The Drum n’ Bass Music Scene in Porto [comunicação oral]

Abstract

The drum ‘n’ bass music scene in Porto emerged at the height of the English scene in the 1990s, with the music initially being introduced by music shops and small labels. The cradle of the scene in Porto was Ribeira with its promoters and ‘nightlife entrepreneurs’ who pioneered the programming of the new style. The scene expanded in the 2000s with the arrival of major events and participation in the European Capital of Culture Porto 2001, which helped establish drum ‘n’ bass on the city's music scene. This paper explores the framework of the drum'n'bass music scene in Porto within the characteristics of music scenes: spatiality, regularity, ephemerality, mortality, volatility, collectivization, theatricality, transgression, spectacle, interrelationship and commodification, as well as identifying the major stimuli for the emergence of the scene and its protagonists (spaces, actors and venues), forming a chronological narrative of the drum'n'bass scene in Porto.