Types

Major cities in Europe and North America often have a variety of nightclubs, and some small towns and cities also have nightclubs. Nightclubs often feature lighting and other effects, to enhance the dancing experience. Lighting and effects include flashing colored lights, moving light beams, laser light shows, strobe lights, mirror-covered disco balls, or foam, and smoke machines.

Nightclub hours vary widely across the world; in areas with strict liquor regulations in place, nightclubs may have a legal requirement to close at a certain hour. These cities sometimes have illegal "after hours" clubs that stay open and serve alcohol after this legal closing time. In non-regulated areas, nightclubs stay open all night and into early daylight hours.

Entertainment is the main attraction at some types of nightclubs. One type of club is a concert club, which specializes in hosting performances of live music. In contrast to regular night clubs, concert clubs are usually only open when a performance is scheduled. Other types of clubs include "Underage" clubs, which allow non-drinking age attendees.

This allows the nightclub to turn the dance floor into an alternate, illusory realm of timelessness. Even if an all-night rave at a nightclub lasts until 6 a.m., when it is light outside, to the clubgoers, it is still dark inside the club, and the partying and dancing continue.

In most cases entering a night club requires a flat fee called a cover charge. Early arrivers and women often have cover waived (in the United Kingdom, this latter option is illegal under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975). Friends of the doorman or the club owner may gain free entrance. Sometimes, especially at larger clubs, one only gets a pay card at the entrance, on which all money spent in the discotheque (often including the entrance fee) is marked. Sometimes entrance fee and wardrobe costs are paid by cash and only the drinks in the club are paid using a pay card.

Early history

During US Prohibition, nightclubs went underground as illegal speakeasy bars. With the repeal of Prohibition in February 1933 nightclubs were revived, such as New York's Stork Club, El Morocco and the Copacabana. In Harlem, the Cotton Club and Connie's Inn were popular venues for white audiences. Before 1953 and even some years thereafter, most bars and nightclubs used a jukebox or mostly live bands. In Paris, at a club named Whisky à Gogo, Régine laid down a dance-floor, suspended coloured lights and replaced the juke-box with two turntables which she operated herself so there would be no breaks between the music. The Whisky à Gogo set into place the standard elements of the modern discothèque-style nightclub. In the early 1960s, Mark Birley opened a members-only discotheque nightclub, Annabel's, in Berkeley Square, London. However, the first rock and roll generation preferred rough and tumble bars and taverns to nightclubs, and the nightclub did not attain mainstream popularity until the 1970s disco era.