The Controversies that made Jungle Massive.
No, not the band, the genre! No, not drum and bass either!!
artwork by Eliana Schiller.
Before you read this article, if you haven’t listened to jungle before, I would recommend checking out the playlist below with some of my favorite tracks! Jungle is a subgenre of electronic music developed in the UK in the 1990s that was especially popular among black British youths. It is characterized by high BPMs (~160+), heavy bass lines, breakbeats (a fast repeated drum beat during a “break” in the music), synth lines, reggae sounds and of course, samples.
Jungle wouldn’t be jungle without samples. You see the same samples used repeatedly, making the genre distinct and recognizable. One of these is “Amen, Brother,” considered the most frequently sampled track ever; 6,706 times to be exact. If you are curious, take a look at some of the tunes where “Amen, Brother” is sampled.
Drum and bass is NOT jungle! It came after and developed from jungle. While I am hesitant to say drum and bass is overrated, I think that its more lasting global impression is because it is more flexible than jungle, encompassing many subgenres, not because it is inherently better than jungle.
Part 1: Who Created Jungle?
Whenever I think about jungle music, the line “Wicked (a), wicked, junglist massive” comes into my head. Sung in M-Beat’s “Incredible,” the 1994 track is clearly a joyous celebration of jungle music. The vocals, not far from shouting, were improvised by General Levy in just one take. He himself was in disbelief when the producers were eager to use this first take, objecting that it was “too much energy.” Thank god they did—because it demonstrates one of my favorite things about jungle; how affectionately self-referential the genre is, especially in comparison to other EDM genres.
Jungle knows that it is jungle, and wants other people to know too by frequently referencing the name of the genre in track titles and album covers. In this way, each jungle producer, DJ, and MC creates the genre itself by explicitly identifying with jungle and in turn, expressing this to listeners. Modern jungle artists carry forward this tradition, for example, Nia Archives uses the slogan “A QUINTESSENTIALLY JUNGLIST SUMMER” in her self promotion. Of course, other genres like hip-hop have also used this technique to prove the genre’s legitimacy, but not to the scale found in jungle. To me, jungle’s self-referential nature is not an attempt to prove something, it’s an ode to celebrate itself.
However, its self-referential nature can also make jungle come across as boastful or selfish. General Levy was boycotted by DJs and had bookings canceled for coming across as egotistical and making it seem as though he alone created jungle. To me, these claims are baseless. There is a sense of ownership that comes across in jungle, but the way that hype chants and other forms of crowd interaction are used by jungle MCs makes it clear that this ownership is a collective ownership. The UK created jungle, not any one actor.
Part 2: Jungle and the establishment
Jungle was spread by pirate radio—radio stations that played music without a broadcasting license on ‘stolen’ radio signals. The name ‘pirate radio’ comes from the first pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, which began broadcasting off ships situated in international waters in 1964. Before a common framework to prevent ships broadcasting in this way was developed, Radio Caroline was never actually illegal, since it was docked outside of national territories.
But why did jungle have to resort to this illegal method of broadcasting? The story of jungle music is a story of restriction. At the time, the UK’s public broadcaster, the BBC, had a monopoly on the broadcasting of music nationwide. It was failing to fulfill the growing desire for ‘popular music’ while pirate radio was. Put comically by the BBC’s chairman, “You can’t have popular music all the time, it would be like having the pubs open all day.” Yet, these very pirate radio stations influenced the BBC to attempt offering popular music, marked by their launch of Radio 1 in 1967. But this didn’t stop the rise of pirate radio.
Graduating from ships to tower block transmissions, pirate radio continued to stay widespread into the 90s, especially among minority groups. For example, the first Black British radio station was a pirate radio station, Dread Broadcasting Corporation. Another major player was Kool FM, self-proclaimed as the very first pirate station ever to play hardcore jungle. Kool FM and other stations would provide chatrooms and promote club and rave events. This and the lack of access to national radio meant that jungle was popularized in close knit groups in localized areas. Sound familiar? Collective ownership? Jungle is inherently about community!
Even today, relationships between these stations and British legislators is tenuous. Pirate radio meant the BBC was losing out on many potential listeners. During this time, authorities often raided in connection to drug investigations or claims of interfering with emergency service radio signals. For those that survived, a select few were given legal radio licenses following 1990. If you have ever listened to UK radio, you’ll know Kiss FM, but what you might not know is that Kiss FM began as a pirate radio station specializing in Black and Dance music. Kiss FM gave jungle its first legal appearance on UK radio in 1994. This was the start of the legitimization of jungle; two years later, the BBC finally woke up to the sound of jungle, playing a weekly show called One In The Jungle.
It is interesting to think that if the BBC had given the people what they wanted back in the 60s, jungle music might cease to exist and not just because of pirate radio. Jamaican establishment radio was modelled off the BBC and so, like pirate radio, the development of the Jamaican Soundsystem was a response to restrictive mainstream offerings. The Jamaican Soundsystem is a concept of a group of DJs, engineers, MCs playing Reggae music. Neighboring sound systems compete for the biggest sound (i.e., building the biggest speakers) and for the largest audience. But what does this have to do with jungle? Jungle’s interactive nature—especially the role of the MC—has its roots in Jamaican Soundsystem culture.
It is not such a mystery to me why jungle never grew further than this peak in the 1990s. Pirate radio stations who had their roots in jungle music, once they got licenses, largely moved over to other music genres. Jungle’s geographical coverage was limited because pirate radio couldn’t match the broadcasting power of national radio. And, the community and exclusivity that was vital to jungle’s identity no longer existed within the framework commercial radio. Jungle rose from restriction and this restriction roots jungle in its time and location.
My personal favorite jungle tracks are inextricably linked with memories of a time and location in my own life—a time of discovery and excitement. I wasn’t listening to jungle coming from a phone tower in Hackney but live in Manchester, UK from a converted warehouse that was once a WWII train station. As such, jungle to me is a reminder that music does not exist in a vacuum, it is shaped by the places and people who give it love.
edited by Amishi Gupta.
artwork by Eliana Schiller.