Knowledge is Power, so SPREAD THE KNOWLEDGE!

[Wildstyle K]

May I make an observation? I come to this board from time to time, and there is always a lively conversation about how to further the dance 'cause'. However the dance community seems to act in a much more 'exclusive' than 'inclusive' manner. We should be embracing every dance outlet, no matter how 'pure' the product may be, what the distribution method is or where it's being done.

I say this as a PD that has programmed a Dance HD2 station for over 3 years, out of passion. I know we have listeners, I hear from them and I see the streaming numbers - however the dance community outside of my market seems to care less. Trust me, I am fine with that personally but it doesn't seem to be a good way to further a coalition.

Just an observation from someone on the outside looking in.

YES!!! ALL types of dance and electronica! Not just one sound or certain artists.
But this will be a difficult task to achieve - getting everyone to accept different things or sounds in dance.
For example: Have you seen the BPM boards lately? I can understand the people's requests, but to say it's not dance it's crap or reject it because it's rap-house or whatever the 3,002 terms out there floating around are, that's a whole different story!

It's one thing to desire more pure dance, but it's another thing to reject things else based on "religious dance beliefs", or rules on what "real" dance should sound like. There is a lot of pop hits out there that are part of the dance family.

 

[TonySantiago]

May I make an observation? I come to this board from time to time, and there is always a lively conversation about how to further the dance 'cause'. However the dance community seems to act in a much more 'exclusive' than 'inclusive' manner. We should be embracing every dance outlet, no matter how 'pure' the product may be, what the distribution method is or where it's being done.

I say this as a PD that has programmed a Dance HD2 station for over 3 years, out of passion. I know we have listeners, I hear from them and I see the streaming numbers - however the dance community outside of my market seems to care less. Trust me, I am fine with that personally but it doesn't seem to be a good way to further a coalition.

Just an observation from someone on the outside looking in.

Krash,

I cannot agree with you any further!

You are right, we should be embracing ALL outlets doing something with dance music. If you are fortunate to have a dance music outlet, YES, support. But even if there is a CHR station that may play dance on occasion, that should be supported as well. After PartyFM left 87.7 here in New York City, I've been telling people to stop taking on an "elitist" attitude when it comes to the music, arguing about what is "pure" and what is "not pure". Personally, I believe ANY sort of product HAS to get out there if it is going to make an impact, even if it comes from R&B artists doing a dance remix.

Thanks to the Internet, someone from NYC can tune in to Baltimore, Miami, wherever to hear a station And that is a good thing

What's your station? I want to collect links on stations

 

[Krash Kelly]

Thanks Tony, I am at KBPA Austin. Our HD2 station is a reincarnation of the former KXMG/Mega 93.3 which was a dance outlet here in the early 2000's - Megahd2.com

 

[TonySantiago]

Thanks Tony, I am at KBPA Austin. Our HD2 station is a reincarnation of the former KXMG/Mega 93.3 which was a dance outlet here in the early 2000's - Megahd2.com

Austin, WE SALUTE YOU! ;D

 

[Wildstyle K]

So what records do you want to push towards a CHR?  Im looking at Mediabase of the dance stations and also on FMQB and with a very few dance records there is not much difference.  So again what needs to be pushed?  What I am hearing out of the pop world is up beat singles that to me sound like a dance record.  Im looking at one major market CHR's playlist  and I see La Roux as the number two most played.  La Roux started on the dance stations.  Then I see Lady Gaga, same thing.  David Guetta is in the Top 25 and he has 4 records in the top 50.   Then I look at this stations ratings.  The last three months they have gone up.  So I ask the question what records do you want to push towards a CHR? 

PERFECT EXAMPLE:
Lucas Prata - Gimme the Beat | But before I get into that, perhaps I should point out the fact that maybe I should not use the word "push" (as in trying to magically make everyone suddenly accept and declare it as an instant top 40 hit), but rather just talk about whatever new music you discover and share it with others within the dj / radio community so they could AT LEAST know about it or hear someone else talking about it. Lets say that a promo is sent out to the radio station or something of that nature. Well, what good does it do if the PD / MD doesn't care to research it? What good will it do for the type of people who operate with the mind set "well, I never heard of this.. it's not popular, I don't HAVE to play it, even if I did I have no proof that it will help anything business-wise, so why would I even waste time checking it out"? This is why I still believe that getting out there, discussing new potential records with others and SPREADING THE KNOWLEDGE about certain tracks that most people would never even know about is nothing less than a good idea. I bet if I spoke with a PD / MD of any of the stations in my hometown, NONE of the people there would know what the heck Lucas Prata "Gimme the beat" was, and if someone did, it would most likely not be the right person who can make something happen with it (and the person who does know might be sitting there silently like "it's no big deal - as long as I have the record myself and I like it... why would I even bother to discuss it?"

SOMETIMES SPREADING THE KNOWLEDGE IS GOOD.

Believe it or not, I discovered this song through WKQI Channel 95.5 even BEFORE seeing the promos and finding it on Promo Only Dance Radio (so I should not see any replies or things in regards to "That's not dance"....etc) and how did I find out about it? Well, it was ALL BECAUSE a dj decided to throw it in a mix on that CHR station, and I'm sure he heard about it THROUGH SOMEONE ELSE WHO OPENED THEIR MOUTHS and talked about it with him.

THAT'S ALL IT TOOK FOR A DETROIT STATION TO PLAY IT AND HAVE ME DISCOVER IT IN PHX.

Now, as a result, I'm here TALKING about it, SPREADING THE KNOWLEDGE, and I bet half or even more of the people here are going to go look it up and search for it because... well, they probably have no idea what it is (but will now that I've brought it up and talked about it) and may even be more willing to want to know what it is based purely on the fact that not only is it Lucas Prata, but I also mentioned that I heard it on a CHR station!

What's funny is that no matter how good/bad of an idea people think talking to new people outside of their cliques and spreading knowledge about records and getting people talking is, IT'S HAPPENING RIGHT HERE WITHIN THE DANCE SECTION ALL THE TIME! How many times do I see people posting new songs up as new topics and many other people logging in, discovering about it, then secretly scrambling over to their YouTube accounts or google to find out what it is to come back and comment (and I wonder how many dj's / pd's who may not even post on here but secretly read have probably discovered and added or had their dj's play certain new things as a result?) Well, it's nice that we are - SPREADING THE KNOWLEDGE about it - WITHIN the dance community while all the "outsiders" continue to remain completely clueless about the potential records, but I think also mentioning it in other areas of the boards is a good idea as well. I bet that DJ who played it on WKQI never even talks/ discusses the Lucas Prata record with any of his dj friends. Therefore, unless  it happens to become a bigger single and people are forced to recognize it, it will remain in the shadows while Jay Sean scores big time with pretty much the same sound - all because he can afford to "force" his records to at least be given a chance. When you don't talk or spread knowledge, then no one learns anything. As of today, radio is basically thriving off of people using my very idea of SPREADING THE KNOWLEDGE. What do you think advertisements are for?

 

[Wildstyle K]

Let me clarify once again - I'm not asking for anyone to put it at #2 in their highest rotation slots. Just asking to at least be willing to talk about / introduce the records to others within the same business or who share the same interests who may have dj mixshows where they could feature it. To do this does not require having to attend any radio formatting classes, expos, ...etc. If I was able to find out about Lucas Prata's newest single, get it, put it in a mix, and write this much about it - all by discovering it in a CHR mix then trying to memorize the main words so I could search for it myself - without even a song/artist name or title, then I'm sure simply talking amongst the community and spreading the knowledge would make things drastically easier in regards to helping the record (and many others as well) get more exposure.

It's funny how one clique could have certain things going on in one town, then instead of sharing ideas and introducing new features and ways of things and thinking to the people of the other town (who may even be interested in helping the cause, but just don't know about it), they complain about how the other town is boring while WISHING that others would come and reach out to them and offer to help share ideas.

I know our parents taught us many times "don't talk to strangers". Well, it's time to change that mindset. If we don't talk outside our "clique", then no one new will ever learn anything new (in regards to what we would like them to learn. We can't just sit back and depend on promos or "maybe one day things will change" because outside of the "dance community", as far as they are concerned, "all" the good records are already getting attention, everything is fine and nothing needs to change.