Re: Who named it 'Jungle'?

Mark Allerton (Mark@warmspot.demon.co.uk)
Tue, 27 Feb 1996 23:11:30 +0000

>Hi guys,
>To be honest, I have never thought why the music is called 'jungle'.
>When I was listening to my friend's tape, there was a music sounded like
>jungle. I said so, and began to explain where the music has come from
>and how it sounds like. But my friend interrupted me, saying that "I
>recomend you not to call that as jungle. I don't know you are not racist,
>but if somebody hear that, he/she maybe regard you like that."
>Actually, now I go to a small University in the midwest of the United States.
>Very few people know about Jungle here, of course. And he is one of those
>who has never heard of the music.
>I felt kind of very bad to be prohibited (it was literally just a
>recomendation,though) to use the word. However I couldn't talk back,
>because I had no
>idea who named it 'jungle', and why and in which context he/she chose the name
>for it. I don't want to believe that somebody named it after some stereotype
>of the general 'Jungle'.
>If you have any clue, please let me know.
>

I've seen this reaction before from Americans, and I guess I can understand
it if you don't know the context. I must have heard about 10 different
explanations of why the term "Jungle" came about, but the most credible
I've heard is that the word was originally coined by (white) hardcore
techno fans about the new strand of the breakbeat stuff that was becoming
more "dark", more black influenced - and there was obviously a large
element of racism in this. However the term was taken up with some
enthusiasm by the (very racially mixed) crowd championing the new music -
and the rest is history. I've seen quotes from Goldie which support this
story too.

If you can't bear to say it, just call it "drum & bass", though that's more
a term for the subthread of jungle that has more jazz & ambient influences,
like Photek, Plug, LTJ Bukem, 4 Hero etc - which has quite a following on
this list.

..Mark..

-----------
Mark Allerton
Mark@warmspot.compulink.co.uk