Why
do people say that UK garage is dead? Well that could be for a number
of reasons. I’m just going to touch on a couple of points and key
issues which I believe did not and do not help.
The
social and public relations decline:
First
and foremost is the way and speed that the sound changed from mainly
vocal uplifting tracks to the darker side of things in which we saw
crews and heavily based mc tracks and nights being created. Now I do
not believe for one minute that any one of these crews or artists are
to blame and I really believe that they was just trying to move a
genre forward to what they were feeling at the time. I personally
pinpoint the changes in which the way the djs and mcs presented
themselves started at the heartless crew. They were very good in what
they did and how they brought a different aspect to the scene. It
worked very well and people had a great time and they did the job
perfectly. I'll be honest, their style was not really my thing but I
can see why it worked. The main problem here was that they were so
good at what they did that there was bound to be other acts trying to
do the same thing but in their own way that seemed to end up
attracting the wrong crowd of people. By now there was also a change
in punters choice of, how can I put this, stimulants. Champagne and
other bits I believe changed the attitude of the clubbers inside to
which it brought a different attitude. There are so many aspects of
why a scene dies out, you cannot blame the music alone. During late
2000 to 2002 a lot of promotions and clubs took a few bad hits with
gun violence and knife crime and associating it with the nights
themselves. It’s a shame, a few bad eggs ruined the nights in which
people really loved. Once the media had tarred the UK Garage brand
with associating it to the crimes it was very hard to get any major
club to let a company put an event on. Also the councils and police
got involved quite heavily at one point and were getting nights
stopped before they even had a chance. I believe in the end that the
major brands just gave up as they were losing too much money each
time.
Sales:
This
is a major factor. This might sound strange when I say that the
decline in record sales dramatically damaged a scene. You have to
remember that the UK garage market is and was actually very small
globally. With introduction of pioneer cdjs it was getting harder to
shift vinyl units. A lot of the main producers that were churning out
the main hits were indeed producers of other genres where their bread
and butter lay. Why waste your time when it’s your main career
writing tracks to shift 500 units which hardly breaks you even when
you can sell 10,000 units globally of the main genre your known for.
These guys dominated the sales during major years of UK garage and
when they jacked it in the selection of quality garage quickly
thinned out. This left a lot of the sets sounding the same and
becoming boring.
With
it becoming harder to get a set anywhere playing uk garage, because a
lot of clubs were shutting their doors to it, a lot of up and comers
that just wanted to get bookings, and who can blame them, found other
genres in which they were interested in. Again this kills the sales
like I stated in the previous paragraph and moves producers to
concentrate on what is going to be the next genre in fashion.
There
are quite a few artist or label owners that continued and some still
continue to carry on producing and releasing something they love such
as Mj Cole, Sunship, DnD, Karl Brown, Matt Jam, Wideboys, Charma,
Domino, Robbie T, Duncan Powell to name a few. Even our own label
Final Cutt Records which Jabz founded didn’t start until 2003. But
even some of these guys slowly disappeared for one reason or another
be it personal or music related.
People
these days that use to be into UK garage think it is dead or do not
wish to listen to any new stuff or give it a chance because they
cannot move on from the bad associations it once had. The sound has
changed a lot over the last 5 years or more and it is slowly becoming
the sound it once was. Not everything is going to be liked by
everyone but that would have still been the case nearly 20 years when
it first began but because people hear a couple of tracks on an album
they believe that it is the only sound of UK garage around and just
dismiss it. I find it hard to believe that it is completely dead when
I’m constantly hearing it on pirates and podcasts still. What makes
me really laugh is that for example Sunship remixes a track, Kiss fm
playlist it and then people really love it but have no real idea what
genre it is.
There
is another issue with UK garage and why I believe it is not moving
anywhere fast is due to the fact that there has been no real
evolution in the sound since 2002. Nearly every 2 step track I hear
seems to have the same old elements. I would like to hear a lot more
different sounds being used apart from the same old strings, stabs,
bass sounds etc. I know it is hard to just come up with these things
but I’m not really hearing much attempt to do so. I might sound a
bit harsh and maybe my wording could be better but hopefully you can
understand where I am coming from.
On
ways to change how people perceive UK garage I think there needs to
be a bit more quality control on what goes out on major cd albums.
This is a main point of advertising to the general public and through
this media a lot of views could be changed. I also believe that
someone with the love and time should look at putting on a regular
night again where old skool and dark and grime based garage is
barred. I’m not saying anything is wrong with grime but it is a far
cry from UK garage. I’m not talking about headlining a Saturday
night at a big club where you’re never going to fill it, I’m
talking about having a small bar somewhere where if there is no
massive dance floor people don’t feel like they have to dance if
they don’t want to and it won’t feel like a dead night because of
this. This way people are getting to hear new music and it is being
filtered back in again. Look at how it started in the first place.
Everything comes back around again in the end but it’s the way you
try and bring it back in which is the make or break of it having the
chance to evolve. Too many promoters just try and put on the same old
big nights which end up being dry. Yes there are exceptions but it’s
generally the rule.
I’m
sure there are hundreds of people that would disagree with me but
like I said this is only my personal opinion.
Think positive. Be happy. x