Inside the Social Media Bubble
Inside our heads where it's 72 degrees and sunny and it always plays music we already like.
Dancing While Black, Young and Queer in the 1970s
Lessons from Robert Williams: How dealing with the police was an essential part of dancing while Black, queer and young in the 1970s.
2021: A Bass Idiocy
Harold Heath drags you through another tumultuous year in dance music. You're going to re-live it, and you're going to LIKE it
Chicago Is Becoming the Tiny Town from Footloose Where It’s Illegal To Dance
Another day, another closure. Who would want to open a nightclub in Chicago?
Why Are All the Nightclubs Shutting Down?
It's gone global. From London to New York we're hearing the same thing: where the fuck are all the nightclubs going?
Unbowed by past apologies, Tulum superspreader event Art With Me is coming to America
Meditation is free but the enlightenment will cost you.
5Chicago.com is Now 5Mag.net
A bit of meta for our readers who may have followed us to this site from an old link or post: 5 Mag has moved from our historic domain at 5chicago.com to our new...
Finding Your Fam
A survivor's guide to happiness in a world full of dancefloor acquaintances & strangers on the internet.
Your AirPods Are Tiny Bombs
Your AirPods will last longer on this planet than your bones, if they doesn't explode first.
Namaste Bros: superstar DJs and plague raves in paradise
The party never ended for the rich - or the superstar DJs capitalizing on slack lockdowns in Mexico.
My Life in Analog Hell
It started with a Roland Juno-106. Thousands of dollars later, I had all this beautiful analog gear and couldn't write a note on it. A year in analog hell by Ed Martinez.
RIP Steve Albini, who probably hated everything we love
Steve Albini hated dance music, and "hated" was the word he used. We still admired him anyway.
After Moog: The most depressing story in the industry gets worse
A storied company continues to gut staff and reportedly shift product manufacturing overseas under new ownership.
The White House once again leaves nightclubs in limbo
America's music venues have been tossed a lifeline in the Save Our Stages Act, which is now part of the stimulus package being held hostage by the White House.
Purged: How a failed economic theory still rules the digital music marketplace
A discredited economic theory is still guiding the decisions of most digital music labels today - even if they don't know it. This is the dumb theory of the Long Tail and how a tsunami of shitmusic destroyed it.
Why is Pioneer paying everyone to write about the CDJ-3000?
All discussion of the "industry standard" on the largest dance music media sites has been paid for by Pioneer itself.
Tears of a Cloud
Don't cry for the demise of SoundCloud. But it's sad what SoundCloud should have been.
Spotify has made millionaires. Almost none of them are musicians.
Spotify's Serfs: A new report breaks down the Black Box of Streaming and the brutal financial realities of the music industry's streamonomics.
The AI music company shitting up your streams
A single AI music company claims it has created 14% of the world's recorded music and are flooding streaming platforms. Who, or what, is Boomy?
MUST READ!
New Frankie Knuckles & Chicago House Music themed mural unveiled in Uptown
The public artwork by artist Max Sansing pays tribute to Frankie Knuckles, house music in Chicago and cult house music label Gherkin Records.