This from an article I was reading recently on the beginnings of reggae, rocksteady, and dub in Jamaica:
“In the early to mid ’50s sound systems started replacing live bands at dances, and the competition between DJs was a fierce one. Most people of that time didn’t own radios, so the only way to hear recorded music was to attend the dances. This was the beginning of the mobile DJ or “soundman” as they were referred to. … Each individual soundman had his own set of records that the other soundmen didn’t have. They did their best to keep song titles a secret from one another by scratching the labels off the records. This was one way to attract customers to dances, knowing that perhaps only one particular sound system on the island had the tune you wanted to hear. … Because of this there was much more individuality from one DJ to the next. Also, back then the people were excited to hear new sounds as opposed to today, where people laregely don’t feel comfortable with music that is unfamiliar to them.” -The Propagandist
That last sentence is fascinating. I have no idea how credible that claim is… is it the halcyon recollections of an old-timer unhappy with today’s kids? The human tendency to always idealize the past? Or is it true, that there was something happening culturally in Jamaica in the ’50s that made people more open to new music at a dance party that’s not happening today?
Just thinking about my own preferences, of course we’re all happy when we’re at a party and one of our favorite dance songs comes on… we go bonkers, right? But how many people can get truly psyched over new music at a dance party? Do you have to mentally prepared for it, like “ok, I don’t know if I’ll like this, but I’ll try…?” I don’t know the answer, but I’ll tell you my most recent such experience: I wandered into The Good Life about 3 months ago late on a Wednesday night and went downstairs to the lounge. They’ve got a nice sound system there, and they don’t try to make your ears bleed with it. It was a dubstep and grime night. I’d listened to a couple of grime tracks I guess, never any dubstep, and wasn’t really sure what it was all about. I couldn’t believe my ears. It was like sinking into a pool of beautiful shimmering bass. Like vibration therapy at a dub spa. Like gonzo low end with a chilled out reggae-type beat, except people were dancing to it in doubltime, so you had these breakdancers absolutely freaking out at about 140 bpm. It was incredible! I stuck around for quite a while enjoying it all, then went home and started looking for dubstep, and I’ve been buying and downloading the stuff ever since.
There is no moral to this story… I’m just thinking out loud that getting stuck only dancing to the music you already know seems to me like being stuck in a rut. And I’ll share a funny anecdote: I was DJing New Years Eve at Studio 54 (rock on y’all!) and everyone was having a great time. About 3:30am I tried working in a couple of dubstep tunes, two of my favorites: Spaceman by Kromestar and Hydro by Benga, and the floor cleared except for about 6 people. After a minute or two a drunk kid stumbled up to me and said “Dude, can you dance to this?” to which I replied “Hell yeah!!!” “Well no one else can, which is why the room cleared, so you should pay attention to the dance floor and play what people like.” Uhh, sorry drunk kid. Sometimes DJs try out tracks to see what the crowd will do. Converting that room full of people to the glory that is dubstep was indeed a long shot, but I’d been spinning for almost 3 hours straight and figured I’d see how experimental the crowd was willing to get. Anyway, I pretty much bombed on that one, but it’s good to take risks, and I hope people out there are sometimes willing take risks in what they listen to and dance to.
So drunk kid: sorry it didn’t work out for you on that one. If you’d been with me, you might have had an almost religious experience if you could enjoy gonzo low end as much as you enjoyed geeking out to Michael Jackson. But if hearing two new tracks upsets you, better not come to my next gig son, as you may well be subjected to yet more music you’ve never heard before!
Happy 2008 Everybody.
Hyssop
