Shut Up and Dance are an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

duo that fused hip hop, house and

hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

. They are acknowledged as one of the pioneers of

breakbeat hardcore Breakbeat hardcore (also referred to as hardcore rave or oldskool hardcore) is a music genre of the very early 1990s that spawned from the UK rave scene. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In ad ...

and

jungle music Jungle is a genre of dance music that developed out of the UK rave scene and sound system culture in the 1990s. Emerging from breakbeat hardcore, the style is characterised by rapid breakbeats, heavily syncopated percussive loops, samples, and ...

Career

The group was formed in 1988 in Stoke Newington,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, by Philip 'PJ' Johnson and Carlton 'Smiley' Hyman. In 1990, they made the lower end of the UK chart with two singles, "£20 to Get In" and "Lamborghini", both released on their own

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

, Shut Up and Dance Records. At this time, they also worked with the

Ragga Twins The Ragga Twins, also known as RTC, are an English ragga and jungle MC duo of Deman Rocker (David Destouche) and Flinty Badman (Trevor Destouche). Originating from Hackney, England, they started out on London's Unity sound system, and are r ...

for the first time and produced their first releases. In 1992, they reached No. 43 with their double

A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

single "Autobiography of a Crackhead / The Green Man", before hitting the headlines in May of that year when they released "

Raving I'm Raving "Walking in Memphis" is a song composed and originally recorded by American singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, for whom it remains his signature song. It received a Song of the Year nomination at the 34th Grammy Awards in 1992, the same year that the ...

", based on

Marc Cohn Marc Craig Cohn (; born July 5, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1992. Cohn is best known for the song " Walking in Memphis" from his eponymous 1991 album, which was a Top 40 ...

's hit single "

Walking in Memphis "Walking in Memphis" is a song composed and originally recorded by American singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, for whom it remains his signature song. It received a Song of the Year nomination at the 34th Grammy Awards in 1992, the same year that the ...

". Upon its release, Cohn obtained an injunction to stop production of further copies of the single due to the lack of clearance. A court order was also sought to prevent the sale of any copies already produced, but Cohn was persuaded to allow such sales on condition that all the proceeds went to

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * C ...

. This caused panic-buying of the copies on sale, as consumers knew that no more would be produced. The single soared to No. 2 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, but plummeted to No. 15 the following week, before leaving the chart completely. Nevertheless, the No. 2 chart position earned them a live performance slot on BBC One's ''Top of the Pops'' alongside Bassheads, Don-E and Lisa Stansfield on the 28 May 1992 episode, though as they could not perform the "Walking in Memphis" melody they had to sing the lyrics to another tune. Shut Up and Dance released one further single from their ''Death Is Not the End'' album, "The Art of Moving Butts", which featured singer

Erin Erin is a Hiberno-English word for Ireland originating from the Irish word ''"Éirinn"''. "Éirinn" is the dative case of the Irish word for Ireland, "Éire", genitive "Éireann", the dative being used in prepositional phrases such as ''"go h ...

. The album itself reached No. 38 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

in June 1992. Throughout 1994/5, they released a number of

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''ja� ...

tracks under the alias 'Red Light'. This was followed by the 1995 album ''Black Men United'' which encompassed jungle,

downtempo Downtempo (or downbeat) is a broad label for electronic music that features an atmospheric sound and slower beats than would typically be found in dance music. Closely related to ambient music but with greater emphasis on rhythm, the style may b ...

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

and hip hop. A single from this album, "Save It 'Til the Mourning After", which samples Duran Duran's hit " Save a Prayer", reached No. 25 on the UK chart and was track 14 on ''Now That's What I Call Music! 30''. In 1995, "Walking in Memphis" was covered by Cher for her twenty-first studio album titled ''It's a Man's World'' and when it was released as a single on 16 October 1995 it came with remixes produced by Shut Up and Dance. In the early 2000s, they re-emerged releasing a number of

UK garage UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop, R&B, and jungle. It ...

tracks, followed by the breakbeat album ''Reclaim the Streets''.

Discography

Albums

* ''Dance Before the Police Come'' (Shut Up and Dance, 1990) * ''Death Is Not the End'' (Shut Up and Dance, 1992) - UK No. 38 * ''Black Men United'' (Pulse 8, 1995) * ''Reclaim the Streets'' (Shut Up and Dance, 2004) * ''The Great British Public'' (Shut Up and Dance, 2007)

Compilations

* ''How the East Was Won 1989-2009'' (Shut Up and Dance, 2009)

Singles

* "5, 6, 7, 8", (Shut Up and Dance, 1989) - UK No. 42 * "£20 to Get In / Raps My Occupation", (Shut Up and Dance, 1989) - UK No. 56 * "Lamborghini / A Change Soon Come" (Shut Up and Dance, 1990) - UK No. 55 * "Dance Before the Police Come" (Shut Up and Dance, 1991) * "Derek Went Mad / This Town Needs a Sheriff" (Shut Up and Dance, 1991) - UK No. 81 * "Autobiography of a Crackhead / The Green Man" (Shut Up and Dance, 1992) - UK No. 43 * "

" (Shut Up and Dance, 1992) - UK No. 2 * "The Art of Moving Butts" (Shut Up and Dance, 1992) - UK No. 69 * "Hands in the Air" (Shut Up and Dance, 1994) * "Say Party" (Shut Up and Dance, 1994) * "Save It 'Til the Mourning After" (Pulse 8, 1995) - UK No. 25 * "I Love U" (Pulse 8, 1995) - UK No. 68 * "Black Men United" (Pulse 8, 1995) * "The Weekend's Here" (Pulse 8, 1995) - UK No. 82 * "Green Man" (Shut Up and Dance, 1998) * "Hold Me Down" (Shut Up and Dance, 1998) * "Got Em Locked" (Shut Up and Dance, 1998) * "Psycho Jump" (Shut Up and Dance, 1999) * "No:Doubt" (Shut Up and Dance, 2001) * "Moving Up" (Shut Up and Dance, 2001) * "4th Floor" (Shut Up and Dance, 2002) * "Heaven on Earth" (Shut Up and Dance, 2002) * "Reclaim the Streets" (Shut Up and Dance, 2003) * "Release the Gimp" (Shut Up and Dance, 2003) * "Arrest the President" (Shut Up and Dance, 2003) * "SuperNova" (Shut Up and Dance, 2003) * "Sensation / Culture Clash" (Shut Up and Dance, 2007) * "Outta National / Da Night Bus" (Shut Up and Dance, 2007) * "Make the Needle Jump" (Shut Up and Dance, 2007) * "Glory Days / All Loved Up" (Shut Up and Dance, 2007) * "Come to Turn It Out" (Shut Up and Dance, 2008) * "Epileptic" (Shut Up and Dance, 2008) * "Cream" (Shut Up and Dance, 2009) * "Tell Me / Love Will" (Shut Up and Dance, 2009) * "Suicide" (Shut Up and Dance, 2009)

References

External links

Shut Up & Dance website
* * {{Authority control English house music duos Breakbeat hardcore music groups Drum and bass duos Hardcore techno music groups Electronic dance music duos UK garage duos Black British musical groups Male musical duos Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups from the London Borough of Hackney