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A CRASH COURSE ON EXISTING
MUSIC GENRES
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Part V ::
Dance & Electronica
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Published in
PRESS Magazine
February 2004
Ok. So you’ve made it to part 5; You are virtually a music expert now and can
speak intelligently about what’s being played on the radio and CD players all
around the world. But I know what you’re thinking: what about the genre that’s
got all 7,100 of our local islands (one in particular) throbbing like sonar
pulse beats? Electronica and dance music is the wave of the future, so we
thought we’d teach you a little something about it. So put on your dancing
shoes, break out the glowsticks and prepare to be elevated to a higher
consciousness of sound.
DANCE
CLUB/DANCE
Club/Dance music comes in
many different forms, from disco to hip-hop. Though there have been various
dance crazes throughout the history of popular music, club/dance music became
its own genre in the mid-'70s, as soul mutated into disco and whole clubs were
devoted to dancing. In the late '70s, dance clubs played disco, but by the end
of the decade, disco was mutating into a number of different genres. All of the
genres were collected under the catch-all term "dance," though there were
distinct differences between dance-pop, hip-hop, house, and techno, among other
subgenres. What tied them all together was their emphasis on rhythm, because in
each dance subgenre, the beat remains all-important. Daft Punk, Spice Girls,
Juan Atkins, Goldie, Janet Jackson and The Chemical Brothers are some artists
whose music fall under this genre.
DISCO
Disco marked the dawn of
dance-based popular music. Growing out of the increasingly groove-oriented sound
of early '70s and funk, disco emphasized the beat above anything else, even the
singer and the song. Named after discotheques, clubs that played nothing but
music for dancing, Disco music had strong pop hooks and had no trouble at
attaining crossover success as they began receiving radio play and respectable
sales. In no time, the insistent, pounding disco beat dominated the pop chart,
and everyone cut a disco record, from rockers like the Rolling Stones and Rod
Stewart to pop acts like the Bee Gees and new wave artists like Blondie. Disco
lost momentum as the '70s became the '80s, but it didn't die -- it mutated into
a variety of different dance-based genres, ranging from dance-pop and hip-hop to
house and techno.
 ELECTRONICA
Electronica
is a catch-all phrase for practically any young artist using electronic
equipment and/or instruments. However, since electronica serves to describe
techno-based music that can be used for home listening as well as on the dance
floor, it is also used to describe the emergence of electronic dance music
increasingly geared to listening instead of strictly dancing. Electronica was
first used in the title of a series of compilations (New Electronica)
spotlighting original sources of Detroit techno such as Juan Atkins and
Underground Resistance alongside European artists who had gained much from the
Motor City's futuristic vision for techno.
ACID JAZZ
The music played by a
generation raised on jazz as well as funk and hip-hop, Acid Jazz used elements
of all three. While its percussion-heavy, primarily live music placed it closer
to jazz and Afro-Cuban than any other dance style, its insistence on keeping the
groove allied it with funk, hip-hop, and dance music. A variety of acid jazz
artists emerged during the late '80s and early '90s: live bands such as Stereo
MC's, James Taylor Quartet, the Brand New Heavies, Groove Collective, Galliano,
and Jamiroquai, as well as studio projects like Palm Skin Productions, Mondo
Grosso, Outside, and United Future Organization.
AMBIENT
Ambient Breakbeat refers to
a narrow subgenre of electronic acts with less energy than the trip-hop or funky
breaks, but with a pronounced hip-hop influence to their music. Some of the more
downtempo works of New York's DJ Wally (of the Liquid Sky Records brigade), and
DJ Shadow are good examples of the style.
BIG BEAT
Rescuing the electronica community from a near fall off the edge of its
experimental fringe, Big Beat emerged in the mid-'90s as the next wave of dance
music, which was a fusion of old-school party breakbeats with appropriately
off-the-wall samples, reminiscent of house music's of the late '80s as well as
old-school rap and its penchant for samples and irresistible breaks. The
Prodigy, Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers are among the groups who predated
the style, assisted its birth and hit the American charts and earned positive
reviews from rock critics worldwide.
BREAKBEAT
A breakbeat is the beat in
that break. Nearly all breakbeats descend from the breaks on James Brown records
where his drummers have historically created syncopated beats (i.e. off the
measure), very often, around the third beat. The most common criteria for
breakbeats are clear drums and percussion in a 4/4 measure. The snare usually
plays on 2 and 4: so . 2 . 4. There may also be other snare hits in the measure.
DOWNTEMPO
Downtempo artists such as Two Lone Swordsmen, Waldeck, Suns of Arqa tend to be
more beat-oriented than ambience, but are not quite as earthy as trip-hop.
DRUM 'N' BASS/JUNGLE
Hailing from London,
England, Drum’n’Bass or Jungle is characterized by bass lines that are either
smooth-flowing or pumping vigorously, originating from dub/reggae. It flourished
in 1989, and the genre evolved during 1990-1992 from the breakbeats used in
Hardocore Techno to become a serious Electronica genre in 1995 when artist
records from 4 Hero, Goldie and A Guy Called Gerald came out. Best described as
speeded-up breakbeats with a slower bassline, the speed of the drums varies from
140-170 beats per minute; the bassline is - sometimes - half of the speed of the
drum. The drums have the breakbeat 1 2 33 4, which means that the 2 and 4 are
snare or kick drum `on the floor', while the 1 sometimes and the 3 hardly always
are syncopated drums (i.e. off the measure). Other Drum’n’Bass artists are Wagon
Christ, Photek, Goldie, Grooverider, Roni Size, LTJ Bukem.
GARAGE
The dance style closest in spirit and execution to the original disco music of
the '70s, Garage is named for what is arguably the birthplace of house music,
the Paradise Garage in
New York.
Favoring synthesizer runs and gospel vocals similar to house music but with
production values ven more polished and shimmering than house, garage has a very
soulful, organic feel.
Blaze, Masters at Work, Todd Terry, Junior Vasquez, Larry Levan and Roy Davis,
Jr.are some excellent examples of Garage music.
HAPPY HARDCORE
Featuring m any of the same
elements that characterized rave, Happy Hardcore, which gradually evolved from
the English rave scene of the late '80s and early '90s is characterized by
impossibly high beats per minute, similarly fast synthesizer/piano runs, altered
vocal samples and positive vibes that were criticized by most clubgoers as music
for the drugged-out youth. Despite this impression, though The work of
combination DJ/producers such as Slipmatt, Hixxy & Sharkey, Force & Styles, and
DJ Dougal produced innumerable compilations, as well as the inevitable solo
production LPs a gained a certain amount of respect from clubgoers and critics
alike.
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