kramadas Posted August 21 Report Share Posted August 21 Super DJs forced off the dancefloorAudrey GillanWednesday August 20 2003The GuardianOnce, the fans came by the busload from across the country to see superstar DJs, the "new rock stars" flown to oversized nightclubs at great expense. But now dance music, the genre that revolutionised people's clothing, drinking,drug-taking and socialising habits beyond recognition, is battling for survival. In the past year, the Liverpool superclub Cream - one of the biggest in the world - closed down and Gatecrasher, once one of the most hardcore dance clubsin the country, has downshifted to once a month rather than once a week. Sales of Britain's most popular dance magazine, Mixmag, have declined by 30% and Ministry of Sound magazine recently closed when its circulation fell below 50,000. Pronounced dead by many within the dance music industry, rock has become happening again, with people more interested in the Strokes, the White Stripesand the Darkness than the latest Pete Tong compilation. The slide guitar has been squeezing computer-generated music out of the charts. In the wake of this decline, dance clubs, record producers, promoters and magazine publishers have all had to rethink their acts. Dance's once hardcorefans have grown older and bored listening to beeps and bass, and younger music lovers are looking for something far removed from what their parents listen toon chillout albums. Tonight the original superclub, Ministry of Sound, relaunches itself to appeal to more upmarket clubbers, serving cocktails and allowing older ravers to book tables to pursue a more sedate form nightspot pleasure. Other superclubs have tried to rebrand themselves, marking a movement away fromthe ecstasy culture that went hand in hand with dance. Tom Whitwell, a former editor of Mixmag and now deputy editor of the Face said:"Dance is not dead, but it is resting. At one point it was enormous, with all the different dance magazine selling about 250,000 a month, but now many of those magazines have closed down. The problem is dance music didn't evolve inthe mainstream as much as it could have done. It became strange having all theseDJs on Radio 1 who were all over 40 and there is a big gap between those that are playing the music and those that are listening to them. It became very inward looking. People became very turned off by the superclubs and the super DJs. "Dance was on top for so long and it was liked by everyone from the coolest people to the most uncool people for about 12 years. Compared to Britpop it wasa hell of a lot longer lasting. It is going underground now, back to more of a niche thing." Viv Craske, the editor of Mixmag, feels that despite its circulation drop his magazine is holding its own in a market which had become saturated with readerswho saw dance as a genre encompassing everything from hardcore and trance to Kylie Minogue. Now, it is the hardcore dance fans who are buying it. "It doesn't mean that the genre is dead, it's now a more specialist market," hesaid. "Through the mid-1990s these club promoters were global brands, doing bigfestivals and brand extensions. Now we are moving away from the overblown to the grassroots and the up and coming DJs. People no longer want to listen to cheesy anthems that are nothing to do with clubbing." Mark Rodol, chief executive of Ministry of Sound, admits that the company has had to embark on a radical rethink. The clubs forced to close were those which relied on big-name DJs playing in cavernous rooms. "The super DJ and the superclub game is over," he said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breakbeatz2 Posted August 21 Report Share Posted August 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpoppanils Posted August 21 Report Share Posted August 21 i have no sympathy for the superclubs of the UK. there were victims of their own outlandish hype. Ministry of Sound being valued at over $100 million was a pretty good indication that the hype was getting out of control. all of them had very similar lineups as well. If they featured much different lineups from each other, then I would be worried. but they didnt.BBC radio 1 didnt help either the only point at which i'll worry is if Heaven, The End, Turnmills, and Fabric hit hard times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seximofo2k Posted August 22 Report Share Posted August 22 The situation is totally different in the US i see dance getting more popular if anything its all over the radio now. Even in Albany, ny where i went to college i started hearing it on some stations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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