“The sixties, unlike previous decades, seemed full of teenage money. No recession, no sense of danger. The young could run free, indulge themselves in whatever treats they wished. But now there is shortage once more, just as there was in the fifties. Attrition, continual pressure. So the new generation [of the seventies] takes few risks. It goes through high school, obedient; graduates, looks for a job, saves and plans. Endures. And once a week, on Saturday night, its one great moment of release, it explodes.”
Finally getting around to reading Nik Cohn’s iconic 1976 cover story for New York Magazine, “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night,” on the growing disco scene in the outer-boroughs of New York.
Pretty much encompasses all my favorite longform journo angles into one: cultural thinkpieces, character studies, musings on a movement, etc.
