The Most Important Clubs in Dance Music History

As dance music grows comfortable in its latest mainstream cultural iteration, it's important to remember where the culture of dance is best celebrated: the nightclub. As important to the growth of each generation of dance music's growth as the songs themselves, the clubs where these songs are best enjoyed reflect something of the emotional, social, and economic desires of the people who enjoy the music. So, in travelling everywhere from German basements to Ibiza's pristine isle and through two eras of U.S. decadence, a list of the top ten clubs of the past fifty years that inspire where dance-as-"EDM" is now is more than likely in order. Enjoy!

Location: New York, NY
Years Active: 1992-present (originally opened in 1886)

Not only is it one of the oldest spots in the nation having undergone many name-changes and phases, but Webster Hall has become a rite of passage for dance music DJs. The home of Girls & Boys and BASSment Saturdays, Webster Hall has provided tri-staters with rock-solid venue and place to party, free from the changing realities just on 3rd Avenue. Many a big time DJ has had their New York debut at Webster Hall before hitting bigger venues and festivals. By no means the most aesthetically pleasing venue, it is one of the most important for sure.

websterhall.com

Location: Berlin, Germany

Years Active: 2004-present

If in Washington, DC for Moombahton Massive and scared by U Street Music Hall's minimal lighting, black walls and a strict no photography policy, you'd probably not want to check out Berlin's quintessential techno spot, Berghain. With spots like Brooklyn's Output now showing that America is slowly progressing towards embracing sparse minimalism in its nightlife, understanding and appreciating Berghain's standard is ultra-important. Proof that the freaks come out at night, and they love their techno deep, dark and heavy, the club's reputation for a progressive attitude towards sex and sexuality gives it a wild image and global awareness for being a spot that is as much about the music as the emotive response to it. Aesthetically trending towards a stark concrete on concrete design, there is a minimal guest list and emphasis placed on forgetting space and time and focusing on the music and the scene itself.

berghain.de

Location: Miami, FL

Years Active: 2008-present

Miami, Florida ended up being the place where top 40 music first met and fell in love with EDM. One of the first in an era of modern superclubs, LIV opened as the Fontainebleu Hotel underwent $1 billion in renovations and helped usher in the world of bottle service. LIV's parties are consistently regarded by big room fanatics, as being some of the best in America. Yes, Sunday is the club's rap-centered event, but with every other day of the week featuring top electro names, LIV set the new generation OG standard for decadent nights on the town.

livnightclub.com

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Years Active: 2012-present

If Las Vegas is the "new Ibiza," then Hakkasan at the MGM Grand hotel is arguably the "new Pacha." In the game of "can you top this?" going on in the desert (featuring players like Light, XS and more), Hakkasan's ability to land key interviews with its $78 million dollars-earned between them resident DJs Calvin Harris and Tiesto in Forbes Magazine's top earning DJ report was impressive. Also featuring top names like Steve Aoki, Laidback Luke, Tommy Trash, Deadmau5, Bingo Players, Dada Life, and more as residents, Hakkasan set the ever-growing standard for absurdity and opulence in the 21st century. The fourth level's main room features over-sized VIP booths, a custom DJ booth, and suspended performance platform, featuring floor to ceiling LED screens.

hakkasanlv.com

Location: Global

Years Active: 1973-present

With 22 global nightclubs, Pacha has done more than arguably the ten other nightclubs on the list to globalize and commercialize the premier big-room nightclub experience. The Pacha Group opened their first discotheque in Barcelona in 1967, but by 1973, the team moved to the island of Ibiza, and has had a 40-year run at or near the top of the world's best respected nightclub brands. Literally every top DJ has played at the club, current masters like David Guetta even hosting his globally famous "Fuck Me I'm Famous" party at the club. Insofar as America, Pacha's New York City location is a four-story club that includes a subterranean main room encircled by a VIP area and a blaring semi-truck horn controlled by a rope that DJs pull at the peak of their sets, though the party often continues at the club until the next day.

pacha.com

Location: London, UK

Years Active: 1999-present

Opened in 1999, Fabric, with its main room featuring what is known as a "bodysonic" dancefloor (where sections of the floor are attached to 400 bass transducers emitting the bass frequencies of the music being played), likely served as the space where UK-based global tastemakers literally felt the rumble of then-underground dubstep and sound's global progression proceeded henceforth. The club's reputation as a top-shelf bass bin has led to favorable reviews worldwide, but as well, top techno and electro spinners also regularly spin at the club. Also, in a manner similar to Ministry of Sound, the club has spawned a recording label that features the highly influential FabricLive mix series.

fabriclondon.com

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Years Active: 1977-1982

Frankie Knuckles' history with dance music goes back to him being an attendant at the Continental Baths as they moved from having Bette Midler sing torch songs to having its primarily gay patronage be serenaded by the proto-disco sounds of Larry Levan and Knuckles, then his understudy. As disco's fame spread throughout NYC, Knuckles became a hugely influential name alongside folks like Nicky Siano (whose Gallery challenged David Mancuso's era-initiating Loft), but when wooed to Chicago to play at the city's top disco spot The Warehouse, he truly began to grow as a DJ. His most significant development while at the Warehouse was developing the now globally respected "house" sound that in many ways owes its name to the club where Knuckles first began to play his re-imagined disco edits. Beginning with tracks like First Choice's "Let No Man Put Asunder" were remixed by Knuckles as he toyed with the idea of blending the influences of European electronic dance with more soulful American disco-leaning tracks. The Warehouse's era of operation from 1977-1982 influenced all who came into its doors including a Detroit resident named Derrick May, whose work with the Roland-303 drum machine alongside fellow Detroit natives Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins gave birth to another sound that mutated soul in an electronic direction, techno.

Location: Wigan, UK

Years Active: 1973-1981

Opened in the 1960s as a ballroom for social gatherings in the Northern England coal mining town of Wigan, by 1978 (at the height of Studio 54's first brush with global fame) the space was voted by Billboard Magazine as the best club in the world. Popping uppers for overnight parties called "all-nighters," the "Northern Soul" experience for tons of British youth at the club was the harbinger for much of what we know as global indie dance culture. Diplo and Low Budget's late 2000s Hollertronix parties at Philadelphia's Ukranian Hall featuring crunk Southern club music, indie electro and heaping spoonfuls of Baltimore club music certainly made for an odd mix that worked out well. However, even stranger, imagine a night of doing break-dance hearkening dips, high-speed spins, intricate footwork and perfectly timed hand claps to rare American soul records. Moreso, imagine bringing airline stewardess-style duffle bags emblazoned with homemade patches with words tied to those songs to the club, oftentimes containing a change of clothes and shoes specifically meant to aid the dancing experience in the hot room and slick floor of the dance hall. Of course, if you need to know anything about the importance of Northern Soul on a purely song-driven level, note UK Northern Soul devotee Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim's "The Rockafeller Skank," which samples Wigan classic "Sliced Tomatoes" by the Just Brothers.

Location: New York, NY

Years Active: 1977-1993

In 1977, when middling club owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager decided that they had learned enough about the nightlife business after running The Enchanted Garden in Queens, NY, they partnered with financier Jack Dushay and a team that included Broadway set designers and noted socialite/PR agent Carmen D'Alessio to purchase an old CBS theatre at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan to create the global introduction to the hyper-powered mega-club era. Schrager was the designer that created ambiance, including the infamous quarter moon with the spoonful of cocaine going up its nose.

Rubell was the indulgent owner (leading to the club being busted and the start of its slow decline til 1993 by saying that in its first year, the club made $7 million and that "only the Mafia made more money" - precipitating a raid and two years of jail time for Rubell and Schrager) glad to keep an aura of absurdity in the nightlife stew, famously giving doorman Mark Benecke strange rules for the evening that once kept Chic from entering a Grace Jones release party for which they were actually apparently guest listed (ever heard "Le Freak?" That session came after they weren't let in and crafted a song originally titled "Fuck Off" about the venue itself). Carmen D'Alessio was the club's super PR agent, ensuring, and that anyone who was anyone between 1977-1979 was there. As much as the music was fantastic as maestro selectors like Nicky Siano (and others) manned the turntables, the club was as much known for the rampant drug use and open sex between partiers in the theaters upstairs seating and famously between celebrities in the infamous basement. Ever want to see artist Andy Warhol and fashion designer Halston speaking to Michael Jackson while a naked man grinds to Musique's "In the Bush" with a roller-skating grandmother? That's 54 in a nutshell.

Location: London, UK

Years Active: 1991-present

The global popularity of the sounds coming from NYC were one of the key factors in the creation of the London-based mega club in 1991. Conceptually, creator and DJ Justin Berkmann wanted to put "100% sound system first, lights second, design third (in that order)." Similarly situated in what was originally a disused bus garage, the sound pushed from the Ministry of Sound in many ways became the sounds globally associated with UK dance. From early '90s hot Latin house from NYC to mid-to-late 90s happy hardcore to hard house, trance and more, it is THE venue of record that has hosted the world's top DJs when they were at the apex of their rise to fame. With five rooms, a 24-hour dance license, 150 decibels of sound and spawning global Ministry of Sound subsidiaries and a legendary, groundbreaking music label, it still stands as a premier global club experience.

ministryofsound.com

Location: New York, NY

Years Active: 1976-1987

When veteran DJ Larry Levan was presented with the opportunity to turn an abandoned parking garage into a nightclub space all his own, he created a venue that was not just "paradise," but arguably the space that facilitated the bridge for dance's underground styles to become the '80s mainstream flavors. Sound designers Richard Long and Associates (RLA) (who also installed the system at Studio 54) worked in conjunction with Levan to create a customized system that included a customized Rane x RLA X3000 3 way DJ crossover mixer, RLA/Bertha Sub Bass cabinets and a specialized alignment of tweeters that gave the feel of the DJ as preacher shouting down the music from a DJ booth raised above the floor to people filling a 20,000 square foot room. Counting everyone from Diana Ross, to Madonna and noted NYC radio DJ Frankie Crocker (who in breaking a diverse stream of records he heard at the Garage to mainstream radio as Taana Gardner's "Heartbeat" to Bananarama's "Cruel Summer" and more at NYC's urban powerhouse, was instrumental in shaping the progression of '80s and '90s urban music) in his booth and on his dance floor, set the progressive standard that EDM in many ways mirrors today. Closed in 1987, the venue in many ways set the standard that eventually developed the creative and physical space for the mainstream break of dance music in the 21st century.

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