A Brief History of Belgian New Beat

subgenre of New Wave, HI-NRG, EBM, and Acid

Written by Massimiliano Galli

What was the scene like that birthed New Beat?

Together with the Netherlands and Luxembourg, it is right in the heart of Europe between the UK, Germany, and France. After the Nazi invasion and WWII ended, Belgium, like many countries, started rebuilding to enjoy life again. If you have ever had a friend coming from there, you might know how they are famous for being substantial party lovers.

This attitude accelerated when the country was finally connected by a new highway system that helped people get around easier (Belgium is only 11,849 square miles) and gather in the new bars and dancehalls, rapidly growing all around the country. Another fundamental aspect is that Belgium is one of the biggest beer producers.

Drinking beers and dancing to the sound of organs, used instead of gramophones or orchestras because they are way louder, became the most prominent form of entertainment for Belgians during the 1950s and 1960s.

The rise of clubs, discos, and “the popcorn” scene

The Popcorn was actually a music venue in the middle of the surrounding fields of the village of Vrasene. It opened in 1969 and was named after a James Brown song. People from all over Belgium started going to the club, which played music all day long starting from 11 AM. It was isolated enough to allow people to drink without the fear of getting stopped by the police. The Popcorn became a destination that attracted not only local music lovers. People started coming from France and Germany, too.

Popcorn became the name of a new music scene because it offered new freedom of expression. People started using meds mixed with beer to get high and dancing all day long with same-sex people without fearing judgment.

Everything was allowed.

More significantly, this revolution took shape in the style of the music played. DJs started playing vinyl at a lower speed (33 rpm instead of 45 rpm, for example) and preferred to play unknown, obscure tracks instead of major hits.

As we noticed several times in our history of electronic music, the music and the sounds started changing with the arrival of the Synthesizers, and disco music perfectly fit the party attitude of Belgians. 

After its explosion, disco music soon became a mainstream product. DJs, producers, and musicians quickly lost interest in it and focused on new electronic music producers like Jean Michel Jarre. 

German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk became hugely inspiring alongside the new British Punk Scene led by bands like Sex Pistols and new wave acts such as Fad Gadget, Gary Numan, New Order, Boytronic, and Anne Clark.

The beginning sounds of New Beat music

In the early 1980s, the cold war, and the political tension throughout Europe, influenced musicians and producers in Belgium, with new forms of darker electronic music starting to develop.

In the nightclub Ancienne Belgique (AB) in Antwerp, DJ Dikke Ronny, similarly to what happened with the origins of the Popcorn music scene, played the 45 rpm EBM single Flesh (1986) by A Split-Second at 33 rpm, with the pitch control set to +8. This event is unanimously recognized as the birth of the New Beat. 

The genre then developed as a mix of new wave, hi-NRG, EBM, and acid house. 

This variety of musical styles was the apparent result of finding hidden treasures in the containers of vinyl from the US to the Belgian harbors over the years. Music lovers and DJs started collecting the most original pieces, giving origin to a vast trading market where records could sometimes be resold at outrageous prices. 

When the Boccaccio nightclub started playing New Beat records, it became a sort of collective ritual to get lost in it. Because of the dark music played at insanely high volumes, and thanks to the use of lasers and strobe lights, Boccaccio became a different type of nightclub.

Up to 3000+ Belgians, Dutch, and French started regularly queuing at the entrance of the venue, located in Destelbergen, near Ghent. The hype around it rapidly increased and helped New Beat to become a significant pop culture success.

In addition to A Split-Second, the New Beat was also heavily influenced by other EBM acts such as Front 242, Signal Aout 42, and The Neon Judgement. All the bands used obscure and dark rhythms. The most commercially successful New Beat groups were Confetti's and The Lords of Acid, who received heavy airplay on the MTV Europe show Party Zone. 

Later on, mainly in the 1990s, a third element was added; the epic synth orchestral melodies became the new trademark for the genre.

The rise of New Beat

The massive success of New Beat hits like "Move Your ass" and "Feel the Beat" by Erotic Dissidents, "Ibiza" by Amnesia, and "Qui...?" by Brussels Sound Revolution (which sampled parts of a press conference speech by former prime minister Paul Vanden Boeynants after he was kidnapped), "Hmm hmm" by A Taste of Sugar, and even "Slave to the Beat" by old punk laughing stock Plastic Bertrand, soon started to influence fashion, TV programs, and even pop musicians around the world who began including its musical elements in mainstream hits. It became global. Other significant New Beat bands included 101, Public Relations, and Technotronic.

The New Beat rise encouraged record labels to invest in every single New Beat record produced. They lived a golden era with massive sales not only in their home country, Belgium but also in the rest of Europe, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, despite still not being considered mainstream. 

Roland Beelen and Maurice Engelen set up Antler-Subway Records. Other successful record labels were R&S Records, launched by Renaat Vandepapeliere and his wife, alongside ARS, PIAS, ZYX Records, and Music Man.

Transformations of the style

Like every other music scene, the New Beat started generating numerous subgenres. Influences from New Beat evolved into the foundation of trance music with tracks like The Age of Love by Age of Love and First Power/Synth-It by Revelation.

From the original chilled vibe of the early nightclubs in Belgium, the sound of New Beat rapidly transformed itself when the tracks produced started to increase their BPM. That is one of the reasons why some of the new subgenres were named “Hard Beat” and Skizzo.

“Touch My Body” by Boy Toy and “Rock The House” by Nasty Thoughts are two symbols of this sound transition from the New Beat sound of 1988 to the 1990s new Belgium Techno sound. 

The growing culture of raves and the increasing use of synthetic drugs simultaneously shaped the research of music producers and the attitude of listeners. Belgian hardcore techno bands that emerged from those subgenres included Set Up System, T99, Channel X, Praga Khan, Cubic 22, Meng Syndicate, and The Immortals.

The new (electronic) hippie movement of the 90s puts fire behind the sound

Belgians were on the road once again. Countless nightclubs opened following the example of Boccaccio and contributed to the rise of the club culture of the 1990s, with massive groups of young people traveling to Belgium from all parts of Europe, spending days moving from one club to another, camping at the gas stations.

Like the hippie culture of the 1970s, youngsters of the 1990s felt part of a group with similar visions and attitudes. The use of amphetamines and ecstasy replaced LSD in the collective imagination.

Drug abuse was part of why people could spend four days dancing around clubs without feeling tired. An additional similitude with the 1970s generation was unaware of what extensive drug use could lead to and its side effects. 

Nightclub owners soon couldn't avoid people's drug use in their venues, and drug dealing became a big problem with public opinion and authorities starting a war against discotheques.

The media and the political system used this drug dealing war as a tool to control nightlife, considering it dangerous for car accidents and public safety. Instead of finding a constructive solution, all the major clubs in Belgium started to be under police investigation and were finally forced to close.