The whole ecosystem persists all the way down to average folks going for a night on the town and hoping to chat up a few women (who are not paid/promoted models, but have ultimately similar motives). The superficiality permeates downwards too.
In my experience, the “hotter” the club, the less people dance or mingle, the more they signal.
Edit: I’ll draw a somewhat bright line between clubs who offer bottle service/VIP (in my view inevitably ending up like the above^, even if it makes practical sense) and those clubs which do not. It seems to me the bulk of the money moving would be occurring in the former.
I was in Miami (Beach) for a few weeks, and despite its status as a party town I like partying much more most other places. Frankly Miami as a whole was kinda sickening for its massive income disparities and how everyone seemed to aspire to become "VIP"s, both at night and in life in general.
Great clubs are egalitarian, where everybody is just having fun and spreading the joy to the people around them. Unfortunately they can be hard to find without local connections, as Google often only surfaces the high status clubs.
When I was talking about ‘normal’ people getting bottle service, I meant people who were there because they liked the DJ and not for all the other stuff.
In my experience, most of the good parties are run by people who love dance music and know how to build a community around it. Most of them have nothing but contempt for high rollers who go to flash money around, even if they cater to them to stay in business.
There are, of course, plenty of clubs that are entirely oriented around dancing which are great. They tend to be on the less “hot” end of the spectrum (because the term basically means status-building).
Not really sure where you're coming from? The club scene is pretty egalitarian, both in politics and practically - everyone's the same on the dance floor. The only exception is the VIP areas, and I don't think they're an essential part of the club scene.
A club that can be successful and not devolve into this is an outlier that certainly takes extreme care to stay that way.
Hell, in Vegas the dance floors of some clubs seem almost like an afterthought.
Well, dancing and mingling is about signalling status too. In the end, it's just male and female evolved monkeys doing their mating rituals...
The most valuable social status, the type that actually matters, is the one you get from not caring about what people think of you, having massive fun and brightening the day of the people you interact with.
That's an argument about why financial status signalling is ineffective for true friendship and true happiness.
Not about whether financial status signalling happens or not.
Besides, many people don't care for "true friendship and true happiness" (or get that from other sources). They do their financial status signalling still, to advance themselves, have others kiss their ass, get women, and feel good by flaunting their money...
1) skip the line 2) Cover is included 3) regular drinks at the bar are expensive as shit anyway. 4) You have a place to sit down in a crowded club. 5) you have a server that comes to you instead of having to find a place at the bar.
A regular night at the club could easily be $150 a person if you count cover, drinks and buying drugs. What’s another $100 a person for a much better experience at that point. Keeping in mind that if you don’t have a table, you’re stuck down on a crowded dance floor for hours and hours and when you aren’t fighting at a bartender to notice you.