::features::

[Has Music Found Its Beat]

by Colin Ong, 13.08.01

The genres and adjectives. House, soul, progressive house, funk, big beat, breaks, drum n bass, trance, acid, downtempo, leftfield, progressive trance, tech-house, techno, tech-trance, euro-beat, minimal techno, deep house, uplifting trance, electro, hard house, gabba, hardcore, full-on trance, trance breakbeats, acid, psychedelic trance, chillout, tribal house, dark, groovy, deep, atmospheric, trippy, hip-hop, trip-hop, jazzy, jungle, jump-up, ambient, garage, speed garage, rave, happy hardcore, old skool, new skool, illbient, trench, french house, twostep, etc.

As hard as I try, I probably would not be able to list all the genres and adjectives related to dance music. Almost like clockwork sub-genres and styles sprout out, some as distinct as water and air and others a fusion of several. Dance music soon found itself in the spotlight and becoming more commercial. Hard to say if open-mindedness can be credited for this. 

Maybe five years ago, no one would have dreamt of playing a dance (I use this as a generic term) tune on the radio. Often hip-hop releases would be deemed too aggressive in its lyrics. As for styles like trance, house, etc. there weren’t many lyrics. It would be difficult for listeners to identify with.

It could be the fact that dance music producers started to get their fair share of exposure from experimentations by mainstream artistes. Madonna, for one, is well know for continually re-inventing herself as an artiste. For her last two albums, she had dance music producers such as Mark Bell and Mirwais to produce and mix her albums. The dance influence did not end there. Victor Calderone, Sasha, Deep Dish and BT have all mixed Madonna’s latest releases. 

Canadian Sarah McLachlan provided the vocals on Delerium’s Silence which became a success in clubland. More recently, Sarah’s ‘Sweet Surrender’ and ‘I Love You’ were remixed by DJ Tiesto and BT respectively. Electronic-influenced Depeche Mode can boasts remixes by Speedy J, Dave Clarke and Jedi Knights. Even Peter Gabriel’s work-in-progress album has BT and Sasha taking on production cues.

So, how has dance music really benefited from all this? Well, dance music DJs and producers are getting more respect and attention. BBC’s Radio 1 has the Essential Selection hosted by one of dance music’s best-known – Pete Tong. Club DJs Seb Fontaine and Judge Jules also have their own radio shows, playing nothing less but the latest in dance music. In Singapore, local stations are moving towards dance music either by co-sponsoring/supporting dance music events and giving more airplay to the genre. Recently, punters here got news that The Most Music 91.3FM will be broadcasting the Essential Selection from August onwards. Although the shows will be one week behind, the news was still met with much delight.

For the DJs, it opens up avenues that were once closed to them or never mentioned. The marriage of dance music and movies was probably inevitable. Movies such as ‘Tomb Raider’, ‘The Beach’ and ‘Hackers’ have dance music as core influences in their soundtracks. In fact, it was probably cult hit ‘Trainspotting’ that helped pave the way as Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’ got audiences aptly engaged as it blared through theatre sound systems round the world. Hit movie American Pie also featured the un-credited music of Libra presents Taylor (‘Anomaly Calling Your Name’).

The focus was soon placed on club culture. In the past year or so, we’ve been introduced to ‘Human Traffic’, ‘Groove’, and ‘Better Living Through Circuitry’. ‘Human Traffic’ guest starred DJ Carl Cox, ‘Groove’ got John Digweed. While Dave Seaman has shown interest and seeks the chance to score a movie soundtrack to highlight his career, BT has produced the soundtrack for ‘Go’ and most recently, Paul Oakenfold produced the soundtrack for ‘Swordfish’ and has lent his touch to ‘Planet Of The Apes’.

Let’s talk a bit about the local (i.e. Singapore) dance music scene. Still in its infancy, there has certainly been changes in the last 2-3 years. Dance music has recently gained some respect beyond the old descriptions of being “monotonous”, “too fast”, “no lyrics”, etc. Also, more club operators are willing to allow their DJs to include dance music in their playlists. In fact, the past year has seen several independent promoters organising theme/concept nights involving local dance music DJs with the occasional foreign DJ. All this sits well alongside the myriad foreign DJs now visiting our shores. Singapore has found itself hot on the lips of some of the big name DJs. Jon Carter, John Digweed, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, Nick Warren and Steve Lawler are just some of the DJs who have visited on numerous occasions. Centro 360, Liquid Room, Zouk, Phuture, PinkK and Milkbar are some of the clubs making a firm stand with dance music as part of their policy.

Has dance music found its beat? Certainly sounds like it. Party hard……

 

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