DiscoNYC One decade after the Jamaican sounds had taken hold, the discotheque, spreading from France and gaining popularity in other parts of Europe, migrated to America. It was New Year’s Eve 60, and LeClub opened its doors for the first time. Wealth and status were the necessary terms of entry in the early American discos, dedicated to providing exclusive evening entertainment for the eccentric upper crust. No longer operating as cafes or restaurants during the day time hours like their French predecessors, American discos were admitting patrons only under the light of the moon. At their peak in 1974, discos would number 2,000 in New York City alone, catering to a variety of ethnicities, classes and sexual preferences. It was the allure of the Disco DJs’ turntables that claimed such a massive appeal, drawing so many to these Bacchanalias, characterized by a plentitude of drugs and sex, mirroring the overtly sexual nature of the DJs’ music, Disco. Only in America could such a spectacularly unimaginative name prevail, taken unchanged from the slang name of the clubs DJs would project the genre onto the national stage—and the night life of Gotham would forever be changed. At first, club owners themselves acted as the record selectors, with employees watching the club; when the craze began to catch on in the underground—especially in the gay underground, attendance increased at the clubs. The double duty of being owner and entertainer proved too demanding, it was necessary to pass the art on to dedicated musicians. The first to be taught the “old French art” was Peter Duchin. The butler of a patron, Duchin proved his capabilities despite the owner’s misgivings and a new lineage of live record spinners was about to begin. These DJs, conversing with their Hiphop friends downtown, would initiate a revolution which would produce an entirely new form of music; just as the Dub of Jamaica, Disco was drawn directly from the music mined by the dj, refined from the raw ore embedded in the records. It would become a new musical aesthetic, following in the heavy format of Dub, Disco would be distinguished by its relentlessly pulsing bass lines, with rapid percussion and sensual vocals superimposed over the deep throbbing of the bass. Temperamental musicians in their own right, these DJs, would seek to define their own roles in the midst of giving birth to a new underground culture. Enticing the audience remained the preeminent duty of a sound artist, and the DJs were seriously intent on expressing themselves and the passion and multiculturalism of the late 60s and early 70s. Soon, DJs would nearly eliminate live bands in American clubs for reasons beyond mere economy. The DJs’ music, an intoxicating blend of infinitely diverse rhythms and grooves, was impossible to replicate with traditional instruments, restricted to the dj’s ensemble of sound reproduction equipment. DJs furthered the exclusive nature of their roles by prompting record companies to begin releasing records specifically for their audiences. In Jamaica, the process was similar, but the djs there, sounds, made their own venture in production to equip themselves with, dub plates, and later, full releases geared for listeners who preferred the ‘deep grooves’ of the sound systems. Soon, many Disco producers would arrange and release records for the DJs’ audiences without ever having touched the turntables. When it came to the dancefloor though, it was the DJs who first defined the Disco form and in the end they determined what qualified as a hit in the clubs.