New from Tim Lawrence
Feminister/Queer Desires (Goldsmiths, June 2008)
I
was invited by Angela McRobbie, Professor of Communications at
Goldsmiths College, to present a paper on the theme of "Disco and the
Queer Dance Floor" at the third annual Gender and Theory Conference,
which took place on Wednesday 11 June 2008. The conference was
excellent; how could it not be, with Angela talking in a line-up that
included Sara Ahmed and Lisa Blackman, as well as the sharp and
hilarious Mandy Merck. The conference opened with... Read more »
Arthur Russell and Rhizomatic Musicianship (Liminalities)
During the 1970s and early 1980s, a diverse group of artists,
musicians, sculptors, video filmmakers and writers congregated in
downtown New York and forged a radical creative network. Distinguished
by its level of interactivity, the network discarded established
practices in order to generate new, often-interdisciplinary forms of
art that melded aesthetics and community. "All these... Read more »
David Mancuso and the Loft (Placed)
The following article and interview appears in Placed, an new
Berlin-based magazine. Conducted in London on the eve of Lucky
Cloud Sound System's spring party, the interview turned out to be every
bit as
engaging as my first interview with David, which was conducted in the
East
Village in 1997 and inspired Love Saves the Day. The London interview
provides new insights Read more »
Arthur Russell interview (Blow Up)
The
following interview between Daniela Cascella and Tim Lawrence was
conducted on 25 January 2007. It will appear in an article Cascella is
writing for Blow Up (Italy). Tim Lawrence's biography of Arthur Russell
for Duke University Press is due to be published in 2008.
Read more »
In Defence of Disco (Again) (New Formations)
"Disco"
is the overburdened name given to the culture that includes the
spaces (discotheques) that were organised around the playback of
recorded music by a DJ (disc jockey); the social practice of individual
freeform dancing that was established within this context; and the
music genre that crystallised within this social setting between 1970
and 1979. Although disco has rarely... Read more »
"I Want to See All My Friends At Once": Arthur Russell and the Queering of Gay Disco (Journal of Popular Music Studies)
Disco, it is commonly understood, drummed its drums and twirled its
twirls across an explicit gay-straight divide. In the beginning, the
story goes, disco was gay: Gay dancers went to gay clubs, celebrated
their newly liberated status by dancing with other men, and discovered
a vicarious voice in the form of disco's soul and gospel-oriented
divas. Received wisdom has it that straights, having played no part in
this embryonic...
Read more »
Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-79
Opening with David Mancuso's seminal "Love Saves the Day" Valentine's
party, Tim Lawrence tells the definitive story of American dance music
culture in the 1970s - from its subterranean roots in NoHo and Hell's
Kitchen to its gaudy blossoming in midtown Manhattan to its wildfire
transmission through America's suburbs and urban hotspots such as Chicago,
Boston, San Francisco... Read more »
Disco: Liberation of the Body (Liberazione)
In the popular imagination, disco conjures up images of Studio 54, the
celebrated New York 1970s nightclub, where hoards of would-be dancers
queued up on a nightly basis, waving their arms frantically in an
attempt to catch the eye of the venue's doorman, as if they were at an
auction, bidding... Read more »
Discotheque: Haçienda
Read more »
IASMP Woody Guthrie Prize
I've never been particularly interested in the outcome of awards and prize ceremonies, which are normally occasions for excessive backslapping and shameless marketing. Yesterday, though, I was told that my book, Love Saves the Day, has been given an "honourable mention" by the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, so I've completely changed my mind. Prizes and award ceremonies are the best thing ever. Read more »
Acid - Can You Jack?
House
music is disco's revenge. So said Frankie Knuckles, reflecting on the
charged history of the genre, which emerged in hometown Chicago in the
middle of the 1980s. In this case home, to quote Gil Scott-Heron, is
where the hatred is, or was. The disco sucks movement had its spiritual
and organisational headquarters in the city, and the organisation's
campaign reached its vitriolic climax... Read more »
Mixed With Love: The Musical World Of Walter Gibbons
This tale begins with a skinny white DJ mixing between the breaks
of obscure Motown records with the ambidextrous intensity of an octopus
on speed. It closes with the same man, sick with Aids and all but blind,
fumbling for gospel records as he spins up eternal hope in a fading
dusk. In between, Walter Gibbons transformed the art of DJing and marked
out the future co-ordinates of remixology... Read more »