It seems as if the old adage, "there's nothing new under the sun" holds especially true in the realm of music. Each genre seems to be incubated as a hybrid of what came before, until it matures and spins off to claim it's rightful place as a separate and 'new' entity. Christianity and Islam did it when they grew out of Abraham's legacy so maybe it's a natural process so basic that it could be construed as a universal law.

DISCO:

The first record I ever bought for myself with my own money was "Fly Robin Fly" by the Silver Convention. Before that, we were really into The Monkees, and Sesame Street Sing Along Records. My disco experiences in the 1970s were mostly mainstream radio mixes and the stuff they played at Skate Palace in Lake Forest. Over the years I've been schooled in all the disco sub genres and have developed a particular fondness for Groove Disco, Italo Disco and especially Space Disco. Not surprisingly, the grand-children of these three Disco styles are also my favorite styles of House Music: Long Groove Deep House, Italia House & Acid House.

Everyone has a rebellious period in their life, mine coincided with the Punk Movement. I was especially attracted to the intelligent lyrics and political commentary of early British Punk and as it evolved into the peace punk sound, I did too because it's far more melodic than hard core. I used to go to "shows" every weekend. Many were in Long Beach, Huntington Beach or LA. A lot of my friends turned skinhead but we still hung out. Later when I moved to San Francisco I would discover Homocore Magazine and the gay punk scene.

What started as a backlash against the punks became a short-lived but highly influential movement in its own right. Kids in London adopted a highly stylized look and called themselves 'Poseurs' - they formulated many of the ideas that would permeate the decade like form over substance, see and be seen, its not who you are but who you know. In the US, poseurs were the antithesis of punks and the name was usually used as an epithet against one another in the punk scene. It would be years before I realized that NuRos and poseurs were the same thing in England because in Southern California they were decidedly different. I liked a lot of the NuRo music but I couldn't pull off the look. I always enjoyed dancing way more than standing around and the NuRo penchant for "hand dancing" was always good for a laugh. By the time House came around I remembered many of the NuRo manuvers to incorporate them into my voguing routines.

As the British Poseur scene evolved into the New Romantic (NuRo) Movement it's key figures like Steve Strange, Boy George, Duran Duran, Ultravox and others moved into the mainstream. Once they were solidly accepted, they turned their backs on the Bedouin and pirate styles that made NuRos so distinctive. Most Americans are totally unfamiliar with the movement except through veiled references in the song "Planet Earth" by Duran Duran perhaps. Southern California was a hot bed of NuRo activity in the states, especially fueled by a zine called "More Mayo" and teen dance clubs like Jag, Old World, Cloud K at Knott's Berry Farm and Disneyland's Videopolis as well as other Orange County and West Hollywood night clubs.

Over time I was spending less time with my punk friends and more time in the clubs. I still had a lot of teenage angst and frustration to express and the burgeoning Death Rock scene was the perfect catalyst for it. Eventually the name would change to Goth (Short for Gothic) and now Emo (Short for Emotional) but I left the genre in the late 80's when I discovered House Music. I look back at this time in my life as dark days indeed. My friends and I did manage to have fun together and create a little bubble of isolated acceptance and understanding and now more than 20 years on, I'm still friends with many of them.

UNDERGROUND GLUBBING:

Punk Clubs and NuRo dance parties had a distinct impact on underground clubbing. They provided an intelligent, motivated and highly creative group of people with the fodder necessary to fill in the gap between 'next big things'. These were the days when art students would rent out a restaurant and push aside the tables and chairs, set up 'installations' (The pre-cursor to performance art) bring in a DJ and play what was then called 'club music'. It was a wild and heady time with no rules for music or dress and you'd often find people decked out in couture ensembles next to track suited b-boys. The music ranged from Disco classics, early experimental House, Hip-Hop to NuRo and maybe a few New Wave trax thrown in with a special emphasis on bonus beats and dub cuts. This was a very specific time in club history, before all the disparate elements splintered off into their own scenes - everyone was gettin' together and gettin' down.

WAREHOUSE PARTIES:

As House music evolved and matured, it fueled the evolution of the club scene that nurtured it. Many underground clubs only advertised through word of mouth and 'telephone trees' where the promoter would call a hundred people and they would each call a few friends and so on until everyone turned up to party. Sometimes the cops would turn up too, but if they didn't, the party would go well past dawn. Some of the best nights of my life were spent dancing the night away in dirty warehouses with sparse lighting and spacey music. As warehouses became more and more difficult to rent out or break into, the club scene started becoming more and more legitimized. The parties would comprise tens of thousands dancing outdoors in fields, race tracks, desert playas.

RAVES:

Most people don't realize that we started Toon Town in San Francisco as a post-rave club. It became one of the largest mobile dance parties of its day and little did we know we were setting the tone and the style for the next ten years of raves in America. Of course the mainstream media focused on the drug use and far too many people got lost in that aspect of rave culture. Far more important though is the evolutionary focus of the rave movement - it's optimism, positivity and emphasis on community helped me through some really rough times. I established many friendships during my rave daze that are still going strong.

Sixteen years on and many of the ideals espoused by Ravers have hit the mainstream with Oprah talking about ego dissolution, communal experiences and emphasizing personal growth.