Includes bibliographical references (pages [261]-262), discography (pages [263]-266) and index.
Contents:
Introduction : Setting up the sound -- Disco, the Castro and gay liberation -- Liberation for some : The continued expansion of gay San Francisco in the late 1970s -- Sylvester's fantasy comes true -- The first wave of the San Francisco sound -- Blecman and Hedges -- Disco's dead/not dead -- The San Francisco sound thrives -- New heights -- Trouble in Paradise -- Dancing with AIDS -- Everything falls apart -- In retrospect.
Summary:
"Menergy tells the story of a "post-disco" recording industry in San Francisco between the years 1978-1984. For most of America, disco died in 1979. Gay men, however, continued to dance, and in the gay enclave of the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco, enterprising gay DJs, record producers, and musicians started their own small dance music record labels to make up for the lack of new, danceable music. These independent labels' music did more than copy what the larger industry had been doing, however. Instead, the upstart companies built upon the musical experiments their roster of local musicians and producers had been exploring over the last several years, developing a distinctive style of its own. Known as "high energy," the music reveled in electronics, fast tempos, disco and DJ culture, and, above all, gay liberation as it had emerged over the previous decade in the Castro neighborhood by so called "Castro clones" (a gay subculture of exaggerated masculinity with a strong presence in the city's nightlife). The sound, like the new revolutionary ethos, derived its aesthetic from San Francisco's unique configuration of elements, but immediately this music had a reach far beyond the Bay, with Megatone Records, Moby Dick Records, and other labels achieving worldwide success with San Francisco artists such as Sylvester, Patrick Cowley, Paul Parker, Lisa, Loverde, and Jolo, creating the world's first gay-owned, gay-produced music for a dancing audience"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.