“Starting from my research focused on club culture and nightlife in different countries, I discovered the book TEN CITIES, which panoramas music and club culture in 10 cities in Africa and Europe from the 1960s to 2020, before the pandemic.
The book became an inspirational basis for my future project. The cities and the socio-political contexts they traverse are an informational roller-coaster. The choice of these locations is no accident; they are vibrant territories with a strong identity expressed by thousands of people dancing in unison.
These cities, less known for their club culture, reveal their need to assert their identity. I discovered dance types and musical personalities that influenced and changed crowd dynamics: this is where my Spotify playlist benefited 🙂
The book offers an engaging retrospective of the club scene in 10 cities that will make your imagination vibrate with every story. The journey begins in Nairobi…
I’ll share a few notes that have stuck in my mind:
“A club venue does not have physical and visible walls. The sound establishes the space. CLUB – shorthand for the totality of sound spaces people set up with dance music, get together and dance.” – INTRO MUSIC/SPACES
“Music and dance in the various African communities was inseparable from life and was almost everywhere attached to every activity. It defined the people’s culture in as much as it was markedly utilitarian(…). Music and dance were in most cases learned informally as part of one’s growing up to become a member of the society.” – NAIROBI
“In the 70’s a group of music lovers started to exchange or sell records. While a record was pretty expensive at the time, there was a low cost alternative for the masses: flexy discs that were usually printed on x-ray photos and were called music on the edges or music on the bones.” – KYIV”
