Idris Elba's How Clubbing Changed the World Page #2

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Wir fahren, fahren, fahren

auf der Autobahn

Wir fahren, fahren, fahren

auf der Autobahn...

Those sounds were out of this world.

Where did that come from?

I have no clue,

how these sounds are being created.

Weisse Streifen

Gruener Rand...

They had a, first of all, unique

sound. They sounded like the future.

When you listen to it, you wonder,

like, "How did they make this music?"

We all had that similar experience,

whether it was listening to

Trans-Europe Express or Man Machine,

we were like, "Wow, so this is what

people can do with electronic music."

I remember being drawn into Autobahn

as a very young child.

It's one side and it's about

a motorway that's really long,

and you can listen it

and it's like a journey.

It's just this thing that goes

on and on, what are they doing?

It's not even an instrument.

I don't know what it is,

there's just this bubbling sound.

These tracks are incredible

and there's nothing still today

that sounds like them.

From the Autobahn, to the A577.

In 1978, a casino in Wigan

was voted above New York's Studio 54

in the Billboard Magazine Chart,

as best disco in the world.

The worst sound system

in the world was at Wigan Casino.

It was the pits.

But it really was

the most amazing atmosphere.

Misery is rushing down on me

Like a landslide.

I did go to Wigan Casino,

it was truly amazing.

I mean, the music was really loud

and it was just a sea of people.

You know, with talcum powder flying

all over the place, it was wonderful.

Baby, save me

Don't you let me get caught

Up in this landslide.

Red Star Records from

the industrial heart of America

had been the catalyst

for a unique '70s club culture

in the heart of Northern England.

Northern Soul.

Northern Soul was rare soul.

'60s, mostly.

It's four by four music that

sounds good when you're on drugs.

Sometimes I feel I've got to

Run away

I've got to get away...

For the first time ever,

the DJs had become absolutely

quintessential entertainment.

When the DJ played that anthem,

the whole place would dance.

I mean, everybody.

Whoa, tainted love

Whoa-oh-oh-oh

Tainted love.

Four to the floor beats,

DJs, drugs, and all night dancing,

sounds familiar doesn't it?

But if you needed proof of the

modern dominance of dance music,

you need to look no further

than this man.

I cannot even imagine music that

doesn't want to make you dance.

I wanted to share my passion

for this music with the world.

In 2009, a certain Miss Kelly

Rowland heard an instrumental track

of David Guetta's and convinced him

to let her sing vocals.

When love takes over

Yea-ea-eah

You know you can't deny.

When Love Takes Over was born

and, by the end of the year,

it had gone platinum

in seven countries.

I'm like a Jedi, you know?

I'm focussed on what I do,

and I don't do anything else.

Since then, everyone from Usher

to Akon has come in search of

some instant Guetta-fication.

He has become a modern

pop phenomenon like no other.

I wake up, I eat

and I make music all afternoon.

Then I take the plane,

I go to a new city, I perform.

It is a little bit of

a strange lifestyle, waking up,

you know, without knowing

in what country you are.

The worst part of it is that

I don't even ask myself any more.

That's my life.

To have this kind of life, you have

to be totally obsessed by music.

It's like insane.

Do join me after the break

as we follow clubbing

boldly out onto the catwalk,

deep into the world of consumerism

and we go back to

the very birth place of house music.

Dig out the white gloves, ravers,

we're only just getting started.

Welcome back to our countdown

of How Clubbing Changed the World.

Now, this is where clubbing

and consumerism collide head-on.

Now, at its very heart, clubbing,

raving, staying out all night,

whatever you wanna call it,

has always been about getting

together

and letting yourself go,

and throwing some serious shapes,

not something easy considering the

clothes we were wearing in the

'80s.

I think the designer era of the late

'80s was all about restriction.

Very close to the body,

big shoulders, you know, posing.

And it was about elitism.

I want money

That's what I want

That's what I want...

But when house music exploded out

of the underground club scene,

things started to change.

Suddenly everyone was dressing down,

cos people were just dancing.

And you couldn't be dressed up to

the nines,

because you were on the dance floor,

the stroboscope was flashing,

you'd be sweating like crazy.

There was this kind of hippy,

bonkers sort of look

that kinda crept in.

Acid house was actually

looked down on,

very much by these fashion people.

It was only

when it got too big to ignore,

that suddenly people started to

take it seriously.

As the '80s gave way to the '90s,

even the rarefied world of high

fashion

began to take notice of

clubbing's free and easy approach.

London designer, Rifat Ozbek, caught

the mood of the times

with his White Collection in 1990.

Rifat was a good mate of mine.

Really loves dance music,

and he was one of the first people

to kind of pick

up on the significance of clubbing.

A lot of the big fashion houses

suddenly realised, you know,

we can't go on selling to these,

you know,

super rich people who are sort of now

heading for their 50s.

And a huge youth quake happened.

Suddenly people like McQueen were

asked to design

for fashion houses in Paris.

It was that moment that you saw how

something from a small club

can then translate onto

a bigger scene.

As the popularity of club culture

grew in the '90s,

people began to wise up to

the marketing potential.

Nothing demonstrates electronic

music's relationship

with consumerism better than

Moby's album Play.

Released in 1999,

initially nobody was buying it.

We put out this record.

At first no-one was interested in it,

and then

we got a few licensing requests,

so I simply just sort of,

for better or worse,

probably for worse,

just kind of said yes to a lot

of things.

Advertising execs loved what they

heard and,

ten months after it was released,

every single track on

the album had been licensed

for use in TV, adverts and films.

Suddenly the album was a pop

phenomenon.

Every aspect of it was

completely accidental.

There was no strategy.

The success of the album signals

electronic music's ability

to sell everything from family

cars to chocolate.

'Thornton's, chocolate heaven.'

The thing that's most important

about electronic music is

that it just carries you away.

I think that that's the thing that

brands really want to do now.

Last year's DJ Fresh-inspired

Lucozade campaign was a classic

example.

Louder

Stronger...

It does fit really well,

and I think it's really good to just

be hearing it everywhere.

I used to work on the Lucozade

business,

rave culture and clubbing

transformed that business.

It was a bit more of a freedom drink

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