From Speakeasies to Supperclubs – How the NYC Nightclubs Shaped the City

From media executives to corporate lawyers, and from artists holding down day jobs and waiting for a big break to actors working multiple roles and hoping for a huge part, NYC is full of people who work incredibly hard. And because of this, it's full of people who know how to party. NYC nightclubs have helped define who the city is, and who's who in the city, for almost a century.

One of NYC's greatest literary establishments is The New Yorker, many of whose early stars met together (and drank together) at the Algonquin. While not technically an NYC nightclub, the venue was a great place for the witty elites of the city to meet and exchange quips. New Yorker editor Harold Ross was a regular -- at the time, his magazine often reviewed speakeasies.

During the later 1920's, jazz musicians popularized their craft and expanded their repertoires at several well-known NYC nightclubs. At first confined to Harlem, Jazz clubs soon dotted 52nd street in Manhattan, displacing other NYC nightclubs. One club that would soon be associated with Jazz performances was The Apollo, which like many NYC nightclubs of the era did not admit African American guests or performers until the 1930's. The club's defining feature -- aside from the incredible array of talented musicians who performed there -- was the "Executioner", a man with a broom who "swept" away acts if the audience booed them.

After prohibition, many speakeasies converted themselves into more typical NYC nightclubs, offering patrons a combination of entertainment, socializing, and drinks that proved to be a winning mix. During the 1960's, nightclubs in Berkeley and Paris pioneered a new technique of playing music constantly without breaks. This would soon spread to clubs worldwide, including NYC nightclubs, and would eventually give rise to the disco trend.

During the 1970's and early 1980's, NYC nightclubs were dominated by disco -- a combination of dance-oriented, DJ-guided music and (in some cases) extremely potent sound systems, lighting displays, and drugs. Just as speakeasies had been a conduit for the most popular illegal substances of the 1920's, NYC nightclubs in the 1970's became a popular proving ground for new narcotics, and an easy place to find some more of the mainstays.

As the fervor for disco died down in the early 1980's, NYC nightclubs branched out. Today, NYC nightclubs can play everything from dance-oriented pop music to hip-hop to newer and edgier acts by unknown performers. The energy of the band is often infectious, and the combination of great music, new friends, a fun atmosphere -- and maybe a little alcohol for social lubrication -- has proven irresistible.

Byrne Hobart is a New Yorker with widely, perhaps even bizarrely varied interests. He ought to spend more time at NYC nightclubs.



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