There was a tipping point in NZ dance music somewhere around the mid 90’s when dance parties changed from being events that you knew about to events that you were told about.
Parties shifted from being events produced by small cohesive units of friends for a broader circle of friends too parties being produced by individuals for the mass appeal.
While this shift was responsible for making the dance scene grow in scale, has it almost destroyed the grassroots of the dance scene? Does the increase in the commercial production of parties undermine the ability for extended groups of people to participate and contribute in the creation of dance events?
The collective approach to putting on events allows for a wide range of self-expression, learning skills and building social networks. The commercial approach reconstructs these attributes as the intellectual property of the event promoter.
Today it is interesting to see the confusion between the commercial and collective approaches to dance music. Do the ideals and motives of the commercial dance scene have a priority? Are the original methods of hosting parties still viable and valid? Where do you want dance music to take you?
image thanks to http://magmo.typepad.com/
