It is not dying, but a way of life

It’s been 30 years since the rhythm and beats of garage music took Britain by storm.

The genre has evolved continuously since the 1990s and has become a party sound that influences bassline, grime and dubstep.

More recently, artists such as AJ Tracey, Disclosure, PinkPantheress and Rudimental have all released tracks that incorporate elements of UK garage.

But for some icons of the genre, it’s about more than just music.

“Garage is actually a way of life,” says MC Bushkin of the Heartless Crew, which was founded in the 90s.

“When I hear garage, I just think of upliftment, vibes and fun. Good music, dancing and fashion,” he tells BBC Newsbeat.

Neutrino of the So Solid Crew collective believes that the influence of UK garage is comparable to the cultural movements of the 1970s and 80s.

“From punk rock to ska to the New Romantic movement… there is always something that young people identify with.

“If you look back to the late ’90s and early 2000s, you see a fashion culture where there was Moschino, Patrick Cox and Versace… You see a lot of throwbacks today where people are inspired by those days.”

Although three decades have passed, those associated with the genre do not believe that the sound is dying out. However, they do believe that the grassroots needs more attention for the culture to grow.

“The music must not die,” says MC Bushkin defiantly, but admits that garage may “not be as popular as it used to be.”

“The scene is still alive, there are still many events and festivals.”

Although “festivals are great,” DJ Fonti of Heartless Crew says the clubbing scene is also important.

“The real garage scene came about because people would come out every week, go to a certain place and listen to this music.

“This is no longer being pushed as strongly.”

The rise of Grime, which evolved from garage in the early 2000s, eventually led controversial connections between music and real violence, with traditional UK garage being pushed underground due to some people’s connections.

Fonti says garage has a “stigma” attached to it because it is a minority group that causes trouble, which has hurt its popularity.

“Nobody blames a football team if there is a bit of anger (with the fans). Suddenly a bit of anger has brought this negative mood.”

Recently there has also been financial pressure. Data suggest According to the Night Time Industries Association, nearly 400 clubs were permanently closed between March 2020 and December 2023.

“I think the authorities, the government, have to get involved, be on the ground and look at the grassroots and see what is really going on,” says Fonti.

“It’s just about having honest conversations and people not being afraid to take a risk and look at things.”

“Taking risks” is a motto that Heartless Crew adopted as they helped develop garage music in the 1990s.

MC Bushkin describes their contribution as “adding a little bit of spice” and says previous MCs were more “behind the music and hosting… but we changed that.”

“We were front and center, jumping around, reloading melodies and speeding them up.

“We brought other genres into it. That’s why people think we changed garage and created grime,” he says.

Reflecting on it, Fonti cites people like MC Creed as one of the people who “made me sit up and take notice,” and producers like M-Dubs and MJ Cole who helped “develop and change the sound.”

When they started, the garage rhythm was “four-in-the-floor,” according to Fonti, which later developed into a “2-step sound.”

“And that’s when a lot of these producers started to step up and develop the music in a great way.”

“Back then (in the beginning) there was neither Instagram nor Facebook,” he says.

One of the pioneers of the 2-step genre was Ms Dynamite with her song “Booo!” from 2001.

“Someone like me can’t just jump on certain trends,” she said in the BBC Sounds podcast series Music revealed. “Because that is not me and that is not where I come from.

“What I can do is join a little trend, shake it up a little and make it something different than what it is, instead of trying to do what everyone else is doing.”

Ms Dynamite became a figurehead of the genre, was even awarded an MBE for her services to music and was a significant inspiration to other female artists.

“When I listened to the singers on UK Garage, I saw that it was possible,” says DJ Eliza Rose, who also spoke to Music Uncovered. Her track BOTA reached number one in the UK in 2022.

She performed it live at the MOBO Awards that same year alongside garage legends Sonique and Sweet Female Attitude.

“That was the first step in a life-changing moment,” she says.

“Being close to two amazing, talented and incredible women and feeling like I belonged there really helped me on my journey.

“Then I was able to enter this room.”

However, not all changes over the years have been positive, say Oxide and Neutrino from So Solid Crew.

They feel that the genre has now moved away from the pioneering work of Heartless and So Solid, moving away from MCs and more towards production DJs.

“That’s a shame, because that’s not our origin,” says Neutrino.

“It was all about the beats, the bass line and stuff like that. I think that gets lost a little bit.”

Coming back to that, Oxide believes it’s important to be patient and remember “what people want.”

“There will be another time when it’s more MC-driven. But people have backed off for now.”

Rising garage artist BVNQUET agrees that it’s a different era now.

“It’s more of a mix of rap and hip-hop culture and less like the classic garage MC,” he tells Newsbeat.

“I think we’ll continue to work with rappers and MCs, but there’s definitely been a culture shift.”

BVNQUET says he was influenced by 90s soul garage and the sound of So Solid Crew from the early 2000s.

The 24-year-old recently produced a remix of Sophie Ellis Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor”, which he says contains “soulful garage”.

He also uses TikTok to promote his music. Unlike before, there is now more emphasis on the need to promote oneself.

“You have to be an all-in-one guy who does everything,” he says.

“I just try to focus on the music. But I always try to have some edits that do well on social media.”

When BVNQUET thinks about the future of Garage and himself, he is optimistic.

He says he has never seen so many people listening to garage at the same time as today.

“It will 100% continue to expand. There is definitely a gap in the market.”

For continued success, it is important to have “a real scene” with which the younger generation – like BVNQUET – can identify, says Neutrino.

“Old school and new school, if we can keep playing, I think it will last.

“Different sounds come into fashion and we may gravitate towards something like jazz… but that’s the beauty of sound,” he says.

Fontie adds: “People may try to say garage is dead or dying, but it has evolved since its inception.

“That’s why there are these other genres like grime, bassline and dubstep, which you could say are the children of garage.”

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