Tim Lawrence

"Madonna is not the focus here because everything surrounding her is the focus. Using a single character as a lens would have worked against Mr. Lawrence’s thesis: that the New York party culture of the early ’80s is of interest because it allowed the intersection of a wide array of subcultures, which sent sparks flying. Gallery owners and graffiti artists, punk bands and hip-hop D.J.s, performance artists and budding entrepreneurs all commingled — and, as “Life and Death” amply demonstrates, left defining footprints not only on one another’s work, but sometimes on the forms themselves." Michaelangelo Matos, The New York Times, full review

"The cast of characters in the book can be staggering, the exhaustive accounts overwhelming — Lawrence interviewed or corresponded with more than 130 people, and he makes room for their voices — but that's part of the point: He wants a crowded and motley party. This is a scrupulously researched, marvelously detailed history." Megan Pugh, Village Voice, full review

"[I]f you have no abiding love for New York, disco, hip-hop, studio techniques, or fast and dirty real-estate shuffles—there must be such people, statistically—perhaps “Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor” will not hold you. But if you care for any of those things, and even if that concern borders on the obsessive, you will benefit from Lawrence’s investigations." Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker, full review

“The missing link I’ve been harping on about is no longer missing – Tim has placed the pieces of the jigsaw into a wonderfully coherent whole, finally illuminating what I’ve described as the crossroads between what came before (Soul, Funk, Disco, Jazz-Funk) and what would follow (Hip Hop, House, Techno). It is undoubtedly one of the most important books written on dance culture to date because it finally positions the early ’80s as absolutely crucial to where we are now, rather than being dismissed as an uneventful lull between the twin musical titans of Disco and House." Greg Wilson, Being a DJ, full review

"Life and Death on the New York Dance floor is huge." Rona Cran, The European Journal of American Culture, full review

"Dubbed out electronic handclaps crackle in space, their echoing digital delay moodily fading as a rubbery synth bass pulses into the mix. This is the haunting, exuberant, impossible introduction to “Don’t Make Me Wait,” the NYC Peech Boys’ 1982 12” record, famously produced by Paradise Garage DJ Larry Levan. Melding disco, gospel, and rock, the song is one of the many genre-breaking works closely profiled in Tim Lawrence’s exhaustive Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980–1983. Building on his previous study of 70s dance culture in Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970–1979 and complementing his most recent book, Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973–1992, Lawrence ambitiously maps the many overlapping early-80s scenes—No Wave, NewWave, post-disco, early hip hop, 80s R&B—all at once." James Weissinger, Journal of Popular Music Studies, full review

"Life and Death is a major contribution to scholarship on cultural production. Its fine slicing of a short, fruitful period in one great city’s life helps better situate both well-known and little-known music cultures. Lawrence charts the dawn of electronic dance music with verve, detail and sensitivity." Charles de Ledesma, Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, full review

"[A] compelling tale, beautifully told. As one who was fortunate enough to have landed in New York during this timeframe, Lawrence does a cracking job capturing a time when even listening to the city’s black radio stations at noon could change your life. It was a surreal, magical period of ground-breaking activity which now seems hard to believe could actually happen at the same time in the same city. Finally, here’s the proof." Kris Needs, Record Collector, full review

"Through a comprehensive and lushly detailed text stuffed with original photos from dance floors, DJ booths, and parties, Lawrence imparts the mood, the music, the faces and the places from that remarkable era, with a nostalgic nod to nights where "a new kind of freedom was set to rule the night.” Jim Piechota, Bay Area Reporter, full review

"While unearthing the cultural crossroads that formed the foundation of the Mudd Club and so many vital venues, Tim Lawrence absolutely nails what early the 80s New York City club scene was all about: “The venue was helping establish the foundations for a renaissance marked by convergence and exploration.” That’s right. Renaissance." Tom Cardamone, Lambada Literary Review, full review

"Life and Death provides the most intensive mapping of this brief era of New York subculture we've yet seen. The book's strength is its depth of research, drawing on the realtime journalism of the era as well as many new interviews. The detail is fascinating, as Lawrence salvages ephemeral events, forgotten people, and lost places from the fog of faded memory." Simon Reynolds, Bookforum, full review

"The [book] is a treasure trove for anyone interested in the melting pot that produced not only vibrant music and party concepts that still echo within current global night-time cultures but that also (as witnessed in Semiotext(e) and Autonomedia publications) resonate in practice with the anarchic ethos of post-structuralist radical philosophy." Hillegonda Rietveld, Times Higher Education, full review

"Compelling and often beautiful, his [Lawrence’s] meticulous account hums with incandescent street noise.” Kris Needs, Mojo, full review

"Lawrence goes into remarkable depth to portray this world which, during its few short years, gained expansive popularity and had a significant impact on art, film, literature, and culture. His meticulous research, with details on the leading figures, trends, events, places, and music that made it all happen, also provides critical/analytical commentary on the social backdrop of the times, the genesis of the emerging and eclectic music/dance styles, and the essence of this artistic renaissance. In addition to the well ­selected photographs, notes, and bibliography, set lists, discographies, and a filmography add to the title's impressive breadth. Cultural historians and those familiar with the 1980s milieu will find this informative and insightful." Carol Binkowski, Library Journal, full review

"Lawrence has written one of the most comprehensive and exhaustively researched books about this vitally important period in New York’s history." Paul Hallasy, The Gay Curmudgeon, full review

Emily Nonko, Curbed, full review

"Tim Lawrence has followed his now-classic Love Saves the Day with a magnificent account of one of the most fertile and influential periods of New York City's long musical history. He manages to capture with striking accuracy the unique and stunning meshing together of styles and genres that defined this period as one of the key moments in modern popular and club culture. A must-read for anyone curious about how modern dance music got to where it is." François Kevorkian, DJ, producer, and remixer

"Tim Lawrence connects the dots of a scene so explosively creative, so kaleidoscopically diverse, so thrillingly packed with the love of music and the love of life that even those of us who were there could not have possibly seen or heard it all! Now we can. Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980–1983 is not only a remarkable account of a remarkable time, it is a moving memorial to all those who left the party much too soon." Ann Magnuson, writer, actress, and former Club 57 manager and NYC Downtown performance artist

"Tim Lawrence’s powerfully pulsating and enthusiastically researched book, Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980-83, vividly captures the cultural revolution I took part in that had New York City under creative siege! The book flows like a time-capsule master-mix whisking you from club to party in those few no-holds-barred fun-filled years as a multiethnic mash-up of us grooved together to the DJ’s beat while the world clamored to get on the guest list." Fab 5 Freddy, graffiti artist and MC

"Tim Lawrence brings the authority of his deeply sourced disco history Love Saves the Day to club culture's great melting-pot moment, when hip hop, punk, and disco transformed one another, with input from salsa, jazz, and Roland 808s. If you never danced yourself dizzy at the Roxy, the Paradise Garage, or the Mudd Club, here's a chance to feel the bass and taste the sweat." Will Hermes, author of Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever

“[A] truly outstanding tome” James Chance, of James Chance and the Contortions

"What a wonderful piece of work! I think this may be the definitive Bible for NYC and dance music during that era." Man Parrish, producer “Hip Hop, Be Bop ( Don’t Stop)”

"Your book taught me about my own childhood! Thank you for that. It's such a valuable addition to the canon." Sasha Frere-Jones, pop music critic at the New Yorker, 2004-14.

"Back around 1981 or 82, I was seeing a gorgeous red head who looked very much like Lauren Bacall. Her father owned railroads and they had a summer house in Jamestown Rhode Island. I had started making a little money and always having had an affinity for unreliable British sports cars, I bought a used British Racing Green, Triumph Spitfire. I recall it being an oppressively hot July Friday--the kind of NYC day that everyone in their right mind would want to escape. So I drove the scary little roadster 3 1/2 hours to Jamestown to spend the weekend. She warned me in advance that her family were Quakers--had no TV and at the end of dinner, they would retire to the living room, where each member would take their seat, open a book and read for a few hours. I thought she was kidding. She wasn’t. I went back to the car and she kissed me goodbye. Then she went back inside to join her family and I drove back to Manhattan. // Your incredible book reminded me of that day and why I got in that death machine and drove another 3 1/2 hours to try to get back to NY before the bars closed. It wasn’t because her weirdo family scared the shit out of me. I just needed to get back--I needed a fix of the Odeon, Danceteria, after hours at the Zodiac... Everything else, no matter how beautiful, felt empty. If you were part of all that excitement, innovation, adventure, hedonism-it was the only place you wanted to be. The rest of the world was just... // You’ll have scores of academics, critics, musicologists giving your work the in-depth analysis and praise it deserves. I just want to thank you for acknowledging the importance and vitality of the era, the spirit of collective adventure and discovery, and the respectfulness of your narrative, but most of all for taking me back in a way that I couldn’t dream possible. Your book is a wonderful gift." John Robie, producer and musician

“An insightful, thoughtful and inspiring read." Leonard Abrams, editor, East Village Eye

Jarek Ervin, "Interview Series: Tim Lawrence, Life & Death on the New York Dance Floor", IASPMUS, web link, November 2017

Alex Needham, "The Club is a Church: Tim Lawrence Chronicles New York City's Downtown Scene of the Early 1980's", Ssense, web link, March 2017

Tim Lawrence, "The New York Groove: Life on the '80's Dance Floor”, Tidal, web link, February 2016

Julien Gester, "New York Brûle-T-Il?", Vogue Hommes, PDF, April 2016

Piotr Orlov, "The golden age of New York clubbing: 'We wanted to be part of something'", The Guardian, PDF, 12 November 2016

David Hershkovits, "Talking Life, Death, and Downtown in the '80's New York with Dance Music Historian Tim Lawrence", Paper Mag, PDF, 24 October 2016

Webb, Lawrence, "The Mediapolis Q&A: Tim Lawrence on Dance Music Culture in New York City", The Mediapolis, web link, 20 August 2018

Andy Beta, "Defining the ‘Downtown Era’ of the 1980s", The Wall Street Journal, PDF, 12 October 2016

Andy Thomas, "Life and Death On the New York Dance Floor", Jocks and Nerds, PDF, Autumn 2016

Harry Schmidt, "Interview with Tim Lawrence: Twist der Dancefloor - Verhältnisse", Mixmag Germany, PDF, August/September 2016

"Life & Death on the New York Dance Floor", DJ Mag, PDF, November 2016

John Thorp, "How Reagan-Era New York Nightlife Could Provide a Template for the Next After-Dark Revolution", Thump, PDF, 22 November 2016

Tim Lawrence, Basquiat and Downtown, Barbican, 2017

The New York Groove: Life on the ‘80s Dance Floor, Tidal, 2017

Perfectly Imperfect, Boiler Room, 2016

Interview: Mark Kamins on Danceteria and Early ‘80s New York, Red Bull Music Academy, 2014

Big Business, Real Estate Determinism, and Dance Culture in New York, 1980–88, Journal of Popular Music Studies, 2011

The Forging of a White Gay Aesthetic at the Saint, 1980-84, Dancecult, 2011

Who’s Not Who In the Downtown Crowd or Don’t Forget About Me, Yeti, 2008

Jarek Ervin, “Interview Series: Tim Lawrence, Life & Death on the New York Dance Floor”, IASPMUS, November 2017

Colleen Cosmo Murphy & Tim Lawrence, Worldwide FM, November 2016

Piotr Orlov, “The golden age of New York clubbing: ‘We wanted to be part of something’”, The Guardian, November 2016

John Thorpe, “How Reagan-Era New York Nightlife Could Provide a Template for the Next After-Dark Revolution”, Thump, November 2016

The Do!! You!! Breakfast Show w/ Charlie Bones & Tim Lawrence, NTS Radio, October 2016

Love Injection: Paul and Barbie talk to Tim Lawrence, RBMA Radio, October 2016

Andy Beta, “Defining the ‘Downtown Era’ of the 1980s”, The Wall Street Journal, October 2016

Andy Thomas, "Life and Death On the New York Dance Floor", Jocks & Nerds, Autumn 2016

An evening with Patti Astor, Fab 5 Freddy, Glenn O'Brien, Johnny Dynell, and Michael Holman, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 2016