1990s hypes revisited - loose series installmant 02 - "Big Beat"

droid

Well-known member
you could see it as rockification dilute version of rave if you wanted, sure, but also it could see it as rave actually changing the mainstream - changing the sound of the charts.

And if you gaze long into an abyss...

Rave did change the sound of the charts, from LFO, to The prodigy, Sonz of the loop, Baby D, Bizarre Inc, Smart-E's General Levy... all top of the pop hits and far more subversive and less compromised.
 
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droid

Well-known member
this tune virtually is Sonz of the Loop Da Loop Era


Gave it a good listen there and can't agree. There's a superficial resemblance but Its Sonz of the Loop drawn with crayons. Its too slow, the break is far too bombastic and clunky, there's no air in the production, the guitar breakdown is an abomination, there's no poise, no guile, no manic collage energy...

 

luka

Well-known member
The other thing big beat brings to mind is late 90s/early 2000s Guy Ritchie films.

do a moodboard of all that was happening in this period and you will see it was the worst time in england since the blitz
 

john eden

male pale and stale
do a moodboard of all that was happening in this period and you will see it was the worst time in england since the blitz

Bold statement but actually more ridiculous than Matt saying we should all spend £25k on a CD player.

97-2000 was a pretty great time for dancehall, post rock, experimental music, IDM etc. Lots of great record shops too.

There was a lot of other cool stuff happening too - things like Reclaim The Streets and the wider anti-capitalist movement, weird underground projects like the London Psychogeographical Association, a lot of strange early internet projects.

Being a young adult then was pretty cool compared to a lot of things people face now. And it was definitely a better time for many than the years immediately after the war, or even the early seventies or mid 80s.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Oasis / New Labour / Cool Britannia / Lad magazines / Loaded / Guy Ritchie / Kate Moss / YBAs / Chris Evans / Trainspotting

It's such a pedestrian "I Love The 1990s" reading of the culture.

Like the noughties were just about boy bands, Location Location Location, Jamie Oliver, reality TV, Calvin Harris, Bridget Jones diary, covers bands, etc.
 

droid

Well-known member
Nonetheless, you cant deny that these were the dominant cultural movements in the UK in the mid-late 90s.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Nonetheless, you cant deny that these were the dominant cultural movements in the UK in the mid-late 90s.

I can't deny that they were some of them but it's quite reductive to centre those aspects in a series of threads that are about the quirkier things that were going on in the 90s.

Nobody on here is going to suggest that Grime was awful because of Kirstie Allsop.
 

luka

Well-known member
what droid said but also becasue youre emotionally triggered youre misreading my argument.
it's the danger of being reactive. if you notice an emotional response to something
peer at it first. feel it out. try to understand where it's coming from.it's telling you something.

then you can respond to what has been said as opposed to your emotional response to what has been said.
 

luka

Well-known member
you feel that me and droid are devaluing your youth and the good times you had.
it's not really my intention and i doubt it's droids either. we're just being spengler
and analysing the decline of the west. broad brush strokes. hyperbole. to make a
wider point.
 

droid

Well-known member
Exactly. Im not trying to sully anyone's happy memories.

I used to play out both Nu-breaks and tech-step and can happily acknowledge now that they were both shite. With enough drugs and the right vibe anything can sound good.
 

luka

Well-known member
he had a good time and that's the main thing. we;re not here to take that away from him.
his happiness is our happiness.
 

firefinga

Well-known member
hmmm. I just remembered the UK of late 1990s gave the world the Spice Girls. All of a sudden, that period INDEED looks grim
 

john eden

male pale and stale
what droid said but also becasue youre emotionally triggered youre misreading my argument.
it's the danger of being reactive. if you notice an emotional response to something
peer at it first. feel it out. try to understand where it's coming from.it's telling you something.

then you can respond to what has been said as opposed to your emotional response to what has been said.

Well my emotional response to most of this thread has mainly been laughter to be honest. ❌ Maybe that hasn't come across so well, I dunno.

It seems like I have far less emotional investment in Big Beat (some people playing records in a room while other people danced + some nice memories) than its critics. You can counter that I am protesting too much, but it's really not a big deal for me, whereas you seem to be claiming that it's partly responsible for ruining your youth, or the entire country, or something.

It's of no consequence to anyone whether clubs I went to 20 years ago were cool or not. Except you, strangely :D
 
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