Jo Hall - Boys, Bass and Bother: Popular Dance and Identity in UK Drum ’n’ Bass Club Culture

Boys, Bass and Bother

Jo Hall

Boys, Bass and Bother

Popular Dance and Identity in UK Drum n Bass

Club Culture

Jo Hall

Independent Scholar

West Horsley, UK

ISBN

978-1-137-37510-0 ISBN

978-1-137-37511-7 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-37511-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018932748

The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

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For my rock, my tree and my flower.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Drum n bass has been part of my life for over 12 years and I am still blown away by its affective power. My most grateful thanks are offered to the drum n bass fans who, over the years, have spent time talking to me about their clubbing and dancing experiences.

This book could not have been written without the support and encour

agement of Sherril Dodds, who over the last twenty years has been a great friend, tutor, supervisor, co-dancer and colleague. Your comments at each part of this process have been gratefully received. I also extend thanks to Janet Lansdale for introducing me to John Frows writing on genre and

intertextuality, which have been so influential to the development of this research.

Thank you to the editorial team at Palgrave Macmillan for your patience

and time and to Palgraves reviewers for their pertinent suggestions and supportive comments. Thank you to Al Baker for his enthusiasm and gen-erosity in relation to the use of his fantastic images.

Thank you to my colleagues and conference-sharing friends, particu

larly those who are part of the research group PoP (Performances of the

Popular) Moves: Clare Parfitt, Ann David, Laura Robinson, Melissa

Blanco Borelli, Celena Monteiro, Sherril Dodds, Mary Fogarty, Julie

Malnig, Danielle Robinson and Elena Benthaus for their inspiration and

support. Presenting this work, intellectualising and celebrating with you has rocked.

Thank you to Will Brooker, for his kind offer to read my initial book

proposal and some of the material in its early stages of revision. Your attention to detail and thoughtful comments helped me to refine my ideas and

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

understand the unique offer of this book. And to Simon Brown, a sup

portive and wise colleague in difficult times.

My thanks are also extended to the Arts and Humanities Research

Council for the doctoral award (20062009) that helped me to complete

the PhD research at the University of Surrey (20042009) from which

this book developed.

And lastly, I thank my family and friends. A special mention for Joanna, Elaine and Hazel, for their sterling words of encouragement and for their interest in another popular dance style, the Irish jig. To Rowan and Daisy, for bringing sunshine to our lives. And to Dom, for being a very special part of this journey.

CONTENTS

ix

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 5.1

Spellbound, MCR Academy, Manchester, 01/12/2001.

Photograph Al Baker. Used with permission

Fig. 5.2

Soul:ution, Band on the Wall, Manchester, 29/04/2011.

Photograph Al Baker. Used with permission

Fig. 6.1

Soul:ution, Band on the Wall, Manchester, 14/11/2003.

Photograph Al Baker. Used with permission

Fig. 6.2

Soul:ution, Band on the Wall, Manchester, 14/11/2003.

Photograph Al Baker. Used with permission

Fig. 6.3

Soundscape, Manchester, 05/10/2007. Photograph Al

Baker. Used with permission

xi

CHAPTER 1

Mapping the Multifarious

Club Supreme, Vauxhall, London, UK

5 November 2004, 10.30 p.m.

Standing underneath the low red-brick railway arches, I look over the

balcony to the crowded dance floor below. Its dark, but the red and blue revolving lights allow me to make out a collection of densely packed, moving bodies. They are just about visible through the clouds of smoke and

dry ice that hang in the hot, sweaty space between the balcony and the

dancers below. The walls, ceiling and floor of the room reverberate with a sound that is electronic and futuristic, yet grounded and primitive. Insistent, polyrhythmic drum patterns clatter alongside a low, blaring synthesised

horn. The music feels infectious as it rushes up and into my body, and I cant resist the urge to move. With shoulders moving smoothly forwards

and back, loose waves run through my arms and spine. But as the music

builds in intensity, the rhythm fills my body with a forceful, contained energy that escapes with jerks and shudders. A deep, cavernous bassline

comes in, wobbling like the propellers of a helicopter rotating faster and faster. It makes me smile with amusement, and some of the dancers below

jump up and down, shout out and flick their hand toward the DJ in appre

ciation of the track selection. I can feel the anticipation and intense excitement for the night ahead, rising like steam from the dance floor.

The MC stands on a small raised platform to the side of the club space

with his shoulders tightly raised, body upright and one hand gluing the

microphone close to his mouth. His other arm gestures into the space,

The Author(s) 2018

J. Hall, Boys, Bass and Bother,

J. HALL

waving up and down in time with a bounce of the knees. Next to him the

DJ, enclosed by the large stacks of speakers and twin set turntables, also moves up and down but with his eyes fixed on the decks. The MC shouts