And BAM! There it is! No need for me to start an entirely new topic now - conveniently this is close enough;
I used to always say for the past few years now how these type of collaborations should take place! People from a dance genre should hook up with people from outside....
Well, this is nothing new anymore anyway. Flo Rida has already mastered the art in doing these type of things. I used to always think "why doesn't anyone ever think of things like Rockell ft Ludacris or Jenna Drey ft Ciara or Pitbull feat Jocelyn Enriquez? Not to mention, you already know that even if you're a dance artist, your chances of mainstream success will still be high if you team up with Pitbull! Look at a lot of these ex-booty bass rappers and producers out there. They are familiar with the uptempo sound. All they need is for the right people to come along and expand their minds a bit, like with what's been going on with Lil Jon lately. I bet if Lil Jon were on there to NOT EVEN DROP A COMPLETE VERSE, but just to hype up certain songs, there would (and would have been) be many more dance hits that would make it to be successful in top 40 radio.
Just like this is the time to think about going green and bettering the planet, this is also the right time for people to be thinking of these unique collaborations, where you have the unthinkable types of people teaming up to make hits. I didn't even think of this before, but this is exactly what has been taking place with mash-ups. Think about all the David Guetta mash-ups you've heard. Could you imagine if Lil Jon, Ciara, or Ludacris were featured in "love is gone"? Could you imagine how different things would be in commercial radio? There's no need for me to post links or get into full detailed explanations because these examples pretty much say it all. Notice how Madonna teaming up with Justin worked. Notice how Stevie B teaming up with Pitbull worked to some extent. Imagine if we had two people who we all knew with a 100% guarantee that they could make a hit right now if they wanted to in either the dance or r&b/pop category both team up. This would blow the Madonna and Justin Timberlake type stuff out of the water AND blow the water out of whatever it was in in the first place. I think age is the biggest factor right now for Madonna and the U.S. charts... however, two people with a 100% guarantee of being established.. or at least one teaming up with another dance artist who is already getting decent recognition, imagine this!
Right now, I'm just seeing a bunch of pop and r&b artists taking over a genre and seemingly just about everyone else just sitting back and observing thinking "Well, this is good, but it will never work for us. Lets do the music, but without much hope and expectation in the U.S." Maybe I should post a link to my blog about EVERYBODY thinking outside the box and just collaborating and trying new things instead of keeping the mentallity "they don't want to hear that/he would never work with me on that sound..", "they'll never listen to me..", "The industry will never accept this", "I see no money in it for me", "What if...blah blah blah" ..... etc. Like I said in my endless "dance music comeback" stuff I wrote up in 2006 and 2007, if it's done right, it can be done successfully, which COULD possibly kick off a new trend. Right now, the trend portion of this entire situation has pretty much already been taken care of.
David Guetta and Kelly Rowland? Nice.
Enrique Iglesias ft Ciara, cool.
Pitbull and Lil Jon? great.....
The concept is there, but there's still a little something missing here with these type of collaborations.....
Another thing is we need people to get up, admit what they are really doing, and represent the music. I see a large amount of r&b / pop singers who have converted to dance, but ALWAYS manage to fail to mention or give credit to the genre. They always call it something else, or just don't mention it at all. They get a question like "so people classify you as this, this and this... (of course, dance is never mentioned by the interviewer either..) but what do YOU consider yourself?" ANSWER: "Well... I do so many things and cover so many genres...... yada yada yada .... I do everrythang.... it's all about the fans, .... blah blah blah....so whatever they want to classify me as, that's what I am. It's up to them..." They cover just about every other word possible other than "dance".
They are sitting there using all the elements, electro sounds, melodies, even vocal arrangements... Why can't people just come out and say it? Then if Kylie Minogue or someone else similar came out and did the exact same thing, it would be a different story and everyone would be telling her what type of music it is instead of asking....
Hmmm.... and I remember Destiny's Child saying straight up that they were interested in doing a dance album or hit. I'm just hoping Beyonce's memory is just as great as mine... If I had a chance to talk to Beyonce right now, I'd bring up the dance topic first, as the FIRST question, followed by "hello", and the introduction. I'd bring up the fact that this is the direction we're headed in and say "Listen... see? everyone else is doing it, and if she says "so, if everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you?" In this case, my answer would be "YES!"
Well, it's great to learn about this David and Kelly collaboration. Lets hope this is big and that more people start thinking "hmmmm, good idea....." as well.
The label held back from servicing this until Tuesday and by then most stations had already reported their adds for the week.