From discotheques to clubs: the transformation of dance venues and night life between late socialism and early capitalism in the Czechoslovakia

ABSTRACT Discotheques and later the club scene were the means by which several generations of young people met their entertainment and social needs in the Czech lands beginning in the late 1960s. While the late socialist dictatorship insisted that culture be a vehicle for education and enlightenment, the new market-oriented, post-socialist society focused on rapid profits over the quality of young people’s entertainment. Nevertheless, young people managed to create spaces for their own preferred forms of entertainment under these different conditions with the help of various strategies. Drawing on interviews with DJs and regular scene participants, this study explores Czech(oslovak) dance venues and night life from the late 1970s to the late 1990s.