I had a discussion with a friend a couple of days ago. It was just what we needed to get through what felt like an incredibly long week. The debate was about social media and how it affects the dance music world – a fascinating topic which I’ll be giving more attention to soon.
The debate became more of a chat after my friend said “thank goodness social media wasn’t around in the 90s”. Which led to a light-hearted attempt to gauge what the stars of dance music would have been posting online had the likes of Instagram been around back then.
We quickly agreed that David Morales would have spent much of the decade posting pictures of himself topless, alongside the star-studded lineup of artists whose tracks he was remixing at the time. Frankie Knuckles, in the meantime, would have been getting slated by people who thought “The Whistle Song” was rubbish.
In the meantime, Larry Levan would have been posting Instagram reels from the Paradise Garage, giving us an insight into what it was like in the club. Steve “Silk” Hurley would face endless criticism on Facebook for using the same piano sound on all his remixes, and E-Smoove would have a troll saying he’s “just a cheap imitation of Steve Hurley”. Only not so polite.
Over in Detroit, Juan Atkins and Derrick May would still be spending their time discussing the origins of techno, getting into arguments with anyone who dared suggest they weren’t telling the whole truth. And Derrick May would have spent much of the early 90s teasing his followers that new music was coming out from his soon – only for that to never happen.
A fresh-faced Louie Vega – though to be fair, he still looks pretty fresh-faced now – would be taking selfies with Kenny Dope in their studio. And occasionally, Vega would reply to a Twitter troll who was convinced that Masters At Work dubs would never catch on – or to someone who says MAW have no credibility because they remixed Debbie Gibson.
Over in the UK, you’d have Simon Dunmore in his then position at Cooltempo Records running their Instagram account, posting pictures of all the artists he met up with, alongside pictures of his dinner. CJ Mackintosh would be getting trolled by someone with 6 followers on Twitter who keeps saying he should stay in England and not come to America, and Mr C would constantly be telling critics of The Shamen where to stick it.
Oh, and Kerri Chandler would always write about his “love, respect and admiration” in every post too. Maybe it’s best it wasn’t around in those days after all…