Dance
music is music composed, played, or both, specifically
for social dancing. In principle, dance music includes
a huge variety of music, from waltzes to rock and roll
and country music or tangos. As of the late 1970s, however--particularly
for people who frequent nightclubs--the term dance music
has come to more specifically refer to electronic music
offshoots of rock and roll such as disco, house, techno
and trance.
Generally,
the difference between a disco, or any dance song, and
a rock or general popular song is that in dance music
the bass hits "four to the floor", at least
once a beat (which in 4/4 time is 4 beats per measure),
while in rock the bass hits on one and three and lets
the snare take the lead on two and four. (Michaels, 1990)
Dance
electronic music is a loose term for music created using
electronic equipment. Any sound produced by the means
of an electrical signal may reasonably be called electronic,
and the term is sometimes used that way -- in music where
acoustic performance is the norm, even the introduction
of electronic amplifiers may touch off discussions of
electronic music (jazz and folk music, for example, have
gone through a good deal of argument about the topic).
As
a category of criticism and marketing, however, electronic
music refers to music produced largely by electronic components,
such as synthesizers, samplers, computers, and drum machines.
Theoretically, the music could include any of an array
of other "instruments".
History
of Dance Music
At
the end of the sixties Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider-Esleben
went to the Düsseldorf conservatory and followed
classes by Stockhausen. Their interest in classical music
was big, but they were much more impressed by the possibilities
of electronic instruments and especially the studio. So
while they were still studying they joined many starting
German bands like Amon Düül and Organisation
at first by playing flute and playing a kind of free-form
music, based on a relative simple repeating rhythm and
Eastern influences to break away from standard European
chord progression. After two years the duo started their
own band called Kraftwerk (which is German for 'Power
station'). At the start of the seventies there were many
bands in Germany which were part of a movement the outside
world called 'Krautrock'. Krautrock was seen as an reaction
of many young German musicians to the influence of American
guitarrock imported by military personnel throughout the
country it was also a way for many young musicians to
react in their own way to the memory of the war and what
role their parents or grandparents had played a part in
that.
Only
the second time Kraftwerk played live, they played on
German television. Back then they consisted also of Klaus
Dinger and Michael Rother who right after the show split
and started their own band called NEU! While Neu went
on to make highly repetitive rock, Kraftwerk created their
own studio and experimented with sounds and simple melodies.
On the first three records they still used normal instruments
like a flute, guitar and a organ, but in 1974 they changed
all that, they switched to all electronic instruments,
they released "Autobahn". Autobahn was an almost
endless track about one of Germany's prides the highways
throughout the country, which were build by Hitler, but
which were now also of essential use to the economic rebuilding
of Germany and the rest of Europe. Although the complete
version was at least thirty minutes long, it was to became
a big hit throughout the world. Kraftwerk had found their
style and every other two years they shocked the music
world with another record made all electronicically and
in the studio which they rebuild every time they make
a new record. The sounds, songs, theme's and the whole
concept of Kraftwerk was to be of big influence in electronic
music and popmusic in general.
Kraftwerk
weren't the only one who saw the studio as an instrument
in itself, on the other side of the world there were many
masters of the studio. In the West-Indies and Jamaica
music has always played a big part in the community. At
the end of the sixties, while everyone in the world was
listening to psychedelic rockmusic, the people of Jamaica
were dancing to rocksteady, ska and a slow variant called
reggae. The music-culture that was spawned in Jamaica
was of great importance of many of the things you still
see in dance music nowadays. Jamaicans were the first
to take the concept of the remix to extremes, to keep
people dancing in the dancehalls producers made special
'versions' of popular songs by fading in and out instruments
and make multitrack copies of certain tracks called 'dubs'.
People who became masters in this process are still seen
as gods of the studio, people like King Tubby, Lee Perry
and Augustus Pablo. Jamaicans were also the first to start
a 'rave', they called it the soundsystem, parties were
organised illegally at certain sites or inside unused
building by setting up big rigs of speakers and amplifiers.
The deejay also played a big role in this culture and
were the first to 'rap' or 'toast' as they call it in
Jamaica. Every track playing was accompanied by the Deejay
talking about it or usually nothing of importance, but
to excite the crowd. Producers and studios helped Deejays
to become more popular by releasing very limited copies
of remixes called 'dubplates'. All these actions have
become normal in todays dance-culture, but they were already
pioneers these techniques halfway the seventieson the
island of Jamaica.
In
the seventies electronic instruments had become cheaper
and got used in many studios around the world. Under the
influence of Kraftwerk, Funk and r'n'b a form of dancemusic
was invented, a fastpaced four to the floor beat made
for partying and partying only, it was called Disco and
made around the globe but most in America and Italy. Party-people
of the world went crazy over it, while many less hedonistically
interested listeners cringed and fought back playing and
listening to punk rock. All these building blocks were
responsible for the popularisation and evolution of electronic
music into the many streams we now know. How it progressed
throughout the nineteeneighties I will tell you in the
third episode. "The beat won't stop. 1980 - 1988"
Dance
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