If I am reading the OP correctly, he is asking why strip clubs are always laid out with that cheesy and gaudy decor? I don’t have a definitive answer, but I’m guessing tradition and circular reasoning mostly. We associate the combination of redish lighting, garish patterns, animal prints, big clear heels, lycra evening gowns, bouncers in tuxedos, and cheesy Euro-disco house music with strip clubs so strip clubs tend to play up those visuals while places that aren’t strip clubs dont.
Some of it is practical. The tall heels they teeter around on makes them look taller and cuter, the red lighting softens any imperfections, the stretch lycra dresses are easy to get in and out of and so on.
“Classy” is a relative term when it comes to strip clubs. Some of the ones in NYC are really nice (Hustler Club or FlashDancers for example). The place is clean, the girls are amazingly beautiful and friendly, the staff is polite and they don’t let in riff-raff. Basically they are the kinds of places where a group of young lawyers or bankers or other high earners go after work to blow off some steam.
Other places, like the BYOB dump we went to out by Newark Airport during a friends bachelor party are full of gross skanks, there’s a lot of chicken wire and chain link and the crowd looks like a bunch of day laborers waiting for the truck to pick them up (which they might be for all I know…I’m sure they go to clubs to).
And then there are a lot of places in the middle.
In any event, a strip club can only be made so “classy” because at the end of the day, you will always have the standard fixtures - the nakes girls with the clear heels, the lighting, the pole in the stage and the cheese music that tells you that you are in a strip club.
Really? I thought FlashDancers (the only strip club I’ve ever been to) was really cheesey and pretty much exemplifies all the cliches mentioned in the OP. I mean, it was expensive, but other than that, felt sleazy.
Of course its sleazy, its a strip club. Yes, its true some are nicer (read cleaner with better women) than others, but they appeal to baser instincts. Don’t expect mozart at one, at least not Mozart for the music.
The Phillip Glass/ Art Deco strip club turned out not to be a business success story as it took the “artsist’es” 3 hours to put on their multilayered, symbolically interlinked costumes on. Additionally the 6 hour and 45 minute “Strip Tease” score used self referential chordal structuralism, which required the dancers to stand completely still for up to 45 minutes at a time.
The Dada-ist idea of having the entire 6 act strip tease take place in total darkness did not help either.
The drinks were well mixed, however, and the wings were crispy and delicious.\
Do you really need all those extra trappings to drive the point home? (Sorry.) I mean, naked girls, bookshelves, periodicals, circulation desk? Strip club. Naked girls, tools, lumber, gardening supplies, paint? Strip club.
Come to think of it (sorry, again), strip clubs are open at the times that other businesses are closed. You could take any business, set up some tables and chairs, trot out some willing babes, and you’d have a themed strip club. Home Depot After Hours, as it were.
The other thing (not sure if this has been covered) is the business model.
If you are starting an establishment, and maybe do some research and find out that strip clubs A, B, and C each have a take of about 500,000/year or something (I have no idea how much strip clubs make, just throwing out a number here) and they are all the same cheesy style, you’re probably more likely to go that route because its a proven way to make money.
Sure, if you try something innovative you could get in on some new trend and make a lot of money, but there’s a big risk of just being a stupid gimmick that doesn’t get people in the establishment. Thus, its much safer to use the tried-and-true method everybody likes.
Its just like porn- if the whole ‘high heels makeup fake boobs’ was so universally repulsed, porn producers wouldn’t make a fraction that they do off it. But obviously enough (probably the MAJORITY) of consumers demand that style, and that’s what you see.
Another factor could be that since strip clubs have a lot of taboo associated with them, they’re not going to be as widespread as, say, fast food franchises. I think that if strip clubs were more common, there’d be a lot more competition (i.e. VARIETY) and you would see “classier” places trying to pick up that niche.
Yes, you do. That is part of the fun of going to a strip club. I do not want to spend my money in a place that looks like some redneck’s garage with his wife or sister or whoever dancing around under a flourescent light bulb.
And what exactly do people have in mind when they say “classy” anyway?
Low lighting combined with garish decorating and loud makeup and dress combine to distract one from the fact that the people you are associating with aren’t actually that attractive.
But what kind of strip club has a swimming pool, several whirlpools and hot tubs, professional massages, and a whole bunch of saunas and steambaths? It’s like a spa / brothel. Maybe we should call them spathels instead of FKK clubs?
I can’t search Youtube at work, but SNL once ran a fake commercial advertising the DVD of “Martha Stewart’s Topless Christmas.” “Martha” indeed appears topless (albeit covered by a blue bar) through the whole commercial.