Alternative dance (also known as indie dance or underground dance in the United States ) 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.
21-538: Baggy is a British alternative dance genre popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and generally associated with the Northern UK's Madchester scene. 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
42-433: A singles -driven genre with no identifiable, long-term artists". The American scene rarely received radio airplay and most of the innovative work continued underground or was imported . As computer technology and music software became more accessible and advanced at the start of the 21st century, bands tended to forgo traditional studio production practices. High quality music was often conceived using little more than
63-601: 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 . 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
84-461: 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 specialised in catering for the scene, making him a multi-millionaire. It
105-472: A signature style, texture, or fusion of specific musical elements. They are usually signed to small record labels . Many of the alternative dance artists are British, "owing to the greater prominence of the UK's club and rave scenes in underground musical culture". New Order are cited by AllMusic as the genre's first group because of their 1982–83 recordings, which merged post-punk with electro/synth pop in
126-500: A single laptop computer. Such advances led to an increase in the amount of home-produced electronic music, including alternative dance, available via the Internet. According to BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac , part of the strength of the scene in the new millennium was "the sense of community"; she noted, "Websites, blogs and Myspace pages all get people talking about records and checking out each other's recommendations. It's not like
147-549: Is also generally accepted that French stylists Marithé et François Girbaud were one of the first designers to integrate baggy in the fashion industry, 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. Some baggy bands evolved into indie rock or Britpop bands who remained popular throughout
168-492: The "melodic song structure of alternative and indie rock with electronic beats, synths and/or samples , and club orientation of post-disco dance music ". The Sacramento Bee calls it " postmodern – Eurosynth – technopop – New Wave in a blender". The genre draws heavily on club culture for inspiration while incorporating other styles of music such as electropop , house , and EBM . The performers of alternative dance are closely identified with their music through
189-404: 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
210-608: The Chemical Brothers are prominent examples of British artists in the post-Madchester-era, who crossed over from the dance music world to alternative, with most of their releases falling under the big beat music genre in the mid 1990s. Of the three acts, the Prodigy had the first international alternative dance hit when their third studio album The Fat of the Land debuted at number one in 25 countries, including
231-531: The Payroll" by Thrashing Doves and producers like Paul Oakenfold ) 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 in Manchester. Even though they were not signed to Factory Records, instead signing to Paul Birch's Revolver Records in Wolverhampton (before taking a deal with Jive Records' Silvertone ),
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#1732776685100252-567: The US, in 1997. Also finding international success in the 1990s was Icelandic musician Björk , a former member of indie band the Sugarcubes , whose solo albums Debut (1993) and Post (1995), incorporated alternative dance elements and featured production from artists like Tricky , Howie B and 808 State 's Graham Massey . In the US, Chicago 's Liquid Soul to San Francisco 's Dubtribe expanded dance music "beyond its old identity as
273-515: The band did have links to Tony Wilson, Martin Hannett 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' which came from a four-bar loop based upon Clyde Stubblefield 's " Funky Drummer " drum pattern) and it
294-620: 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'). Some acts, such as Candy Flip , Blur and the Soup Dragons reinvented their sound and image to fit in with the new scene. This led some critics to accuse baggy bands of bandwagon-jumping and derivative songwriting. Bands in
315-680: The indie-dance era of pop music can be divided into two camps ; 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
336-537: The mid-2000s, the British music magazine NME popularised the term " new rave " ("new wave" and "rave") to describe the music of bands such as Klaxons , whose rock aesthetic includes paraphernalia from the 1990s rave scene such as glowsticks and neon lights. Joe Bloggs " Joe Bloggs " or " Fred Bloggs " are placeholder names used primarily in the United Kingdom to represent the average man on
357-460: The old club scene, where these established DJs dictated what would be big. Word-of-mouth is so important now." In the early 2000s, the term " electroclash " was used to denote artists such as Fischerspooner and Ladytron who mixed new wave with electronic music. The Electroclash festival was held in New York in 2001 and 2002, with subsequent tours across the US and Europe in 2003 and 2004. In
378-474: The street. The surnames Blogg/Bloggs/Bloke, is believed to have been derived from the East Anglian region of Britain, Norfolk or Suffolk , deriving from bloc , "pale, fair, shining". In the UK, a " bloke " represents the average man on the street. In The Princeton Review standardised test preparation courses, "Joe Bloggs" represents the average test-taker, and students are trained to identify
399-521: The style of German group Kraftwerk . Alternative dance had a major impact on Britain's late-1980s Madchester scene (adapted from Manchester , New Order's home city) and 1990s trip hop and rave scenes. The Haçienda club in Manchester, founded by New Order and Factory Records , became the hub of the genre in 1980s Britain. Meanwhile, indie -orientated acts such as Saint Etienne , Dubstar , Space and White Town also explored dance beats and rhythms in their music. The Prodigy , Fatboy Slim and
420-593: 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. Alternative dance AllMusic states that alternative dance mixes
441-484: 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 , 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
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