If I had the chance, I’d ask the world to dance
Billy Idol — “Dancing With Myself” (1980)
Even in ordinary times, I’ve been known to pump up the volume and dance around my apartment with glee. I throw on a mixtape, sing along flamboyantly and cut a rug in my living room. Sometimes I park myself in front of my stereo and dance in place, and other times I careen about, twirling and gyrating throughout my condo in a flutter of fury. I used to do this in the wee hours while intoxicated. Now that I’m sober, I can actually feel the music cascading down my spine as I trip the light fantastic.
I’m inviting you, yes you, to throw a dance party in your house. I promise, this will be fun and the perfect antidote to cabin fever. Behold my latest Spotify mix: Disco-Punk Dance Party — Coronavirus Kryptonite vol. 1.
As a former college radio DJ, I am totally qualified to choreograph your new favorite pastime. While we are all sequestered, I would like you to crank this mix and boogie down in your home. It doesn’t matter if you live alone or have a spouse and kids to shimmy and shake with: I assure you, dancing is the cure to the claustrophobia we are all experiencing in the epoch of COVID-19. Why?
Dancing is exercise, and exercise activates endorphins, which alleviate depression and energize the body.
Twelve years ago this April, I received my diagnosis of bipolar disorder. I had just returned home to Brooklyn from a trip to Philadelphia, where I attended a press junket promoting the local music scene there. My live-in boyfriend at the time noticed I was acting beyond peculiar on the day I came back.
As you can read in my memoir The Bipolar Addict: Drinks, Drugs, Delirium & Why Sober Is the New Cool, I was hallucinating and I believed my life was being broadcast on TV. I was amidst an outrageous manic episode, finding myself all fired up, with my iPod blasting. I unleashed my inner Dancing Queen, marching around my apartment pumping my fist to the sky with a towel on my head while reorganizing furniture, books, and DVDs. Typical manic behavior. Which is to say atypical.
I was obsessed with electronic music at the time, particularly this French band The Teenagers, who sang about high school and college life in the age of the internet. I was also enthralled with other electronic acts like Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, Fischerspooner, and Simian Mobile Disco, all of whom appear on this mix.
Coronavirus Kryptonite vol. 1 combines two aesthetics: new wave and electro.
My choice of music during my “shindigs of one” has usually been ‘80s new wave — stuff like New Order, Depeche Mode, and Joy Division.
The kind of music they play at my favorite dance party in Chicago — Planet Earth. Celebrating its 25th year, the Saturday night soiree now takes place at a venue called Late Bar in the Avondale neighborhood of Chicago. Late Bar is a true treasure of the Windy City and it played host to my book release party last summer. (Now shuttered because of coronavirus, for the love of music, donate to the Late Bar Tip Jar, benefitting the venue’s DJs, bartenders, etc.)
Not only do I love new wave, but I also really dig disco-punk and electro, genres that experienced a renaissance in the early 2000s when I first moved to New York City.
Electro is a blanket term, but I use it to describe a style of music that features synthesizers, beats and bleeps, and pop sensibilities. New wave and electro intermingle on this mix, which is meant as a DJ set for your dancing pleasure.
In this time of lockdown and shelter-in-place, you’re probably bored out of your mind. Last week I gave you recommendations on how to fight anxiety with pop culture — from movies to TV shows to music recommendations.
But you can only binge-watch so much. And there’s nothing like the feeling of moving your body to fight the global pandemic blues. If I can’t be on a dance floor at a club, my living room will do just fine.
How are you holding up in this crisis? I’m OK. Especially now that I’m geeking out with my new playlist.
Music can be such a revelation
Dancing around you feel the sweet sensation
We might be lovers if the rhythm’s right
I hope this feeling never ends tonight
— Madonna, “Into The Groove” (1984)
So press play.
