I guess for most we pine for the scene as it once was. A fabulous place to be, with an edge, a sense of trepidation and anticipation of the night to come. It was the travelling to hear music you couldn't hear at home or on a tape you swapped, travelling to hear a certain Dj. Dancing to these records lost in a world that took you away from the weekly pressure of life. Digging through all the records on offer form the dealers, looking at all the markings and stamps, names and credits, a real thirst for knowledge in an attempt to be on the same level as your peers or to get one step ahead of the other collectors/Djs.
Now? Everyone is obsessed with looking like a soulie, a style of fashion that was prevalent for a couple of years in the mid 70s and had disappeared by the 80s. The dancers more interested in throwing themselves about than actually dancing. What I said above wasn't a dig at anyone just an observation and the difference between when I first began this journey and today. People danced to the record with the moves replicating the beat and the breaks, not anymore, as I said they aren't dancing. I still love to watch good dancers, good footwork especially. Far too many are obsessed with the look and the fashion when the scene was never one to follow fashion, it was about the music and the friendships forged.
Record bars are virtually dead with most buying from their armchair after getting the answers to questions online rather than learning by handling the records. No longer are tapes, well CDs swapped, hearing records you over looked or not in favour with Djs. For the vast majority it is the same few hundred records (if that) replicated on the newest CD release, the same titles on a dozen CDs before them and the same records they hear week in week out from the same Djs with nothing new or imaginative to offer all promoted by the same promoters week in week out who don't have the imagination to see a bigger picture and take what they can while they can (that is all the promoters virtually up and down the country not anyone in particular). Djs who spend ridiculous amounts on not so rare records, it is all about who can spend the most rather than using some imagination for which the scene would be a better place. Dancers who daren't go on the floor to something they haven't heard a 100 times for fear of putting a foot out of place.
There is some great youngsters out there, Jordan & Charlotte, Ethan and more. They have the same enthusiasm we did and it isn't about looking like a soulie, they have a thirst to learn, to dig for records and to dance, many of them properly. But they are few and far between on the nighter scene that is largely dominated by those described in the title of this topic.
That is what I mean by the scene being a parody of what it was was, It is a pale imitation of a great underground dance culture. I'm not bitter nor salty, I still have an great appetite for the music, to learn and share any knowledge with anyone but I often go out and wonder WTF am I doing here at 2 or 3 in the morning after enduring a boring few hours of records I've heard a million times. If anyone is guilty of not moving on it isn't me.