Cities of music: London
A4 is introducing new series of music talks called Futurit
London is the place where the world meets. Babylon of cultures that is tempting for musicians and has for decades been a fruitful place for both music makers and music industry. It’s a place where music is taken seriously.
What does hardcore continuum and second summer of love mean? How did the sound-system culture get here? How did the sound system culture happened to be at the peak of the London’s scene and what was the British tradition’s reaction? In the first edition of this new program, musical publicist Peter Dolník will be mapping the club scene of London since the eighties until now and he won’t skip the phenomena of free-parties, gentrification, jungle, acid house or dubstep, grime and Brexit. Come to find out for yourself!
The talk will start somewhere at the second half of the eighties. Similarly to punk’s wake-up slap to the old-school rock’s face in the seventies, there was something new and surprising at the beginning of this decade, too. The eighties were influenced by what the tourists coming home from holidays at Balearic Islands experienced. How exciting and refreshing it was to dance all night to electronic music under the influence of ecstasy! The new movement was called acid house and spread all over London and to the whole country and to Europe as the culture of dance music. For the British ravers this was the much needed escape from the chains of the class system – the liberating and people-connecting all-night dancing to electro. It was called the second summer of love and represented the refusal of expensive drinks in clubs, football hooligans’ violence, pub fights and race and class segregation. It lasted for two extraordinary years and changed the British music scene and society forever. If there’s something of the 20th century history that there are many stories told about in London – then it is Blitz and the acid house revolution between the eighties and the nineties.
The new movement quickly became too huge for the small clubs. As a reaction to this the ravers inspired by the travelers’ movement continued their parties outside of the club walls limits – in abandoned factories, halls, storage houses or just outdoors under the stars. The highway around London was every weekend full of cars looking for THE place announced to host the party on the handed-out posters or through a secret anonymous telephone line.
Naturally, the next chapter starts with a new law that prohibited the illegal crowd meetings outside the allowed zones with the aim of listening to music. The authorities banned the raves and pushed them back to clubs where they could be taxed and controlled easier. But something always fades so that something else can grow stronger and so the club scene is still an important part of the musical microcosmos of London.
New age brings new genres. Rave and hardcore continue changing into jungle and soon to drum n’bass, while there’s speed garage approaching from the US. The new music had the soul, second beat accent and a crooked bass line on which the nowadays’ bass music is built. In London’s clubs garage was made into British tradition’s answer: the genre of 2 step. From the musical underground it found its way up to luxurious clubs with expensive clothing and champagne rather quickly and then started dominating the music charts not only in the UK.
The stagnation was again interrupted by the underground. From the backyards of London’s social housing and basketball playgrounds and narrow dark streets grime genre emerged. Literally the street’s dirt was to be heard and felt trough rapping with fast and mechanic music. In 2018 there was its third wave incarnation announced and grime is still not losing its strength as it never really left the London’s scene and made itself popular outside of the UK, too.
Another genre came all mixed up out of the London’s music studios and it was dubstep. From Croydon it was one of the last big new genres that became famous in the whole music world with the little help of the internet and pirate radio stations that had been supporting the music scene in London for decades. London’s dubstep was dark and slow with the crooked bass line and was balanced out with the new lighter version of the bass dance music – UK Funky. If there’s something that dubstep left behind to remember even years after its fame peak, then it is producer Burial.
Brexit, rents getting absurdly expensive and gentrification all have put London to a new position. Is it going to stay an attractive destination for musicians? Will the hardcore continuum close its circle when the export of music to Europe will be made more difficult?
There’s not many places like London in the world and that’s why it’s worth getting to know better – possibly through the Futurit talk on Tuesday of 24th April at 19:00 with Peter Dolník in A4.
Organized with the support of public funding through the FPU (Fond for supporting the arts) and Bratislava region (BSK).
Cities of music: London
A4 is introducing new series of music talks called Futurit
London is the place where the world meets. Babylon of cultures that is tempting for musicians and has for decades been a fruitful place for both music makers and music industry. It’s a place where music is taken seriously.
What does hardcore continuum and second summer of love mean? How did the sound-system culture get here? How did the sound system culture happened to be at the peak of the London’s scene and what was the British tradition’s reaction? In the first edition of this new program, musical publicist Peter Dolník will be mapping the club scene of London since the eighties until now and he won’t skip the phenomena of free-parties, gentrification, jungle, acid house or dubstep, grime and Brexit. Come to find out for yourself!
The talk will start somewhere at the second half of the eighties. Similarly to punk’s wake-up slap to the old-school rock’s face in the seventies, there was something new and surprising at the beginning of this decade, too. The eighties were influenced by what the tourists coming home from holidays at Balearic Islands experienced. How exciting and refreshing it was to dance all night to electronic music under the influence of ecstasy! The new movement was called acid house and spread all over London and to the whole country and to Europe as the culture of dance music. For the British ravers this was the much needed escape from the chains of the class system – the liberating and people-connecting all-night dancing to electro. It was called the second summer of love and represented the refusal of expensive drinks in clubs, football hooligans’ violence, pub fights and race and class segregation. It lasted for two extraordinary years and changed the British music scene and society forever. If there’s something of the 20th century history that there are many stories told about in London – then it is Blitz and the acid house revolution between the eighties and the nineties.
The new movement quickly became too huge for the small clubs. As a reaction to this the ravers inspired by the travelers’ movement continued their parties outside of the club walls limits – in abandoned factories, halls, storage houses or just outdoors under the stars. The highway around London was every weekend full of cars looking for THE place announced to host the party on the handed-out posters or through a secret anonymous telephone line.
Naturally, the next chapter starts with a new law that prohibited the illegal crowd meetings outside the allowed zones with the aim of listening to music. The authorities banned the raves and pushed them back to clubs where they could be taxed and controlled easier. But something always fades so that something else can grow stronger and so the club scene is still an important part of the musical microcosmos of London.
New age brings new genres. Rave and hardcore continue changing into jungle and soon to drum n’bass, while there’s speed garage approaching from the US. The new music had the soul, second beat accent and a crooked bass line on which the nowadays’ bass music is built. In London’s clubs garage was made into British tradition’s answer: the genre of 2 step. From the musical underground it found its way up to luxurious clubs with expensive clothing and champagne rather quickly and then started dominating the music charts not only in the UK.
The stagnation was again interrupted by the underground. From the backyards of London’s social housing and basketball playgrounds and narrow dark streets grime genre emerged. Literally the street’s dirt was to be heard and felt trough rapping with fast and mechanic music. In 2018 there was its third wave incarnation announced and grime is still not losing its strength as it never really left the London’s scene and made itself popular outside of the UK, too.
Another genre came all mixed up out of the London’s music studios and it was dubstep. From Croydon it was one of the last big new genres that became famous in the whole music world with the little help of the internet and pirate radio stations that had been supporting the music scene in London for decades. London’s dubstep was dark and slow with the crooked bass line and was balanced out with the new lighter version of the bass dance music – UK Funky. If there’s something that dubstep left behind to remember even years after its fame peak, then it is producer Burial.
Brexit, rents getting absurdly expensive and gentrification all have put London to a new position. Is it going to stay an attractive destination for musicians? Will the hardcore continuum close its circle when the export of music to Europe will be made more difficult?
There’s not many places like London in the world and that’s why it’s worth getting to know better – possibly through the Futurit talk on Tuesday of 24th April at 19:00 with Peter Dolník in A4.
Organized with the support of public funding through the FPU (Fond for supporting the arts) and Bratislava region (BSK).