Simone Angel, at 21 years old, is a celebrity and not only because she's animating a major show on MTV. Simone bears stardom in herself, like a born virtue. `When I was really really young, when I was like three years or four years old' says Simone, `I said to my mum "when I grow up I'm gonna be famous". It wasn't I want to be, it was I'm gonna be'.
It's 9 am, Simone is fresh and energetic, exactly like on television. She's already made-up for the photo sessions, enjoying an MTV's kitchen extracted fruit- salad as breakfast while talking highly about it. We're still tired and dazzled by the morning light, so I say to Simone that she's got more energy than both of us. She looks at us and says that if we feel tired, we just have to shake those bones and we'll feel much better. Simone Angel is a professional.
Of course, she is also glamorous and spontaneous, daring and eccentric like most stars, but above all she's an ambitious and achieving young woman. `People pick up my story from when it started to work' she says, `I mean I packed up my suitcase and started goin' to London since when I was 16; people used to laugh at me'. Simone may have worked hard for her top slot on MTV, it remains so that her story has crossed many other stories of her time; it's their clash that made Simone what she is today: an emblematic figure of her generation, not as spokesperson but as one of its many mascots.
The green room in the office building has a wooden- floor, three `design' seats, dim lights and the inevitable television sets broadcasting MTV. All in all a cosy atmosphere. `That's where guests chill out before they go on air' explains Lisa Wood, press officer. I asked her if she'll stay with us during the interview. `Yes, to make sure everything's OK' she said.
Lisa Wood accompanied us during all of our visit, watching after things with a genuine kindness and mindfulness. Of course, she would never admit she was in some way or another securing Simone's image, and yet the feeling that her presence was a management's policy never receded from our mind. Lisa Wood is a professional too.
Simone talks very fast and without any reminiscence of a Dutch accent. She often mimes dialogues in order to explain her thoughts. She is self-assured and informal. With no exceptions, her answers flow with ease and get straight to the point.
Your story sounds like a fairy-tale, what is true about it and what is not?
Well, everything's true about it. It is true that within three months I got a major record deal, a big publishing deal and a job at MTV. It is also true that I had to wait a long time and knock at many doors for that. But when one thing started, it all started. Wild time! And all because I had a really big mouth... well, yeah, big mouth and a bit of talent, but definitely a big mouth.
So you are a star now?
Am I a star? God, a terrible question, am I a star? No, well... I don't know. Some people may say yes, some will say no. When are you a star after all? I'm asking you. (silence and then she laughs.)
Do you feel like a star?
Most of the time no. Especially when I'm coming out of my bed and I'm cold and drink a cup of coffee, then I don't feel like a star. But when I'm going to a certain country and I get mobbed and I get people screaming when I'm going on stage tryin' to touch me and so, God yes. It's a funny feeling, really weird. It actually makes you feel very insecure sometimes because people expect something of you but you don't know what. What would you do if someone would suddenly take it all away? Work really hard to get it back.
`Party zone', a dance music show on MTV, is the medium by which Simone brought herself to mass consciousness. The bouncy and happy character she impersonates on telly has seduced and conquered the hearts of adults and teens alike. And indeed, how could one resist to the charm of this woman-child urging us to forget all of our troubles and party party party?
Eventually, this kind of talk could have failed to attract the right audience. But Simone wasn't alone in her careless partying. When young people used to go to rock concerts, now they were getting together in clubs. Dance music was produced at low cost, bringing a massive amount of new vibes and sounds to the dancefloors. Disco, P-funk, hi-energy and other dance music styles of the seventies and early eighties reappeared in a new and blending way, completely altering the meaning of dance music. Eventually, samples and electro beats would carry onward an ensemble of counter-cultural references.
In late 1988, along with Simone, thousands of young people of all Europe experienced the `summer of love': a vast exposure to the Balearic sounds of clubs in holiday resorts like Ibiza and Rimini. British acid house and Belgian new beat tracks crossed oceans in DJ boxes to be played in such remote places as Goa, India. During the following years, dance music got redefined, inserting itself in a wide range of urban cultures. Ravers, travellers, crusties, trip hoppers, technoheads and clubbers, all were grabbing and advocating a slice of the growing dance culture, protecting it with fierce and fear from the outer world. Soon though, dance music made it to the charts and became a major market in the music industry. The underground scenes never disappeared but they got blurred amidst the mass consumption of dance hits. No wonder that a dance show was something that people were eager to watch, both for the real freaks as your average hit consumer. And it seems that Simone was the right person in the right place to head the show.
`The way that I got into what I'm doin' now is thru clubbin', says Simone. `I was about fifteen sixteen when I was in Ibiza with the house explosion of 1988 and I felt in love with the scene. That's when I decided `I've got to go to England'. To Ibiza.
Yeah, well the parties were in Ibiza but not the making of the music. I knew the music was made in the UK. I used to check on the back of the records and go `ooh, that's the address of the label' and then I'd go to the label and say `hey, hey, I want a deal I want a deal' you know, tryin' to get in there. I've been clubbin' for years and since I couldn't get a deal, there was nothing else left to do but party, so it was party time for a few years. Now I go out but it's always combined with my work, or nearly always.
Does `party zone' really reflects any club scene?
Well, yes and no. First of all it's so difficult to say that `party zone' represents the scene because there's no such thing anymore. It's this and that and that. Every single scene here in Europe has got its own thing that is completely different: different style of clothing, different attitude, different way of dancing. When you travel around you see that. So we try to take a little thing of all these different scenes and show it.
Another major problem is that to really reflect dance music scenes, we'd need lots more money. What I'd like to do in the future is like a `party zone' goes Berlin, Brussels or whatever and give a rough guide of where to go, which clubs, cheap hotels to stay in, good restaurants, good cloth shops, and reflect the youth scene in all these different cities. It's things we're planning on but it's gonna cost a lot of money.
Is it just a problem of money? After all, MTV has to deal with different styles of music.
Yeah, that's the problem. Because if we go with this idea that I got now, this rough guide, you reflect the scene of the place you're in and that's it. If you're in Germany, it's the techno scene, if you're in Sweden it's much more like funky. Wherever you go you reflect the thing that's goin' on and you got to all jack it together. And also another thing which is quite tricky is that because dance music is something done with little money, a lot of homebred stuff has no videos. So we can't show a lot of the real underground stuff, because there's nothing to show.
Some people would like to see more dance music on MTV.
Yeah, tell me about it. I've never stopped fighting for dance music. When I told producers that I wanna do house music, they would say `it's gonna be gone in six months' and I would say `but it's not, it's not'. No one would take it seriously. And whenever videos didn't fit in other MTV shows they'd put it on `party zone'. But it's changing now. Finally people are goin' `actually there's something really happening'. But for big record companies or big tv stations, it takes a long time to adapt. It always does.
Big is indeed the accurate word for describing MTV. A huge blue-coloured complex in Camden Town hosts its young staff in an imposing decor made of open spaces, wall to wall carpets and a huge company logo in the main hall. The only more human-scaled spot at MTV is behind the caf‚. There, the picturesque channels of Camden Town run straight underneath the wooden tables where MTV people eat and chat and plan work during the sunny days. Today for instance is a beautiful end-of summer day. The sight plus the tranquillity remind the atmosphere on a university campus. Except that here, instead of students, you've got some trendy and good- looking tv people that don't have to worry about future employment.
Things weren't always as bright as today though. MTV strove hard at adding its share of creativity to the world of television. And MTV did throw milestones in video editing. And MTV has spread politically correct and universally acclaimed messages even more. But as a trend-setter, MTV has lost of its influence. From a small and groundbreaking American music television project, MTV became a business monster stretching over three continents to ultimately broadcast charts music and dictate to the world their version of what's hot and what's not. Some people love it, but some people hate it.
On the internet, MTV is being referred as eMpTyV? What do you think on the criticism against MTV?
If I'm looking at my little brother and sister, they all listen to this music I hate and that we play a lot. We do have to give the kids what they wanna see. We do have a lot of specialised shows - like `120 minutes', `headbanger's ball', `party zone' - if people would only bother to tune in the right time. If it was up to me, they'd be more of them and bigger and with a better scheduling. But, still, it is not just up to me, and we have to think about everyone else. If certain records are majorly big and sell millions of copies, then I'm very sorry, that's what we gotta reflect.
You're against elitism.
Yeah definitely. I still believe that music first and foremost is about having a good time and a lot of people who are really into music forget that. They're so stuck about it all, it's like `oh no, god, that's commercial'. What's going on? We aren't that important. So we know a bit more about the production behind it, so what? So you can spot a tune in two seconds, whaw! whiw! I think it's actually quite childish, you know, I think it's really stupid. Let's just have a good time and stop messing around.
Does music change the world?
Definitely, music is a universal language. If it wasn't for music, there wouldn't be that much contact between young people from all over the world. People do sit up and listen. And I think it's good that we talk about political and social issues as well, like racism, environment or safe-sex. I'm sure that the awareness in those fields has risen thanks to MTV. Also, we give young people an identity, especially in Eastern Europe. After all, we all listen to the same music and wear the same clothes. So MTV unites all these countries, brings people together and gives to all a sense of being part of something positive.
