The female vocalists who pioneered the disco genre in the '70s and early '80s were an extraordinarily talented group who dazzled the world with an exciting blend of elegance, soulful passion and gutsy fire. In this book of original interviews, 32 of these women tell their stories, explaining how they view their music, careers, connection to gay audiences, and their places in dance music history. Interviewed artists include: The Andrea True Connection; Claudja Barry; Pattie Brooks; Miquel Brown; Linda Clifford; Carol Douglas; Yvonne Elliman; Rochelle Fleming (First Choice); Gloria Gaynor; Debbie Jacobs-Rock; Madleen Kane; Evelyn "Champagne" King; Audrey Landers; Suzi Lane; Cynthia Manley (Boys Town Gang); Kelly Marie; Maxine Nightingale; Scherrie Payne; Wardell Piper; The Ritchie Family, 1975-1978: Gwendolyn Wesley, Cassandra Wooten and Cheryl Mason-Dorman; The Ritchie Family, 1978-1982: Theodosia "Dodie" Draher; Barbara Roy (Ecstasy Passion & Pain); Pamala Stanley; Evelyn Thomas; Jeanie Tracy; Anita Ward; Martha Wash; Carol Williams; Jessica Williams and Norma Jean Wright.

The female vocalists who pioneered the disco genre in the '70s and early '80s were an extraordinarily talented group who dazzled the world with an exciting blend of elegance, soulful passion and gutsy fire. In this book of original interviews, 32 of these women tell their stories, explaining how they view their music, careers, connection to gay audiences, and their places in dance music history. Interviewed artists include: The Andrea True Connection; Claudja Barry; Pattie Brooks; Miquel Brown; Linda Clifford; Carol Douglas; Yvonne Elliman; Rochelle Fleming (First Choice); Gloria Gaynor; Debbie Jacobs-Rock; Madleen Kane; Evelyn "Champagne" King; Audrey Landers; Suzi Lane; Cynthia Manley (Boys Town Gang); Kelly Marie; Maxine Nightingale; Scherrie Payne; Wardell Piper; The Ritchie Family, 1975-1978: Gwendolyn Wesley, Cassandra Wooten and Cheryl Mason-Dorman; The Ritchie Family, 1978-1982: Theodosia "Dodie" Draher; Barbara Roy (Ecstasy Passion & Pain); Pamala Stanley; Evelyn Thomas; Jeanie Tracy; Anita Ward; Martha Wash; Carol Williams; Jessica Williams and Norma Jean Wright.

Alice Echols reveals the ways in which disco transformed popular music, propelling it into new sonic territory and influencing rap, techno, and trance. She probes the complex relationship between disco and the era's major movements: gay liberation, feminism, and African American rights. You won't say "disco sucks" as disco thumps back to life in this pulsating look at the culture and politics that gave rise to the music.

In this candid retrospective of the disco era, 40 men and women who reigned over the dance music industry of the 1970s and 1980s recall their lives and careers before, during and after the genre’s explosion. Artists interviewed include Alfa Anderson, formerly of Chic (“Good Times”); Ed Cermanski and Robert Upchurch of The Trammps (“Disco Inferno”); Sarah Dash (“Sinner Man”); producer John Davis (“Ain’t That Enough for You”); Janice Marie Johnson of A Taste of Honey (“Boogie Oogie Oogie”); France Joli (“Come to Me”); Denis LePage of Lime (“Babe, We’re Gonna Love Tonite”); Randy Jones of the Village People (“Y.M.C.A.”); Rob Parissi of Wild Cherry (“Play That Funky Music”); producer Warren Schatz (“Turn the Beat Around”); Debbie, Joni and Kim Sledge of Sister Sledge (“We Are Family”); and many more.

Beginning early in the 1980s, a dance music revolution swept across Europe and Britain, merging rock, new wave, disco and worldbeat sounds. The resulting explosion of high-energy, increasingly electronic dance-pop caused a sensation worldwide. In this book of original interviews, 32 of the era's most celebrated artists, producers and industry professionals discuss their lives and careers: Thomas Anders (Modern Talking's "You're My Heart, You're My Soul"), Pete Burns (Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)"), Desireless ("Voyage Voyage"), Phil Harding (PWL Mixmaster), Junior ("Mama Used to Say"), Leee John (Imagination's "Just an Illusion"), Liz Mitchell (Boney M.'s 1988 "Megamix"), Fab Morvan (Milli Vanilli's "Girl You Know It's True"), Taco ("Putting On the Ritz"), Jennifer Rush ("The Power of Love"), Sabrina ("Boys"), Spagna ("Call Me"), Amii Stewart ("Knock on Wood"), Yazz ("The Only Way Is Up") and many more. Includes special commentary by Academy Award winner Mel Brooks and Audrey Landers, star of Dallas.

No Sleepis a visual history of the halcyon days of New York City club life as told through flyer art. Spanning the late 80s through the late 90s, when nightlife buzz travelled via flyers and word of mouth,No Sleepfeatures a collection of artwork from the personal archives of NYC DJs, promoters, club kids, nightlife impresarios, and the artists themselves. Club flyers, by design, were ephemeral objects distributed on street corners, outside of nightclubs and concert halls, in barbershops and retail shops, and were not intended to be preserved for posterity. Through the 90s, they became both increasingly prevalent and more sophisticated as printing technology evolved. Overnight, however, with the advent of the internet, theflyer essentially disappeared, despite it being common at one time for promoters to print thousands of flyers for any given event. Recently, these flyers have become sought-after collector's items.