Key clubs

June 22, 1991 – Medusa's hits its heyday
Punks and house heads, hip-hoppers and Goths, alterna-rockers and R.E.M. fans, all had a home at this all-ages juice bar. The multilevel club would house punk rock shows, house parties, and industrial hoe-downs … all in the same night. Legions of people learned how to dance while holding a drink in one hand, a cigarette in the other, all the while flipping their bangs to and fro in blissful abandon.

crobar

1992 – Joey Vartanian opens the original crobar
Ushering in an age of massive multilevel clubs, crobar becomes known as a hotspot for Chicago’s hard house DJs, while also riding the waves of techno and trance. Franchises in New York, Miami and South America follow later.

April 3, 1993 – Psychic TV plays the Psychosis Rave in Chicago
The rave scene in England never really took off in Chicago, and this might have been one of the reasons why. Well-intentioned promoters booked acid-house industrial psyche-rockers Psychic TV to headline. Hordes of sweaty Chicago kids well into their third hit of acid were exposed to a band taking the stage to the clarion call of "You're all going to die!" backed by strobes, crushing beats, and a variety of tribal wind instruments.

1994 – Foxy's
While Psychic TV was scaring the kids and showing them the dark side of dance, genres were blending together on the small confines of Foxy's dance floor in mixes that make most current day "esoteric personality" iTunes playlists pale in comparison. Cue Blur, The Pet Shop Boys, and the resurgence of Musto and Bones' "Dangerous On The Dance Floor."

April 1996 – The Deadly Dragon Sound System takes residency at The Empty Bottle
Initially comprised of crate-digging punk and indie musicians with a taste for reggae and dub, it taught a generation of Chicago indie kids how to dance. The group took over Sunday nights at The Empty Bottle and made it okay for rock fans to shake their collective ass on the dance floor to a blend of reggae, drum ‘n’ bass, and classic soul.

December 2002 – Sonotheque opens
Joe Bryl, Donnie Madia and Terry Alexander open a lounge geared towards serious music fans, placing the listening experience over the visual. Sonotheque's minimalist grey décor is certainly alluring, but the duo figured out that if you please the ears, the ass will follow—and there’s as much dancing as lounging these days, with a wide-ranging blend of DJs sourced locally, nationally, and internationally.

December 2003 – Red Dog closes and house loyalists are briefly lost
Red Dog carried the torch for the genre even during dance music’s leaner years – via the legendary Boom Boom Room night – while still attracting a diverse crowd not bound by neighborhood distinctions. Eventually Boom Boom Room resurfaces at Green Dolphin Street.

Tommie Sunshine

October 31, 2006 – Debonair opens
Debonair tries to build the bridge between the rock and rollers and the electro club kids. With a mixture of resident DJs, including the Dark Wave Disco crew; a healthy mix of touring DJs including Steve Aoki and Tommie Sunshine; and an increasing number of live performances from people like Glass Candy and electrorockers The Assassins;
it’s fair to say that Debonair is bringing disparate worlds together.

August 3, 2007 – Daft Punk headlines Lollapalooza in Grant Park
While Daft Punk's set will go down in history as the moment Chicago’s dance music scene went mainstream, it's hard not to ignore that it took a duo of Frenchmen to bring the spirit of house back to the city for a night.