Belgian Popcorn , commonly known as Popcorn or Oldies Popcorn , was an underground musical and dance subculture that originated in Belgium during the late 1960s and peaked in the 1970s. It is defined by an eclectic curation of obscure American and British R&B, soul, ska, jazz, and pop music records from the 1950s and 1960s, played at a distinctly slow or medium tempo to accommodate a unique dance style.

The movement has been described as Europe's last truly underground subcultural scene due to its relative obscurity outside Belgium and lack of commercialization. Though similar in timeline to Britain's Northern Soul , Popcorn is differentiated by its slower pace, its focus on "slow swing" dancing, and its association with beer consumption rather than amphetamines. The movement is regarded as the cultural predecessor to the Belgian New Beat movement of the 1980s.

The scene's origins are traced to the region of Antwerp and East Flanders. In the late 1960s, a café named De Oude Hoeve opened in a converted farm barn in the village of Vrasene, where it began holding popular dance competitions on Sunday afternoons.

The music played was primarily soul and funk, but DJ Gilbert Govaert quickly developed an idiosyncratic style, favoring records with a "drowsy feel" to match the local slow swing dance. The venue was eventually renamed The Popcorn —after the 1968 James Brown hit " The Popcorn "—and the phrase "Dancing the Popcorn in Vrasene" became the common name for the entire musical trend. The atmosphere was notoriously decadent and euphoric, with patrons often cheering, dancing on bars, and occasionally stripping to the music.

By the mid-1970s, the scene had spread beyond the Antwerp area, with other major clubs like The Festival (Antwerp), The Gatsby (Vliermaal), and The Versailles (Ostend) playing the sound.

The aesthetic is largely defined by the contrasts it presents: sensuous music in a decadent environment, and European formality combined with raw American records.

The visual style is characterized by the formal attire of the dancers, which is a conscious rejection of the casual dress codes found in many contemporary clubs. The clothing is generally clean and stylish, aligning with a desire for self-discipline and pride despite the music having no hard-and-fast dress code.

Popcorn's existence went largely unnoticed outside Belgium until the internet age opened the scene to outsiders in the 2000s, leading to dedicated nights in the UK, Italy, and the US. It is now celebrated as a unique form of cultural preservation that informed the musical tastes of an entire nation, paving the way for the development of later Belgian electronic music.

The purity of Belgian Popcorn lies in its impurity. It is defined not by any single genre, but by its unique criteria for selection and speed.

The musical repertoire is an eclectic mix of "rare grooves" and obscure singles, generally pulled from 1950s and 1960s American and British R&B and pop. However, the selection often broadened to include unexpected genres, such as Broadway show tunes (" Whatever Lola Wants "), tangos, lounge instrumentals, early British pop stars, and Phil Spector-esque girl groups. DJs often achieved the required "slow swing" tempo by deliberately playing 45 rpm singles at the slower 33 rpm speed.

The preferred dance style is a highly stylized, formal "slow swing" or mid-tempo jive. It is distinguished from the acrobatic Northern Soul dance by being less chaotic and more controlled, where men and women (or men with men in the club's liberated, open environment) danced together in complicated steps and whirls. The atmosphere is often described as dark and opulent, lending a sophisticated but sometimes surreal mood to the packed, beer-sodden dance floors.