gadgets and gismos - the digital essentials

Mobile phones and digital cameras have certianly had an impact on the way people communicate on their nights out. mobile phones mean that a group of friends can run on different agendas but still meet up throughout the night, and the text message or sms has certianly helped allieviate the problems associated with talking on the phone in a crowded night club that is often too loud to even hear the phone ring (thats what the vibrate function is for!). digital cameras are great - especially for special events, and the pictures can be emailed or posted on the web for friends to view. the hassle of taking a camera out has been reduced further by mobile phones that have a camera function, and some even include video and/or sound recording. i know i use my phone to record bits of songs i that i like but dont know the name of, so that i can listen to it again at a later date and find out what it is. one clubber said about his phone/camera:
"I took the phone out with me on a number of weekend expeditions to the pub or out clubbing, taking videos of the night as it progressed. I can’t tell you how funny it was to look back on these videos the next day/week, so in that respect it was a welcome addition."
although these cameras can get you into trouble if trying to take pictures when not welcome, last night i observed a friend of mine getting grilled by a club security guard after attempting to take a picture with his mobile phone (admittedly he was trying to take a picture of paris hilton dancing on a couch).

www.di.fm

the online radio station is an interesting phenomenom - and a useful one! live from new york, "digitally imported" or www.di.fm provides a range of dance music 'stations' each dedicated to particular styles of trance, dance, house and techno. the virtual club? users can tune in any time they like and hear all their favourite tunes being played and chat to other listeners in the forums and the chat room. admittedly you should feel silly if you start flicking your monitor on and off to give a strobe light effect and start dancing infront of the computer, but this is still a far cry from selecting your own tracks alone in your bedroom (from the PC or CD), and you can chat to others who are listening to the same music at the same time. the site features some 'live' webcasts from clubs but the standard 'stations' are simply playlists that "take a week or more" to listen to from start to finish (according to www.di.fm), and are regularly updated with new tracks.

the dance culture is so heavily based on 'community' experience, that its not hard to see how a site like this could be popular..

the commercialisation of dance culture

this is slightly off topic but still a very interesing article posted on inthemix.com.au called "Culture: Marketing and the death of dance culture?". I'll quote one section which i found interesting and relevant:

"Call me jaded, but I do remember a time when people didn’t even dance facing the DJ. When clubs barely advertised who was playing, and if they did, most people didn’t really know who they were anyway. When the most common way of communicating a favourite tune was by humming it. When the music was the vehicle, but the people were the engine. When it wasn’t so much of a business. The easy thing to do is to blame the promoters, or the DJs. It’s an easy target, however all these guys (and not all of them) are guilty of is being led by the desire to be revered for doing something they love; a fairly natural human motivation. No, the true villains of this piece are the marketeers.

There was a time when dance culture was raw, and unknown, and undefinable, and a social nuisance. Dance refused to be pigeonholed. It wasn’t punk and it wasn’t rock; it wasn’t based on aggression or disillusionment; and it wasn’t anything anyone could package for sale. It was a culture defined not by the record labels or MTV, but rather by those who inhabited it. It was something very alien and something that those outside it found difficult to comprehend. Fuelled by the shocking enthusiasm of those within (and, no doubt, by the escapist properties of Ecstasy), it grew at a rather impressive rate."

the mention of the "most common way of communicating a favourite tune was by humming it" is particularly interesting. This refers (i think) to two aspects that made dance music hard to access in this period (presumably circa early 90's): firstly the uncommerical nature of the music (as this article discusses) and also the availability of technology to make the music accessable. the accessability of music has increased enormously due to the advent of file sharing, and also PC's and mp3 players that make this medium even more user friendly.

a starting point

When thinking about digital media and dance music, two online aspects come to mind: mp3 file sharing and online communities. an australian online dance community, inthemix.com.au is one that i have myself used quite alot, mostly for its 'whats on' functions, but it also has a host of interesting features, including forums, chat rooms, music downloads, opinion polls and competitions, not to mention a wide variety of member submitted articles and editorials. One of my friends recently introduced me to someone who I later found out posts reviews on the site, and he said that he had many friends who also contributed to the site from within the briz dance music scene. I might have to chase him up for some inside info..