A new dawn is breaking for club culture, beckoning a future with no clear cut boundaries. It’s unpredictable and full of surprises.
It was back in 1964 when Bob Dylan first sang The times they are a-Changin'. Forty-five years on, it has never been more appropriate. As people become more aware of their lifestyle and their choices, there has been a perceptible shift in Helsinki’s nightlife. State of the art equipment, although still important, is no longer the main focus. The emphasis is shifting back to the guest’ experience and the key is to get more for less without a compromising on quality.
In cosmopolitan cities like Helsinki, both integration and the preservation of cultural traditions is important. It is therefore inevitable that cultural aspects become fused; elements of different music genres blend together and music is no longer easy to define.
Transfer this to the club scene and it encourages a community feeling in an urban environment. An attempt to create an atmosphere and experience without accompanying social or cultural complications. It is an undisputed fact that Helsinki holds considerable power where groundbreaking and innovative art forms are concerned but as this broader approach to music emerges, to what extent does Helsinki’s nightlife represent the changing face of club culture?
Children of the revolution
Acclaimed hard dance DJ, Proteus, who is a key player in revolutionising Helsinki’s nightlife explains: “Beside rock culture, Helsinki nightlife could be much better.”
“Helsinki has an amazing amount of bars and nice venues but still the club culture could be more rich and alive. The club culture in Helsinki is very much based on chill-out and house music, but Helsinki does have many rock bars with good live bands playing from Mondays to Sundays and that’s the best thing in Helsinki”
According to Proteus, it seems Helsinki still has developmental potential, so what’s next?
“I would like to see Helsinki to be someday like Berlin or London; very rich and live, lots of interesting things going on. I think there are too many commercial discos in Helsinki with a very commercial and narrow-minded repertoire… but still comparing to other cities, Helsinki definitely has the best to offer in Finland.”
Express yourself!
That clubbing was becoming too commercial is a widely held belief, and underground artists have been striving to stem the flow of constantly reissued and remixed music and provide something fresh, something innovative.
Promoter, Lili Srdic believes that a key factor for ensuring the successful evolution of club culture is communication: “[it’s] the exchange of opinions and ideas between regular club goers, including the performers and organisers themselves. The intricate fabric of this city and its potentially stimulating and diverse environments are ideal for expression and discussion, and for raising awareness.”
Is this an attempt to make hedonism give way to altruism?
Just as it is virtually impossible to confine a person to one genre, one artist or one song, club cultures are starting to reflect this. Revellers are no longer content with just a beer in a bar and juxtaposition is crucial in embracing the diversity of an audience; a variety of genres, against a variety of acts, versatile spaces and exotic entertainment.
Soundtrack to your life
Effectively, DJ’s create a soundtrack for your night out, but in fact they are willing to do much more. As the search for a less complicated life continues, it is only natural that a less complicated soundtrack to compliment it is sought. “I’m trying to bring more underground culture and different interesting events to Helsinki’s night life. I try to offer people more things to experience and hear,” says Proteus about his aims for the nightlife of Helsinki.
Tired of fickle fads, there is a growing demand among the more self-assertive new generation for more than “just a night out.” The modern short attention span seems to requires extra stimuli. People want more! Something that is perhaps a reflection of this multimedia age.
Proteus currently organises three events in Helsinki in an attempt to satisfy this. All showcase hot new acts and focus on diversity. For example: Torture Torstai at Kuudes Linja in Helsinki’s Kallio district, is a monthly club night that Proteus describes as one that “offers more special and unusual things to people; from fetish themes to punk nights and from burlesque shows to black metal.”
Melting pot
The combination of a hard house DJ with theatrical entertainment from acts such as the Burlesque dancers of the Burlesque Polaire group could be said to have evolved from the multiple clubbing events of the nineties. Sub-cultures have long co-existed but now there’s a more united front; the idea now is not to separate each individual elements but to combine them.
The Graveyard Party is another example of a symphony for the senses. A festival of sorts that takes place during Helsinki’s darker months, it encourages people to step outside their comfort zone. “A melting pot of all dark music cultures, from Goth bands to heavy industrial bands,” describes Proteus.
The analogy of a melting pot is a recurring theme with regards to the future of club culture. Each “ingredient” retains its own flavour, while playing an equal role in the flavour of the overall product. Music has long played an important part in cultural fusion and incorporated with multimedia events it helps to capture the essence of diversity.
The audiences’ tolerance, participation and acceptance of diversity in a cosmopolitan setting reflects an acknowledgement of the otherness of the future. In the case of club culture, the myriad of combinations that the cultural fusions provide, guarantee an interesting, intriguing and most likely, victorious future.
Daisey Cheyney - HT
