York City
Interactive performance: The musical process and cultural context of underground dance music
Conclusion: Keep on dancing
Underground Dancing: Autonomy And Interdependence in Music and Dance
Interactive performance: Synchronicity beyond simultaneity
Vibe: the booth-floor interaction
Rhythm as primary link between sound and motion
Changing modes of dance music production
A comparison of for 12-inch dance singles
Conclusion: Feel the vibe
The Underground As Cultural Context: The Marginality of Ethnic and Sexual Minorities
Gay culture and black culture
Double marginality, social affinity
Historical links between African-American and gay culture
The discotheque and gay liberation
The African American imprint: The discotheque as church
Conclusion: Underground dance music as a celebration of marginality
Outlook: Underground Dance Music Beyond The 1990's
Appendix: A Selection of 100 UDM Records
Notes * Glossary
References 1: Text and Image
References 2: Second Recordings
Index
KAI FIKENTSCHER holds degrees in jazz performance and composition from Berklee College of Music and Manhattan School of Music, as well as in ethnomusicology from Columbia University. When not teaching music courses and lecturing on topics in expressive African American culture, he works in New York City as a music producer, freelance guitarist, audio consultant, and sound technician.
"New York City readers will surely enjoy his tales of a thousand and one club nights at the Tunnel, Mars, Twilo, the Garage, and the Palladium, where we find such dominant turntable masters as Junior Vasquez, David Morales, Little Louie Vega, and Danny Tenaglia working and creating."
~Boston Phoenix
""Fikentscher understands the historical importance of disco as few writers do. He guides you effortlessly through the evolution of the DJ from spinner to mixer to remixer to producer. He offers insightful and pathbreaking connections to the black church and to gay expressivity. And he is able to translate the emotional language and transformative experience of music and dance into engaging, readable prose. It's the next best thing to dancing itself!""
~Reebee Garofalo, author of Rockin' Out: Popular Music In the USA
""'You Better Work!' is not just the only serious book about underground dance music in the U.S. It is also a very good book. Fikentscher documents several crucial music scenes before they mutate into the night.""
~Andrew Ross, Director, American Studies Program, NYU
"Fikentscher understands the historical importance of disco as few writers do. He guides you effortlessly through the evolution of the DJ from spinner to mixer to remixer to producer. He offers insightful and pathbreaking connections to the black church and to gay expressivity. And he is able to translate the emotional language and transformative experience of music and dance into engaging, readable prose. It's the next best thing to dancing itself!"
~Reebee Garofalo, author of Rockin' Out: Popular Music In the USA
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