Party Monster - The History of the Club Kids

A group of club kids for DV-8 magazines ‘Changing of the Guard’ invitation, 1988. Available from: http://www.bettyjack.com/funtone/clubkids/index.html

Thumbnail Image Available from: https://i-d.vice.com/en_au/article/qv8xgd/michael-alig-the-most-infamous-club-kid-to-have-ever-lived

By Hannah Schmidt-Rees

The club kids created a movement that would forever influence the face of fashion, art and popular culture.

Famous designer, Jean Paul Gaultier frequented club kid parties in their prime, which no doubt had an impact on his iconic fashion looks and garments. And Lady Gaga is renowned for her club kid fashion and aesthetic. Need I say more? They created a space in which the disenfranchised youth of 1980's New York; gay, queer, transgender, non-binary and different could experience a feeling possibly unfelt during the day; freedom. They braved judgement from audiences at talk shows and interviews, toured the country and held out-of-this world parties and pushed the boundaries of gender, politics, society and culture; all too hedonistically focused on themselves to realise the impact they were having on queer culture.

So, how did this fabulous scene start? Well get ready to get schooled on club kid history.

 Michael Alig moved to New York from his hometown of South Bend, Indiana. After Andy Warhol's death in 1987, the New York club scene was presumed dead and Alig felt like he needed to reinvigorate the New York clubs, if not to help others, it was to create a space in which he could be himself and inspire others.

Club Kids Michael Alig, Richie Rich, Nina Hagen, Sophia Lamar and Jennytalia attend New Year’s Eve 1994 festivities at Club USA in New York City. Available from: https://nypost.com/2014/05/12/party-monster-relives-catfight-that-ended-in-murder/

Rising to fame in the late 80s, the club kids were a group of New York underground partiers renowned for their drug use, outrageous and avant-garde DIY looks, wild parties and artistic, queer and gender-fluid freedom. This scene was, essentially created and led by Michael Alig, accompanied by mentor, friend and (might I add) rival, James St. James. 

After hosting an amount of small parties, Alig's outrageous aesthetic and wild ideas built a slow moving ladder that resulted in him being hailed as the 'leader of the club kids'. Their faces were covered in copious amounts of makeup, their looks were created from one's own imagination, and whilst their costumes were loud, their personalities, perhaps were even louder. The music was played non-stop, drugs were passed around and the safe haven that Alig and St. James created drew youths in from around the country.

Alig began working with and for Peter Gatien, the so called "King of New York Clubs", and started throwing and promoting increasingly popular parties in notorious Gatien-owned NYC clubs, perhaps the most notable being The Limelight, a deconsecrated church. To draw more attention to their growing movement, Alig and his club kids threw "Outlaw Parties", in which they would overtake local fast food joints and subway stations and throw extravagant parties. Since these parties were ‘outlawed’, Alig made sure that a club was in close vicinity for when the police arrived and the kids needed to flee.

In their prime, the club kids ruled the New York club scene. They achieved the status that Michael Alig craved, to be renowned, to be the leader of a group of people that idolised you. It was never thought that the party would end.

However,  the drug use that became a normal aspect of the club kid scene turned into an element of their downfall. On Sunday, March 17 1996, Michael Alig and his roommate, Robert "Freeze" Riggs murdered their friend, former Limelight employee, club kid and drug dealer Andre "Angel" Melendez after a dispute over a drug debt. This heinous act on March 17, 1996 was the catalyst for the decline of the club kid scene. Mayor Rudy Giuliani created a "Quality of Life" crackdown on the New York club scene, and Angel's disappearance and discovered death by the hands of Michael Alig only fuelled the slowly growing fire. The club kid scene was created by Michael Alig, and it died with him too.

Now this is just my opinion, but I don’t believe that Angel's death was entirely caused by Michael's anger over the confrontation over the drug debt, I believe that it was caused by a shift in power. Michael grew used to having other people idolise him, doing whatever he wanted without consequence and having other people under his makeup-covered thumb, and Angel was just another follower. It wasn't until Angel confronted Michael about the drug debt and challenged him, that the power dynamic shifted. In that moment, Michael was no longer in power. And he didn’t like that. Not one bit. An innocent man had his life unfairly cut short because one kid couldn't handle the possibility of falling off his sequinned throne and the party ending.

I know what you're thinking, my opinions of the club kids seem hypocritical. I praise their fearless pursuit to be who they are, yet I criticise them for their childish paths to excess and hedonism. Every movement, the club kid movement included, has its combination of good and bad;

Rupaul and Michael Musto, 1980s. Available from: http://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/37079/1/victor-p-corona-photos-capture-rupaul-lady-gaga-amongst-ny-s-downtown-scene

• Many kids died from drug overdoses. And when I call them kids, I don’t just mean club kids, these people were someone's children, siblings, friends, lovers and perhaps not old enough to even be considered adults. And their lives were ended because of a culture of excess and a pursuit for absolute pleasure on the dance floor transformed into a never-ending addiction. And like I said before, an innocent man had his life unfairly cut short because one kid couldn't handle the possibility of falling off his sequinned throne and the party ending.

• But without the club kids, the path paved for the LGBT+ youth of today may not be as thoroughly traversed. Rupaul, (and his TV show "Rupaul's Drag Race") has forever changed the face of today's pop and drag culture, providing LGBT+ individuals like me the opportunity to be who we are without fear. And that may not have happened if he wasn't a part of the club kid scene.

• The New York club scene of today, whilst perhaps tamer than its 1980's predecessor, still takes inspiration from the club kids. There are still parties that create safe havens for the queer and artistic youths of today's world to be themselves and surround themselves with likeminded individuals. There is no better feeling than the feeling of complete belonging.

Twenty years have now passed, and whilst the era of the original club kids is over, their legacy is still alive and still parties on. Whilst yes, the plight of the club kids is a story of the effect of excess and hedonism, superficiality, murder and drug addiction, their fearlessness to be who they were, to be their own queer selves is a type of fearlessness that I, and I'm sure many other disenfranchised and LGBT+ youth, aspire to have.