I hope you're right. I really, really, really, really...too many "reallys"...hope you're right! It's just that I've been so annoyed by having to tolerate the Missy Elliots, Jay-Z's, Akon's, Snoop Dogg's mixed in with the uptempo stuff. Not to mention what I would call the "vocoder rap" where the slick producers think it's a good idea to have artists utilize electronic voiceboxes in the songs. Ugh! I'm not in the business of predicting the future. I don't have that "sixth sense" of being able to see things happening before they happen. All I can do is make judgment calls based on what I experience. And what I experience is that the "Ghetto Lifestyle" pwns the city. Rappers and hiphoppers grace the charts, the magazines, the sports pages, the internet, etc.. It's like the media need to put on a rapper for whatever reason.
Now don't take this as to think I'm blaming rappers. Gawd bless them for pursuing their dream and getting wealth and notoriety in the process. I'm blaming Corporate Media (tm) for being their usual myopic selves and for being followers rather than leaders as usual. Could all this be just a dream in 5-10 years? Sure, anything is possible these days. But I'm not hoping for some worldwide revolution. I just want to hear some good dance stations, whether it be from the internet or terrestrial. Perhaps it is good that Dance artists don't dominate like the hiphoppers in one way: We're not at the point yet where bad dance artists are being shoved down our throats on a consistent basis that people would start souring on dance music again. That's partly one of the reasons for the fall of disco. I don't want that to happen to contemporary dance. Right now, I can take some pleasure in hearing some good House, Technotrance and even an occasional drum n' bass while most people don't know what the hell that is.
Part of me just wished that people here had become aware of the great music that came out in the 90's and the explosion of electronica. The negative publicity that accompanied the rave scene, for example, did not help things at all.
And this is part of the problem. Everyone wants to think in the NOW or "this is how I see / think / feel NOW" in the short run, then make a decision and act based on that thought or feeling they have right NOW, not taking into consideration the evidence of the huge possibilities and changes that are on the way. Just like in elections, this type of thinking can disrupt the possible better outcome from taking place, especially if an incredible amount of people adopt the same style of thinking and act on it all together. This is somewhat the problem with dance formats and the thoughts about dance music, or music in general, in this country. The "old ways of thinking" continue, as people continue to ignore or fail to see the evidence of what's about to happen. People see "well hip hop is still sounding pretty big and I don't hear all dance tunes playing", so therefore, until it becomes all dance, people remain dissatisfied. Also, people see "well that station failed, therefore there must be something wrong with the format and NOBODY should ever try it again".
Well...
I could understand how people could fall into this type of "logic", but sometimes you must look at the BIG picture and read between the lines instead of just focusing on the immediate obvious. For example; lets say two things are happening at this period in time
1. A dance station has just shut down.
2. Many artists / producers are abandoning their "old" sound and jumping on the electronic sound.....
To most people, they will only see "Well dance doesn't work! This sucks! Don't try it" and that type of mindset gets locked into place and that's just the way it is in their minds until the day their brain activity stops. To the average listener, it's "another dance station died! now I'm pissed ....." and that's that.
Well, that's one way to look at it, and this would be something big to worry about in 2004, 2005, 2006, and maybe even 2007.
But, when you REALLY think about it TODAY, IN 2009, there really is nothing to worry about in the long run! As much as I'm tempted to get into a full detailed explanation, I'll just bring up some small facts inthe form of rhetorical questions. Have you noticed how much things have changed in music since 2004/2005? Have you noticed how more and more people are jumping on the electronic sound today? Have you noticed how you can not only hear house beats, but the use of booty bass and freestyle SUCCESSFULLY being used on a massive scale today ALMOST PRECISELY to how it was done back in the 90's? Have you realized THE INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF POSSIBILITIES THAT NOW EXIST for dance because of this? We are indeed in VERY VERY, VERY exciting times in the evolution of music, and this time we're in is also a HUGE benefit to dance!!
Just stop and think about it for a moment...
Does anyone really think that a trend will continue to unfold and music will go into a dance/uptempo direction, yet radio stations will be so foolish that they will continue to ignore it and continue trying to play the hip hop and other stuff that is no longer dominating the charts...and electronic dance will continue to die despite the fact that this is the direction of sound we're headed in? When you really think of it, you'll come to the realization that eventually,
SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAVE TO HAPPEN.
You have Lil Jon, Jermaine Dupri, Akon, Pitbull, BIRDMAN, and ALL sorts of people jumping on the dance/house sound. OH!!! OHH!!! AND!!! Not only that, You have Jay Sean, who BROKE INTO THE U.S. MAINSTREAM with his hit "down"!!! which has reached
#1 IN the U.S.! Think about it - this is the song that CROSSED HIM OVER and BROUGHT HIM IN to the U.S. charts, after his five to six years of previous singing! This shows that not only will the uptempo dance and FREESTYLE sound work today, but this is the direction we're headed in! The signs of what's to come couldn't be more obvious! Something will eventually have to change, and SOON, because people will not be able to continue to ignore what's happening in music, RIGHT NOW!!
You have a hip hop generation (which have now all become the parents) that is coming to a close. You also know that once one generation/phase passes, then SOMETHING ELSE will have to take it's place. You also have the electronic sound slowly filling up the charts and more and more people jumping on it. Just by reading the last three sentences alone, what do you think will happen as a result? Oh, and lets just say "ok, this is only a trend and it will eventually come to an end -then what?". To wrap up this BRIEF SUMMARY edition of the exciting times we're CURRENTLY IN when it comes to the future of dance music, I will say this: The trend alone creates an endless amount of possibilities for dance music, and if all we get out of this electronic/electro-pop/electro-hip hop trend is enough power to help bring the pure dance sound back to light and high enough for it to be able to co-exist with other genres (just like rock & roll, jazz, country, classic rock,...etc are doing even though they are currently not topping the charts), THAT ALONE is enough to be excited about!!!
AND BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THIS IS JUST A BRIEF SUMMARY OF EVERYTHING THAT IS TAKING PLACE RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!
As far as the auto-tune / electro vocoder voices being used, think about this:
Remember the days of Afrika Bambaataa, Egyptian Lover, Planet Rock, Freestyle, and that entire genration of sound? Well, this is what today's generation of autotune will sound like to all the babies that are turning 1 and 2 today, in just a few years - and remember, it was that entire Afrika Bambaataa, Egyptian Lover....etc. along with the disco period (which itself was also a trend) that kicked off the entire dance sound the first time around. Well, guess what!!!
WE ARE CURRENTLY IN A MODERNIZED STYLE OF THAT STAGE IN MUSIC, ONCE AGAIN!
Think of Lady Gaga and many of the electro pop records around 120 or so bpm as the disco of today. ... And I deliberately did not even take the fact that Jay Sean's "down" is in reality a new school freestyle song any further, which I was extremely tempted to do, but I think I've said enough for now.
A LOT IS HAPPENING, A LOT IS COMING.
People will one day look back to today and..........
TO CONSERVE TIME, LET ME JUST STOP AND WRAP THIS UP RIGHT NOW.
Here are links to cover all the things I have not even began to touch on yet.
http://www.freestyleremix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10009 (link taken from few years back - 2006, very first days of when I realized dance music making a come back)
http://www.freestyleremix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10253(part 2 of my "DMC - Dance Music Comeback" Theory 2007)
http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,141917.0.html(David Guetta Talks About Dance Music Making a Come Back)
http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,152131.0.html(LIL JON embraces and talks about IT! (the dance sound))
http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,125780.0.html(A brief summary of more evidence showing which direction we're headed in)
http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,155491.0.html(electro-pop/hip hop meets dance & vice versa! - read post # 6 on this page)
http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,155850.10.html(The Very Exciting Times We're in TODAY, regardless of the fact that Pulse is gone (see post #3 on this page))
In conclusion, There is REALLY NOTHING to Worry About When it Comes to The Next Generation of Music / Sound of 2010-2019 ...and I did not even cover the advancements of technology and extra options of radio that are to come - which will ALSO benefit dance!
Remember in the 90's during the transition to hip hop becoming the next big thing, the older dance, uptempo, disco sound did stick around for a while before the pure hip hop/all hip hop thing started. Notice how even with that, a lot of older hip hop was using old school electro / freestyle / disco beats as this transition to the hip hop generation occurred. Even before many stations became ALL hip hop, they were hip hop with many elements of the pre-hip hop phases and trends still lingering. Well,
NOW THIS IS ALL HAPPENING AGAIN - IN REVERSE!!!
This current sound with the Missy Elliots, Jay-Z's, Akon's, Snoop Dogg's mixed in with the uptempo stuff that many of us are getting sick of is what we have to put up with as we transition OUT of the hip hop generational phase, the same way people had to put up with the old school breakbeat / freestyle / disco that lingered around before the pure hip hop finally began to take over. Also, the same way we had those past generation elements (such as rock n roll / disco dance / electronica) showing up in the early stages of rap / hip hop, we will have the hip hop generation lingering a bit as the dance movement moves in, so in other words, we will first have to put up with many house/electronic stuff with someone "always having to rap" on it, before eventually that will die down and be replaced with more vocal / r&b styles singing, which is where the true return of vocal house/dance will come along. Example? "when love takes over" - David Guetta ft Kelly Rowland..
The hip hop generation has now become the parents. it's the NEW GENERATION OF KIDS that are growing into this "new dance sound". The parents (hip hop generation) are the ones who are going to hold the old ideas that "techno is gay, sucks..." etc. The Kids GROWING INTO THIS "NEW" SOUND, will see it as the NORMAL, COOL thing, because remember, they are growing in to it, and when you are born, ANYTHING you grow into or grow up with is normal and cool to you. So by default, the kids are growing automatically being trained to be more open minded than the hip hop parents who are stuck on one tempo, which will also lead to the next generation being the ones to take over (as future producers, dj's radio programmers, industry managers..) and make a change. The result?
A WHOLE NEW GENERATION OF SOUND IS COMING! - ITS ALREADY BEGUN!!!
Very Exciting Times Are on The Way.
PREPARE YOURSELF NOW!
