The Great Regression

Mad_Cyril

SM001 When digging for new music I find most of it formulaic. Only about 5% of it is worth going back to. The rest has no demands of repeat listening.

It’s fucking soul destroying.

hugopal

Along_the_Wire You could’ve almost written it yourself.

Only if I was trying to write a parody of a pathologically left-wing article on dance music culture.

Smallman1

Hugo stay out of the weeds for fuck sake!

LT42

Smallman1 Hugo’s WEED KLAXON just went off..

Matt

SM001 When digging for new music I find most of it formulaic.

This is the reason why, over the last few years, I’m playing more and more old tunes.

RichM

LT42 Ed did post a long article on the music scene, so would have thought it’s the right occasion to discuss some of it in detail?

RichM

Is this just another version of how dance music evolves, like in the late 90s / early 2000s when it exploded into the super club era and then became mainstream? That led to a split of mainstream dance music and the underground dance music scene. The difference being this generations mainstream audience are more interested in social media compared to the late 90s / early 2000s mainstream audience who were into getting shit faced at cheesy nightclubs and festivals. But that just seems to be what today’s generation do compared to years ago. I say leave them to it if that’s what they want. I’m sure years ago people complained that the 90s generation just got shitfaced and didn’t appreciate the music at clubs.

Along_the_Wire

RichM You make some fair points, but I do think it’s worse with the whole VIP and price points of everything from entry to drinks. Maybe it’s just because I’m an old cunt mind.

LT42

RichM I do hope you see the irony in this post, Rich.

alistair

Can’t say I am a fan of Keinemusik’s most recent output nor do I have any interest in seeing them live but Rampa &Me and Port have penned their fair share of good productions over the years. As for this Hugel fella, I have never heard of him. More pseudo intellectual sneery shite from RA

NasserAlazzawi

TLDR from ChatGPT

Overall Argument

Dance music’s mainstream explosion has led to a “great regression”—a cultural step backward where:
• Liberation has turned into lifestyle branding,
• Inclusivity has been replaced by exclusivity,
• And the dance floor, once a site of transformation, now mirrors society’s obsession with comfort, image, and detachment.

Hursty

NasserAlazzawi luckily we still have the Bedrock nights!

ScottBailey

Hursty to be fair the dancefloor was BedROCKING on Sunday! Only problem is that the senior dancefloor isn’t quite as sprightly as it once was, and that doesn’t translate well on video.

What we think we look like on the dancefloor: -

What video shows we really look like:-

IndustryStandard

I think social media and production has amplified the commercial aspect of dance music and pushed the spectacle vs the music . People go to see and be seen at a a FISHER gig, not hear him . No one dances as much as they used to either . A new type of person attends

Then there’s the organic thing . There’s that whole scene , the beige wave . Background music to accompany a “vibe” . I see Keinmusik falling into this genre .

Thing is electronic music is always evolving and there has always been shit commercial tracks . Trip to Trumpton anyone ? All the Boys Own lot were calling my age group out as Acid Teds/Weekenders in the late 80s!! So this divide is nothing new .

I think the accessibility to music production technology has had a massive impact going back to @SM001 point . Musicians are no longer the only people making music. Not everyone is an artist but using the right template in Logic you can knock up a track with minimal training of talent , then stick it up on beatport in hours . There are no barriers to entry now . No pressing costs . This creates a sea of mediocrity to churn through to find the gems .

That’s my main gripe with the scene now. Finding the gems and not letting the drivel you work through to drag you down . Like @Hursty said , we are lucky to have Diggers and clubs like Phonox to keep us going !!!!

alistair

ScottBailey after 16 baby Guinnesses

Along_the_Wire

I don’t think I’m a paedo when I’m dancing.

(You can have this one for free @Old-Dutch)

alistair

Uncle John and Stage One is enough for any JC.

Smallman1

alistair Uncle John and Stage One is enough for any JC.

100% this!

benson

I wrote an essay in my studies in the early 2000s about MDMA and there is no doubt there was vert well founded concern about a whole generation entering crippling depression in their 40s from caning it. The headlines are that it causes neuronal pruning and also that it prevents the regeeration of seretonin, although taking 5HTP may help that as the step that is blocked is the generation of 5HTP. But my knowledge is 20 years out of date.

But actually what has happened is that the generation after have become the affected generation. The social media generation. MDMA is an empathogen, it brought people together. Social media is the precise opposite. The rise in social media coincided with the decline in MDMA supplies in the late 2000s so kids just did not do it as much. It was not available.

Whilst I am sure MDMA is damaging, I am also of the opinion that the experiences and community it creates are protective. The added protection 20 years ago was that nobody is putting a photo of you up on the internet whist you are on a gruesome comedown.

EDM is following the social trends of exclusivity rather than eading the way with inclusivity. Those sweaty Thursday nights on Heaven’s main dancefloor were all about togetherness and community. Random conversations. Now it is all about posting. I am not sure this is the fault of the DJs. They are just playing to the crowd.

ScottBailey

benson MDMA is an empathogen, it brought people together. Social media is the precise opposite. The rise in social media coincided with the decline in MDMA supplies in the late 2000s so kids just did not do it as much. It was not available.

As Ed said, some very well worded paragraphs there. Only thing I’d say on the above is that it always felt (to me anyway) like if you weren’t taking pills in the scene then people thought there was something wrong with you, which is wrong. As someone who never went near pills or powder (and still don’t), I was and still am able to socially interact, have a good time on the dancefloor and enjoy the music for what it is. The notion that you can only create this kind of community through drugs is the wrong message IMO. Never had anything against people doing it, but the peer pressure I’ve seen along the way was too strong. If the kids of today aren’t able to form these kinds of community in the clubs without the drugs, I think there needs to be more focus on a growing epidemic of reclusiveness.

Smallman1

Excellent words Bens.

benson

ScottBailey

Thats a very fair point

LT42

ScottBailey As someone who never went near pills or powder (and still don’t), I was and still am able to socially interact, have a good time on the dancefloor and enjoy the music for what it is.

And if this was your MO back when it all exploded back in the early 90s then you were the exception and part of a very small minority. We had a friend or two like this and over time they just naturally drifted over to other groups who preferred going out and dancing to Shabba Ranks, Chumbawumba or indeed sniffing petrol and listening to Pantera.