Belgian popcorn & oldies – Vol. I

Belgian Popcorn is a style of music and dancing established in Antwerpen in the 70s. There it became a sub-culture – comparable with Northern soul or other musical sub-cultures. In recent years it’s been gaining strength.

Belgian popcorn, something you can eat?

Popcorn music is mostly about the rhythm and tempo that makes the dancing easier. It should be a mid-tempo slow jive, other that it can be in all kinds of genres, from rare R&B, Broadway numbers, ska, tangos, Phil Spector-esque girl groups and loungey instrumentals. Imagine a David Lynch or Tarantino dance club.

Simone Dina’s song ”Now I Lay Me Down To Weep” (above) is a typical popcorn song. Another one could be the slight more novelty ”Bla, Bla, Bla, Cha Cha Cha” by Titus Turner:

A good popcorn song should be dramatic. They could also be sung in other languages than english – french, spanish and italian are common. It’s also good if the song is somewhat rare. One of the basics in popcorn is to discover ”new” songs. But since a true popcorn song can’t be made today, one has to explore lesser know acts from the 50’s and 60’s on labels that only existed a week. Again, just like with Northern soul.

I discovered Belgian popcorn a few years ago and since then I’ve been collecting and reading up. There’s a few good group and sites on Facebook, for instance; POPCORN WORLD MUSIC or the page Popcorn Music Passion. I’ve also started to collect my Popcorn favourites in playlists where you can explore the genre further. This is the first volume:

Belgian Popcorn is a style of music and dancing established in Antwerpen in the 70s. There it became a sub-culture – comparable with Northern soul or other musical sub-cultures. In recent years it’s been gaining strength. Belgian popcorn, something you can eat? Popcorn music is mostly about the rhythm and tempo that makes the dancing easier.…

Belgian Popcorn is a style of music and dancing established in Antwerpen in the 70s. There it became a sub-culture – comparable with Northern soul or other musical sub-cultures. In recent years it’s been gaining strength. Belgian popcorn, something you can eat? Popcorn music is mostly about the rhythm and tempo that makes the dancing easier.…