"Without ecstasy, today's multimillion-dollar clubbing and dance music industry would not exist."
I recently read a book called The Incredibly Strange History of Ecstasy by Tim Pilcher and I thought that quote was interesting. Drugs and nightclubs go hand in hand but I didn't know ecstasy was that impactful on the industry. interesting revelation.
AlphaStarred
Welcome back.
Drugs and nightclubs certainly can go hand in hand, but I'm not sure how much the dance/club scene really hinged on ecstasy. Does he at least back up his claim with some sources/historical references?
But yeah. Ecstasy. Hell of a drug. I don't recommend drugs to anyone, though. I'd probably have been better off without them.
Pilcher lets that negative reviewer know how he feels about the claims he made.
AlphaStarred
That doesn't address my question, however.
2techs
"By the early 80's, word had got out to the general public about MDMA. A small group of entrepreneurs, known as the "Texas Group", saw big bucks in manufacturing and distributing the then still-legal drug. People ordered it via a toll-free phone number and paid by credit card. Over-the-counter sales were also picking up in nightclubs in Fort Worth and Dallas, and the group even paid taxes on their profits. It was estimated that the Texas Group was producing anything from 30,000 pills a month to a staggering 8,000 pills a day and possibly even as many as 2,000,000 tablets in a few months at the height of their production. And the demand was there.
The Texas Group actively marketed MDMA as a dance drug - and simultaneously, a new kind of dance music was evolving out of the dying days of disco and funk and emerging from the gay clubs. Spilling out from Chicago came house; New York had its genre-busting DJs; and Detroit brought techno to the party."
All typed out straight from the book. Does that cut it?
AlphaStarred
It sure does. Thanks. Interesting, indeed.
Swamper
Added to the reading list. :D
SYSTEM-J
I don't know what rock you've been living under if this is a revelation.
corjay9
If you haven't seen this, its a must watch. Peter Jennings on a major American news network puts a positive spin on ecstacy, a great piece.
2techs
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
I don't know what rock you've been living under if this is a revelation.
I always thought dance music flourished in spite of ecstasy, not because of ecstasy.
rubez
the industry wouldn't exist? come on... that's hyperbole bullcrap.
partying fullstop goes hand in hand with drugs. would rock not exist without lsd?
the partying and new forms of music was going to happen no matter what. the E was just a bonus.
Zombie0915
If it wasn't E it would have been some other drug, people like getting ed up and dancing. They did it before MDMA, they continue to do so even when the real gets harder to buy.
I still think wubstep became so wubbly because of those kids huffing from those balloons at the festivals.
I'm sure it would sound different but loud music, drug use and body gyrations was always gonna be a huge industry
