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Our club scene is going nowhere fast, but who’s to blame? Tina Lee investigates.

Everyone’s pointing fingers. DJs blame the media, clubbers blame the DJs, and promoters blame the clubs. Whatever the case, the reality is that our club scene is stuck in a holding pattern marked by a lack of variation, an utter dominance of house and hip-hop, and too many people willing to settle for the status quo. For the health of the scene, that has to change.

Take the last fortnight’s TOHK nightlife listings for example: out of a total of about 70 events, almost 50 were house and hip-hop. For those looking to party in Hong Kong, dig deep, because there isn’t much to listen to besides those two genres.

“You can’t do it all – be a moneymaking machine while playing only electro or experimental,” says Ben Ku, owner of Volar. “You still [need] regular hip-hop nights to bring in the crowd.” Ku explains that when a club first starts, the goal is to make money as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, “established nightclubs can take more risks by bringing in different DJs because they don’t have to worry about the business,” adds Alaric Eu, owner of Cliq and Homebase.

As a result, many DJs are pigeonholed into playing top-40 tracks. The ones willing to play along tend to get more gigs, leaving little room for experimentation. Frustrated DJs then blame the club-owners for not being more flexible, and the media for not exposing the masses to more varieties of music. “Magazines need to work with promoters and play more of a role,” says Alex Playsted, aka DJ Forest. “You [magazines] have the power to teach people about music.”

Nick Willsher of hkclubbing. com agrees that easily-accessed information is a good way for people to discover new music. But even his well-established site sees disappointing returns. “People just don’t care as much as they should,” he says. Too often, music just becomes background noise for party-goers, who either forget – or don’t care about – the creativity DJs put into their work.

“They just want something new, and it doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad,” says Basil Tam, a resident DJ at Yumla. “It gives bar managers an excuse to not care about good music, just as long as they sell lots of drinks.”

Pre-1997, there was a significant local rave culture, a time when music and drugs dominated the club circuit. But after Hong Kong was handed back to China, the police – eager to clamp down hard on drug use – put a choke-hold on clubs. “It turned the city into more of a bar culture,” says Playsted. Indeed, most of today’s socalled ‘clubs’ are actually bars that turn their space into dance-floors after dark. Only a handful of venues in Central, for instance, could be considered bona fide clubs. Times have changed. While people used to go to clubs for the music, it has now become irrelevant – most revellers would rather be seen in the most fashionable venues, as they hop from spot to spot collecting compliments and phone numbers. “Some clubs’ idea of bling is printing LV on the walls,” says avid clubber Terrence Robillard. It wasn’t until recently, when electronic music started getting some big brand cache, that the label-whores caught on.

Many people go to shows with international DJs just to make an appearance, barely noticing when the DJ starts their set. Paradoxically, this drives away those who want to listen to the music. “A lot of people have lost interest. I know younger people who are really put off by VIP bullshit lists and 25-and-up gigs, which really discourages them,” says Playsted.

Disorganised event promotion also plays a part in disappointing turnouts. DJs, promoters and club owners say venues need more direction to remain consistent. “It’s up to the club owner what club they want. They need to know what they are trying to accomplish and stick with it,” says Ku. Playsted and other DJs agree that Volar is one of the few clubs which has done a great job in creating a club with a strong musical direction. But we can’t simply point the finger at the clubs. When it comes down to it, we’re all to blame for our less-than-stellar scene. There’s a lack of communication between all involved in the entire clubbing community.

The solution is to compromise. Once club owners have a direction for what they want their club to play – be it hip-hop, techno or house – promoters should then work closely with the media. “If entertainment magazines are weekly or bi-weekly, clubs need to confirm all their dates at least a month in advance to give the information to the media,” says Olaf Hessing, events and marketing manager of M1NT. That way the media can inform the public way ahead of time, while promoters hand out material – fliers, posters, CDs – to build the hype.

And once people walk through the door, DJs need to bring it. They know dance music best and should incorporate new tracks into their sets as much as they can to inspire the crowd. “Give the crowd a few songs they like to make them feel comfortable, and then introduce something new,” says Playsted. “That’s when they’ll start asking – what is this?” As long as the crowd is entertained, club owners might start to cut DJs some slack.

But at the end of the night it all comes down to the attitude and perspective of the individual clubber. “When I go out I don’t think how late should I stay out,” says clubber Robillard. “I think how long can I tolerate this before I go home.”