Towards the end of summer, a debate began raging in clubland, kick-started by an Instagram post from the esteemed DJ Jane Fitz. Ahead of the Houghton festival, where she is a regular fixture, she posted a request asking people to stop chatting so much during DJ sets. But why would you stand completely still, where the sound is super loud, just to ask your mate about a new boyfriend or what they had for lunch?
It’s called a dancefloor for a reason.” Fitz’s plea exploded. It chimed with many, while others were up in arms, claiming that paying an entry fee allowed them to do whatever they wanted. I’m trying to give you a better night out.” “I think the dancefloor is dead,” Charli xcx sang on her tongue-in-cheek comeback single Rock Music this spring.
Many DJs and clubbers are worried it goes further than the yappers Fitz complained about, citing the rise of certain drugs – insular ketamine, chew-your-ear-off cocaine – and TikTok-boosted star DJs bringing in passive fans used to consuming dance music through a screen, who end up standing still filming the DJ and their visuals. Then there is the rising cost of clubbing, prohibiting younger, potentially bouncier dancers from attending raves. As fewer purpose-made clubs have been built in recent years, clubbers have got used to squeezing into one-room raves often in converted arches, warehouses and garages.
Josh Aitman, an organiser of the sober-friendly London queer party Good As You, complains that “some parties can be so packed in that I get looks just for dancing”. Separate bar areas are scarce and the 90s concept of a dedicated chill-out room is long gone, so the smoking area is often the only safe – if smelly – bet for a chat away from the music. While the audiophilia boom has improved sound quality in many clubs, stricter council licensing demands often result in quieter dancefloors, making chat more liable to cut through and annoy other punters.
One diehard group of clubbers detailed the science on cards they handed out this summer on dancefloors including at Houghton. One side read: “The Dance Floor Is For Dancing” with “Please take your conversation to the back” written underneath. The flipside featured a diagram of EQ curves.
I was watching a DJ I’d wanted to see for ages and two men next to me were having a 20-minute discussion about mortgage rates.” Astonishingly, this group of dancefloor activists wasn’t alone – someone else at Houghton gave out cards that just said: “Stop Talking.” Not everyone in clubland wants the dancefloor to be treated as a sacred space. James Ronald, who plays as Hot Cross Fun and is a resident DJ for the nomadic party Disco Disco, posted a heartfelt rebuttal to Fitz’s post titled: “Please Talk on the Dancefloor.” It garnered a similarly huge reaction. He defends the right for clubbers to get deep.
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