Abstract
This chapter focuses on the ‘Madchester’ music scene that emerged from the English city of Manchester and the neighbouring city of Salford. The term ‘Madchester’ was enthusiastically embraced and accentuated by the music press of this period and was rapidly adopted as a shortcut to describe the alleged youth cultural zeitgeist of the Manchester music scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Champion, And God created Manchester. Wordsmith, Manchester, NH, 1990; Halfacree and, Kitchin, Area 28:47–55, 1996; Haslam, Manchester, England: The story of the pop cult city. Fourth Estate, London, 2000). This chapter briefly introduces a pre-history of Madchester and then highlights key features of Madchester. The chapter explores the emergence of a ‘Madchester habitus’ (drawing from the work of Bourdieu, Distinction. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1984 [1979]) and focuses on key music performers associated with this subject position. This chapter explores the production of a distinct place-based form of laddishness that emerges in the Madchester period and considers the long-lasting impact of this powerful cultural idea.
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- 1.
The exact origin of the term Madchester is contentious. As Fawbert notes, ‘Happy Mondays released an EP entitled “Madchester Rave On” with the idea apparently inspired by associates of Tony Wilson. The NME’s subeditor Danny Kelly also claimed credit’ (Fawbert, 2004, p. 18).
- 2.
The origin of the name Happy Mondays is unclear. Shaun Ryder made this comment about the band’s name in his 2011 autobiography ‘I think it was Mark who actually suggested the Mondays bit. It’s a terrible name for a band, really, but we all quite liked it for that reason. It’s a bit cheesy a bit gay [sic] and it was king of the opposite of what we were like’ (2011, p. 45).
- 3.
At the time of writing, a Madchester event at Bowlers in Trafford Park is being promoted. The event features tribute bands of Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses and Oasis as well as DJ sets from Clint Boon of Inspiral Carpets and Dermo of Northside.
- 4.
- 5.
A notable exception is found in the stage performance of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis who had a notably captivating and gesticulating performance style. However Curtis’ movements were jerky and visually jarring than the loose and relaxed Madchester habitus.
- 6.
A once-industrial district of inner city Manchester.
- 7.
YouTube video instruction for how to do a ‘Manc walk’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d3sfkKDa30.
- 8.
Gangs of football casuals associated with Manchester and Salford—see Hough (2007).
- 9.
Another Oasis video that nostalgically references earlier cultural representations of Manchester and the north is the video for The Masterplan (2006) which depicts the band as Lowryesque figures.
- 10.
Key figures including Tony Wilson, the Ryder brothers, John Cooper Clark and Mark E. Smith all hail from the city of Salford.
- 11.
The music video of this song conveys a strong sense of this. The video is shot in black and white, which may be a nod to the ‘kitchen sink’ films. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaeLKhRnkhQ.
- 12.
The title of this song makes a direct reference to ‘angry young men’ culture.
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Milestone, K. (2019). Madchester. In: Lashua, B., Wagg, S., Spracklen, K., Yavuz, M.S. (eds) Sounds and the City. Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94081-6_15
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