UK Garage

Like modern "R&B" how UK Garage came to be termed "Garage" is something of a mystery to me. Garage, in the sphere of dance music at least, describes a particular brand of vocal house music most of which originates (or originated, since Garage had its hay day back in the early 90s) in the USA. UK Garage on the other hand is a corruption of drum and bass mixed with house, mostly made and listened to by those under the age of 21. I suppose it is the music of inner City youth and doesn't really have much acceptance outside of that sphere. It also, rather strangely from my perspective, gets lumped together with other "music of black origins" but I think this is more a reflection of its popularity with black kids rather than a true reflection of where it came from.
John

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how UK Garage came to be termed "Garage" is something of a mystery to me.

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in the early days of the scene, before there was much locally produced stuff, the DJs used to play a lot of US garage tunes (the vocal house type stuff you mentioned), but they'd play it very fast (+7 or so) ... hence the orginal term 'Speed Garage'. Gradually UK producers started making their own tracks, adopting stuff from D&B, and this started to be called 'UK Garage'

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mostly made and listened to by those under the age of 21

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I was under the impression that dance/D&B/garage, house etc was only for old people now.

All the younguns I know are split roughly into 2 types - the new mod sorts who like the Libertines, The Streets, The Hives, Coral etc and the others who listen to metal in its various forms and, bizzarely, worship Ozzie. Both groups regard electronica/dance etc in the same way that Beatle & Stones fans viewed Paul Anka in the early sixties!

"All systems are perfectly designed to get the results they get."

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I was under the impression that dance/D&B/garage, house etc was only for old people now.

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Although dance music may have lost its appeal with the general youth market, those who are into UK Garage are, from my personal experience and from what I see on TV, aged 16-21. I was in Cyprus in July and Ayia Napa, the favoured resort of UK clubbers into Garage, was full of kids or at least they looked like kids to my 30 year old eyes. Ibiza, on the other hand, where there are practically no Garage nights attracts a considerably older crowd. I was on the terrace at Space back in September and there were plenty of people in their late 30s or even 40s having it big style at 4 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon! Right now I think dance music, and dance clubs are at the end of the cycle of popularity that ever style of music goes through. Dance music, when I started going clubbing back in 1990, was very underground. It could only be heard on a few commercial and pirate radio stations and if you actually wanted to buy it you had to go to specialised record shops like Eastern Bloc where they would have a handful of copies on white label vinyl. Now it has practically been reduced to elevator music, dance music is heard everywhere and the kids are bored of it. Its too mainstream to make listening to it rebelious so they have moved on to other things.
John

Isn't it where you put your UK car ?

DS

OTR - The Archers

Thanks for the info John. Normally I get my updates from a 12 and a 17 year old - but it's not always easy to pick out useful information from a series of grunts.

"All systems are perfectly designed to get the results they get."

Thanks for the insights.
We don't get much of it here. Or, I don't hang out with many 17 year olds.

What are the key UK Garage artists, if there is such a thing?

some key uk garage artists are: dj luck and mc neat, so solid crew, oxide and neutrino (part of so solid crew), artful dodger and dj pied piper to mention a few.
Chris

John and Steve have posted good summaries as to where this style originates from. I'm not so keen although you get loads of it on the pirate radio stations in London. The Dreem Team are one of the best exponents of the style. Check out 'Incredible' - Sound of the Dreem Team. It's not bad.

Dev

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then in about 92 into jungle

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I can still remember the first time I heard jungle back in December '91, which was then termed "jungle techno". It was being played on a pirate radio station in Manchester called Ragga Beatz FM by DJ Devious Devon D. It had quite a strong Reggae influence and I remember thinking at the time this is so cool! Shortly afterwards I went to a night at the PSV in Hulme, the kind of experience not to be forgotten in a hurry. The club was an intimidating place full of Yardie gangsters with a reputation for carrying hand guns and firing off a few rounds into the ceiling of the club when a big tune came on!. Although I never saw any guns or trouble, I heard numerous first hand stories of people being mugged at gun point both in the club and on the walk back to civilisation at the end of the night. PSV was in the middle of the run down ghetto Hulme, which has since been bulldozed, so getting a taxi was almost impossible. Really there was little choice other than to walk to the nearest bus stop about half a mile away, hoping that you didn't get mugged on the way which sort of ruined a good night out! Jungle nights never really took off in Manchester mainly because the promoters and mainstream clubs could not be bothered with nights that would obviously attract trouble which was a greata shame.
John

[This message was edited by John Channing on TUESDAY 22 October 2002 at 09:28.]