The commercial dance music scene in Sydney has generated, and continues to generate, plenty of discussion in the weekly street press and on websites, but unlike scenes in the UK, the US, and to a lesser extent Europe, there has been little written material that has looked in detail at the history of the scene, the way it has developed, the ideologies that underpin it, and the tensions that ripple throughout it. With this in mind, in 2002 I commenced study for a PhD that had as its focus, club culture and dance music in Sydney. This article represents an attempt to briefly draw out some of the key points of this now completed thesis, in regard to the position of the Sydney dance music scene within the wider context of global club culture, and how this position is being affected by the development of technology.
My study and analysis was based mainly around interviews with a selection of DJs, promoters, media people and other music industry practitioners who work in Sydney, and was grounded in a commercial sensibility, that was itself infused with an international perspective that stems from me being English. Coming over from the UK in 2002 to commence my study meant getting to grips with the relatively unfamiliar terrain of Sydney’ club culture in a rather short space of time, although I soon overcame this, in part through the “education’ and “insider’ perspective’ I received during my work at (the old) Central Station Records on Oxford Street. At the same time, I would argue that my familiarity with dance music in the UK allowed me to engage more closely with the debates and issues surrounding transnationalism and the global appeal of contemporary dance music culture.
Local scenes and global networks
Dance music has a central role not just in the culture of Sydney, but also socially and economically, and on a wider geographical scale. Given the increasingly global and corporate nature of the dance music scene, there is a sense that the music and culture are becoming less “local’ and more “international’, with this global movement affecting the identity and development of local scenes, the understandings and practices of those who are involved with these scenes, and the very definition of a “scene’ itself.
While I wish to avoid any suggestion that dance music is somehow becoming a global product of the music industry, there is certainly a degree of similarity between the scenes in Europe, America and Australia, if only in the sense of the music itself, and there is nothing intrinsic in the Sydney scene that specifically promotes Australian national identity. Indeed, with the global flow of the music, and the global touring of the DJs that play this music, there is a sense of the eradication of the diversity of local and national scenes and culture.
Despite the fact that dance music history can be traced through specific geographical locations, such as the development of house music in Chicago, techno in Detroit, acid house in Britain, trance in Goa, and the Ibiza scene, the existence of any contemporary dance scene is not reliant on specific local characteristics. Yet that does not mean there is some kind of homogenised and shared global dance music culture, and that specific scenes do not have their own distinctive features, although it remains the case that Australian dance music culture draws extensively on the sounds and styles of Europe and America. Apart from the music itself being foreign in origin, much of the surrounding culture and fashion of the Australian dance music scene is also drawn from overseas. The fact that Australian dance culture has its origins in an imported version acts as the basis of any discussion of the contemporary dance scene in Sydney.
The Sydney scene exists around music imported from overseas, which, three or four years ago, could be seen, in part, as a result of the decline in vinyl production in Australia. Today, with the increasing use of the Internet as the source from which DJs obtain most of their music, whether in the form of physical product (most likely to be CDs, as opposed to vinyl) or as digital downloads, it is becoming far easier to access music from all corners of the globe, which obviously has a direct impact upon the musical content of the scene in Sydney. In previous years, when DJs relied solely on vinyl, the time it took for this vinyl to reach Australia meant that the notion of the Australian dance music scene as being “behind’ its counterparts in the northern hemisphere was very much a part of the discourse that surrounded the scene. Yet this has now been almost entirely eradicated, given the immediacy in obtaining music that new technology facilitates.
Obviously, the commercial availability, and indeed unavailability, of this music will impact upon the shape of the local scene. In this sense, it can be argued that the Sydney dance music scene is shaped and defined, in part, by the music that is imported into the city from abroad, and thus the decisions of record store owners and DJs in selecting this music have a direct impact upon the music that participants in the scene are exposed to. Yet there is an apparent lack of concern for the geographical origins of most dance music. While DJs and clubbers may be aware of these origins, they do not, on the whole, base their value judgements regarding the music on them. As such, the central tenets and ideologies of dance culture do not reside in notions of tensions between local product and imported product, but rather in unique and specifically local interpretations and articulations of a wider global dance culture.
The previously held perception of the Australian dance scene as being “behind’ is somewhat unsupportable, given the rapid facilities and channels that now exist for the worldwide distribution of music through the development of the Internet and digital download technology. It is in this sense that dance culture is becoming more “international’, with geographically disparate scenes being closer in their stages of musical development than ever before. As DJs rely less on the physical commodity of vinyl, and make increasing use of digital media, the international interconnectedness of dance culture will become even more developed. Sydney DJ and electronic music performer Seb Chan explains how certain practices intrinsic to DJ culture and the use of vinyl are being carried over into the use of digital forms, such as the notion of the “dubplate’, in the process breaking down the stylistic boundaries and markers that used to divide scenes in different geographical locations: “I know lots and lots of DJs who are getting MP3 dubplates, effectively, via peer-to-peer, officially from artists, directly to play out at parties. It is totally bypassing borders, as such, because it is possible now. So it is hard to say now that these scenes have boundaries. They don’ have national borders nowadays, but they certainly did before the ability to transmit music became so easy.” (Interview, 2005)
This idea of a “global network’ of dance scenes is reinforced by the increasing use of the Internet, as opposed to the more traditional form of the retail record store, as the source from which most DJs purchase their music. Several of the DJs I interviewed explained how they are now bypassing the traditional “bricks and mortar’ local record store in favour of both websites of overseas physical stores and digital download websites, in order to obtain the freshest and newest tracks. Furthermore, with the increasing audio quality of digital downloads, it is making more financial sense to avoid paying for imported 12-inch vinyl, which typically retails in Australia for approximately $20, and which would probably get you the original track and three remixes, and instead make use of the Internet. As Sydney DJ Paul Goodyear highlights: “In the last couple of weeks I’ve just started downloading stuff from websites such as beatport.com, where you pay US$1.49 and you’re able to access [a particular]track. This site [features]a lot of new producers who put their music up on the site, and it won’ be released for probably a couple of months. So for less than two Australian dollars per track, you’ve got something that’s way ahead of release, the quality is fantastic, and it’s much cheaper than spending 20 bucks on a piece of vinyl.” (Interview, 2005)
The development of the Internet has thus created a “global distribution network’ within dance music culture, making it easier to buy music from different countries and easier for music to be distributed around the world. Yet for all this discussion of how technology is bringing geographically separate scenes closer together and eroding the sense that Australian dance music culture “lags behind’ British and American scenes, we cannot simply take the perspective that there is a unified global dance music culture that transcends national boundaries and divisions. There is a certain unrealistic idealism contained within such a perception, and also a demonstrative lack of understanding of the way locality and identity serve to create place-specific dance scenes that have unique operational practices and infrastructures. Describing local dance culture as simply imported does, in turn, provide an overly simplistic and narrow interpretation of the specifically local developments and progressions in Sydney’ dance scene. Discussing what it is that makes the Sydney scene unique and different from other scenes elsewhere in Australia and around the world, Seb Chan suggests that it is not so much directly related to the preferences clubbers have for particular types of music, but rather the laws, geographical factors, and meteorological factors that shape the city and the lifestyle of its inhabitants: “It is the geographic specificities of the city [that give the dance scene its unique shape]. Why is Sydney different to Melbourne? Licensing laws, geography, no beaches in Melbourne, shittier weather in Melbourne, or perceived shittier weather in Melbourne, venue spaces, people, demographics, cultural things… Why did a techno scene spring up in Melbourne and die out in Sydney? Why are there more art galleries in Melbourne than in Sydney? Why are there more beachside cafes in Sydney rather than Melbourne? Why does lemon gelato sell more in Sydney than in Melbourne? Sydney is different because it’s got the beach and it’s got the bush close by. People go out more to those kinds of things. They invest less of their time in indoor cultures, like music, art, and books. That would be my blanket statement, which is probably unfounded in many cases, but generally, I would say that Melbourne is an artier city, because there’ not much else to do there. The weather is shit so you’ve got to go out in any case, and you’ll go out when it’s raining. You try putting a club on here and it’s raining, no one comes. Just really simple things like that [make a scene unique].” (Interview, 2005)
The international appeal of dance music
While there may be certain qualities and features that are unique to the Sydney dance scene, one has to argue that dance culture is very much a culture grounded in an “international’ sensibility, with scant regard shown for the geographical origins of particular tracks or DJs, whereas in rock music, place is often tied to the cultural authenticity and credibility of a particular artist or style of music, with, for example, Seattle and its association with early-1990s grunge, Liverpool and 1960s beat groups, and Manchester and late-1980s indie.
This is not to deny the importance and relevance of such places as Detroit, Chicago and Ibiza in the historical development of dance music, yet whereas certain bands that operate within, and certain styles that are a part of, rock music culture may be tied to a particular place, dance music largely transcends national borders and the so called “tyranny of distance’ to reach a broad, international listening base.
Given that contemporary dance culture is very much a global concern, I would suggest that, while there remains a number of disparate and contrasting styles and genres under the collective term “dance music’, there has actually been a formation of global networks of cultural information flow and exchange that have connected and drawn together local scenes into a larger, more international scene that operates according to certain shared principles and ideologies, so that participants in dance culture interact in a truly global sense. Urban dance scenes may be physically separated by significant distances, but they are also brought together through shared music, ideologies and practices. In other words, through a sharing of internationally disseminated media and associated discourse, a clubber in Sydney can explore the dance music of Detroit without leaving their home city, or, through the benefits of Internet technology, a producer in London can create a track for a DJ in Sydney to include in their set on the same day. Dance scenes do not operate within the confines of a singular bounded territory, but rather are drawn into an operative framework that is global in its breadth and scope, and that transcends the specificity of geographical location. It is in this sense that the term “transnational’ most accurately conveys the idea of dance culture as not being contained within specifically local articulations.
The transnational Sydney dance scene
The description of a “transnational dance scene’ accommodates the fluidity of club culture, with its constantly changing and shifting shape and formation, and “transnational’ acknowledges both the lack of specific boundaries and divisions between geographically separate dance scenes, and the cultural interaction that takes place between these scenes. I would suggest that such an interpretation can be made of dance scenes in any particular locality. Dance culture is very much a culture that is understood, articulated and explored on an international level, and thus every scene is part of the international flow of information and music, yet at the same time, a scene such as the one in Sydney can be said to be less self-reliant and less self-sustaining than, for example, the dance scene in London, in that Sydney relies much more on the international traffic of DJs and music to give shape and definition to its dance scene, due to its relative marginality in the production of dance music. There is a definite sense, and acceptance on the part of DJs, that the Sydney scene is very much an imported version of dance culture in the UK, the US and Europe. Sydney DJ Trent Rackus explains how the scene in Sydney, “… is completely influenced by other territories. It’s all because we don’ have enough people producing music down here to create individual sounds. You don’ hear of Australian trance or Australian garage or Australian breaks… there are Australian artists making breakbeat music, but it is music that’s heavily influenced from other territories… anything that gets spat from a producer’ studio from Australia, all the elements and the ingredients are imported from overseas.” (Interview, 2004)
This lack of producers thus dictates that the scene relies heavily on imported music, although this has not constrained the growth of the scene in the city. For Sydney DJ Stephen Allkins, Sydney definitely has its own unique dance scene, and as he explains, the way the city was isolated from British and American dance scenes, at least during the initial stages of the development of dance music, actually served to enhance this uniqueness as the scene progressed and developed: “Every city in the world has a distinct scene. Even if I travelled from Sydney to Brisbane or Sydney to Melbourne, let alone to an international city, it’s different, because every city in the world has a personality, and I don’ think music is any different. Yes, definitely, Sydney has a personality, but so does London, and so does Paris, and they are not the same. As far as us adopting and all that sort of bullshit, we were… Infusion, Itch-E and Scratch-E, Robert Racic… we were doing stuff in the 1980s. We didn’ wave flags, and just got on and did it, and it was incredibly ahead of its time. If you listen to early Itch-E and Scratch-E albums now, producers weren’ doing it in England, they were still doing piano-based house, whereas in Australia, because we were so isolated, we didn’ need references… Being kept in the “back’ doesn’ mean that we’re the poor cousin.” (Interview, 2005)
Despite the unique features and characteristics of the dance scene in Sydney, it remains my argument that the concept of “transnational’ most adequately accommodates the exchange and flow of music, styles and fashions that occurs between different dance scenes around the world. Clearly there are certain distinguishing features of dance culture in Sydney, yet these features arise out of a fusion of local understandings and interpretations with global culture and ideologies. The current global pervasiveness of club culture makes it difficult to theorise scenes as bounded entities that have their own unique set of practices, and thus, the operational logics that underpin contemporary dance culture need to be analysed from an international perspective, rather than from the confines of a specific geographical context, in order to make apparent the global flows of dance music that tie together geographically disparate scenes into an internationally consumed and experienced culture. It is obvious from the increasing use of digital technology by DJs that the issues of time and distance can no longer be seen as influencing factors in the formation of differences and contrasts between scenes, and with this immediate global availability of dance music comes a sense that local scenes are perhaps becoming less unique and more homogenised.
Yet such a simplistic argument fails to take account not only of the complex, multi-directional flows of culture between countries that occur through migration and travel, but also of the way local scenes assimilate and interpret this culture in unique and specific ways. Tracing the historical development of the Sydney dance scene from gay culture, through rave culture, and on to club culture, it becomes apparent that, while the influence of British dance culture has played, and continues to play, a significant role in this development, it is through the work of DJs and promoters that the Sydney scene has taken on its own identity. While contemporary dance music culture is most certainly a global culture, it does not follow that it is consumed and experienced in a globally shared manner. The Sydney scene, and indeed Australian dance culture as a whole, has traditionally struggled with its apparent secondary position below the dance scenes of the UK, Europe and America, in part a result of its reliance on imported vinyl, and the lack of a sizeable and supportive dance music industry infrastructure. Dance music and DJs from the northern hemisphere still exert a certain influence over the Sydney scene, yet rather than impose on the scene a sense that it suffers from a degree of cultural imperialism, this influence would seem to be simply a part of the intrinsically global nature of contemporary dance culture. As such, with its preferences for specific sub-genres, its DJs, its media, and its clubs, all counterbalanced by international DJs, international music, and international club tours, the dance scene in Sydney would seem to be most accurately described through the concept of “transnational’. Indeed, if we are to suggest that dance music transcends national boundaries and is truly international in its appeal, then “transnational’ describes not only the scene in Sydney, but also scenes elsewhere in the world.
Ed Montano
