The Ibiza Influence
by Rob Wegner

All Photos by Disc Jockey 101

September 2001

Ibiza, which is also known as "the white isle," is a resort island off the southern coast of Spain. It is also currently the de facto capital of the world's dance music scene. Its influence is analogous to the Chicago house music scene of the 80's (i.e., Warehouse nightclub) or New York disco scene of the 70's (i.e., Studio 54).

As soon as you arrive at the airport, you are inundated by advertisements for the island's clubs. Roadside billboard's and flags on most street lamps advertise DJ appearances. Almost every store window has five to ten nightclub flyers promoting upcoming events (even the grocery stores). The island's nightclub flyers read as a "who's who" of the disc jockey world ­ from Chicago house music legend Frankie Knuckles to Paul Oakenfold ­ Ibiza is to the DJ as Hawaii is to the surfer. DJ boutiques are everywhere. The entire island seems to revolve around the DJ.

Although there are numerous clubs on the island, four tend to dominate: Privilege (the world's largest nightclub), Pacha, Amnesia, and Space. Eden and El Divino are also quite popular but slightly smaller. While every club is busy on weekends, weeknights are often dominated by one or two clubs. For example, at the time of this writing, Space is popular on Sundays (i.e., 2,000 people), Privilege dominates Mondays (i.e., 8,000 people), etc.

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Ibiza is so influential that many record labels send advanced copies of new releases to the island's DJ's. This is because, as the labels now recognize, if a song becomes popular in Ibiza, it will become popular in Europe, and if a song becomes popular in Europe, as it's believed, it will become popular in the United States. According to David Steele of UK based The Zone Ezine:

"the Ibizan scene is controlling the European dance scene more than ever and UK media have gone crazy. I've seen live TV broadcasts from inside Pacha and also Manumission. BBC Radio 1 had a whole weekend of live radio from Ibiza. Even teenage TV programs being hosted from Ibiza that have nothing to do with music; docusoaps about holiday reps in Ibiza; drama's about holiday reps in Ibiza; win a holiday in Ibiza from just about every food/drink/magazine/tv program. Did you know that every UK mobile phone network has Ibiza SMS info services from club news through to accommodation. I tell ya, Ibiza is everywhere, there is no escape and so far, we're all lapping it up."

The current Ibiza wave relates to a general tendency in dance music that dates back many decades. In a nutshell, certain geographic regions often influences dance music trends at certain times. For example, an impartial list (which varies in scale of influence) would also include: the South Beach Florida sound of the late-90's; French-disco house starting in the mid-90's; the Seattle grunge scene of the mid-90's; "East-coast, West coast" Hip Hop of the mid-90's; the Detroit techno scene of the early-90's (i.e., Derreck May); the Belgian "New Beat" sound of the late-80's; the London "acid-house" sound of the late-80's (i.e., Coldcut); the (Italian) Italio-disco sound of the early-80's; etc. Each of these "scenes" have a unique identity and history, and in many cases, continues to influence dance music. In addition, these "scenes" have evolved over time. For example, Chicago house evolved into hard-house (i.e., Underground Construction). In other cases, some scenes integrated elements from several places. For example, the current wave of New York house is a melting pot of several styles (including Ibiza).

While Ibiza has influenced dance music in many ways, three notable contributions stand out: (1) Ibiza helped to popularize electronic music by making it more commercial. (2) Rather than functioning as "business as usual," Ibiza is raising the nightclub standard by incorporating the circus-style atmosphere of raves into nightclubs. An Ibiza nightclub may have a trapeze artist flying over the crowd, flame throwers, jugglers, magicians, performers on stilts, drummers playing with DJ's, etc. (3) Ibiza is contributing to the current trend of making the "nightclub DJ" a greater center of attraction. In Ibiza, it's the DJ that gets central billing instead of a drink special, appetizer, flamboyant club owner, or live band. To my knowledge, bands are virtually non-existent on the island.

So what exactly is this month's tip? First, as a DJ, you should be aware of emerging dance music trends coming from certain regions at certain times because this may eventually affect the music you play. Second, as Ibiza shows, people want to be entertained. While it helps to have trapeze artists and others keeping your crowd in a festive mood, the bottom line is that you're the entertainer. Some DJ's are now incorporating fog and effects into their performance. A DJ in England recently won an amateur DJ-battle by scratching on a turntable placed on his back. In fact, if you are talented at something else, such as juggling, magical skills, drumming, dancing, singing, etc., you may want to consider incorporating that talent into your spinning (not to say that Ibiza's DJ's are doing this per se). After all, people not only want to be entertained, but want something to talk about. Adding novel bits should help you and/or your club to stand out (as long as it's not done as a substitute for poor mixing and/or formatting).

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