Going in tonight - the rise of voyeuristic entertainment

© Icqurimage 2008


Slowly and surely the gospel of Hollywood’s candid club culture has spread eastwards, until today who’s dating who, and who parties where, has ascended from London's tabloids and magazines to the Internet. A new wave of avant-garde websites provides nightly coverage of the illuminati of the LA, New York & London club scenes. Choice snaps inform those who need to know precisely who was where last night & with whom, and surely it can only be a matter of time before all privacy is surrendered to the flashes of camera phones and webcams. Within the not too distant future clubbers will have live access to uncover who is out on the town on any given night through a tell-tale cascade of real-time images and live webcasts. All that will be left for you to decide is whether to head downtown towards your favorite celebrity’s current haunt, or simply to pour yourself a drink and watch the action unfold live from your office computer. So who started this latest voyeuristic entertainment craze, where is it going, and who’s already a member of club 24/7?
For those of you who are not currently active within the club scene, every town has its social celebrities who are, upon occasion, joined by the leading lights of the model and movie industries. These are exceptional individuals, capable of standing out from a very bright crowd, who can converse intelligibly above 90 decibels, and have the capacity to recall thousands of names and put faces to them even after several rounds of drinks. Apart from demonstrating the innate superiority of the human sensory system and that Red Bull actually works, this current fad all goes to show that there is no news like social news for those who are in their sexual prime. For those of us who become dizzy after a few drinks and a couple of dances, are mesmerized by flashing light shows like frightened rabbits caught in front of an approaching SUV, and have to shout into the bartender’s ear until hoarse just to order a round of drinks, these individuals must appear remarkably adapted to their natural environment. The only problem which ardent clubbers have had to face until now is that they have been unable to be omnipresent on the scene, and are doubtless missing out as major social events unfold elsewhere. To solve this formidable dilemma, social extroverts who may have missed a night are now able to login to a range of cult websites to catch up on the latest photo albums and headline news. These websites include Alistair Allan’s DirtyDirtyDancing.com, US smash hit lastnightsparty.com, and the somewhat less than subtle weknowwhatyoudidlastnight.com. Add to this a number of sites surveying what’s on in the club scene, such as boombox.co.uk, and you have created prime marketing territory for club promoters. Now, those passionate clubbers and social butterflies who need to stay in the know can find out exactly what’s on, who's in the scene, who's with who, where & whenever they want.
For those Internet pioneers who maintain such online photo diaries, sleep has become a forgotten luxury, as they tend their websites by day and their club scenes by night. They party until the small hours of the morning when weary doormen finally send them home to upload their latest cache of celebrity snaps. Alistair Allan, a South African explant, is rumored to get by on only four hours sleep a night, uploading his camera phone at 3am and rising by 7am the next day to complete the story of the night before. A party purist, Mr. Allan’s camera is not for hire, and so he declines to use his website for the purposes of club endorsement. However, the niche success of this new genre has led to a stampede of interest among those more virulent club promoters who quickly recognised the value of this virgin marketing territory. To put this into perspective, last year the bar and nightclub industry in the United States alone (amounting to some fifty thousand venues) recorded a turnover in excess of $15 billion, although doubtless they drank some of the profits to celebrate... In the meantime, those who are upwardly mobile on the London club scene are keen to attract Alastair’s eye and to join the strata of those who automatically receive invites to A-list parties & events.
Over the past few years most of us have tuned into an occasional live webcast, even if we haven’t made a habit of it. Indeed, broadcasting has no peer when it comes to reaching a global audience, especially given the cost-effective nature of the medium. Most bands have dabbled with live webcasts, as has the fashion industry, and there have been one or two notable successes such as Victoria’s Secret & Fashion TV. The multi-million dollar question remains as to whether clubs & bars will follow suit and webcast their scenes and celebrities, or whether they will prefer to preserve the privacy of their clientele. It is a difficult dilemma with which to wrestle, as many of those out on the club scene are there to be seen, especially up & coming models and actresses. However, many of whose who have already entered the public spotlight may jealously guard what little privacy remains. Perhaps bars & clubs will diverge into cam-friendly and cam-free castes, creating ever more diversity within the affluent & highly fragmented leisure market.
Whilst it may seem an obvious evolution of the webcasting medium, it still requires some searching to find those clubs that have already taken their first brave and tentative steps into the ‘cam sphere’ which pervades the voyeuristic world of cyberspace. The Ministry of Sound, evergreen innovator & legendary veteran of the London club scene, currently offers live webcasts from many of its raves. This trend would appear to be catching on, as several nightclubs are now opening their doors to a wider world. The DNA Lounge of San Francisco & the Underground Railroad of Miami are just two clubs which have dabbled in this darkest of media. Soon investors may very well be gambling that the live webcast will trigger a mass migration from online photo albums towards streaming podcasts. Before long those who are anxious to find out where the 'action' is will be able to survey the scene before homing in on a target venue.
It is difficult to conceive that the adult industry could ever lag behind in the search to find lucrative new applications for the latest technologies, and soon many strip clubs may elect to open their doors to offer glimpses of the 'real thing' to the Internet. You may not be entirely surprised to hear that such plans are already afoot, and it would appear that stripclubnetwork.tv are poised to boldly enter this virgin market sector, even if no strip clubs have yet dared to sign up.
For those club extroverts who crave to be seen, recent developments must promise a brave and exciting new world. Perhaps it is not too soon to imagine a vast cyberia of live webcasts from across the club world. Before long, every voyeur will be able to dim the lights and take a front seat to explore the thriving club scene from their office computer, flitting from feed to feed to watch the social butterflies beat their brightly colored wings and to eavesdrop on the most interesting conversations. For those who like to be seen it is indeed the dawn of a new era. However, for those who prefer to hide in the shadows, the world must feel as though it is becoming ever smaller...