Recently having discovered the Trash Theory channel on Youtube that had posted a video about how Manchester became MADchester (Trash Theory, Before 1989: How Manchester Became MADchester, Youtube, 2024) between the years of 1970s-1990s. Using the lens of the long gone Haçienda club now replaced by flats, once famous for day-long, buzzed dance scenes and amateur singers and musicians determined to prove that ‘lack of skill’ does not exclude from the fun of making something new and just as important. I took a dive a little bit more into the history of MADchester, and its lasting impact.
It was MADchester’s very own bands and artists that hugely influenced distorted sounds so iconic of its scene. Ducie Street notably recognises that “Manchester has birthed some of music’s most influential sounds and movements. From the raw energy of punk to the euphoric beats of Madchester, the city’s sonic landscape has left an indelible mark on the world of music.”
Although Louder Than War claims that “there is no Manchester sound. There never has been a Manchester sound- like punk it’s always been diverse and only linked by geography”, others alongside Ducie Street, have noted the influence that the musicians of Manchester have lastingly impacted the history of British music, as well as the importance of sonic experimentation that became synonymous with Manchester.
Dj Gym follows by claiming that Manchester was famed for “its own distinct sound and cultural influences. The Madchester sound is defined by a fusion of rock, dance, and psychedelic influences. Bands, producers and DJs of the time experimented with sampling and looping and were heavily influenced by house and techno from the US. They combined these repetitive sounds with a distantly British artistic flair.” (DJ Gym, 2023 The Sound of Manchester: How the City Shaped Electronic Music)
The Rise (and fall?) of MADchester
The post-industrial period in the UK had been crucial to the development of leisure and entertainment. Christopher M. Law writes in 2000 in Regenerating the City Centre through Leisure and Tourism “By the 1970s the fringe areas of the city centre were being abandoned as factories, warehouses, and railway and other transport activities were closed many British cities have experienced a steadily developing renaissance with an increasing investment in physical redevelopment, the re-use of old buildings there has been an expansion of visitor attractions, bars, restaurants, clubs, theatres, cinemas, concert halls.” (Christopher M. Law, 2000)
Law does indeed mention that Manchester had a “boom in restaurants, bars, clubs, and other leisure activities” which did not “presage a parallel expansion of tourism”. Interestingly, thus, the expansion of Manchester’s leisure domain, music within that, had not necessarily been propelled by tourism, but in the aim of transformation of a post industrial space and ‘rebirth’ of a generation. He further explores that specifically “the music and club scene boomed in the mid and late 1980s with Manchester receiving national acclaim.”
From that time on, Manchester became the new epicentre of music and entertainment – qualities that we still remember to this day, marking it as the heart of the North’s musical impact for the rest of time.
“Amid the economic despair, Manchester gave rise to Joy Division, The Smiths, New Order, Happy Mondays, and more. The Haçienda became a symbol of the city” (Jacobin, 2023), giving the Mancunians a chance to break away from the, as Andy Spinoza says in Jacobin interview, “hellish” workers’ conditions and industrial toils. The Haçienda was built with “civic rebuilding” at the forefront of the project.
“The Haçienda went through three main phases. The first one was the phase from 1982 to 1988, when it was underused. It was started as “a cathedral for popular culture,” as Wilson described it, but during that first phase it only attracted a tiny congregation. What happened during the second phase in ’88 and ’89 was that dance music happened. That lit a match in the potential audience of the Haçienda, and the place ultimately did become that cathedral. It became a place of worshiping the DJ high up in their booth above the dance floor. And there were 1,500, two thousand people there on any given night. It was like the gods of pop culture had smiled on the Haçienda. During the third phase in ’91–’92 it became a carnival of crime. Whilst some people were having the night of their lives, the use of ecstasy, which fueled the scene, made it a fought-over territory” (Andy Spinoza in Jacobin, 2023).
The historical impact of not only the Haçienda but the rise of so many new icons in the music production industries and live music carried on throughout history, which really illuminates the issue that Manchester may be stuck in its past glories – a true museum, polishing over and over its diamonds, whilst unrefined, precious ores are anticipating to luster and shine just the next room over.
In a BBC interview, Natalie-Eve Williams nails the problems: “There are bands out there that I’m confident are going to break through, but I do feel that the greats – those big rock ‘n’ roll bands thathave this great big following and dominate the market – are a factor of yesteryear, sadly.”
There is conversation surrounding the grip on historically iconic bands, whether they allow a breakthrough for newer bands and artists. Giving the platforms to bands who no longer even produce new music is important of course – their following remains immense, reaching all four corners of the world, but maybe there also needs to be a balance built between promoting and encouraging new musical cultures, and keeping the old ones alive. People adapt and negotiate cultures all the time, much like the ways in which I negotiated what felt Polish to me with regards to my surroundings and circumstances. We should allow these new cultures to thrive and bloom, rather than shrink in the shadows of tradition and ‘old-school’ rock’n’roll.
Whenever I read an article about Manchester being a music centre of the North, even the whole of the UK, the authors echo the same scenario, writing about Oasis, The Stone Roses, The Smiths etc. Whilst we cannot ignore the impact they’ve had, Manchester’s scene should try and live up to its reputation today, reviving it by awing all generations with refreshing sounds and voices.
Technology has advanced so far, and there’s so much talent living in the shadows that we should promote, things that Mancunian stages have never yet experienced. There will always be some kind of mark on Manchester as the birthplace of a huge chunk of BritRock/BritPop etc.: The Stone Roses, Joy Division, The Smiths and later A Guy Called Gerald, Simply Red etc., and let’s celebrate that, but also find balance for bands who could become today’s cult classics.
The issue of the constant longing for the good, old days keeps coming up. I get it, we’ve all been there, we all love some nostalgia, hence the ongoing dialogue surrounding old rock’n’roll of the old Manchester.
But we do need to promote new artists and if we want to promote new artists, we have to pay them,right? Well, yes. But just for comparison, here in Paris, I most often attend a club called Supersonic,around the Bastille area. Tribute nights are performed by 3-4 live bands per night, for free. Other events they may have going on, I have never had to pay more than €10-12 for the entry tickets. There is a thin line between sponsoring your local bands and artists, and milking your audience for every penny so the big boss at the top can buy a summer house in Spain.
Law actually begins his article with the following comment: “In a comment written at the end of the 1980s, David Harvey said that cities that once sold themselves as places of production were now selling themselves as places of consumption.”
Although there is a grain of truth (or perhaps even a whole beach-worth of grains, since I think it’s a pretty common consensus to say that much of the music scene and production has died down in recent years out of capitalist greed, and raging hunger for a spotlight on the red carpet and social media; I can see how it’s a shame to see not only a global issue, but also a local, Mancunian issue, to let art industries degrade away for capitalistic profit), regardless of the domain we look at in our generation especially – fashion, books, arts, music etc and to the fact the big producers have begun to promote these spaces for money-making, rather than promoting the production of a culture.
The most interesting difference to note is that the generation the article speaks of, actually draws attention to how this investment in city centres offered opportunities for leisure and tourism, hence the aforementioned Mancunian boom in the music entertainment industries. In comparison, today’s commentaries critique that younger generations consume for the sake of external praise and dopamine fix, especially in fashion.
Latoya Reisner and Kamila Rymajdo illuminate another issue for us in an article titled The 0161 rap gap: the marginalisation of Black rap musicians in Manchester‘s live music scene from 2022.
Although the title is telling in and of itself, allow me to deep it a little bit. “Titles classified as rap and hip hop accounted for over a fifth of all UK singles consumption in 2020 and yet, rap music, both performed live and played by DJs, is regularly policed and shunned by music venue promoters and owners. Mancunian Black rap musicians, promoters and DJs face similar problems. This is well illustrated by their scant representation in Manchester’s city centre music venues. For example, successful Manchester rapper Bugzy Malone has performed in the city only seven times since 2015” (page 2 of article).
This fall of a Mancunian music scene is perhaps the fault of a declining interest in creating, and an increased interest in consuming, but also a lack of cultural representation. The Haçienda was known for its diverse scene, borrowing sounds from all cultures and genres, but with such practices being shunned, it is pretty clear that the music scene narrows.
The increase of censorship of music became especially prevalent with Form 696 that would take down drill music, and “required venue owners or promoters to declare the details of promoters, artists, DJs, music style, the ethnicity of the crowd and who the target audience was, eventually abusing this form to shut down specifically black musicians and artists from scenes. Once again, I would highly recommend reading this article for an in-depth explanation of the marginalisation of black Mancunian artists, rendering the community much smaller and less diverse.
Additionally, the rise in social media could also be a factor to consider. The Mancunion writes about independent and solo artists promoting their work through social media platforms, however, as they note “TikTok, as ripe with opportunity as it might be for individuals, is not particularly so for bands”(Isla Moore for The Mancunion, 2024), pushing bands to reach out to old-fashioned ways such as venues, pubs, bars or clubs, where they put on live gigs and hope to catch a promoter’s attention. This,too, is becoming more and more difficult.
The band interviewed by Isla Moore, Hungry did recognise that this is not an issue exclusive to Manchester, there is a general lack of enthusiasm and possibility to book gigs and promote their artistry.“In 2023 alone, 125 UK venues had to stop providing live music, with half of this number fully closing. Moreover, over 42% of grass roots music venues that closed in 2023 were for reasons cited as ‘financial issues’, also triggered by “poor alcohol sales. One of the key problems of a prominent drug culture is that people would rather spend money on drugs than buy alcohol at the club, leading to financial problems for venues across the city” (Isla Moore for The Mancunion, 2024).
Personally, whenever I’m in the UK for the winter or summer holidays, I rarely venture out into the city centre – too many pushy crowds, a sensory nightmare. Maybe it’s because I’m rarely there then and even if I am, I dash in and out just to cross out my to-do list, but I never actually notice many live music events going on. Canal Street, well-known for its queer culture, has drag shows and events all the time, sadly not everyone wants to attend queer clubs and bars for such events.
So to summarise everything I have found on this issue: Manchester could be stuck in its glorious musical past, in praising itself for the birth of the greatest bands of this world it sweeps the new generation under the rug, deeming them ‘not the same’ ‘untalented’, or as counterfeit music. The financial issues that venues face, forces them to be shut down, and social media obsessions leave no room for bands to promote their work or book gigs in hopes of showcasing their talent. Marginalisation of black talent further compressed the scale of music production and live performances, truly putting this generation’s music scene at risk. The question also arises, is there such a thing as ‘real music’ and if today’s generation really does make shallow music, unworthy of the same appreciation and credit as those of bygone eras? So let us be encouraged to discover the current live music of Manchester, and experience the new generation’s art in person.
Opinion Piece by Rozalia Lewandowska.
Based off Sources below,
DJ Gym, The Sound of Manchester: How the City Shaped Electronic Music, 2023
The Sound of Manchester: How the City Shaped Electronic Music)
Christopher M. Law, Regenerating the City Centre through Leisure and Tourism, 2000
Latoya Reisner, Kamila Rymajdo, The 0161 rap gap: the marginalisation of Black rap musicians in Manchester’s live music scene, 2022
Trash Theory, Woo-hoo!: How Blur Mocked Grunge & Destroyed Britpop [“Song 2”] | New Canon, Youtube, 2024
Trash Theory, Before 1989: How Manchester Became MADchester, Youtube, 2024
Isla Moore, Is it Becoming Impossible for Bands to Survive in the Fragile UK Grass Roots Music Scene?, The Mancunion, 2024
Is it Becoming Impossible for Bands to Survive in the Fragile UK Grass Roots Music Scene?
johnrobb, The Guardian claims that manchester has forgotten about its musical heritage- true or false?, Louder than War, 2011
The Guardian claims that manchester has forgotten about its musical heritage- true or false?
James Carroll, Opinion: Is Manchester’s music scene still thriving?, The Mancunion, 2019
Opinion: Is Manchester’s music scene still thriving? – The Mancunion
Ian Youngs, Can Manchester music move on from its past?, BBC, 2012
Can Manchester music move on from its past? – BBC News
Chandler Dandridge, Manchester’s Music Scene Dragged the City Out of Postindustrial Decline, Jacobin, 2023
Manchester’s Music Scene Dragged the City Out of Postindustrial Decline
Ducie Street, The Soundtrack of a City: Manchester’s Enduring Impact on Music History
Manchester’s Enduring Impact on Music History | Ducie Street
