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| Baggy | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Late 1980s–1990s, Manchester, England |
| Derivative forms | Britpop |
| Local scenes | |
Baggy is a British alternative dance genre popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, [1] [2] [3] and generally associated with the Northern UK's Madchester scene. [4] The style saw alternative rock bands draw influence from psychedelia as well as dance music.
The genesis of indie-dance was the Balearic beat scene (where there were DJs playing an eclectic mix of records including such rock/dance crossovers like "Jesus on the Payroll" by Thrashing Doves [5] and producers like Paul Oakenfold [6] ) and the indie music scene in the north west of England, which featured Tony Wilson's Factory Records and former post-punk band The Stone Roses [7] in Manchester.
Even though they were not signed to Factory Records, instead signing to Paul Birch's Revolver Records in Wolverhampton [8] [9] [10] (before taking a deal with Jive Records' Silvertone), the band did have links to Tony Wilson, Martin Hannett [11] and Peter Hook, with the New Order bassist scheduled to produce their debut album, before John Leckie took over.
It was Leckie who produced the Stone Roses single "Fools Gold" (an indie-dance record which had a prominent 'shufflebeat' [12] [13] [14] which came from a four-bar loop based upon Clyde Stubblefield's "Funky Drummer" drum pattern) and it was mainly fans of the Stone Roses who started to wear the fashions that gave the genre/scene its alternative name.
Although it was not geographically confined to the city of Manchester, [15] many Madchester bands like Happy Mondays, Northside and The Stone Roses were described as being baggy. As baggy was characterised by psychedelia and acid house-influenced guitar music, often with a funky drummer beat, new indie-dance bands in other British cities emerged following the breakthrough of the Madchester acts, though some acts in Liverpool argued they were already part of their own scene which had emerged independently of those in Manchester (sometimes referred to as 'scally'). [16] [17] [18]
Some acts, such as Candy Flip, [19] [20] Blur [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] and the Soup Dragons reinvented their sound and image to fit in with the new scene. This led some critics[ who? ] to accuse baggy bands of bandwagon-jumping and derivative songwriting. [26]
Bands in the indie-dance era of pop music can be divided into two camps [ according to whom? ]; the acts who could be described as baggy (usually the Madchester acts and a few others such as Flowered Up from London), and those who can be described as alternative dance (i.e. Jesus Jones and the Shamen, who were more techno inspired). The Shamen would begin as a psychedelic indie rock band, sharing some of the characteristics of early shoegaze bands, but their style would morph between psychedelic indie rock and acid house, before absorbing more elements of techno to become a dance music act, in a way similar to the Beloved, whose career took them from an indie band to a dance duo after the Second Summer of Love. [27]
Alongside the music, a way of dressing emerged that gave baggy its unique name. Baggy jeans (often flared) alongside brightly coloured or tie-dye casual tops and general '60s style became fashionable first in Manchester and then across the country – frequently topped off with a fishing hat in the style sported by the Stone Roses' drummer Reni. The overall look was part rave, part retro or part hippie, part football casual. Many Madchester bands had football casual fans and a number of bands even wore football shirts. Eaitisham 'Shami' Ahmed's Manchester-based Joe Bloggs fashion label [28] [29] [30] [31] specialised in catering for the scene, making him a multi-millionaire. [32]
It is also generally accepted that French stylists Marithé et François Girbaud were one of the first designers to integrate baggy in the fashion industry, [33] though the style can be seen originating in the Northern soul scene. This scene included Twisted Wheel attendee Phil Saxe, who went on to sell flares and baggy clothing on his Gangway market stall in Manchester and Joe Moss who ran Crazyface. [34]
Some baggy bands evolved into indie rock or Britpop bands who remained popular throughout the 1990s. The Charlatans retained their popularity, although little trace of the baggy sound and look remained.
The baggy style was eclipsed by the grunge and Britpop genres. Apart from tribute acts, the style has been absent from the indie arena, with acts like the 2001 Manchester band Waterfall failing to interest record companies with their revival sound.
There was another wave of bands in the style of the past baggy Madchester sound during the mid-2010s. Bands such as Kasabian, Reverend and the Makers, the Ruling Class, Sulk, the Bavarian Druglords, and Working for a Nuclear Free City brought back aspects of the style in various forms and have garnered comparisons to The Stone Roses and the Madchester sound.
Psychedelic rock is a rock music genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording techniques, extended instrumental solos, and improvisation. Many psychedelic groups differ in style, and the label is often applied spuriously.
Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. Musically, Britpop produced bright, catchy alternative rock, in reaction to the darker lyrical themes and soundscapes of the US-led grunge music and the UK's own shoegaze music scene. The movement brought British alternative rock into the mainstream and formed the larger British popular cultural movement, Cool Britannia, which evoked the Swinging Sixties and the British guitar pop of that decade.
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent record labels, by the 1990s it became more widely associated with the music such bands produced.
Alternative rock is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s with the likes of the grunge subgenre in the United States, and the Britpop and shoegaze subgenres in the United Kingdom and Ireland. During this period, many record labels were looking for "alternatives", as many corporate rock, hard rock, and glam metal acts from the 1980s were beginning to grow stale throughout the music industry. The emergence of Generation X as a cultural force in the 1990s also contributed greatly to the rise of alternative music.
Madchester was a musical and cultural scene that emerged in the English city of Manchester during the late 1980s, closely associated with the indie dance movement. Indie dance blended indie rock with elements of acid house, psychedelia, and 1960s pop.
The Stone Roses is the debut studio album by English rock band the Stone Roses. It was recorded mostly at Battery Studios in London with producer John Leckie from June 1988 to February 1989 and released later that year on 2 May by Silvertone Records.
Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1980s built on the post-punk and new wave movements, incorporating different sources of inspiration from subgenres and what is now classed as world music in the shape of Jamaican and Indian music. It also explored the consequences of new technology and social change in the electronic music of synthpop. In the early years of the decade, while subgenres like heavy metal music continued to develop separately, there was a considerable crossover between rock and more commercial popular music, with a large number of more "serious" bands, like The Police and UB40, enjoying considerable single chart success.
British rock describes a wide variety of forms of music made in the United Kingdom. Since around 1964, with the "British Invasion" of the United States spearheaded by the Beatles, British rock music has had a considerable impact on the development of American music and rock music across the world.
Manchester's music scene produced successful bands in the 1960s including the Hollies, the Bee Gees and Herman's Hermits. After the punk rock era, Manchester produced popular bands including Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths and Simply Red. In the late 1980s, the ecstasy-fuelled dance club scene played a part in the rise of Madchester with bands like the Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets and Happy Mondays. In the 1990s, Manchester saw the rise of Britpop bands, notably Oasis.
Northside are an English alternative rock band from Blackley and Moston in north Manchester, England. Formed in 1989, they released their only album, Chicken Rhythms, on Factory Records in 1991. The band became part of the 1990s Madchester/baggy/indie-rave scene.
Candy Flip were an English electronic music duo from Stoke-on-Trent, who were associated with the indie dance music scene in the early 1990s. They are best remembered for their cover version of the Beatles song "Strawberry Fields Forever", which was a No. 3 hit on the UK Singles Chart in 1990.
Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1990s continued to develop and diversify. While the singles charts were dominated by boy bands and girl groups, British soul and Indian-based music also enjoyed their greatest level of mainstream success to date, and the rise of World music helped revitalise the popularity of folk music. Electronic rock bands like The Prodigy and Chemical Brothers began to achieve a high profile. Alternative rock reached the mainstream, emerging from the Madchester scene to produce dream pop, shoegazing, post rock and indie pop, which led to the commercial success of Britpop bands like Blur and Oasis; followed by a stream of post-Britpop bands like Radiohead and The Verve.
The High are an English rock group from Manchester, whose sound combines alternative rock with a 1960s pop/psychedelic guitar sound.
An independent music scene is a localized independent music-oriented community of bands and their audiences. Local scenes can play a key role in musical history and lead to the development of influential genres; for example, no wave from New York City, United States; Madchester from Manchester, England; and grunge from Seattle.
Psychedelic music is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as DMT, LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin mushrooms, to experience synesthesia and altered states of consciousness. Psychedelic music may also aim to enhance the experience of using these drugs and has been found to have a significant influence on psychedelic therapy.
New rave is a genre of music described by The Guardian as "an in-yer-face, DIY disco riposte to the sensitive indie rock touted by bands like Bloc Party." It is most commonly applied to a British-based music scene between 2005 and late 2008 of fast-paced electronica-influenced indie music that celebrated the late 1980s Madchester and rave scenes through the use of neon colours and using the term 'raving' to refer to going nightclubbing.
Happy Daze is a compilation album of songs linked to the Madchester music genre distributed by Island Records in 1990.
British pop music is popular music, produced commercially in the United Kingdom. It emerged in the mid-to late 1950s as a softer alternative to American rock 'n' roll. Like American pop music it has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, as well as that of the Singles Chart usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs. While these basic elements of the genre have remained fairly constant, pop music has absorbed influences from most other forms of popular music, particularly borrowing from the development of rock music, and utilising key technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. From the British Invasion in the 1960s, led by The Beatles, British pop music has alternated between acts and genres with national appeal and those with international success that have had a considerable impact on the development of the wider genre and on popular music in general
Alternative dance is a musical genre that mixes alternative rock with electronic dance music. Although largely confined to the British Isles, it has gained American and worldwide exposure through acts such as New Order in the 1980s and the Prodigy and in the 1990s.
Sundew is the debut album by Mancunian band Paris Angels, released by Virgin Records in 1991. Following the group's arrival onto the British music scene during the popularity of Madchester, the album features the group's unique take on Madchester and baggy, combining Northern indie music with electronic instrumentation, techno and dance-pop. The album's cross-influenced sound is a result of each of the seven members of the band bringing their own influences. Much of the record, which was produced by Paul Johnson, was recorded near Wrexham, North Wales.
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| Styles and fusion genres |
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