Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Second Summer of Love

1988-89: Number 17 in our series of the 50 key events in the history of dance music

Confusingly, the Second Summer of Love was really two summers. The first, 1988, was the warm-up as acid house graduated from hipster secret to the dominant sound of British clubland. A year later, it went viral. The implied comparison to 1967 may have been wishful thinking, but it was nonetheless a lifestyle revolution for young Britons. The old nightlife hierarchies were temporarily obliterated as unlicensed raves and affordable ecstasy promised state-of-the-art hedonism for all, not just the in-crowd, even if police raids and scamming promoters took some of the shine off it.

The top 40 enjoyed its most utopian phase since the Beatles assured All You Need Is Love, with producers such as S'Express and the KLF becoming stars thanks to cheap samplers and can-do chutzpah. The Happy Mondays spearheaded Madchester, and even hip-hop, via De La Soul, seemed to sign up to a new idealism. Like the first Summer of Love, it seems somewhat naive in retrospect, but its shockwaves reshaped British youth culture for good.


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