Not down, Not out
It would seem that of late, the inspiration-starved, lazy music hack has evolved. While a couple of years ago one could be sure of finding them theorising wildly over the impact of file sharing* and downloading, currently the popular no-brainer column seems to have become “dance music is dead”.
So let’s have a look at this argument and see if there’s anything to it. The main prongs of attack seem to be the following:
1) Superclubs are closing down left right and centre.
2) Dance music magazines are closing down left
right and centre.
These are the arguments, and the following is intended to show why they are all complete and utter tripe.
The first argument offered by detractors is, to put it bluntly, true. Superclubs have been closing - I’m not going to patronise the reader here with a description of each club, it’s geographical location and average punter - but it’s true, to use a Leslie Nielsenism, they’re going down faster than a hooker who’s just been paid three months advance.
This isn’t a problem though. Superclubs have rarely been at the cutting edge, and they’ve rarely been the place where anything groundbreaking has happened. They may have been the place where the biggest tunes have been launched, but the thing to remember is that these tunes were always destined to be big, a combination of inoffensive synths, Dave Pearce friendliness, and canny marketing men ensured that before that were even released. If you’re looking to superclubs to be representative of all dance music then don’t. Superclubs are to dance music what stadium rock is to rock music, massive, profit orientated, and a good safe night out (if that’s the sort of thing you like). They’re both profit driven enterprises where big cash is the goal, and the majority of other concerns are secondary or viewed in light of that fact.
It’s also true that music magazines have died off recently too, lamentably Jockey Slut, possibly the finest dance mag ever. Here the waters get slightly murky however, Jockey Slut was owned by the company that also owned Sleazenation (latterly Sleaze), and the two went under at the same time. It’s difficult to know which mag was responsible for the company’s downfall, and while a couple of other music magazines had shut their doors, so had a couple of trendy bibles, most notably The Face, so it’s safe to assume that it could’ve been either mag responsible - hardly easy to pin the blame squarely on the shoulders of one. Harder still to extrapolate the death of Jockey Slut and Muzik as being caused by the death of dance music.
Nobody came out crying about the death of trendies with silly haircuts when The Face (a magazine that’d been in the business longer than most) went under, so why with dance music?
In the age in which Heat magazine is selling half a million copies every week and I’m a Celebrity… has the highest viewing figures after soaps on ITV, it’s become apparent that the saleable image is paramount. So is this why dance music is suffering? Some of the most inspired music made is made either by recluses (Moodymann) or those that deliberately conceal their identity (Mad Mike), there are also a large amount of ugly blokes involved. Is this why the teens of today prefer a baby-faced crackhead singing about his pain who they can fantasise about helping to a faceless man in a darkened studio whose drug habits aren’t a matter of widespread repute.
At the moment electronic music is in a state of flux, a period where the pin-up’s of old have become seen as conservative and risible (quite despite the fact that thousands are still willing to part with hefty sums of cash to see them play). If there’s no Prodigy tune in the top 40 then does it really matter? If a Tiesto gig doesn’t sell out within the hour do we care?
All it shows is that fans of electronic music are less willing to prop up those that disappoint, this is something rock music can’t be charged with (see Manic Street Preachers).
The fact remains that there are still nights of the highest quality being put on by people that want nothing more than to hear great tunes, there are still experimentalists tinkering away and pushing back boundaries imposed by pioneers, we the members of the electronic community are still here and always will be, right now we are where we’re happiest - underground, and when the mainstream media decides it wants some more, we’ll still be here. To quote DJ Q “We do not seek your adoration, your respect is all we seek, for that respect will help our movement to sustain, we will maintain, until the walls come crashing down we will maintain”.
* Guess what you fuckers? Despite the BPI and RIA’s best predictions of musical meltdown, nobody knows yet, stop churning out conjecture and speculation.