Critical Review of BBC Jungle Documentary

In its serialized documentary, All Black, BBC focuses in this episode on the development of early 1990’s jungle. To begin the documentary focuses on the musical roots of the genre, shedding light on how it developed both out of a black rejection of the largely white rave scene, and a re-embracing of Black British music forms including soul, dub, and even, as one interviewee suggests, Jazz. The documentary then highlights the geographical character of the music, the affordable technological explanation of its ascendancy and the Black British identity that the music cultivates. The methodology of the documentary is fairly straightforward featuring digested narration, video clips, and interviews with scholars, and people with different places in the Jungle Scene. Beyond the musical character, the documentary discusses Jungle’s relation to the mainstream, the character to the places where it’s played (radio and clubs), and the dynamics of the music.

On this note, the documentary discusses the taste making politics that go behind a track. One of the interviewees, an influential female Jungle DJ shows how the musicians, while often the producers of the tracks, rely on a set of DJs for radio exposure, and musical legitimacy in the eyes of the Jungle community. The DJs themselves are distinguished not by their ability to find records that anybody could get at a record store (as in other styles of DJing) but rather in their way to find home-pressed acetates and then establish stylistic (though not proprietary) ownership over the subsequent vinyl pressings. This gives each DJ a unique sound when they play live. Beyond intra-Jungle dynamics, there is the external politics of mainstream record labels and there relationship to Jungle. Many musicians, and for not unobvious reasons DJs, resent this encroachment fiercely and excluded “sell-out” Jungle artists from their pirate radio stations. Indeed many artists, stay with “independent” labels that promise better profit sharing, and complete artistic control. Finally the documentary traces from the bedroom scene of the music’s production, to his dealings with DJs for exposure, to his first live performance, the music of an upstart Jungle producer to exemplify the music’s progenitors.

All in all, it is a coherent, well-edited documentary and a more than adequate introduction to Jungle. Furthermore, it presents a couple neat discussion questions. On the question of race in Jungle, present is an interesting set of contradiction. Jungle, historically and musically, is about Black identity. It simultaneously owns this characterization and espouses the ability to transcend race in Britain amongst urban youth. The success of this double allegiance does not seem to be settled question. Nonetheless, one can also consider whether the dichotomy is even relevant. An interesting contrast to buttress this doubt is found in how the “ independent label” was owned by a white Brit, while the A&R of EMI Records, the major label trying to bring Jungle artists into their fold, was represented by a black woman.