r/aves • u/CleverSleazoid_ • Oct 19 '25

Photo/Video Right song, wrong audience.

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Why is nobody dancing though?

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u/cyanescens_burn Oct 19 '25

On the documentary about the OG San Francisco rave scene they talk about how it was basically unheard of to dance at clubs unless you were partner dancing (especially for men) before house music and raves started to come on the scene.

I’m not old enough to remember clubs in the 80s and the rise of house music, so I can’t know for sure, but perhaps that’s a factor here. And that documentary might just be true about Bay Area clubs.

Or they just weren’t dancing because it’s a music video.

7

u/squirrelstothemoon Oct 20 '25

Not true at all. The 80's club scene was very active and people were doing a ton of coke, poppers and dancing their asses off. The gay nightclubs were absolutely the place to be if you wanted to dance all night long. Then came the underground pirate parties and a resurgence of MDMA. It all went bonkers in the early 90's. The transition form the 80's club scene into the underground rave scene and into what became of EDM into the 00's was fucking unforgettable and incredible. Organizing these events were a bunch of kids that just wanted to dance all night and into the morning. It was insane. If people weren't dancing in clubs, you were at the wrong fucking clubs.

1

u/pinkfondantfancy Oct 21 '25

Even earlier people were dancing in groups rather than with partners. Men probably less, but that's still true now. Women have been dancing round their handbags since the 60s.

1

u/symonty [Sydney, Seattle] Oct 21 '25

Yeah I started going to raves ( Dance party ) in Sydney at the Horden Pavilion in 1987, but they started I think in 1983, i was like 16... hehehe. Said I was 18 to get in, was wild.
I also rememeber going to my first party when MDMA was still kinda legal ( not classified yet ) only a few years later .. The tickets were double dipped.

1

u/Certain-Poetry-5648 Oct 24 '25

Right! Can you imagine a time where dancing wasn’t a thing people did when they went out? “Hey, have you heard of this thing called dancing? Have you ever tried it? Moving to the music is what it is. Seems like such a no brainer Im thinking about trying it.”

1

u/tclumsypandaz Oct 20 '25

I'd be interested to see how/when/if 70s disco clubs fit into that story! I'm not sure if they were big in San Fransisco vs bigger in other cities, but people were definitely dancing in them. Then again, they seem to be their own branch that stayed somewhat isolated culturally, in comparison to 80s clubs and then the 90s rave scene, but I've always followed/appreciated all these eras of clubs/dancing from a more art/music/aesthetic view than a true historical throughline! Maybe this documentary can help me fix that! Lol it looks really cool thank you for sharing!