The History of Hardcore Drum and Bass: does PRSPCT fit the canon?
This year (2017) PRSPCT Recordings celebrates her 15th anniversary. Over the past 15 years the label has non stop kept releasing and promoting top notch high octane no compromise hard as fuck music from the heart. Never standing still and always reinventing itself. With the creation of multiple sub-labels like PRSPCT LTD, RVLT, SUB & XTRM and hosting the biggest, baddest HC DNB Events across the world. The popularity of the label got a bit out of control, causing it to evolve into the infamous PRSPCT culture – widely spreading the globe like an unstoppable virus
- PRSPCT (https://www.prspct.nl/label/)
This quote, found on the website of PRSPCT, calls on a lot of questions about the role of the record label in the EDM genre hardcore drum and bass. By using PRSPCT as a case-study I would love to build onto the discourse about canons. In 2010 Anahid Kassabian, in “Have Canons Outlived Their Usefulness?”, wrote that four different kinds of canons exist. A canon of texts or objects of study,[1] a canon of theories, and two pedagogical canons; one that endows a developed set of esthetical values and criteria of judgement onto students by referring to generally known works and the other simply functioning as something to hold on to in the form of a list.[2] Problematic, however, is the paradox of which canons exist. The criteria of such canons are mainly based on the canon and, the other way around, the canon is based on (non-existence) criteria. To solve questions surrounding (the existence of) the canon, Kassabian suggests us to not delete any works, but to add works to the already existing canon or even to create new lists.
With this, we’d have to wonder ourselves which function the canon has an how we can let them adjust to the theories, sources and processes of today.[3] The process of the existence of the canon, is besides that, according to William Weber, a complex variety of forces, ideas and social rituals growing from the musical culture. And, as it grow organically from a musical culture and developed traditions and processes, the canon is deeply and permanently rooted in our society.[4]
There were two stages in the development of the musical canon: first, the expansion of traditional practices of performing individual old works into regularly performed repertories, and secondly, the intellectual and ritual definition of works from such repertories as canon.[5]
Festivals played an important role in establishing a deep social base for music, as a lot of music only existed within the festival sphere. This resulted in a wide spreading social range of the big musical canon.[6]
As a result of Kassabian’s proposal to create new canon combined with the overview on how to go through such a process, I would love to investigate if the Hardcore Drum and Bass (or Hard D’n’B) recordlabel PRSPCT fit the canon. And if so; which one? Does the Hard D’n’B genre posses its own canon or does PRSPCT position itself in the EDM canon? Does a record label fit a canon at all? Or does it belong within a constitution that establishes a canon? Weber’s process of canonisation helps me in finding the historical process of drum and bass, with which I can decide if the process moves towards canonisation or not. Besides, an article of Kärjä, about the different popular music canons, helps us to find a destiny for hardcore drum and bass.
To understand in which landscape and from what culture the idea for PRSPCT developed itself, I’ll shortly describe the culture called Gabber with its existence in Rotterdam. House developed to hardcore (or gabber house) in the Netherlands. As fixated media only paid attention to the already existing house scene, DJ’s in Rotterdam developed a harder house style which represented the city of working-class. The term ‘gabber’ was created by an ‘Amsterdammer’ who scolded his musical rivals from Rotterdam as gabber (mate). People from Rotterdam started wearing the name as a badge and the city became the epicenter of the radical hardcore music. Gabber house could be described as a superfast pacing and aggressive form of hardcore techno. The first identifiable Gabber track is called “Amsterdam, Waar Lech Dat Dan” (1992, Rotterdam Records) produced by Paul Elstak. During the 90s the music spread like a raging fire through the global rave scene. Raves are events, in which, namely, young people dance, at nighttime, dance and party at EDM. The commercial ‘happy hardcore’-tunes on such raves presented the gabber culture as mainstream and as a result, the scene disappeared to the underground again.[7]
Simultaneously with the development of Gabber house or hardcore in the early nineties, in the UK the genre Drum ‘n’ Bass developed as a sub genre of the Electrical Dance Music (EDM). Already existing EDM genres from the 80s and 90s got mixed with Jamaican Reggae and ragga, which reformed the black breakbeats of hardcore into fast rolling syncopated drum rhythms alternated by slow and heavy basslines.[8] One of the first D’n’B labels was Metalheads.[9] Journalists and product-artists describe drum and bass as a genre that lies on the intersection of several music and cultural influences; as a part of the urban and multicultural UK from the nineties. In London, just like in Rotterdam, the music arose from the working class. They wanted to create an outlet for their emotions in their own subcultural identity while dancing. Besides, the neighborhoods of this working-class already filled themselves with Jamaican Soud Systems as part of African and Caribbean cultures, with which stylistic likenesses are to be found between basslines and MC’s.[10] At the end of the 90s it got harder and harder to produce original and experimental electronic music, which created the genre breakcore. In this, an extreme fast paced drum roll got combined with unexpected, a-rhythmical breaks and sound-effects; sometimes complemented by gabber kick beats.[11]
Big artists came to be Goldie, Grooverider and Fabio, after which Goldie’s album “Timeless” from 1995 moved Drum ‘n’ Bass from the underground to mainstream. “The history of drum’n’bass reveals the shifting pathways through the metropolitan and the regional and the intersecting planes of visual and aural memory.”[12] Even though it is unclear where certain influences actually come from, the hardcore rave sound merged itself with Caribbean and African influences. Drum and Bass used HipHop’s manipulation of sound, but shot it into the future by using sonic manipulation and drums as an expression of certain social-historic experiences.[13]
Drum’n’bass is a clear manifestation of the way in which music can be a crucial form of expression for those populations whose histories and experiences have been denied visibility in the more traditional forms of visual and textual history. (…) The significance of drum’n’bass resides in its sonic maintenance of the legacy of those whose heritage and experience of being British has not been widely recognised within the more traditional and dominant characterisations of British culture and identity.[14]
The organised raves came to be of a huge importance for the promotion of record companies. These parties represent the artists that are signed to labels and showcase the music to the audience. Next to musical promotion and, possibly, the introduction of new DJ’s to the audience, such a rave is the perfect testing area or laboratory for creating new music. Because of the direct feedback of the audience it is clear from the start whether a certain style catches on or not.[15]
Table 1 shows us how many release the biggest drum ‘n’ bass label of the United Kingdom actually published. We can then compare this list with PRSPCT. PRSPCT Recordings was founded in 2002 by Gareth de Wijk, also known as DJ Trasher. PRSPCT contains multiple sublabels, called; PRSPCT LTD, RVLT, SUB & XTRM, and, partly because of its raves, grew out to become an international phenomenon. During its foundation times, there was little supply in the Netherlands in this area of music. And due to the history of Gabber in Rotterdam, PRSPCT specified on the combination of hardcore and hard D’n’B; also known as ‘darkstep’. This combination created ‘crossbreed’ and was unknown off, resulting in a new genre and new audience. The new genre then changed the global electronic landscape, as DJs and producers from all over the world copied this style.
PRSPCT released more dan 120 pieces within the first fifteen years of its existence, until 2017, with almost forty precent of its ravers being of an international audience. This number definitely puts PRSPCT in the upper half of the table. Besides that, PRSPCT XL raves contain different area’s often named after the sub labels to promote their DJ’s and songs. Due to this approach; of international raves and European release tours, PRSPCT dares to label itself as the biggest hardcore drum and bass label of the world. [16]
Table 1: de output of leading D’n’B record labels in the United Kingdom.[17]
Antti-Ville Kärjä states that a description about how popular music is formed (by its surrounding culture) and is the fundament for modern musical historiography and canonization. A canon represents the shared values of a musical community. “[I]f history is about choosing those things that are worth telling, then canonisation could be described as choosing those things that are worth repeating.”[18] And because the canon has to represent the shared values of a musical community, these values are transformed into esthetical music expression.[19] The social, biographic and stylistic histories of popular music are often written by journalists, as the musical jargon usually won’t be suitable for the description of these histories and due to the refusal of academics to mingle with popular forms of music.[20]
Kärjä suggests that we use three kind of canons to categorize popular music that are able to exist beside the canon of the high arts. These canon mainly represent the musical structures of power that could constantly be reformed due to constant negotiation. She says we have to watch out for confusing canons for genres:[21]
The Mainstream Canon. The formation of this canon consists from a constant process of negotiation between the centrum and subordinate groups. This constant negotiation effects the outcomes of value, style and stream of money. A common element in the mainstream canon is authentication in the form of stylistic basic elements;[22]
Alternative Canon. This canon shows the tension between the musical centrum and their borders in terms of musical genre, nationality (geography) or gender. Most striking is the communication that’s held at smaller scale against the massive productive and mediative context of the mainstream canon. The alternative canon often contains small independent record companies which spread content through an internal network and the internet.[23]
Prescribed popular music canon. This mainly considers state-delegated and formulated criteria that evoke a national identity, culture or togetherness within the community. This could also control market control by the record industry, possibly controlled by the government or donations.[24]
And even though PRSPCT is a part of the mainstream capitalistic industry, they aren’t able to count on music video’s or channels like MTV in terms of promotion. Because they function as an individual label, they are having a hard time working within the mainstream musical system. Distribution, in this, is a big challenge to overcome, as the small network requires holding onto itself. Besides, the mainstream industry decides which technological changes should be used, something with which independent record labels should flexibly work with. In addition, the music doesn’t want to be labeled as ‘artistic’.
A big actor in deciding de independency of PRSPCT, is the strategy of entrepreneurship; Gareth de Wijk wants to maintain control over the product and the ownership of his company. Because of this, the strategy of reputation isn’t focused on selling to mainstream labels, but selling within the community of music lovers. Not only PRSPCT Recordings works like this, but, for example, also the labels Protoype of DJ Grooverider, Ganja and True-Playaz of Hype, Formation of DJ SS, V Recordings of Bryan G and Ram Recordings of Andy C. Each and everyone of them is run independently while specialized in a sub-genre of D’n’B.[25]
The independence of PRSPCT Recordings, combined with the own network of distribution, ensures that PRSPCT can be divided into the second category of Kärjä: the alternative canon. Even though they enlist at the upper part of the leading drum and bass record labels, they can’t necessarily be categorized as mainstream, as each of these labels specify in one certain musical movement. In this case; the harder drum and bass, so called ‘crossbread’. The shared values of hardcore drum and bass come forth from the Gabber Hardcore and London D’n’b. Both music movements focused on societies’ lower working classes for relaxation and to escape work. Besides, organized raves could obtain the same function as the music festival Weber describes, causing music to mainly exist in this context.
The question arises, however, if PRSPCT can be seen as its own canon or as a part of the EDM canon. Possibly, drum and bass is a unique case, as each label developed into a subgenre. Due to the raves, functioning as a promotion for the music and the commercial and musical independence of these labels, this genre mainly consists of a canon of record labels. Each label is able to contain a canon of leading songs, as a result of which the genre drum and bass cultivates a two-layered canon. The first level contains a canon of record labels connected to subgenres and the second level contains the musical canon per subgenre and label.
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[1] Anahid Kassabian, “Have Canons Outlived Their Usefulness?,” in Journal of Popular Music Studies vol. 22, no. 1 (2010): 74.
[2] Kassabian, “Have Canons Outlived Their Usefulness?,” 75.
[3] Kassabian, “Have Canons Outlived Their Usefulness?,” 76-78.
[4] William Weber, “The Eighteenth-Century Origins of the Musical Canon,” in Journal of the Royal Musical Association vol. 114, no.1 (1989): 6, 7.
[5] Weber, “The Eighteenth-Century Origins of the Musical Canon,” 11.
[6] Weber, “The Eighteenth-Century Origins of the Musical Canon,” 16.
[7] Arno van der Hoeven, “Remembering the popular music of the 1990s: dance music and the cultural meanings of decade-based nostalgia,” in International Journal of Heritage Studies vol. 20, no. 3: Popular Music as Cultural Heritage (12 november 2012): 322; Hillegonda C. Rietveld, “Gabber Overdrive: Noise, Horror, and Acceleration,” in Turmoil CTM Magazine (21 december 2018): 2.
[8] Alistair Fraser en Nancy Ettlinger, “'Fragile empowerment: The cultural economy of British Drum & Bass music,” in Geoforum vol. 39, no. 5 (September 2008): 4, 5.
[9] Jo Hall, Boys, Bass and Bother: Popular Dance and Identity in Uk Drum 'n' Bass Club Culture (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018): 20; Kwinten Crauwels, “old skool jungle & old skool drum ‘n’ bass,” in Drum ‘n’ bass/ Jungle (België: Musicmap, 2016) http://musicmap.info/# (geraadpleegd op 11 juni 2019).
[10] Jo Hall, Boys, Bass and Bother, 21, 72.
[11] Kwinten Crauwels “Digital hardcore & Breakcore,”in Hardcore: Techno (België: Musicmap, 2016) http://musicmap.info/# (geraadpleegd op 11 juni 2019).
[12] Steven Quinn, “Rumble In The Jungle: The Invisible History of Drum’n’Bass,” in Transformations no. 3 (mei 2002): 2, 3.
[13] Quinn, “Rumble In The Jungle: The Invisible History of Drum’n’Bass,” 1-5.
[14] Quinn, “Rumble In The Jungle: The Invisible History of Drum’n’Bass,” 10, 11.
[15] Fraser, Ettlinger, “Fragile empowerment: The cultural economy of British Drum & Bass music,” 11.
[16] “Interview Trasher – ‘Mensen willen op PRSPCT keihard raven!’,” Metro Nieuws, 12 mei 2012, https://www.metronieuws.nl/nieuws/2012/05/interview-thrasher-mensen-willen-op-prspct-keihard-raven;
Joellyn, “PRSPCT is een uit de hand gelopen hobby,” Drum and Bass, 19 maart 2013, https://www.drumandbass.nl/prspct-is-een-uit-de-hand-gelopen-hobby/; Jules Bossier, “Gareth de Wijk is de reden dat Rotterdam de hoofdstad is voor hardcore-drum ‘n’ bass,” VICE, 19 april 2016, https://www.vice.com/nl/article/rppkjg/gareth-de-wijk-stond-met-prspct-recordings-aan-de-wieg-van-hardcore-drum-bass-maar-dat-moeten-ze-in-nederland-nog-ontdekken; “PRSPCT, The Label,” PRSPCT, geraadpleegd op 11 juni 2019, https://www.prspct.nl/label/.
[17] Fraser, Ettlinger, “Fragile empowerment: The cultural economy of British Drum & Bass music,” 1651.
[18] Antti-Ville Kärjä, “A Prescribed Alternative Mainstream: Popular Music and canon Formation,” in Popular Music vol. 25, no. 1 Special Issue on Canonisation (Januari 2006): 5.
[19] Kärjä, “A Prescribed Alternative Mainstream: Popular Music and canon Formation,” 4-6.
[20] Kärjä, “A Prescribed Alternative Mainstream: Popular Music and canon Formation,” 7.
[21] Kärjä, “A Prescribed Alternative Mainstream: Popular Music and canon Formation,” 16-18.
[22] Kärjä, “A Prescribed Alternative Mainstream: Popular Music and canon Formation,” 11, 12.
[23] Kärjä, “A Prescribed Alternative Mainstream: Popular Music and canon Formation,” 13.
[24] Kärjä, “A Prescribed Alternative Mainstream: Popular Music and canon Formation,” 16, 17.
[25] Kärjä, “A Prescribed Alternative Mainstream: Popular Music and canon Formation,” 13, 14, 15.
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Used Literature
van der Hoeven, Arno. “Remembering the popular music of the 1990s: dance music and the cultural meanings of decade-based nostalgia.” In International Journal of Heritage Studies vol. 20, no. 3: Popular Music as Cultural Heritage. 12 november 2012: 316-330.
Bossier, Jules, VICE. “Gareth de Wijk is de reden dat Rotterdam de hoofdstad is voor hardcore-drum ‘n’ bass.” 19 april 2016. https://www.vice.com/nl/article/rppkjg/gareth-de-wijk-stond-met-prspct-recordings-aan-de-wieg-van-hardcore-drum-bass-maar-dat-moeten-ze-in-nederland-nog-ontdekken
Crauwels, Kwinten. Drum ‘n’ Bass/Jungle (België: Musicmap, 2016). http://musicmap.info/#
> Hardcore: Techno (België: Musicmap, 2016). http://musicmap.info/#
Fraser, Alistair en Nancy Ettlinger. “Fragile empowerment: The cultural economy of British Drum & Bass music.” In Geoforum vol. 39, no. 5 (September 2008): 1647-1656. Hall, Jo. Boys, Bass and Bother: Popular Dance and Identity in Uk Drum 'n' Bass Club Culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Joellyn, Drum and Bass. “PRSPCT is een uit de hand gelopen hobby.” 19 maart 2013. https://www.drumandbass.nl/prspct-is-een-uit-de-hand-gelopen-hobby/
Kassabian, Anahid. “Have Canons Outlived Their Usefulness?.” In Journal of Popular Music Studies vol. 22, no. 1. 2010: 74-78.
Kärjä, Antti-Ville. “A Prescribed Alternative Mainstream: Popular Music and canon Formation.” In Popular Music vol. 25, no. 1 Special Issue on Canonisation. Januari 2006: 3-19.
Metro Nieuws. “Interview Trasher – ‘Mensen willen op PRSPCT keihard raven!’.” 12 mei 2012. https://www.metronieuws.nl/nieuws/2012/05/interview-thrasher-mensen-willen-op-prspct-keihard-raven
PRSPCT. “PRSPCT, The Label.” Geraadpleegd op 11 juni 2019. https://www.prspct.nl/label/
Quinn, Steven. “Rumble In The Jungle: The Invisible History of Drum’n’Bass.” In Transformations no. 3. Mei 2002.
Rietveld, Hillegonda C.. “Gabber Overdrive: Noise, Horror, and Acceleration.” In Turmoil CTM Magazine. 21 december 2018.
Weber, William. “The Eighteenth-Century Origins of the Musical Canon.” In Journal of the Royal Musical Association vol. 114, no.1. 1989: 6-17.
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