What is the appeal of loud music, darkness, & bright lights in nightclubs?

[Winston]

I've never understood the pleasure of dancing too. I've never been good at it, but when I try it, I don't get any feeling of pleasure or fun. I guess it's more of an extrovert's activity?

[Falcon]

What kind of dancing are you talking about?

In Latin America, dancing = courtship, and I enjoy that very much. Meanwhile in the U.S., dancing is pretty much associated with getting drunk and acting dumb. That may be what you have in mind.

[Jason of Dystopia]

But my take is that things use to be much better back in the 80's and early 90's, especially in places like London, where dance clubs would play underground music, and the people who showed up were really apart of a subculture so everybody kind of all knew each other. Also, back in the day people could all get along and have a good time, nobody was trying to act hard or tough... Sadly, those days are over...

This seems to have happened to all such subcultures since the the '60s. What happens? Do people get burned out on them or do they just get older? And why do people need to get so lost and get high to do so?

Winston obviously values quality human experience. Is the rave such an experience? It seems the contrary to me, perhaps born from an attempt to "connect" with others despite the realization there is no real connection.

I always thought the Rave to be a symptom of globalization; the deliberate creation of artificial communities based on the tenuous bond of collectively shared oblivion and manufactured experience.

[Billy]

The thing with dancing is: to be able to dance you have to be able to stop your thougts. That´s why intellectual guys can´t manage it. This comes mostly from the society. For example German people are the worst dancers in the world whereas they are the best in terms of creating technology. That is no coincidence. Free your body and your brain will follow. shake it baby all night long

[Jason of Dystopia]

Free your body and your brain will follow.

But can't you get all kinds of pleasure from intellectual pursuits? I find much freedom in thought and even in laborious research. I have had many moments where my learning has led to an "unshackling" of my mind as well as my spirit.

I do not see dancing and repetitive oblivion as center points of human liberation. It is hard for me to imagine that raver kids have found the answer and have reached a pure Buddhist consciousness "beyond words or thoughts." That is the excuse to take drugs, get drunk and engage in an artificially constructed homogeneous global community.

Goethe said: "Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world." Dancing into oblivion is not the action he meant.

[gsjackson]

This distinction was noted by the ancient Greeks -- the difference between the Apollonian, or adherents of reason and intellect, and the Dionysian, which was an attempt to merge mindlessly back into the great primordial soup and feel the ultimate sense of connection of all with all.

I'm hopelessly Appollonian in my orientation, and I suspect several others here are too, but I guess there's a case to be made for the Dionysian. According to various pantheistic religious traditions, as well as New Age thinking, we are all interconnected, part of one great body, and the urge to understand that connection through rituals like dancing and drunken orgies is normal.

The problem comes in a society like the United States, which is devoted equally to mindlessness (a necessity if its various established institutions are to continue prospering) and to the eradication of all pleasure. Or as another poster put it, it all depends on who the people are in the venue.

[NorthAmericanguy]

This seems to have happened to all such subcultures since the the '60s. What happens?

I'm not sure what it's called, but there is a social phenomenon that occurs within civilizations where a particular art form/style is created and is only known to the original and authentic people within the subculture who created it, the knowledge stays within that subculture until it becomes more widely known, or mainstream, which then attracts all the wrong people, with all the wrong intentions, who then bastardize the original work which then subsequently causes the original art form to go underground, or it goes defunct altogether.

This cycle has been going on since Ancient Egypt, but in today's hyper interconnected world, as soon as an original work comes out, it's quickly bastardized.

Do people get burned out on them or do they just get older? And why do people need to get so lost and get high to do so?

Winston obviously values quality human experience. Is the rave such an experience? It seems the contrary to me, perhaps born from an attempt to "connect" with others despite the realization there is no real connection.

I always thought the Rave to be a symptom of globalization; the deliberate creation of artificial communities based on the tenuous bond of collectively shared oblivion and manufactured experience.

I'm not qualified to give you an adequate response.

[tribbsj]

Dumb people need a place to go to be together.

[Winston]

Ok let me be honest about something that will make me look like an uncool loser.

Clubs and discos would be a lot more fun if the hot sexy girls there would flirt or engage me like they do in the movies. But if they just ignore me, and I'm just sitting there with loud music in the background, cigarette smoke in the air around me, and bright lights, it's simply a boring experience. Since I'm not big on dancing, what's in it for me? Even worse, the fact that the hot girl there ignore you and give you the cold shoulder, makes it an ego-deflating depressing experience. So when I go home afterward, I feel shit about myself. That definitely DISCOURAGES me from going again. So what's the point? Every time, I end up deflated and depressed afterward cause I was tempted with all these hot girls around me, yet I couldn't do anything about it, even though I wanted to badly, which creates extreme frustration and let down. Then when I get home, I regret not trying harder to come onto the girls there, and keep beating my head over it.

In the final analysis, it's an overall NEGATIVE experience with high stimulation ending in disappointment. That's why I have a negative attitude toward the whole experience, besides the annoying deafening loud music, bright lights, smoke and darkness.

I know this is not a cool thing to say or admit, and no one else in my position would openly admit the above, but hey, the truth is the truth. So what is wrong with being honest? I hate a world where you can't be honest.

My favorite quote from George Orwell:

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

[Renata]

my country is definitely a party island ... it all depends,... you can go have a great time without drinking & getting wasted as well ... it's nice when friends get all dressed up & go out at night to a nice club & dance the night away, it's good fun ... i can only stay in a night club for a maximum of 3 hrs though the loud music does get to me after awhile.

we also have carnival it's a big street party & it lasts for a week

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aT_s4Ki ... re=related[/youtube]

[djfourmoney]

If you're at a club having fun with a group of people you can connect with then you can have a lot of fun just losing yourself in the music and drink. I've been to clubs where the music (usually trance) is so good and the people so into it that you feel a deep sense of connection with the people around you in the dance floor, like a shared ecstatic spiritual experience, much like how tribal societies dance round the fire - it's a spiritual experience of bonding and pleasure.

The problem with a lot of clubs particularly in Western countries is that the social environments are just so pretentious, cliquish, with people trying to see and be seen, showing of their dance moves or filled with guys fruitlessly trying to pick up arrogant girls, often unsuccessfully. It's the people that make the club. In that kind of environment, clubbing just becomes pointless and a waste of money.

+100!!!

100% I like clubs, I like rocking the party, I play music loudly regardless...

[Banano]

What % of guys that go to clubs actually pick up girls?

is it 50%?...well its less, far less then that from my observation, and it doesnt look like its 30%...but lets say it is 30%

there is small % of guys who can consistently pull chicks without need for luck, they are good looking/smooth etc
the rest of the guys are just there to make up the numbers so the place looks packed, these are the guys that spend most $$$ on drinks to justify the purpose of going out and they keep business running, ironically they are the ones who get least amount of action.

It can be concluded that most people are in WWs category, its just they they cant be honest abt it, they might say "I go out to drink with friends and have 'fun' , I dont go out to pick up", implying if they do go out to pick up they d be successfull...cant be further from truth, these guys dont have control over their desiny


I would say conservative figure of 70% of guys dont benefit from clubs and bars, these folks shdnt be going to such a places if you do cost/benefit analisys(cost=money,stress,anger,deppression it causes you)....

the other 30% can be broken down further into 2 categories, top 10% can get chicks all the time, the other 20% do get chicks sometimes, maybe once in 2 weeks, once in a month or 2 or 3, they are type of guys who rely on luck as much as looks or 'game' or whatever you wanna call it;



Is this fair assesment of the bar/club situation in anglosphere, do these numbers look orite?

chime in

[jamesbond]

What % of guys that go to clubs actually pick up girls?

is it 50%?...well its less, far less then that from my observation, and it doesnt look like its 30%...but lets say it is 30%

I would say conservative figure of 70% of guys dont benefit from clubs and bars, these folks shdnt be going to such a places if you do cost/benefit analisys(cost=money,stress,anger,deppression it causes you)....

the other 30% can be broken down further into 2 categories, top 10% can get chicks all the time, the other 20% do get chicks sometimes, maybe once in 2 weeks, once in a month or 2 or 3, they are type of guys who rely on luck as much as looks or 'game' or whatever you wanna call it;

Is this fair assesment of the bar/club situation in anglosphere, do these numbers look orite?

chime in

I would say it's more like 5-10% of guys that actually bring a girl home with them, probably closer to 5%. I personally know a guy who lives in big city and goes to bars and clubs almost every weekend. He good lookiing and very outgoing, he even dances with women at bars and clubs.

He told me he asks girls for their number and they usually say "I have a boyfriend, I am just out tonight to hang out with my girlfriends." He went 3 years in between getting laid. This is coming from an outgoing, good looking guy who goes clubbing almost every weekend.

By the way, the last girl he bagged was fat he told me, he was just so desperate that he lowered his standards. He went 3 years without getting laid, so he took what ever he could find.

[sushiman]

Agree with Mr. Bond.

Clubs are a chick thing. A place to try out their newest fun slutty outfit and get attention, both from guys and the jealous girls. The girls don't have any real interest in the guys, unless they can snag one of the 1-5%.

Never seen the point as a guy, although been to a few in Asia and it was slightly fun for entertaining out of town visitors, still not much point to it all.

[Banano]

I can see how women can get ego boost from going to clubs whereas to most guys it has detrimental effect on their ego and self esteem..
I personally know many guys in their mid 20s and 30s thats given up on clubbing/barring altogether for these reasons, they just go to brothels but brothel can never fix you up emotionally, you need validation or else you feel worthless