cultures cannot be understated: DJ booths at clubs and raves are often
hawkishly watched over by would-be DJs hoping to learn some tricks of the trade; the
various dance music media, including the liner notes of DJ-mixed CDs, often refer to
and promote the technical mixing prowess of certain DJs; and, while an impressive
record collection and the skill to program records over the course of a performance are
highly valued, DJs who boast the skills to perform intricate, difficult and often the
longest mixes are generally hailed as the best ‘bricoleurs’ (Langlois 1992:235),
‘soundscape architects’ (Fikentscher 2000:8) and masters of ‘a cult following’ (Gore
1997:62).
11 ‘Trainwrecking’ is one of many terms which describe a mix gone wrong, generally a
clash between two portions of separate records when the DJ has failed correctly to beat
match one record to another.
12 As Simon Jones (1988:30) defines it, this consists of the ‘interruption and constant
“cutting-back” of a popular record to its opening bars...to increase the sense of drama
and anticipation amongst the audience’, a practice which, along with ‘the DJ’s
exhortations and interjections...help[s] to socialise the dance event as a whole, by
making it “live” and turning it into a creative performance’ (1988:30).
13 The World Electronic Music Festival is a three-day event held over the second
weekend in July outside of Toronto. Organized and promoted by local promotion
company Destiny (in conjunction with Lifeforce and other niche music promoters),
the event has been variously located in a farmer’s field, on a beach and in a national
park.
14 I refer here not only to the popularity of rave and club events in various countries
around the world, but also to the use of underground dance music in other media
(television advertising, film soundtracks, etc.), the use of images specific to
underground dance music (the resurgence of the vinyl record and record players in
various advertising) and the fetish-like popularization of rave and club fashion in the
main-stream.BibliographyBey, Hakim (1991) TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone—Ontological Anarchy and Poetic
Terrorism, New York: Autonomedia.
Bradby, Barbara (1993) ‘Sampling sexuality: gender, technology and the body in dance
music’, Popular Music 2(2): 155–75.
Broadhurst, Susan (1999) Liminal Acts: A Critical Overview of Contemporary Performance and
Theory, London: Cassell.
Fikentscher, Kai (2000) You Better Work!: Underground Dance Music in New York City,
Hanover: Wesleyan University Press.
Foucault, Michel (1986) ‘Of other spaces’, Diacritics 16:22–7.
Gerard, Morgan and Jack Sidnell (2000) ‘Reaching out to the core: on the interactional work
of the MC in drum & bass performance’, Popular Music and Society 24(3): 23–43.
Gibson, Chrisand Rebecca Pagan (1997) ‘Subversive sites: rave, empowerment and the
Internet’, paper presented at the IASPM Conference: Sites and Sounds: Popular Music
in the Age of the Internet, UTS, Sydney, 21–3 July.
Gore, Georgiana (1997) ‘Trance, dance and tribalism in rave culture’, in Helen Thomas(ed.)
Dance in the City, London:Macmillan Press.
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