261–270 of 324 posts
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You will be hard pressed to find a more pretentious music scene than (European) techno. And I am saying this as someone who enjoys the music.
Berlin techno*. Many other European techno clubs are just about having fun. In Berlin many clubs have elevated snobbism to an art form.
Berlin has elevated snobbism to an art form.
I realise Berghain et al are trying to protect themselves from the riff raff, but enforcing a stupid "techno uniform" and turning away half their potential customers for arbitrary reasons probably doesn't help their business. I went to Berlin earlier this year and didn't even try to get into Berghain because I don't want to waste time queuing only to be turned away. In London we have some excellent clubs that don't c…
I heard the exact opposite about London clubs - my friend told me they find all kinds of stupid reasons not to let you in.
Outside of Central London things quickly get more reasonable.
Berghain has become kind of a tourist stunt. Visitors don't know any other clubs and they read about it online. So, they show up and try to get in just so they can say they got in. They get turned away and you see all the accusations of elitism, racism, etc.
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In the article even when they are struggling they still don’t let people in. Not sure what they want exactly.
There is a very specific experience that Berghain sells and it is destroyed by allowing people deeply unfamiliar with the techno scene into the party. It’s not the kind of club that most people know or have experience with. If they let in everyone who wants to go, it would stop being the thing that it is (which is why it is valuable and sought after). People don’t go there only for the building and sound system (thou…
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This rings of "get off m'lawn" vibes. As a gen Z myself, I question what's wrong with "tiktok ravers" wanting to dress up and enjoy music? The whole genre will fade away if it doesn't curate to the next generation, as the originals get too creaky to dance.
The core problem with "bring camera to venue" and subsequently "tiktok ravers" is inversion of relationship between the crowd and event. Before mass media you went to e.g. theatrical play or cinema to passively consume "content", whereas all the festivals were in large part made by partygoers. The more niche the rave, the more of the atmosphere is/was created by the attendees. The job of a DJ in a rave was largely to…
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The most likely reason is that you give off tourist vibes. My Berliner friend told me as such when I came to visit, we hit up some thrift shops so I could get some local threads and 'blend in' In fact, when I got in one club a very cute german girl tried to talk to me on the dancefloor. But I didn't speak any German and she got angry, shouting "aaauuggh!! tourists!!!" Also, for the clubs that forbid alcohol (hard dru…
There are clubs that forbid alcohol? That’s wild.
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It is, in a sense, the opposite end of the "autism spectrum". An innate deep understanding of social cues and general empathy.
Magical thinking and crackpot beliefs about being able to read into people’s souls with a single glance? Seems pretty spectrum-y to me. At best.
It does not have anything to do with magical thinking or beliefs, its years of experience and a deep understanding of the culture and clientele that visits your venue.
Of course you don't have to participate if you don't like it, there are plenty of clubs (in Berlin too) where you just pay entry and thats it.
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It is, in a sense, the opposite end of the "autism spectrum". An innate deep understanding of social cues and general empathy.
The German "underground" scene is just completely backwards and childish. They're so forward thinking and advanced that they've wrapped right around having experienced some sort of integer overflow and started caring deeply about how other people (strangers) dress all over again. Like being back at school. The "scene" is a joke.
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> Everybody says you need to wear black. That is false. Look, if you just made it for everybody, it would no longer be a club with an underground image. Berghain is a tourist magnet because it simply is an unbelievable location straight out of a Mad Max movie, paired with a Funktion-One sound system that fits your head like a headphone, featuring the best techno DJs in the world, and you can spend your whole weekend…
>if you just made it for everybody, it would no longer be a club with an underground image. It is clearly not underground because everybody knows about it. It only achieves the "image" through arbitrary discrimination. That is the least punk as you can get. None of what you said makes Berghain great goes away by letting more people experience it. The sound system and DJs will still be there. I guarantee if Berghain s…
Punk isn't punk anymore. When Google & other major corporations espouse the same core tenets of inclusivity, you're not rejecting or rebelling against anything. Perhaps Berghain and other exclusive clubs do not care about a 'punk' identity.
I’m not sure what sort of decline the article is referring to. There’s not a single reference to revenues or guest count for any club in Berlin, nor mention of any specific club in danger of closing due to lack of patronage. These clubs were great while the city was struggling, but now that it’s not, I can see why people don’t wish to tolerate the negative externalities associated with them. Hopefully most clubs can…