Is Dance Music on the Way Out?

[Syntex]

Dance music has been in a death spiral since 2004 or so. Go back 5 years prior to that and you had to spend $200 a week just to pick up all the good stuff - on record...

That's for sure! I too have noticed the sad demise of electronic dance music over the past 5 years. Although there are more dance music stations than ever on iTunes, the quantity of records and CDs has been greatly reduced at various stores. Some vinyl stores have closed, while CD outlets like Best Buy have very little in the dance music area of their shelves. Bars that once were very popular and specialized in dance music have also closed.

 

A few factors made dance music popular at the beginning of the decade. Among them were improvements in technologies and the popularity of grooveboxes. Years later listeners seemed to lose interest as producers released new music with "progressive trance" and similar names. There are now so many subgenres that few listeners have any idea of what their names mean.

 

There were also social factors that influenced the last wave of interest in dance music. As the 1990's ended and the new century began a lot of the listeners were young and employed in technology jobs. After the dot coms went bust so did a lot of the jobs indirectly associated with this music genre. Then as listeners moved on to new careers they changed their interest in music. Often they switched to either mainstream pop or hip hop, which were both evolving. The vocoder effects commonly heard on dance tracks were replaced by stuttered and harmonized vocals in popular music.

 

Unlike the earlier waves of interest in electronic music, it looks like this time electronic dance music has gone as far as it can. Either that, or it certainly is in a long term decline. We'll probably see a resurgence of interest again some day, but that day isn't anywhere near on the horizon.

[DevilRaysFan]

Unlike the earlier waves of interest in electronic music, it looks like this time electronic dance music has gone as far as it can. Either that, or it certainly is in a long term decline. We'll probably see a resurgence of interest again some day, but that day isn't anywhere near on the horizon.

 

 

Conversely, one can make a strong argument that everything has been done (generally speaking) with the conventional guitar-bass-drums combo band format.....but people still make the music and at least try to find some original spin on it (even if it really does still sound like something else)

 

If anything, computer programmers and DJs generally have a lot more timbres, sounds, samples, etc on the sonic pallette ("colors", if you will) available at their fingertips then a guitar-bass-drum band. The irony of this observation is that a lot of DJs and Programmers is one that I see with a lot of bands: a lot of them still go out of the way to be trendy....and trendiness is usually an attribute that impedes creative exploring of new territory. Cetrtain styles havent changed much at all. Nu R&B is great example as, with the exception of a few minor details (like the use of the vocoder-ish pitch correction devices), it - as a musical form - really hasnt changed much in the last five-ten years. "Work It" by Missy Elliot or "1-2 Step" by Ciara couldve come out today and nobody will be none the wiser

 

Personally, I think dance music will always be around in some way shape or form. As mentioned above, "World Music" offers tons of soundscapes to be integrated into (modern Western) dance music, and theres a ton of other things to explore.

[colintrav]

Craig, Dance music has been in a death spiral since 2004 or so. Go back 5 years prior to that and you had to spend $200 a week just to pick up all the good stuff - on record... Almost all record stores (or CDs) that catered to dance music and DJs are history - at least in the the Northeast, victims of low sales and high overhead. My local store in NJ closed down in early 2006 - he was probably a little better than break even when his rent tripled with a new landlord. All the shops in Manhattan are gone too. Rap/Hip Hop/R&B is not a replacement for dance music - they existed for over 20 years side by side. I think that in another 2 or 3 years there will be a resurgence in dance music, mostly from overseas. Paul

 

 

 

That I would agree with ...

 

Everything is mainly MP3 based even asking directly to the artists they still won't release anything on Vinyl even even for a customer request .. simply because of the costs involved ...

 

And I've seen named Dj's give away free mp3 of tracks ... John O'callaghan and Paul webster via there websites ..

[Damien_O]

dance was attacked pretty heavily between 99-2005 because every parent on the planet linked ecstasy use to it, demonizing it. Not that ecstasy use has gone down, and forgetting that the majority of ecstasy deaths aren't even related to the drug itself, but to a prior medical condition or water overdose. but that's another argument.

That's just the mood that was in my school growing up. as a result, everyone from my hometown listens to country and {censored}-alt-radiorock. essentially the suburbs ruined dance, but its coming back.

plus, if you're making the itunes sales argument that I read earlier, you need to remember that the majority of true music junkies prefer the physical product over downloads.

[Damien_O]

also, to prove its back on the rise, heres some electronic/dance artists that have released good albums in the last couple years.

 

Flying Lotus, Neon Indian, Burial, The Field, Kompact mix albums, pretty much the entire Warp catalogue, Justice and other artists from that label except uffie, LCD Soundsystem, Autechre, Portishead, Washed Out, !!!, Amon Tobin (one of my personal favorites), Crystal Castles, Discovery, the HEALTH remix album (and the new album, which isn't really dancy but is really good).

[Sample Guru]

Craig, Dance music has been in a death spiral since 2004 or so. Go back 5 years prior to that and you had to spend $200 a week just to pick up all the good stuff - on record... Almost all record stores (or CDs) that catered to dance music and DJs are history - at least in the the Northeast, victims of low sales and high overhead. My local store in NJ closed down in early 2006 - he was probably a little better than break even when his rent tripled with a new landlord. All the shops in Manhattan are gone too. Rap/Hip Hop/R&B is not a replacement for dance music - they existed for over 20 years side by side. I think that in another 2 or 3 years there will be a resurgence in dance music, mostly from overseas. Paul

 

 

I've been a producing since 1993 and after some fantastic years (2000-2003) in record sales the bottom fell out the dance music scene at the beginning of 2004. Not only did the digital format take hold but publishing companies including MOS closed down, clubs in London were taking less than half capacity, dance music mags went under and people like myself who had been in the business for a while left production and remixes for other avenues in the music industry.

 

People have speculated on a multitude of reasons why this happened. House, Trance & Techno had gone stagnant in their sound and needed a new direction. The drug of choice for clubbers become an old hat and nothing had taken it's place. The increase in MP3 sales drove vinyl shops to close their doors. Money grabbing A&R men were getting paid too much and signing off huge advances to artists, causing record sales to not recoup the balance and these subsidiary labels then being wrapped up by the majors.

 

All in all I think it was a bit of everything which caused the dance music crash and unfortunately six years on and not much has changed to re invent the dance music scene. Big shame cos there hundreds of thousands of us round the world who would love for it to be the way it was.

[colintrav]

^^^

 

What tunes and labels did you release that I might know or have in my collection ?

 

Damien O - you say

 

dance was attacked pretty heavily between 99-2005 because every parent on the planet linked ecstasy use to it,

 

 

I think you will find it was that time when it became commercial with Clubs spreading further afield Godskitchen , gatecrasher , cream and Dj's looking to make a breakthrough in America Paul Oakenfold as such .. who toured constantly and now has 2 residencies in Las Vegas whilst other UK based Dj's got residencies in New york , Sasha and john digweed .. and whilst US Dj's christopher lawrence , Markus schulz aka Edge factor , Chris Cowie aka Xcabs might have been in the game for a number of year's yet never got fully recognised untill much later even though having an impressive production catalogue .. yet compared to Danny Tegnalia , Junior vasquez , Todd terry and other names whom were already known in UK and europe ..

 

And in the state of New York they banned Glowsticks LOL that's what happend when you get retards that always look for an excuse to blame something someone else same with Iron Maiden toured America in 82 labelled as devil worshippers and the religious wack jobs were burning there albums in the street ..

[MuzikB]

I'm personally finding more people turning to dance music because they're tired of the violence associated with Hip Hop. Sick of the drama and fights in the club.

 

Also been doing my part to squash the ignorance that many people have towards "Techno." Saturday, I just turned two black women over to Deep House music. They just thought it all was 132 bpm commercial drivel. They fought hard but I finally got to show them that there is an aspect of dance music that has a soul.

 

To continue the movement, we must educate.