Dancing the End of the World Away (Xochitl Morales)

Dancing the End of the World Away

Xochitl Morales

        This past summer (2019), I followed DJs and musicians from all over the world around Mexico City. Jumping from club to club every night, I heard a new set every hour. I not only learned the technical ropes of mixing and producing, I also learned how to keep a crowd excited and dancing. Although there was something interesting about every set and every crowd, the memory that stuck with me the most is one that I did not even experience myself. Talking to my friends one night, I asked them what was one of the craziest reactions one of their sets had ever received. My friend Yuv from Berlin mentioned that one time he was mixing a set for a night in Tokyo, and included a tsunami siren; he had heard it once and thought it sounded like something that would excite a crowd. However, he recounted that when he played it, half of the audience stopped and worriedly looked around. Before that moment, Yuv said, the entire audience had seemed to be enjoying his set and was dancing without a care in the world. As the mix developed and centered the alarm, more and more people began to react while some continued to dance in bliss. Some people even ran outside to check if the sound was coming from the actual alarm system. Yuv was fascinated by this reaction, noticing that there was a huge divide in how different members of his audience reacted. His choice to include this alarm was very controversial, and sparked a lot of conversation about what is actually appropriate to subject an audience to.

            Yuv’s story has stuck with me as I began DJing my own sets, and my experience in this class made me think more deeply about why the audience may have reacted the way it did. I thought particularly about themes regarding the relativity of apocalypses and reactions to the possibility of an end. In this project, I created a DJ set that explores dancing as a coping mechanism for apocalyptic natural disasters. Using warning alarms for natural disasters from cities all over the globe, this set puts dance music (house music in particular)  in conversation with symbols of apocalyptic events. It forces a sort of cognitive dissonance onto its listeners. Who will want to dance the night away when the end is nigh? Who will be snapped out of the trance of house music when they hear the sound of one of their biggest fears?

            Before discussing the other elements going into this project, it is important to define and explore the idea of an apocalyptic natural disaster. Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, floods, etc. - these are all natural disasters that have ruined and taken human lives. Depending on the magnitude of these events, they have the potential to destroy entire cities and communities. This is especially true as humans find themselves in the midst of the climate crisis; the climate crisis put the world at constant risk of natural disaster. According to Roy Scranton in We’re Doomed, Now What?, “The next several decades are likely going to be grim, brutish, and bloody” (67). Because of melting ice caps, rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, etc. the natural environment is more unpredictable than ever - however, if we are able to expect anything, it is that it will get worse and more hostile. Scranton continues: “The planet will get warmer. The ice caps will melt. The seas will rise. The global fossil-fueled civilization we live in will come to an end” (68).  The threat of natural disaster large enough to end a civilization is here, and it is threatening when something comes to remind us.

            This threat is more imminent for some people and communities than others. Depending on location, some communities are more subject to the effects of climate change and certain natural disasters. So naturally, there are a variety of different reactions to the possibility of apocalypse by natural disaster. What kind? Who will mostly be affected? Who fears it the most? These questions evoke themes about the relativity of the apocalypse as discussed by N.K. Jemisin in “AN APOCALYPSE IS A RELATIVE THING: An Interview with N.K. Jemisin.” In this interview, Jemisin expresses that apocalypse - in whatever form - is very unlikely to eliminate all 7 billion+ human lives on Earth; it will be a beginning for some, an end for others. This seems especially applicable to natural disasters. Therefore, it makes sense that some people might have a more developed and visceral reaction to the threat of apocalyptic natural disasters than others.

            These ideas of apocalyptic natural disasters and relativity are central to this project. It is important to imagine this project as how it would maybe be received by audiences around the world I am using natural disaster warnings from areas prone to catastrophe to communicate the diversity of possible disasters, but also to imagine that some people might react more viscerally to sounds they are familiar with. For example, a person in Mexico City might not recognize a tsunami alarm from Alaska, but they would definitely know an earthquake siren from their own city. I chose house music to put in conversation with these alarms because it is often thought to put listeners in a trance. My set will have a consistent beat per minute of 123.6. Because of the consistent beat of house music (almost like a heartbeat), it is difficult to distinguish when one song ends and another begins. This references themes of transformative apocalypses and relativity because of the ambiguity surrounding endings and beginnings. Some people might not be aware that a song ended while others might be hyper-aware of this shift.

Another important theme that I will be exploring in this set is the variety in reaction to apocalyptic sounds that people recognize. When people hear an alarm or siren that they are familiar with, do they stop? Do they run? Do they hide? Or do they continue dancing even though they know the end is coming? Something I did not get to address in the depth that I preferred was the theme of liberatory apocalypses. How is dancing despite the threat of the end liberatory? How can music and dancing be used as tools to liberate ourselves from the apocalypse?

Cited:

Scranton, Roy. We’re Doomed, Now What?. Published by Soho Press, Inc. New York, NY. 2018.

Hurley, Jessica. An Apocalypse is a Relative Thing: An Interview with N. K. Jemisin. ASAP/Journal,

Volume 3, Number 3, September 2018, pp. 467-477 (Article).

Alarms:

Japanese Cell Phone Tsunami Alert

Alaska Tsunami Siren

Mexico City Earthquake Alert

Japan Television Tsunami Alert

Tornado Sirens Chicago

Songs:

Deep Inside by Hardrive

Brighter Days by Cajmere

Break Up to Make Up by Detroit Swindle

Gesamtkunstwerk by Dopplerefekt

Pool Party Music by Mall Grab