Swingin' Through The Decades

Plans are well underway for our new club night - Scantily Clad. Its all about Friday nights; fancy get-ups; and flaunting your finest, most provocative dance moves. Good vibes are a bona-fide guarantee.

Weve chosen a new and outrageously enjoyable genre - Electro Swing. A lot of people hearing of this for the first time are likely to think that its a new sub genre of electro. Well sir, if you think this then you are wrong. The focus is on swing. The following is a what weve gathered up about its roots.

The Swing Era (20s - 40s)
Swing music originated and became popularised between the 1920s and 1940s in the United States. This was the time of new breed Flappers, The Jazz Age, prohibition and, most noticeably, The Great Depression in America - a time that we in this day and age can relate to.

Swing took the sound of big band jazz and characterised it with that swing feel through fast tempos, rhythmic grooves and a good number of different instruments. People warmed to the genre during The Great Depression as a symbol of escape. A way to dance their worries of the time away. Artists such as Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong helped expose the genre which became widely accepted amongst the African American community. A lot of Americans were still resistant to its erratic style. In the late 30s, which was also known as The Dirty Thirties, it soon gained wider acceptance becoming the most popular music style in America. Unfortunately, its progression was brought to a halt by the time of WWII. By the early 1940s, swing was in decline and the Swing Era (1935 - 1945) diminished. One of the main factors of this was that big bands couldnt be staffed because the musicians were overseas fighting. There was also the recording ban of 1942 to 1948 because of disagreement with large record companies over royalty payments which meant as of midnight July 31st 1942 no member of the American Federation of Musicians union could record for any record company. By 1948, because of this strike, swing had branched out into other styles such as jump blues and bebop.

It was also growing its own scene in Germany.

Swing Through the 50s and 60s
Throughout the 60s swing music was kept alive converging with other genres that were popular during that time. Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole used swing in a lot of their recordings, while artists such asJimmie Rodgers adopted swing into blues and country music creating a genre called Western Swing. Through the RocknRoll Era leading artists like Chuck Berry and Elvis The King Presley included the swing style in their material.

The Revival of Swing (90s - early 00s)
The 90s saw a come-back of the swing scene in the US. This revival was led by bands such as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Squirrel Nut Zippers. People were once again out swing dancing. Following this era, swing was welcomed in the turn of the millennium by more contemporary artists such as Jurrasic 5 and Mr.Scruff. New styles were emerging as artists began to combine the swing style with newer styles such as hip-hop and house.

Contemporary Swing (mid 00s - present)
The most recent adaption of the swing scene came about in the mid to late naughties. It was particularly hyped in the UK in 2009 when the first Electro Swing club opened in London, White Mink : Black Cotton who have released a series of compilations. To put it simply, the genre fuses modern beats - drum & bass, electro, hip-hop, house, electronica, dubstep and more - with 1920s to 1940s swing music. Its a sound that anyone with a bit of rythm would dance to. The fledgling genre has been propelled and enriched by the workings of artists such as Parov Stelar, The Correspondents, Movits and Caravan Palace. Its varying tempos and influences of a variety of genres makes it an embraced, feel-good sound to an eclectic mix of music enthusiasts - which is what we believe is going to be the most interesting part about it, and also what is going to make it progress as a genre.

Scantily Clad: A Night of Electro Swing (16th November 2012, Chambre 69)
Were bringing Electro Swing to Glasgow. Denney will be the ring leader of the evenings proceedings as we transform the basement venue of Chambre 69 into a swinging jazz lounge. Its a far cry from his usual residency at Unleash The Beast (our DnB / Jungle showcase @ Sub Club), but hes keen to experiment in a range of genres. That, and he wishes to put a smile on all your lovely faces. What a gent.

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