What it means to be Northern Soul

What it means to be Northern Soul

I have conducted some further research into northern soul, though a lot of it was covered in lectures I have just added a few bits on from lectures and my initial research, about what it means to be northern soul and what came with it, including the friendships, styles and memories.

Below are a few bullet pointed extracts from articles that I think show what northern soul was, and is still. I took inspiration from each of the articles these were from in helps with guiding my design making and reasoning through the brief. I have tried to focus my research on quotes and articles that have some link to out concept as I think this helps support our reasoning for choosing the concept and also gives a more experienced perspective of what the concept means.

These are from Paul Mason's article written about his experience in the northern soul scene for Vice. "Poor man's speed; coming of age in Wigan's Anarchic northern Soul Scene." Vice

• Even without speed you were able to experience the massive euphoria that was the defining atmosphere about an allnighter. I am convinced it was the product of the collective empathy that took place on the dancefloor, and not just the drugs. You could feel it kicking in outside before the Casino opened, in the two hours after midnight: people became tense, elated, subconsciously connected.
• What we were doing, back then, was rewriting the rules of being white and working class. We knew exactly what it meant to dance to black music in the era of the National Front and the racist standup comedian. Ours was a rebellion against pub culture, shit music and leery sexist nightclubs. Our weapon was obscure vinyl, made by black kids nobody had ever heard of.
• Northern Soul dancing was, of course, a male thing. There were superb female dancers, but the atmosphere on the dancefloor was male and we outnumbered the girls maybe 4:1. 
• “For me it was like: ‘I fit in!’ I’ve got a family. Every single person I ever met on the scene felt like my brother or my sister. We went through good times, lost people, but came together at the end of it, as one.”
• But Northern Soul’s legacy was to give birth to the modern dance club. When the rave scene started in the 1980s, ex-Northern Soul DJs (and drug dealers) recognised it as a kind of second coming.

These next extracts are from a blog post on the Ben Sherman Website titled, "A patchy history of northern soul" (a nice play on words linking to the patches people wore on their clothing) Ben Sherman

• What set Northern Soul apart as a subculture was how it went against all others – while punk and hip hop emerged as a result of young people feeling disenfranchised with everything that had gone before, Northern Soul was created because of a misty-eyed nostalgia to the good old days, a true "don't make 'em like they used to" attitude. In the case of Northern Soul, this couldn't be further from the case.
• In the early days of Northern Soul nights, the threads weren't a million miles away from the Mod nights of the time – sharp, button tailored suits. However as the scene developed, the nights became wilder and revellers didn't want to ruin the clothes they'd spent a fortune on down the local club. Later Northern Soul fashion was therefore focused more on the functional – jeans, wide-fitting trousers and t-shirts. You were there to dance, not stand around in the corners after all.
• with badges and patches used to show you were part of the group in the know, many emblazoned with the now infamous 'Keep the Faith' slogan and black gloved hand.

These next extracts are from a Mixmag article titled, 'Northern soul parties were the original all nighters'. This article was a great source of photos from actual northern soul nights from the 70s in which photographers were allowed amongst the crowds. Mixmag 

• With a little help of amphetamines, northerners into soul records, old and new, originating from the United States often partied way into the next day, with the frenzied, sweat-inducing dancing on an importance par with the tunes being played.
• With a little help of amphetamines, northerners into soul records, old and new, originating from the United States often partied way into the next day, with the frenzied, sweat-inducing dancing on an importance par with the tunes being played.