New Beat

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New Beat is an underground electronic musical genre and subculture that emerged in Belgium during the mid-1980s, coinciding with the rise of Acid House music in Chicago and Detroit. Belgian New Beat is often associated with the R&S Records Label, which played an important role in popularizing this genre. Bands such as Confetti's, Lords of Acid, and Front 242 were some of the most well known pioneers of New Beat, producing songs influenced by Techno, House, Industrial, Darkwave, and Electronic Body Music. New Beat is often considered to be the predecessor of Hardcore Techno and`Gabber music as it played a crucial role on their emergence.

History[]

Cultural Context[]

"Belgium. The battlefield of Europe. The place where in 1815, Napoleon would meet his defeat. The battle of Waterloo would become the foundation of modern Europe, and although this battle would be proved to be historical, Napoleon was hardly the first to seek rule over the territory that would later become: Belgium. To conquer Europe, one had to go through Belgium, and to keep the war-torn nations apart, a buffer had to be created, and so in 1830, Belgium was founded. A country for a people who had been conquered so often that they didn't care who's in charge anymore. They just do as they had always done; work the land, work hard, and then... party harder!" ― The Sound of Belgium Documentary

Popcorn[]

Main article: Northern Soul

Popcorn is a completely underground musical movement in Belgium estabilished during the 1970s and 1980s, in many ways similar to Britain's Northern Soul movement. It was a youth subculture characterized by its music preferences involving soul, disco, swing, jazz, and funk music, particularly obscure tracks recorded in Britain or the United States during the previous two decades. These songs were played in dance halls and clubs, in which people would Cha Cha dance to underground records while socializing, dating, having fun, and consuming alcohol. The most commonly used instrument was the organ. This movement was at its peak in the region of Flanders, although political unity between the Flemish and Walloons was valued.

Compared to Northern Soul, the music associated with the Popcorn movement is significantly slower in its tempo. As strange as it sounds, this movement was named after "popcorn" due to its connections to R&B and Soul music originating from the United States. However, the name directly originated from the phrase "Dancing the Popcorn in Vrasene", a town in the province of East Flanders. In this town, people would attend dance competitions on Sunday afternoons, hosted in a café called De Oude Hoeve.^[1]

Bob Stanley, a journalist from The Guardian, described Popcorn as the last truly underground scene in Europe.^[2] This is because it has largely gone unnoticed outside its home country, and unlike many other movements and subcultures of the time, the trend was never commercialized. It is often considered to be the predecessor to Belgium's New Beat movement, which had a distinct music and fashion and influenced the emergence of Hardcore Techno music.

New Beat & Acid House[]

The origins of the New Beat movement can be traced back to the Belgian nightclub scenes that surged during the 1980s. DJs and producers began experimenting with different styles of music, blending elements of electronic music with slower tempos and incorporating new creative sampling styles. This resulted in a distinct sound that started being called "New Beat". New Beat music was characterized by its dark and industrial sound, often using heavy basslines, synthesizers and distorted vocals. It was like a transitional point between the happier EDM subgenres that were popular at the time and Hardcore music. The slow tempo of New Beat songs allowed for a more hypnotic and atmospheric experience on the dance floor. New Beat music quickly gained an huge fanbase in Belgium, with nightclubs like Boccaccio and Fuse becoming hotspots for enthusiasts of this emerging genre. The New Beat movement wasn't limited to its musical scene: it also impacted the sense of fashion and youth culture in Belgium. The New Beat scene slowly developed its distinctive fashion style which included elements such as eccentric accessories and Goth-inspired fashion. Belgian New Beat gained international attention in the late 1980s when songs like "The Sound of C" by Confetti's and "Pump Up the Jam" by Technotronic became global hits. New Beat's popularity spreaded to other parts of Europe, with the genre gaining popularity in countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, France and Spain. In the 1990s, New Beat's popularity started to decline due to the rise of other Electronic musical genres such as Trance or Hardcore Techno, however its legacy was carried over as influence on other genres.

Visuals[]

New Beat imagery mainly consists of the Smiley face symbol, which is still associated with this musical genre to this day, especially by nostalgic adults from western Europe. Images of faces censored with a Smiley face over them are also commonly used. References to Belgian culture are common and respectivily black, yellow and red are the most used colours as well, as they are the colours of the Belgian flag.

Fashion[]

The fashion associated with this scene is mainly attributed to the New Beat movement during the late 1980s^[3]. It was inspired by churches and Gothic fashion, with the main colours used being black, white and sometimes yellow. The clothing was meant to be provocative as well, taking inspiration from bondage fashion with elements such as leather and fishnets. The most iconic motifs seen on New Beat outfits were the Smiley face and gravestone portraits (otherwhise called 'Bomma badges'). Given the latter, Bomma badges were oval ceramic portraits you could find in gravestones. As described by Idriz Jossa, one of the most iconic fashion designers of this movement, it was supposed to be extravagant and absurd but also 'nostalgic', in the sense that it's not the photo of a deceased person but a 'step back in time'. The Bomma badge became so fashionable that young people started stealing the emblems from cemeteries so they could wear them as necklaces. The clothing was mainly unisex and made with black lingerie fabric. Other common characteristics of New Beat outfits were:

Cycling shorts
Knee socks
Bowler hats with crosses
Golden corsets
Heavy black shoes
Black priest chasubles
Religious imagery such as the Virgin Mary
Accessories: Bomma badges, Smiley pins, crosses
Black veils (mostly for women)
Black rimmed eyes and bright red lipstick (for women)
Outfits revealing the chest (for men)

Music[]

Acid House[]

Acid House is a subgenre of Electronic Dance Music that originated in the mid-1980s in Chicago, Illinois (USA), however it also gained important attention throughout Belgium and the United Kingdom, as well as the rest of western Europe. It is characterized by its distinctive sound, which is often described as raw, repetitive, and hypnotic. Acid house music played a significant role in the development of electronic dance music as a whole and has had a lasting impact on various genres and subcultures.

New Beat[]

New Beat is a Belgian musical genre which fuses elements of New Wave, Hi-NRG, Electronic Body Music and Hip-Hop. It is considered the precursor of Hardcore Techno music and it also heavily influenced Gabber and Belgian Techno music. It became really popular throughout western Europe during the 1980s and 1990s, spawning its very own Rave culture.