The Dance Scene That Has No Name



"Thankfully music is the driving force here, no fashions or fads, well maybe just a few beards of a disco nature here and there"

Even after all this time “The scene without a name” continues to remain unnamed, unchanged and undiminished since it first appeared as a post on the beard friendly djhistory.com site.

The post was originally started by Greg Wilson who you would expect to have an angle on such things due to the musical content that‘s involved within the scene.

The reasons why this scene has yet to be named in time honored fashion still eludes those that comment upon it's merits including it‘s fans, djs, promoters, commentators, producers and aficionados alike.

Maybe it's down to the multi-faceted musical approach that the scene itself draws from including a wide range of influences including disco, early electro, boogie and funk alongside other elements including cosmic, real house music and balearic (if that is a genre in itself)

However, it could be down to the fact that for once we might just be witnessing a scene develop in front of us that lives outside of the excepted commercial infrastructures that have welcomed dance music in its various forms in recent years.

Taking a look over the last twenty or so years, genre categorization has played such a major part in the promotion of dance music to the masses whilst at the same time encouraging our media institutions to eagerly pick up on the "next big thing"

Subsequently the "lets milk this for all it's worth" mentality ensures that some prosper along the way until the curtain finally falls or reinvention inevitably has to take place.

Unlike say the obvious continuum's that are evident between musical bedfellows on the current popular house music scene "The scene with no name" has no continuum other than that of musical quality and acceptance of eclecticism from a wide variety of musical sources and influences stretching back to the early 70's whilst also firmly looking into the future at the same time.

Eclecticism may point to the answer as to why the scene itself remains nameless.

If this is the case then that would be both unique and also rare as a musical concept within the context of labeling dance music under a particular category or style.

Thankfully music is the driving force here, no fashions or fads, well maybe just a few beards of a disco nature here and there.

Here’s the post in all it’s glorious inconclusive form, happy readings, see if you can work it out

The scene without a name post on djhistory.com

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous14:47

    ya. right on brother. let's write a manifesto. I've had enough. I read your words and I read only sense, sense and more sense. Burn down the industry fuckers. Fuck them - they don't have THIS!

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  2. Hey there Anon

    Thank you for leaving your comments. Interesting times ahead for us all in the next few years. The music and culture lives on, hope you linked yourself to the djhistory forum and had a good read.

    Blessings, keep the faith

    Go Bang Brighton

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  3. Anonymous03:28

    Cheers Ali for sharing the info and the link to the djhistory thread (I should visit that site more often...lol another excuse to distract myself)..

    I have not read the whole thread as not got the time atm...but get the general gist of views and feelings.

    double edge sword......to help a scene grow...it needs to be marketed...and creating one word genres is the way to do that, helps shops, magazines, promoters etc describe the record, night, music etc......

    But I guess when it becomes mainstream then it can lose it's soul...and just becomes a marketed format of music until the next big thing comes along ...that to me becomes a big turn off...

    I have always been into a mix bag of tunes...and have never had a problem finding music I like...I would not say I have a favourite genre...I just like what I like. By creating a genre..this just labels a style of music and helps people identify with it.....however to name a few as there is already funk, soul, house, disco, cosmic, balearic (I hate that term used as a genre) yada yada yada...do we need yet another genre to describe all of these????? Lets just call it music :)

    If it's to help market a night....I think there is an element of suprise when the flyer indicates it is an mixture of new wave, funk, soul, disco, house and more.etc etc... It stirs up the interest of anticipation of what may be played...... by just saying the music is going to be (i'll invent a genre here) ELEFUNK then you loose the anticipation, as you assume what type of music will be played...and takes away the element of suprise......crikey this is difficult to put in little words, as I could ramble on without other view points for both sides of the fence that equally have their own merits.

    For now...lets just say "Music is Music"

    Peace & Love
    Tim

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  5. Great summary Tim, difficult isn't it to put a finger on this. When we did Go Bang last year someone asked what it was, my reply was "it's what it's not". Still this doesn't help with what we're talking about. Greg who started the post described the approach to the music as "groove based" I like that as it doesn't pigeon hole and more or less sums up the music in all its various forms. Agreed, Balearic as a genre? more an attitude.

    What time are you hitting Brighton on Saturday for GW?

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  6. Anonymous05:04

    agreed Ali "Groove based" does leave the doors open and is a word that could cover many genres...so it works quite well.

    Not sure what time I am getting in to town on Friday ... Mrs Acid will be with me...so I suppose whenever she gets herself ready...lol so it may be quite late...any pre-bar warm ups?

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  7. the scene has a name in Brighton - we call it Go Bang!

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  8. Good to see that this post is still getting a few views even though it was written over 2 years ago.

    Nice to see lots of the people going on to have success since this post was written.

    Record labels, production output, dj agencies ect ect all going into the mix nicely.

    Now that the "club scene" in Brighton has caught on to the idea it will be interesting to see how developments will shape up after 2011.

    Sadly still not convinced that the vibe can be easily replicated in some commercial venues locally although Audio have got it right.

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