Is Jungle DNB losing it's urban edge?

[T]

cut and pasted from another board.





What's happening to the state of Jungle? It's globally becoming the sound of the suburbs whereas it used to be the sound of the streets. The music was originally made and presented on pirate and community radio with elements predominantly from hip hop, reggae, dub, techno and house. It's sub genres are fast becoming more popular than the original sound. With Jungle losing it's urban edge what do you think will happen to the genre in a few years? The very thing that drew people into the scene is fast becoming musical history. The London and Bristol sound is not the most predominant sound in North America any more. MC's are declining in popularity throughout North America. Tek step is the sound of the U.S. Is Toronto following in their footsteps? Do you think that Jungle now known as DRUM AND BASS can perservere without the original culture present? With musical seperations and a fragile foundation based on a new sound should we fear for the future of jungle or will it simply split into 1 million divisions as house has over the years? All I know is that I miss the days of old. I miss the sound of the streets.

All soulful and ragga oriented DnB is breaking off into new factions sometimes outside of DNB ie: Broken Beat, Two Step, Liquid Funk, and many people returning to their deep house, rnb, hip hop, reggae and soulful roots. The music is becoming divided and with our scene being so small can it handle all of these divisions? At present we have half a room upset with the sounds they are hearing. This is a global trend. Can we survive these divisions? The U.K can handle the seperations due to the large population but will Toronto succumb to the fate of the U.S becoming known as the next Tek step city?

 

[jungleboy]

cut and pasted from another board:


...the tunes are better than ever...the fact that it may be losing it's 'urban edge'(newsflash:it never had one here)...is besides the point as it is not a statement on the quality of the music...

 

[T]

Originally posted by jungleboy
cut and pasted from another board:


...the tunes are better than ever...the fact that it may be losing it's 'urban edge'(newsflash:it never had one here)...is besides the point as it is not a statement on the quality of the music...

cut and pasted from another board:


I strongly disagree with this.

 

[jungleboy]

...you never really got back to me on there!...

 

[terrawrist III]

Originally posted by jungleboy
cut and pasted from another board:


...the tunes are better than ever...the fact that it may be losing it's 'urban edge'(newsflash:it never had one here)...is besides the point as it is not a statement on the quality of the music...

in total aggreement...

the states is KILLING it right now and are easily becoming a global powerhouse with many different sounds,females are getting mroe attention for their skills as Djs/producers and not for their breast size,more concepts are being thrown out there(kamanchi to name one)it's getting bigger as a whole thanks to top 40 radio play,you hear it more and more on your television and in movies...I can go on and on!

it's just a perception of the scene and it really shouldn't effect what's really important...it's IS better than ever

 

[smilez]

Originally posted by jungleboy
cut and pasted from another board:


...the tunes are better than ever...the fact that it may be losing it's 'urban edge'(newsflash:it never had one here)...is besides the point as it is not a statement on the quality of the music...

I'd have to say this past year has been an especially phenomenal one for production of kick ass tunes, one after another, a truly relentless year for the ears!!

Melissa

 

[T]

so you guys agree with the statement that jungle never had an urban edge??


first, perhaps we should define the word "urban"

secondly, this argument was never about the music itself changing, but about what its change brought on.

the different attitute towards the music, etc..

the original culture and passion is missing.

 

[smilez]

urban edge for me means something along the lines of the genre being the main one demanded by the people

and I would have to say that I don't think this has ever been the case locally, it has always been a select group, sometimes larger sometimes smaller, that has been able to appreciate dnb for the long term. people come and go, particularly dj whores, but that's another topic all together.

Melissa

 

[terrawrist III]

Originally posted by T
so you guys agree with the statement that jungle never had an urban edge??


first, perhaps we should define the word "urban"

secondly, this argument was never about the music itself changing, but about what its change brought on.

the different attitute towards the music, etc..

the original culture and passion is missing.

dude...it doesn't have the same traditional value and history as it does in it's birthplace...If you ask me it lost it's urban edge when it stopped being considered "ardcore'...here kids run around with eminem in their Mp3 players, THERE they run around with mickey finn tapes in the walkman!...we don't hold it as close to our collective hearts as they do that's the difference

 

[hysterical]

Originally posted by T
cut and pasted from another board:


I strongly disagree with this.

^^^ ya id have to agree with u on this one

 

[judge wopner]

jungle is not the propery nor ever was the propery of the streets.

kids from rich and poor neighbourhood listened to jungle for a long time before it got as popular as it is.
it was not like hip hops beginings.

doesnt anyone remember that some of the top jungle dj's in this city from 10 years ago when it was still a back room sound were from suburbs like brampton.

i thinks it a out dated idea that shit starts in poor so called urban areas and then the suburbs latch onto it.

kids from all over thanx to pirate radio could be up on jungle.

it may be more commercial now but poor kids and rich kids, inner city and suburb were into jungle for along time and diversity is a mark of success i think, ie: dj marky and the whole brazillian sound...

j

 

[tella]

Originally posted by judge wopner

it may be more commercial now but poor kids and rich kids, inner city and suburb were into jungle for along time and diversity is a mark of success i think, ie: dj marky and the whole brazillian sound...

i'm too lazy to add my two cents...but i like what he said.

p.s big up BRAMPTON! heheheh.

 

[T]

^stfu!

 

[OTIS]

Any genre goes through this.. look at rock when it was the voice of youth angst and was primarily heard at wild impromptu illegal concerts (sound familiar) and slummy dirty bars. If we look how it evolved, how did it get from that, to producing the glam hair bands of the 80's? I even thought rock found it's death with that.

But after that we saw a backlash which resulted in rock get back to it's humble roots with one of the most genuine scenes to come out of it since the early 70's majestic sound, and the early 80's punk -grunge which revolted against glam & big hair bullshit and unintentionally projected simplicity and a casual cool.

Regardless of where jungle/dnb goes, it will see it's bad days & good days, but it will never be what it originally was again. Although it's difficult to deal with the passing of the purity of any genre, especially when you were there to witness it's golden age, it's something that needs to be accepted. Anyone knows that a genre needs to evolve to survive and exploring & including the infuences of other sounds is just part of the natural process.

Personally I hate the electro influence currently running John B's sound, but love the trancy melodic elements his sound had a little while ago. But I know that being diverse will ensure the survival of the genre and in the end I'll be glad DnB will still be catching new ears when mine cease to function.

 

[tella]

Originally posted by T
^stfu!

hey now mr. thornhill. no need to get testy.

 

[smilez]

^^^^^

Happy New Year (almost) Rob!!

Melissa

 

[CrunchCapn]

Jungle or i mean "drum and bass" has changed a lot since back in the day. But i think it has changed for the better... the productions are much more cleaner than before and producers are pushing the envelope more and more. Just because the scene is changing doesn't mean it's dying.

So what is the future of drum and bass going to be? I think MC's are going to be much more prominent figures. You see more and more MC's being featured on jungle tracks and now they are coming out with their OWN albums... Read: Dynamite MC!!

 

[zoo]

jungle didn't lose it's "urban edge", electronic 'rave' music simply lost it's suburban reach

without all ages parties bringing in new blood it's hard to support a scene of aging hipsters

all the electronic communities here were hit hard, not just dnb

of course other parts of the world don't have this problem, but we live in an extremely 'westernized' society in canada

 

[SENSEi]

Can I just point out that one of the best labels from back in the day was "Suburban Base Records"

In Toronto, most of the big dj's were from Barrie or Heart Lake (Brampton)

Tons of partiers would come from Mississauga and surrounding areas to party. There's nothing to do there.

I don't think the word "Urban Music" means downtown.
That's like saying only people who live downtown can be cool.

 

[terrawrist III]

When i think "urban" I think from the streets or inner-city...In the UK it was about a more urban contingent...blacks went eagerly to parties to hear "their" music played...

so the question at hand is what happened to it's edge, HERE it never really had an edge to begin with, it was more about where this shit started that we can have a discussion about it...I haven't seen a black dude at a jungle party in awhile

 

[SENSEi]

Here in Toronto, I don't think jungle was ever a "black" thing.
If any thing, I think some reggae/hip-hop purists didn't like the way jungle was sampling the hell out of their sounds.

But there were also a lot of people who did love it.
Jungle mash-ups were the shit!

The big parties were mostly downtown, but the music spread through the burbs like wildfire.

I am not really up to date with a lot of the tracks that have come out in the past year or 2, but I do know that a lot of people have complained that the music hasn't evolved in the past few years.

When jungle became Drum N Bass, a lot of people I know were turned off by the darkness of it.

I still enjoy it all, but it seems that someone needs to re-invent or at least crete some new styles.

 

[terrawrist III]

Originally posted by SENSEi
Here in Toronto, I don't think jungle was ever a "black" thing.
If any thing, I think some reggae/hip-hop purists didn't like the way jungle was sampling the hell out of their sounds.

But there were also a lot of people who did love it.
Jungle mash-ups were the shit!

The big parties were mostly downtown, but the music spread through the burbs like wildfire.

I am not really up to date with a lot of the tracks that have come out in the past year or 2, but I do know that a lot of people have complained that the music hasn't evolved in the past few years.

When jungle became Drum N Bass, a lot of people I know were turned off by the darkness of it.

I still enjoy it all, but it seems that someone needs to re-invent or at least crete some new styles.

they're not listening...lots of fresh,interesting things goin' on in DnB production these days...lots to wrap your head around

people get out if it for different reasons I guess but if you really are INTO it there's a lot to love(and hate) but that's all part of the relationship you have with the music

 

[SENSEi]

So who's hot these days in the production side of things?
What is the state of the UK scene?

I'd like to check out what's going on.

 

[OTIS]

Originally posted by smilez
^^^^^

Happy New Year (almost) Rob!!

Melissa

Hope yours is well so far!

 

[TheDirtBikeKid]

STOP LOOKING FOR THE OLD AND START MAKING THE NEW!!!!!!
It's like a saying I heard to deal with death 'Don't ask why, you will never find the answer,but instead,embrace yourself as well as others and continue on."
The answer to everyones question about "OLD school" gets answered by themselves before someone even replies to them.
You know where you have been now start looking where you want to go!!!
Dave
P.S. "Urban edge" just means "not the same anymore" Now that Jungle/ Drum and bass has reached the world over it's not your group of frineds little secret.......it's the worlds!!!! This goes with every type of music. Either accept it, make it the way you want it or move on! Cause time will not stop for you.......only me and Big Bird!!!