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Disclaimer: For the purpose of this article I will be using the term ‘dance music’ to refer to the overall branch of electronic music that it covers. I am not here to argue differences between genres. I also want to say that I understand that the views mentioned do not reflect the opinions of every person that does not listen to dance music – some people just choose not to listen to it and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not for everyone and I understand that millions of people around the world would not listen to dance music given the choice, but they would happily tolerate it.
Firstly you have musicians and audiences who don’t even acknowledge dance music as a valid musical form. There are music fans that are so rooted in the traditional instrument based music they listened to growing up (Rock, Jazz, Classical etc.), or what their parents played when they were younger, that the very idea of listening to anything not composed and played by these traditional instruments (but instead by synthesisers, samplers etc.) irritates and scares them. This can lead to a rejection of dance music without any rational reason to do so.
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| Anti-Rave cartoon by The Sun newspaper, UK. |
Secondly, the chart topping dance hits that have dominated the top 40 for quite a few years now are repeatedly condemned by dedicated artists, producers and fans of the more underground dance communities, claiming that pop trends have diluted various genres and discredited their grass roots origins.
To add to this, there are a huge number of styles within the wider classing of dance music as a genre, all with varying tempos and stylistic differences, and this has naturally produced further rifts. As well as personal differences in taste, ‘EDM’ as a whole has been heavily contested for ruining the once ‘pure’ forms of Electro, Trance and Progressive House, turning these genres into commercial spin-offs of their once true selves. Music audiences are known to be particularly subjective when it comes to what they like and don’t like, and with dance music fans can be extremely unforgiving.
Whilst dance music is still a massive and ever-growing music phenomenon, it seems to be continually assaulted on every front. Whatever people say about the subject they always seem to be very opinionated, and the dance music community and its culture has somehow achieved a stigma that it’s finding hard to shake.
Read More: Is EDM Killing The Underground?
So why should people not hate dance music? Now obviously in any genre there will be examples of music that is plain bad, that is musically incoherent (out of pitch, out of time, that just doesn’t sound right). And it is hard to deny that some of the formulaic hits thrown at us in the charts are only demonstrating how commercialism and the pursuit of money can degrade previously great music. But this shouldn’t put you off. Because when dance music gets it right, it can be amazing. From a musical/production standpoint, dance music and some of its sub-genres can be argued to be responsible for some of the most musically revolutionary sounds out there at the moment.
By combining creative thinking with modern-day computing power, synthesis has taken us from generating simple sine waves on a computer to moulding some of the most complex and intricate sounds ever created. The number of new sounds that we are now able to produce is virtually infinite thanks to modern synthesisers, with new parameters and processors enabling us to look at and manipulate sound waves in ways that producers and musicians would have only dreamed of before.
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| Modern day production techniques leave possibilities endless. |
And to add to all of this, the clarity we are now able to achieve with modern day digital production is incredible. We can achieve almost true transparency in a track, getting it to sound virtually the same out of any system it is played on. If dance music is anything, it’s pushing our auditory boundaries to new limits.
As well as analysing dance music for its technical virtues, there are various other things that it does so well. Long extended mixes, although designed for DJ mixes, are challenging the ‘three minute singles’ that are heard in the charts (which I would argue are diminishing audiences attentions spans), and pushing us to be immersed into musical experiences that can be very rewarding. Listening to a good seven-minute track from start to finish, you can really appreciate the time and effort that has gone into creating it. And whilst many people have the opinion that dance music is reserved for drug-takers at all night raves, dance music is listened to by millions of people all over the world in a variety of situations. With the huge number of genres to choose from, there is a dance song for most occasions. From the pumped up sounds of a jump-up D’n’B track to the relaxing vibes of Chill-House, good dance music can reflect and express how you are feeling, just like good music from any other genre.
Read More: How Dance Music Changed My Life
We’ve all heard the saying ‘it all just sounds the same to me, its just boom boom boom’, but this is far from the truth. Although most music is based on repetition, including dance music, there are many different styles that display a variety of song structures and rhythms. And although House, Trance, Techno and various others do feature a kick drum on every beat (that is not to say that this is bad however), I would argue that some forms of dance music are displaying some of the most creative and original drum patterns and rhythms out there. Some tracks couldn’t be further apart from the four-to-the-floor stereotype. D’n’B, Dubstep, Glitch Hop - these genres and so many more are all pushing musical boundaries, and creating dance music that is becoming indistinguishable from ‘boom boom boom’.
I wish that dance music didn’t have the stigma that it does, and that people would not be put off by what they think dance music sounds like. It should be valued for what it is and what it can do. I don’t like Metal but I can appreciate the technicality and musicianship behind good musicians performing it – this should be the same with any genre. Once you really listen to good music you can admire the artistry and perfection that has gone in to making a song what it is; in my opinion this is hard to ignore with good dance. So whilst artists and producers will continue to create good (and bad) dance music, I only hope that the haters will throw away what they think they know, and just give a little bit of time to discovering something new that they could end up really enjoying.
Faris Sabbah
