Silent Disco, Headphone Disco, Headphone Party whatever you call them it's a pretty simple idea, take some DJs, a load of wireless headphones and plonk them on people's heads and watch them go nuts in silence.
The concept is entertaining and enticing and WE'VE been doing it for YEARS!
Everyone has a tendency when they have headphones on to disappear into their own world where our confidence is higher and inhibitions smaller. Sadly until recently this hasn't really been a communal experience, except for maybe sharing
your headphones with a mate on the bus, but that's all changed! We can all share the experience having the same music pumped straight into our ears and if you don't like it either change the channel or take them off.
History
Silent Discos have only been in the mainstream for about five years now, the concept however has been around for years first appearing in 1969 in a Swedish Science fiction film called
"Ruusujen Aika (A Time Roses)" during which a short scene features a disco where people wore headphones whilst dancing to apparently no music.
Fed up of tape, man spent years looking for a better solution...
The idea was also used by eco-activists in the early nineties as part of protests to save a forest. They needed to get more people involved to make it harder for the authorities to move them. They thought the best way to get people
together in one place at the same time was to host a massive party in the forest, but they didn't want to disturb the wildlife they were trying to protect. So they came up with the idea that everyone should listen to music through
headphones. This was a stepping stone towards what we now as a Silent Disco and led on to "Flash Mob" events where people would turn up at a public location at a specific time and date with portable music players and spontaneously
start dancing at a certain time or following a particular cue.
The first contemporary event that you would recognise as a Silent Disco took place in May 2000 when BBC Live Music held a Silent Gig at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff where the audience could dance away whilst listening to the band
Rocket Goldstar and various DJ's through headphones.
MP3 players gave man huge record collections in the palm of their hand, but they got way too small
Silent Disco's were born and SilentArena led the way with great ideas and the perfect sound
Since these instances of the concept the idea enjoying music with a bunch of other people by listening to it on headphones has grown exponentially. People now enjoy Silent Discos at Festivals, Nightclubs and even at private home at
parties.
