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Is it time to start dancing in clubs again?
Other | Wednesday 12th June 2013 | jim
In the past few years there has been a resurgence in a few different types of dance music, that looked as if they would never find a place back in the UK clubbing scene.
The scene has become dominated by dubstep and heavy dark bass-driven music, over time clubbing culture has started to gain a bad reputation with the knives and guns that genres like grime and dubstep brought with it. In the late 90s and early 00s the violence got a lot worse and people were getting stabbed at raves, that has since lead to far stricter security at clubs, with some even having metal detectors.
Going to a dubstep rave you would expect to see a bunch of hooded guys slowly and methodically nodding to dark repetitive songs. Clubs began to attract the wrong egos, and even just bumping into someone could lead to a fight.
Clubs started to become just a place to listen to music? Might as well just stay at home and listen through the radio. Clubbing is about the experience of being able to dance and enjoy the music in an environment with similar minded people. If you want to come and dance, and listen to music then why bring a knife. Every year at Notting Hill Festival DJs stop the music and shout out ‘if you want to fight go away from carnival, leave the egos at home.’ From the looks of some clubs now this is what is happening. Happier music is being reintroduced back into the clubs.
Disco music has had a huge resurgence and more and more nights are popping up for people who actually want to dance to some funk rather than just bob around like those nodding cats. Just take Daft Punk’s new album and the title track Get Lucky, which takes huge influence from Nile Rogers and his band Chic. Finally it seems people are feeling the love again and want to just go out and dance and celebrate good music with other like-minded people. There is no longer the aggression that began to appear with certain genres like drum and bass and grime, and it doesn’t have the exclusivity of House music. Disco is more a music for everyone and its growth in popularity might mark a return to dancing in nightclubs. In Peckham every week a the Bussey building a night devoted to funk, soul and disco attracts huge crowds to a music that a few years ago was partially considered dead in the scene. Every night revellers from all walks of life come to get down to some funk and enjoy themselves.
Alongside the disco revolution UK garage has also seen a massive revival. A genre that can truly be described as truthfully UK music died out a little with the introduction of garage and grime which were no longer just about the music and having fun. But these other genres seem to have not stood the test of time too well. Now garage and the far happier and lively ‘dancey’ beats have come back, see the likes of DJ EZ and Todd Edwards who have had a second coming in the career. Despite grime music evolving out of garage music, going to any UK garage rave you will not expect to see the same intimidating crowd, but instead people who have actually come to dance to the timeless classics.
It is strange to consider that dancing had disappeared from nightclubs, but the evolution in underground music has lead to music that does not encourage dancing but instead just pounding fists and nodding. But maybe people are starting to think about why the nightclubs first popped up. In some places clubs are called discotheques and maybe this is a clear clue as to why they started in the first place, to listen and dance to disco music. Music has of course evolved and it is not all about disco, but being able to dance without someone trying to stop you from dancing, or trying to start a fight if you accidently touch them should not be the case. Music is changing and it seems there has been a revival in those wanting to listen to music that they can actually dance to. Dance music evolved greatly out of the ecstasy drug and rave scene, and considering its other name is the love drug, there shouldn’t be any of the hate and violence sometimes associated with underground music.
written by Jim Roberts
