An overview of the genre

Nomenclature in music has always been a controversial subject, and nowhere is this more so than with the 1990s’ form of breakbeat dance music known as jungle. Within the context of the music discussed in this chapter, we need to examine two issues. Firstly, we must outline the etymological origins of the phrase ‘jungle’ and discuss the extent to which the term is pejorative or ideological. Secondly, we must investigate the distinctions between the terms ‘jungle’ and ‘drum ‘n’ bass’.

There are broadly four suggested etymological origins of the use of the word ‘jungle’ within contemporary dance culture.

1. ‘Junglist’ is Jamaican patois. Within this definition, Push and Bush suggest that a junglist is a resident of Trenchtown in Jamaica (Push and Bush 1995: 90). MC Navigator of the London pirate radio station Kool-FM has a similar story:

2. In much the same way that some African-Americans reappropriated certain racial epithets and used them as self-defined descriptions in the 1980s and 1990s, black music fans in London co-opted the phrase ‘jungle’ after British fascists termed late- 1980s’ rave music as ‘jungle-bunny’ music, due to its heavy black influence (see Push and Bush 1995: 90). It is for this latter reason that there is much controversy over the usage of the word. Some musicians (such as the breakbeat artists Shut Up and Dance) claim that the term is implicitly racist (see Verma 1999), while those who use the word suggest that it has lost all previous connotations.

3. A less controversial etymological origin of the phrase is its connections to the phrase ‘concrete jungle’ and the experience of living in the ‘jungle’ of inner-city life. Here the term is specifically connected to the economic recession of the early 1990s, yet it also draws upon the meanings of certain ska, rap and soul records from the past.