At some point during another amazing Time Kode party last Friday, I was struck by the dance floor. No, I didn’t fall over, but I had a thought - as DJ’s, our job is to create the atmosphere that activates the space such that people participate in it. When we consider the way in which the pub or club has become the gathering ground for young urban creative class 20-somethings/30-somethings, how significant is the music that they want to hear to the spaces they want to be in? Participating in public space has something of a performative value - this discourse of performance in space has been in motion since Rousseau’s philosophical anthropology defined human existence as fundamentally social in the Discourse on the Inequality of Man. and was brought to bear on the phenomenon of the 20th century city by Richard Sennett’s seminal 1974 work The Fall of Public Man. The dance floor is an interesting and practical kind of metaphor for the public space in which we perform and individuate.
Sennett was among the urbanists who contributed to 2007’s The Endless City, one of the most powerful and comprehensive books of comparative urban study that I’ve ever seen. They do not, however, profile Sennett’s home city of Chicago. Nor was youth culture and music on the researchers’ radar. If it was, they might have thought to include The Chi. Other than New York, there are few other cities in North America, or anywhere for that matter, that have made as strong an impact on youth and music culture worldwide as Chicago has. It was from there that House music would make its way into the world.
Edward Soja comments in his opening essay “The Urbanization of The World” that:
An important starting point in looking at the changes that have taken place within urban regions over the past 30 years is what Mike Davis recently described as the mass production of slums. The expansion of urban poverty has made ‘extended’ slums and burgeoning informal economies a distinctive feature of both the urbanization of the world and the globalization of the urban.
Nowhere is the concept of mass slums more poignant than in Chicago’s north and south sides. The Robert Taylor and Cabrini-Green houses are infamous even as they come down. The Chicago Housing Authority’s position on integration in the 50s led them to create one of the most severe black/white housing divisions that the U.S. would ever see. Those projects would also be the breeding ground for one of the most robust and influential informal economies of musical ideas outside of New York’s 5 boroughs.
While in Comiskey Park they were literally blowing up dance records, in a south side club called The Warehouse, dance music was reinventing itself and creating a new context for the dance floor. Revealing the world beat that would turn the UK upside down between ‘88 and ‘91, and changing the way we dance forever are no small innovations. As the homes and communities that birthed House come down, we should ask ourselves: How have the peripheral effects of space contributed to mainstream culture? In the discourse that Hope VI has initiated about dispersing or concentrating poverty, without defending the terrible conditions that places like Cabrini-Green subjected its residents to, it’s important to consider what else we’re concentrating and dispersing as well. How can we appreciate the innovations coming from a space and its productive forces while simultaneously condemning that space?
Also, how important is the nightclub/pub to the young professionals? How much does a city’s musical profile affect your impression of it? How important is it to you that you can go out and dance?
And now, as always, some music.
Tags: Chicago, Dancing, Edward Soja, Hope VI, House, Public Space, Richard Sennett, The Endless City, Time Kode
August 20th, 2008 at 7:45 am
After disco began to leave the club-scene and the Paradise Garage altogether, the all night (mostly gay) club scene in NY dominated the youth obsession. Alot of the musicianship was lost for a while in the dark, electronic vibes that that particular scene brought along with it. It wasnt until some of these notorious Chi-City slums (as mentioned above) decided to take the music back to themselves and re-inject a piece of soul that represented their surroundings and hard times they endured. This totally changed the sound of underground dance music as we knew it, and quickly spread around the globe.
For a definitive example of what would soon become “dance” music around the world, check my man Dj Anonymous “Evolution Of Chicago House” mixes. 2 definitive sets of Marshall Jefferson produced beauty.
http://www.nine2fiveoffice.com/houseisafeeling/Marshall%20Jefferson%20_Move%20Your%20Body%20_%20The%20Evolution%20of%20Chicago%20House_.mp3
Come Go with Me - The Pockets
You’ve Got That Something - Logg
I Can’t Turn Around - Isaac Hayes
I’m Caught Up (In a One Night Love Affair) - Inner Life
Let No Man Put Asunder - First Choice
You Saved My Day - Cheryl Lynn
Your Love - Frankie Knuckles / Jamie Principle
Can You Feel It - Mr. Fingers
Let the Music Use You - Nightwriters
Mysteries of Love - Fingers Inc.
Time Marches On - Jungle Wonz
You Don’t Know - Serious Intention
Don’t Make Me Wait - Peech Boys
Acid Tracks - Phuture
I’ve Lost Control - Sleezy D
http://www.nine2fiveoffice.com/houseisafeeling/Move%20Your%20Body%20-%20The%20Evolution%20of%20Chicago%20House%20%5bDisc%202%5d.mp3
Moody - ESG
No Way Back - Adonis
Promised Land - Joe Smooth
Mind Games - Quest
Move Your Body - Marshall Jefferson
Devotion - Ten City
String Free - Phortune
Someday - Ce Ce Rogers
You Used to Hold Me - Ralphi Rosario
7 Ways to Jack - Hercules
I’ll Never Let You Go - William S.
Love Can’t Turn Around - Farley “Jackmaster” Funk
Like This - Chip E.
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough - Inner Life
Also as an example of how powerful this new sound was and how quickly it spread, a nearby Baltimore Maryland quickly adapted the Chi-City sound and tried to make it their own. A new sub-genre was created and titled “Baltimore Club”. Here’s a mix that examines the roots of Bmore Club.
http://media.libsyn.com/media/maddecent/mad_decent_worldwide_radio_33_-_Mad_Decent_Block_Party.mp4
Sorry, im not a writer (obviously! haha) just a music lover who completely identifies with Mr. Kefentse’s article, and thought i could contribute something. Thanks, and enjoy!
August 20th, 2008 at 9:07 am
New York (specifically the Bronx) may get one of the buildings that is foundational to the hip hop culture it created protected and recognized if Kool Herc has his way -
http://incubate.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/from-the-vaults-3-update/
Also,
Rousseau on dancing (from the Sparknotes on Discourse on the Inequality of Man - http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/inequality/section6.rhtml )
” Initially the state of nature was a static condition, but various environmental factors, described by Rousseau as “difficulties,” led to change. This change includes both the spread of mankind throughout the world, and the development of various social and economic structures. Man’s difficult interaction with his natural environment explains much of his later development. The first revolution involved men beginning to use tools and build shelters. This development of technology led to changes in human psychology and behavior. Conjugal love, co-operation and particularly the creation of gender roles that make women subservient to men represent the beginning of inequality.
Leisure is the driving force of this stage of Rousseau’s story. When man is most like other animals, he only has enough time to search for food and sleep. This is no problem. However, the development of co-operation means that shared tasks take people less time, and man suddenly has leisure time to spare. Other activities are needed to fill this new gap, such as dancing and celebrations. These activities become habitual behaviors, and then become needs. Something that was initially a novel pleasure is now necessary. This is the beginning of man’s decline: relationships with other people become motivated by forces other than pity, and become situations in which people depend on others and compare themselves to them. What others think of you becomes important for the first time, and so you unhappily crave their opinion and company. The fact that Rousseau chooses the village dance as an example of this type of comparison is unusual; such occasions are more normally associated with sociability and community spirit. This only illustrates Rousseau’s point. Even aspects of society that we find pleasurable are bad, because they all involve thinking about other people rather than ignoring or feeling pity towards them as the savage does.
However, Rousseau is sincere when he argues that this stage was the best in mankind’s history. Although he criticizes many of its features, it essentially represents a point at which the self-preservation and pity of savage man are perfectly balanced with the amour propre of modern man. This is good evidence against the view that Rousseau idolizes the state of nature, or that he feels that modern men would be better off living as savages. Some aspects of reason and communal life are good, but they are still potentially destructive. In criticizing civility and concern for others as negative features of society, Rousseau goes against the general trend. Good manners and civility are generally seen as restraining the savage features of man; Rousseau feels that there is nothing to restrain in natural man, and civility only makes men compare themselves to one another.”
August 20th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Thanks for the great comments guys!
Ian - No need to be a writer, that music is a great contribution!
Adam - I was actually thinking about posting this NY Times article about 1520 Sedgwick but I’m tryin’ to keep it brief! It’s a great story though.
Good Lookin’ out on the excerpt too. Rousseau was a great mind.
August 20th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
I’m not a big dancer but I do think that clubs and pubs play a crucial role in bringing together people who might not otherwise connect. People who want to hear forward-thinking music usually have forward-thinking ideas (in whatever field they’re in) and a good party brings diverse folks together with some drinks to grease the wheels. Elizabeth Currid’s book The Warhol Economy does a good job of describing these forces in a more formal way.
Here’s a couple questions for you guys:
Why hasn’t Chicago been able to capitalize on its status as the home of house music? Look at the branding and tourism benefits NY gets from being the birthplace of hip hop, or even how Detroit techno and the Jay Dee sound gave birth to the DEMF. You hear less about people making pilgrimages to the Chi and its importance as the birthplace of house, and I wonder why.
ALSO: here at the MPI some have tossed around the idea that with the advent of dress codes, bottle service, and a lack of musical adventurousness, club nights are no longer the best place to connect young people with big ideas. It’s even been suggested that “public space intervention” type events (flash mobs, subway parties, improve everywhere) have supplanted clubs. Not saying I agree but I’m curious on your thoughts: Are clubs falling off, or are they still #1?
August 21st, 2008 at 11:18 am
Those are really good questions Ian.
Part of the point that I was trying to make in my last post about New York is that almost tantamount to them being innovative with their public space, they are being innovative in recognizing the cultures that have been incubated in their public spaces. That (not so?) simple recognition indicates something about that municipality’s perspective on its cultural industries.
No matter how strong the emergent culture is, when we talk about doing things like capitalizing on status, that kind of thing still has to happen through the hegemony. Toronto couldn’t capitalize on its strong Caribbean culture if the mayor’s office didn’t get it and decided not to co-ordinate with the organizers. Same with Detroit and DEMF. I don’t know what’s up in the Chi though. I think that it would be the kind of thing where we’d have to look at a municipal history to understand why the value of what was going on in the streets seems not to have ever had the opportunity to trickle up to the institutions that are necessary to scale up innovation. Considering how divided chicago is, it’s a reasonable but remarkable possibility that no one in the mayor’s office even knows what’s been going on on the south side. Kanye West is one thing, but this is a bit more subtle.
August 21st, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Good theory Kwende - Chicago seems to have a rep for being divided along racial lines, even more than other US cities.
So have clubs been usurped as the best place to connect young, creative people?
My take is that it depends on what clubs you go to. The nightlife archetype is so established that there are lots of spots that play Kanye, Flo Rida, Rihanna (rinse and repeat). But the Timekodes, Rubs, and FWDs of the world are still there, bubbling just under the surface and attracting a crowd with fresh new ideas.
Clubs are also looking a little tired right now because the pendulum has swung toward hits and mash-ups. I think it’ll swing back to fresher sounds soon enough.
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:48 am
“You hear less about people making pilgrimages to the Chi and its importance as the birthplace of house, and I wonder why.”
I went to Chicago earlier in the year to check out the birthplace of house music and couldn’t find a trace of it anywhere…not on the radio, not in the bars…so weird.
I went to Gramaphone records and spent a couple of hundred dollars on some tunes…met some nice people in the shop, but they were a bit stumped to reccomend me a club night / party. I went down to the one they eventually suggested and was disappointed to find the guest was a minimal techno disk jock from Barcelona.
Don’t get me wrong, wonderful city though…I walked around listening to Mr Fingers on my headphones…that was almost enough
September 18th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
[...] they note it as an important one and so do I. In my post on House music and Chicago, there was a comment by Felix saying that he had gone to the city to find some vestige of the music’s history but [...]