Critically consider the relationship between the media and dance music culture in Britain after its take-off in 1987

did quite the opposite, it accepted life as it was, but created its own way to deal with

it. That was, weekend escapism, the yearning to feel trouble free and connected to

others for two days a week, but returning to its weekly struggles come Monday. As

Antonio Melechi put it, ‘Acid House pleasures came not from resistance but from

surrender.’

Indeed, Hedbige’s theory of subculture in relation to the acid house phenomenon does

not seem to fit. Not only within the style of the subculture but by his suggestion that a

subculture strives to survive with all the outside pressures. Hedbige’s theory is that

subculture groups struggle against outside relations such as the media, in order to

keep themselves going and to remain an outside group. What theory does not seem

dated, on the other hand, is that of Sarah Thornton who, describes subcultures as

groups that are formed with the help of the media. The media helps construct the

subculture from the beginning and furthermore keeps the trend going. To understand

Thornton’s view in relation to acid house one must look at the relations the media had

with the trend. In 1988 the tabloid newspapers published headlines such as “Ban this

killer music”, Acid house killer” and “drug crazed acid house fans.” At the point of

these headlines, Thornton suggests that this is when the fad had really became a craze.

The coverage that the movement had been given had made people become aware of

the fad, that then grew to become a phenomenon, suggesting that subcultures “become

particularly relevant only when framed as such. Derogatory media coverage is not the

verdict, but the essence of their resistance.” Contrary to Hedbige’s theory that, at the

point of the headlines, the subculture would have become subversive. That, the media

becomes important to subculture only at the point of incorporation, that is when

record companies would catch up to the idea and exploit it through marketing

purposes. 

Another subculturist theory that is used understandably to understand subcultures, but

Outdated, is that of Stanley Cohen. Reporting on the seaside rifts between the mods

and rockers in the 1960’s, Cohens research shows that it was in response to the media

that panic that the riots occurred. Although Thornton’s research was made after

Cohen’s, says the same thing, Cohen’s is somewhat outdated dated due to the fact that

he explains how the media can make a subculture function, but does not give

explanation to how the media keeps a subculture functioning.

Thornton, on the other hand, digs deeper into explaining a subculture by also looking

into subculturist publications. These, she explains are the elements in which a

subculture keeps on functioning. Thornton names these elements as ‘micromedia’;

information that reports on the subculture. In the case of dance music these were

flyers, pirate radio stations and magazines- published primary in relation to the dance

scene. Without these the tabloid media would not have been sparked off in the first

place. Therefore the media takes an active role in creating a subculture as much as

supporting it. 

From the tabloid press, what is clear is that there was an extreme moral panic about

the new acid house culture craze sweeping around Britain. Regarding a craze of

muggings that swept through Britain, in the early 1970’s, Stuart Hall, suggested that

the media panic that surrounded the issue at the time was a result of a social deterrent.

That, the media, sensationalized the actual statistics of the attacks in order to conceal

the real social problems that were occurring such as crime and unemployment, which,

the government were failing to control. Therefore, the media is playing the role of the

hegenomistic device within society. As Stuart Hall put it “the media tend to reproduce

the definitions of the powerful’, that being the government.

Stuart Hall’s theory rather fits in to the 1980‘s Thatch rite Britain, where as

mentioned a number of social and economic problems were occurring. By the middle

of 1980, the economy had thrusted into full-scale recession and the actual scale of

unemployment reached unsurpassed figures of 3 million. Leading a government of

Monetarism values, Margaret Thatcher, then prime minister, found herself under a lot

of pressure in this period, as her beliefs had started to fail her. In order to run a state

with her belief one must concentrate on reducing any government arrears. This meant

taxes were raised and as much government spending reduction as possible was put

into place. It was a deflationary policy set to extreme, and although at the deflationary

policies began to work, economic growth lowered and the requirement for aggregate

demand fell too. When the recession did occur, the government was being highly

criticised, and widespread pressure was upon them to change their policies. Sticking

true to her word on the 10th October 1980, in response to qualms of the matter,

Thatcher famously quoted ‘You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning!’ 

Indeed, the first lady did not turn and she governed Britain until 1990 battling the

criticisms and pressure from not just the public, but within her party too. The acid

house movement in the late 80’s if one was to go on Hall’s view, was, sensationalised

as not just a deterrent to shy people away from failing government policies but also

because aspects of everyday life were failing Britain, such as crime being on the

increase and rises in fuel prices. 

Exploring Hall’s idea more thoroughly one begins to notice a pattern. It was

Newspapers such as the Sun that contentedly splashed the headlines with hard-hitting

words that attacked acid house culture, a newspaper that changed track from Labour,

after the 1979 general election. Indeed, a newspaper that endorsed the Margaret

Thatcher government. On the 12th October 1988, however, on first reaction to acid

house they described it as ‘groovy and cool’ and even began to market its own smiley

t-shirt range. Just a week later, nonetheless, in reference to taking ecstasy, the sun’s

medical correspondent published ‘You will hallucinate. For example, if you don’t like

spiders you’ll start seeing giant ones… Hallucinations can last up to 12

hours…There’s a good chance you’ll end up in a mental hospital for life…If you’re

young enough there’s a good chance you’ll be sexually assaulted while under the

influence. You may not even know it until a few days or weeks later.’ Justifiably,

then, it seems clear the press were beginning to use scare tactics to warn about the

dangers that went alongside the new movement of acid house.

If, Hall’s view is correct, that the media was acting as the hegenomistic device within

society, it is evident that, the press was certainly being noticed. For example the

clothing chain Topshop, dropped its smiley face logo, which incidentally was the

face, or symbol of acid house. Clubs such as the famous ‘Spectrum’ closed for a while

in order for it to look to the media that it was noticing its solemn reviews about drugs,

and from the confusion of ‘acid house’, (where some of the press literally thought

acid was the popular drug of the time) Top of the Pops even banned all tracks that

contained the word acid. However, on July 4th 1989, the acid house scene invited the

media to notice it when Clare Leighton, just sixteen, died at the popular Hacienda

club through taking ecstasy.As a result of this, many nights closed down and

eventually by the end of1989 the commercial value of acid house was lost, therefore

much less media attention. Nevertheless, this is not where the story ends. Acid house

did not die, it just gave itself a rebirth, and returned underground. Contrary to

Hedbige‘s suggestion that after commercialisation a subculture is spat out, after being

a long time chewed.

Being forced to be rejected by the mainstream, the acid house phenomenon grew from

a London based phenomenon to a youth movement that become a nationwide

underground movement., as many clubs were required to decline the acid house craze,

what grew out of this was the  rave scene. ‘If a place couldn’t be hired legally, then it

would often be appropriated for the evening through either a friendly estate agent or,

failing that, a crowbar.’ As Kristen Russell put it, ‘The tabloid hysteria against Acid

House in late 1988 dispersed the Acid House style but not the spirit’.Raves are

defined in the dictionary as ‘An all-night dance party, especially one where techno,

house, or other electronically synthesized music is played.’ Raves were parties

organised outside of London, by the public, usually held in places such as

warehouses. During the late 80’s raves were really beginning to pick up.  Combined

with the consuming of ecstasy, more and more of Thatcher’s youth were becoming

involved in the acid house craze that was criticised by the press so negatively. That is

the reason that when raves began to pick up, organisers found themselves having to

expand their premises, moving from industrial estates to out on the countryside. 

Establishing Thornton’s view that the media’s attention helped expand public

popularity to the dance music movement. ‘Acid house, a dance music club culture

which mutilated into rave after sensational ‘media’ coverage about drug use’.

The summer of 1989 was known as the outdoor rave scene. ‘A rave was an idealized

version of clubbing.  It was not about visiting some purpose-built venue; it was about

creating somewhere new; it was about building a city for a night.  A club had a place

in space and time, but a rave was made of possibilities.  A rave existed in the minds of

people who danced together.  Without them it was nowhere just a field off a

motorway exit.’   With this, however, again came attacks on the dance music culture

by the subcultural press. By 1990 the rave culture was increasing, clubs had also

caught onto the hedonistic idea of raves and began to organise their own in order to

cash in on the action. This led to the Entertainments (Increased Penalties) Act 1990.

‘An Act to increase the penalties for certain offences under enactments relating to the

licensing of premises or places used for dancing, music or other entertainments of a

like’  The act was designed to give licensed venues harsher restrictions and to shut

down any rave. However, proving again that the more the authorities got involved the

more the public grew stimulated interest, the act did not stop the raves even though

the police struggled very much to do so. On the contrary, as in May 1992 in

 police estimated 25,000 people to be gathered at a rave, there

are even suggested reports that that figure was much higher. Headlines such as

“hippie’s fire flares at police” and “New age, New laws” followed the days after,

establishing that the government were now using new scapegoats. The blame for

thousands of people from all kinds of different backgrounds meeting together was

shifted on the ‘hippies’. George McKay, claims that the types of people who attended

these parties ranged from ’employed, unemployed, politically aware or just wanting a

good time; black, white; male and female, urban and rural youths; old hippies, punks

and hells angels; new age and traditional travellers; road protestors and squatters’. 

Again, if McKay is correct in his research of the diversity of people involved in the

rave culture, one can use Thornton’s theory of subculture to understand the dance

music movement. Using Bourdieu’s concept of ‘distinction’, Thornton describes the

‘cultural capital’ within dance music as not how high your class status is but maybe

through being involved with the scene technically; i.e. a DJ, a recording artist, or

somebody who has exclusive knowledge towards the scene. Therefore, the social

hierarchy of a subculture does not depend on class, and as a result the mixing of social

cultures, like with the rave scene, determining their own rules and guidelines

towards social hierarchies is completely credible. If this is the case that many

different cultures were meeting up to have fun cheek by jowl, it would be

understandable to assume that the Conservative government did not like the idea of

social groups such as new age travellers intermingling with various other cultures of

society. This is no more apparent when examining the aftermath of Castlemorton

Common, which sowed the seeds to the Criminal and Justice public order act, to be

introduced to parliament. The act was extremely complex and after two years went

through. One of the outcomes was new age travellers being forced out of unlicensed

sites and dealt with severely.

Not surprising that leading up to the act, headlines such as ’Hordes of marauding

locusts’ and ‘These foul pests must be controlled’, were published regarding these

travellers. Section sixty three of the act allowed the police the authority ‘to remove

persons attending or preparing for a rave….The act further states that “land in the

open air” includes a place partly open to the air’ while “music” includes sounds

wholly or predominately characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive

beats.’

Hill, just like Stuart Hall looks at the situation in a more political view, suggesting

that the reason there was such outcry from the government towards raves is because of

the threat these parties posed on those who voted for the Thatcher government. The

fact that many of the raves were taken out from the city into the countryside caused

great worry for the conservative government as, a lot of their support came from the

home counties of England. Suddenly these raves had been transferred from the normal

and expected off urban areas, onto the respectable rural areas. Knowing votes could be

lost, the Thatcher government knew that something or other had to be done.

The Criminal and Justice public order act, eventually  resulted in the forcing of parties

back into licensed venues, relying on fragmentation of the music in order to help it

keep going, but resulting in the birth if the ‘super club’. Names such as Cream,

Godskitchen and Gatecrasher began to appear, taking dance music to a whole different

level. The dance scene therefore ‘fragmenting into a number of smaller club-based

scenes which spill over into low-key DIY events centred around house parties……as

new styles have been developed and promoted in different cities and regions around

Britain, has also contributed to the fragmentation of the original dance music scene into smaller, more localised scenes.’

In conclusion of this writing, it seems undoubtedly clear that the newspaper press did

contribute to the growing occurrence of dance music. The more the press wrote

negatively towards the scene, the more it was being noticed, and as mentioned in the

essay, sometimes negative press is just the incitement needed in order to rebel or feel

the need to go against society. A phase that a youth movement sometimes craves to

experience. As Sarah Thornton sought to explain in her research, the government

needed a way to tackle a problem, which was drugs and simplified the problem by

associating the music and the people involved with it. The reason why the problems

so desperately needed to be tackled was so that any unwanted political crisis within

the government could be veiled, making dance music number one priority in social

matters, inadvertently creating its growth.    

 

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