Ibiza Rocks?

Ibiza Rocks?

6 August, 2008 | 9.33PM

• Section: Music News Topics: Ibiza
• Written by: Ellie

Is diversity always a good thing?

The scene outside the Ibiza Rocks hotel last night wasn’t something you’d expect to see in Ibiza. A hoard of skinny-jeaned, converse-wearing, Pete Doherty hat-sporting NME wannabes congregating on the streets of San Antonio in anticipation for the live bands they were about to see.

Ibiza Rocks has been criticized for trying to package and sell Ibiza to the masses and with its sponsors including Sony Ericsson, Xbox, Channel 4, and NME it’s clear that it’s all about the money.

“Ibiza is a commercial animal anyway, it’s just opening it up to a new audience who aren’t a drug focused crowd,” says Managing Director of Ibiza Rocks, Mike Bayon.

“One of Ibiza Rocks’ slogans is ‘After sex and drugs comes rock & roll’.”

The drugs question is not for discussion today, but should we sell out our dance music haven just so that we can appeal to the masses?

Outside clubland and in every day life, we’re lucky to bump into someone who shares our appreciation for electronic music, so surely we should keep sacred the place where we can revel in paradise and share our passion with like-minded people?

Or maybe we should accept that there is and always has been a crossover of dance and live music (The Prodigy, Underworld and Pendulum to name a few, bridged the gap) and give the rockers the opportunity to discover electronic music while they’re out here?

Whether or not they embrace the true culture of Ibiza is another matter.

The Brits’ abroad attitudes of San Antonio suggests not, with its shops selling England flags and pubs showing football on massive screens.

The crowd mentality at gigs also does nothing to support the Ibizan way of thinking.

The similarly dressed, mostly English crowd showed no audience participation and there was a serious lack of dancing.

The people we spoke to had booked their holidays around tonight’s gig with The Courteeners, and although they said they were coming to Ibiza anyway, none of them had any desire to explore any other clubs other than San Antonio’s finest: Es Paradise and Eden, with the exception of Space.

That said, the warm up act for last night’s band was U.S. electro house DJ Steve Aoki, whose debut Radio 1 Essential Mix went out last week, so maybe that will have inspired a few indie kids to venture out of the comforts of their hotel complex.

Although nu-rave is popular with youth currently, can a world where people don’t dance and have to be told not to throw their drinks at each exist here on this island?

But if nothing else, at least Ibiza Rocks has given San Antonio more credibility (and we could just leave them all there to get on with it while we party on the other side) and the hotel is a huge improvement from when it used to be Club Paraiso. 

The crowd seemed well-behaved and the bands playing at Ibiza Rocks have received the NME stamp of approval, so they’re good at what they do even if they’re doing it in a bit of a controversial setting.

If Ibiza Rocks represents a crossover of genres, then fine – after all, living in a free society allows us all to enjoy whatever we wish.

But the t-shirts selling in the shop next to Ibiza Rocks hotel summed up the experience.

‘Fuck Dance, Let’s Rock’ they read, as though rock music is a new phenomenon for today’s rebellious youth, and dance music is old hat.

Hang on, isn’t it the other way around?

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