Browsing Tag German Mod Scene

Over the last decade weekenders that have been my favourites for a long time have suffered from the decreasing number of Mods attending these events for diverse reasons and there has been one remarkable reaction to this problem: Make it bigger – to make more people interested in the scene and possibly join it. Sounds nice, but does it work? Possibly in Spain, obviously in the UK. It doesn’t seem to work in Central Europe, though. It seems like most people over here prefer to enjoy whatever comes there way without wanting to commit themselves for a longer period, as commitment to them – so my guess – means limitation.

Now, as Modernism is very much about commitment it’s clear that we can’t count on those people to bring new life to our scene. They’ll be there for some time, maybe even dress up a bit, but sooner or later they’ll go another way, find their kicks somewhere else. What has the Mod scene to give them after some easy thrills of a tourist being in a new holiday resort for the very first time? Tourists know they’ll leave home after a fortnight or so, they’re not supposed to live in the resort for a few years or longer, so they try to have a hell of a good time and then they’re gone. And the next year they’ll spend their holidays somewhere else, of course. Why go to the same old resort again? You’ve been there anyway!

Yes, some people may stay on the scene, just like some tourists may decide to visit the same old resort year after year again. And yes, this is a valid argument when it comes to the question whether a mod event’s door policy should be rather strict or rather liberal. There’s always a chance that some people might feel so much attracted that they’ll at last commit themselves. And yes, this is why I would never denounce the idea of those really big events open for any kind of person interested in it. After all, we’d organised Beat-O-Mania back in the 9Ts, which was very much about this idea. Besides, once you’ve reached a certain number of guests it really does make sense to offer bigger venues and even different rooms, to sort of give back some kind of an intimate atmosphere you wouldn’t be able to experience in a big hall for 1,000 – 2,000 people.

There are quite some more reasons in favour of bigger events, at least from an organiser’s point of view: when you never try something new you might risk missing the party/all-nighter/weekender of your lives, and of course, all the big events started some time and were possibly not that successful at first, but as the organisers persevered the events became established and successful. Still, when you want to start a new weekender, it should offer something unique, e.g. more bands from far-away places, a compelling DJ line-up, a boat-cruise, a swimming-pool party, a headliner everyone’s always wanted to see.

Yet, thinking of the “standard” Mod-weekender, hardly anyone from abroad will bother to even consider coming, and even most people in your own country might let you down for the sake of their local party incidentally taking place at exactly that same weekend. Frankly speaking: why should you travel to a minor event knowing quite well that you can listen to the same music in your hometown every weekend in one or another club? Why should you travel there in times like these, when more and more people barely make ends meet?

So is there another solution to the problem, apart from making your do big?

There seems to be one: specialisation.

Separate the dancefloors. Set up a black dancefloor for anything from Jazz and R&B, via Soul to Ska and hope to attract many more people who like that sort of music, but hate anything that sounds white. And set up a strictly white dancefloor embracing Beat, Freakbeat, Psych, Prog and Funk-Rock (I’m still waiting for a Mod DJ to play early Mother’s Finest) for all those who really hate all of  that “lousy disco music”.

But what about those stupid old sods, I mean “Mods”, like me? Do I have to hop from room to room, always running the risk of missing the new killer number that’s being played in the other room right now? I always thought Mod is about picking out the truffles from a vast pool of yet undiscovered, unknown gems from the sixties, no matter if it’s black or white.  Isn’t Mod about expanding one’s horizon, not about narrowing it? Unfortunately, over the last few years I’ve had the funny feeling that more and more people voluntarily are in danger of limiting their scope.

Of course, predilections change, it’s inevitable, but why narrow down the choice so much? As for me, I love all those styles of Mod music, and I enjoy myself best when there’s variation on the dancefloor. A bit of this, a bit of that, and when I don’t feel in the mood to listen to or dance to this or that DJ, hey – time to go to the bar and have a nice drink and a chat.

But I’m really worried today that when you separate the dancefloors you start to separate the scene. This reminds me of HG Wells’ “Time Machine” – when you separate a group of people who’d lived in the same habitat for ages they will end up being complete aliens to each other – it’s just a matter of time.

And apart from that – what’s the lesson we teach those who attend a Mod do for the first time? What we show them is the following: there is not one scene, there are two scenes and each group doesn’t appreciate the other one very much. And you have to decide which side you are on.

I’m in constant anxiety these days that this might bright about the end of everything I’ve always found essential and worthwhile about the scene. To me this scene has never been narrow-minded and intolerant, quite the opposite. But by separating the scene at an event where the people should be “in one”, together, not separated, don’t we run the risk of generating more stereotyped thinking and breeding more narrow-mindedness?

Please understand that I’m just trying to throw in my five cents here, I do not intend to point my fingers at anyone on a moral level, I’m not trying to judge others. In fact I very, very much do appreciate all the hard work and the efforts made by all those folks around the globe trying to keep the scene alive by organising parties, clubs, all-nighters and weekenders, no matter how many different dancefloors they opt for. In the end a good party is a good party is a good party.

So this is just a (slightly provocative) attempt to start a discussion without wanting to generate bad feelings in anyone on the scene. I think our scene is grown-up enough to sensibly discuss controversial issues these days.

By the way: I’ll be attending Beat Bespoke 8 this year, and wouldn’t you know? I’d love to see the Poets AND Maxine Brown/The Pepperpots. Alas, they seem to play at the same time in different rooms.

So if you feel a breeze or a draught while you are in the one or the other room at Easter, or if you see a blurred shape for a split-second, who knows ….  that might be me trying to achieve the impossible: being in two rooms at the same time! Now that’s what I call a dual-dancefloor dilemma!

‘The tendency, when given unlimited choices, to make none ’  
D. Coupland 1989

It’s not that I’m a huge Douglas Coupland fan, nor do I approve of all those attempts to find a label for a whole generation. Of course, I could be considered a part of “Generation X“, “The Lost Generation“, “Generation Pop“, you name it. Yet, oversimplifications have never been my cup of tea (unless we’re talking about football of course).

However, I feel that what Coupland called “Option Paralysis” in 1989 somehow hits the nail on the head. Confronted with a plethora of possible choices of contemporary pop music from all parts of this little planet, in the end more and more people seem to prefer to choose none at all – or everything. Living in a world of unlimited choices (thanks to the internet) seems to blur the notion of a freedom of choice. In the end you either take it for granted or do not even realize there are choices and simply consume whatever comes along.

These days pop is everywhere and everything is pop. The next big thing is already lurking somewhere in a corner waiting for its mission, for the moment when the consumers of contemporary pop music are bored by xxx and are eager for a new shade of grey. Names, styles, bands and artists do no longer make a difference to consumers, even if we’re told the respective products always have that special extra something. Have they? Well, ketchup is ketchup, no matter in which supermarket you buy it.

What am I aiming at? Well, in the 7T’s or 8T’s the average record collection of a 14-year-old was rather limited, due to a rather limited supply (at least in Germany), little pocket money and a lack of information. Today, digitalisation and globalisation enable 10-year-olds to compete as regards their mp3 collections, and we’re not talking about the average 1980s teenager’s 50 LPs and 37 singles, we’re taking about “I’ve got 15 GB of mp3s, what about you?“ 15 GB, that’s maybe about 5000 songs, 250 hours of music, 10 1/2 days music nonstop. How important is an individual artist or band in a mass of music like this? Do you remember the very first mp3 a friend gave you just like I remember the very first 45 I bought?

Music has become a functional minor matter, ubiquitous ambient noise, muzak. What’s the difference between a song that’s used in a commercial and the music that’s played in a supermarket? It seems that pop music in the 21st century has become a lubricant of everyday life, it is no longer emphatically absorbed. It has lost its function to express ideas, define personalities, create a universe of its own.

And this is exactly why I’ve spent most of my life in this funny little subculture of ours. The Mod Scene is where I meet people who still have a clue about music. Not just “mod“ music (whatever that may be), but any kind of music. Quite contrary to all the clichés about mods I have found out that lots of people on the scene listen to so many diverse types of music and are far from limiting themselves in any respect. They seem to follow 6Ts producer Joe Meek’s slogan: “If it sounds right, it is right!“.

So while my colleagues’ so-called CD-collections are rather dull, depressing affairs that only seem to either signal “I’ve got no clue“ or “I hate music“, it is ever so nice to find out what gems someone you meet at a Mod do has at home apart from the obvious mod-related stuff. I guess this is what I love so much about the scene: we seem to know when it’s time to focus on a special style (I want 6T’s music at a Mod do and nothing else), yet we’re open-minded enough to listen to anything, no matter how old or new it is, as long as it is interesting, inspiring, funny, weird, awkward, sublime. So yes, I went to see Kraftwerk recently, just like I danced at the Specials’ gig in Munich. I talked to friends on the scene about my love for a band called Devo while browsing a sales box of Northern Soul. I love to hear about a Roddy Frame gig while grooving to some Psych on the Bad Breisig party boat. If you ask me, mods are the most broad-minded people around today, simply because they don’t suffer from option paralysis!