I hate to say it, but I think it's now time that I be the first to break this news. I officially believe we have now reached the VERY EARLY stages of seeing the very beginning signs of this dance style trend coming to an end. HOWEVER, whether this is bad news or not cannot yet be detected because one of three things will most likely happen if and when this phase ends.. which I'll get to later on.
AS OF RIGHT NOW, you can see how many r&b, hip hop, and pop artists have jumped on this (electro-pop / dance) sound and how it all, along with the auto-tune, is beginning to sound very much alike. Well, all I can say is that based on past experience, EVERY SINGLE TIME this happened during a musical phase, whatever trend was taking place at the time in music did reach a peak and begin to fall as it all began to sound alike. Unlike most trends in music, his entire trend did have a very slow and unusually long start to it, which was beneficial in many ways, and as more people started jumping on the faster beats, there was a very noticeable difference in style between many of the artists and producers doing it. For example: Black Eyed Peas "My Humps" did not sound like Rihanna's SOS, which did not sound like Missy's "lose control", then Ciara released "get up" which didn't sound like Justin's "Sexy Back"...etc and Nelly Furtado's "man eater" did not sound too much like any of those (although it did share some beat arrangements of "sos" in some ways). Then when we got to Hilary Duff and Fergie and Gwen doing some electro / breaks type stuff, same thing. It all had it's own sound for the most part. NOW, we've recently had a HUGE FLOOD of people suddenly decide to jump on this electro-pop / dance sound, including many r&b and some hip hop artists, who like to take one element someone has successfully used and then it leads to a whole bunch of different songs from various artists with that same similar sound or element in it. It is usually when this starts happening, the very early signs of the death of a phase are on its way of making itself present. Yes, we have a few like Britney, Lady GaGa, Katy Perry, Flo Rida and others overseas who are helping to influence and push a new, similar but different sound and keep a noticeable difference and variety within the trend, but I'm beginning to hear that same house styled beat with the lack of a hi hat and a synthetic rhythmic pattern along with the auto-tune voice on a lot of tracks now, and very soon, this will all begin to sound the same. Watch, give it ten years, and you'll notice how this time period now will all sound alike, similar to how all the "Planet Rock Don't Stop" songs from the 80's with the electronic voices sound to us now. I notice the people today using the breakbeat style of electro-pop are mostly choosing to not all share the same beat and sound, but the house / r&b style side of things just may be the thing to mess it up - IF this does not stop before it's too late.
So with that being said, the extreme early edge of the signs are present, similar to when a weather forecaster begins to predict the early signs of a tropical storm that MAY develop, BUT, this doesn't mean events and circumstances wont change and disrupt this event from taking place.
ALSO: Lets just say the dance style phase does come to an end. Well, you still have to remember that when a phase ends, it always leads or evolves or makes way for something else, and in this case, we have three large possibilites:
1. It leads to the full return of "real" underground dance music back in the mainstream that remains present and sticks around, while another genre tops the charts, so in the end we have real dance mixed with the new pop, like it was done in the 80's and 90's.
2. It evolves into an even newer generation and sound of chart topping dance hits (along with what is still being considered underground today), or a new genre associated with dance, or something we would never imagine happening today.
3. It just dies again and a completely different genre takes over and we must wait for the entire cycle and process to regenerate itself.
So as you can see, the possibility of bad news for this trend is beginning to become evident, but the results may not necessarily be as bad as people would think, based on past experience. Who knows - remember when reggaeton blew up? Who knew that would happen? Imagine if this happened again in a different way - for instance, latin house blows up out of no where and leads into something else! It sure is possible with Pitbull around leaving the doors wide open for people... There are so many possibilities right now that it's almost unimaginable. The odds of dance to seemingly completely die out again are very low because this new style is what the new generation of kids growing up today are seeing as the "new, normal, and futuristic" sound. The only scary thing is seeing how much hip hop has suddenly changed - we went from all these meaningless, dumb lyric songs, to a bunch of creatively done hip hop songs with decent lyrics, and if someone just happens to do the right record at the right time and make that really takes off as a trend, it does leave that (very slight, but existing) possibility of hip hop bouncing back to the top of the charts and pushing pop and dance to the side. Lets just hope that people don't start making dumb dance hits.. And don't get me wrong, the improvement of lyrics in hip hop surely does help out the dance community. The less gangsta and more meaningful hip hop and hip hop influence pop and r&b and all the stuff topping the charts today become, the more meaningful everyone could be and still feel they can make it to radio without worrying. If people see others making quality material as an attempt to make it in the business, what do you think the people looking up to them will start to do?
With that being said, there is no doubt that eventually this trend will end, but when it comes to how it will affect the long run of things, the possibility of bigger and brighter things to come far exceeds the possibilities of the bad news when it comes to the future of dance. As a matter of fact, we have more proof that global warming is taking place than we do about the very early stages of bad news in the dance trend.
O'Neal McKnight ft Ron Browz - "Champagne Red Lights" was the song that inspired me to write this. Take a listen and you will realize how many (house influenced electro-pop) songs are beginning to sound quite alike.
AS OF RIGHT NOW, you can see how many r&b, hip hop, and pop artists have jumped on this (electro-pop / dance) sound and how it all, along with the auto-tune, is beginning to sound very much alike. Well, all I can say is that based on past experience, EVERY SINGLE TIME this happened during a musical phase, whatever trend was taking place at the time in music did reach a peak and begin to fall as it all began to sound alike. Unlike most trends in music, his entire trend did have a very slow and unusually long start to it, which was beneficial in many ways, and as more people started jumping on the faster beats, there was a very noticeable difference in style between many of the artists and producers doing it. For example: Black Eyed Peas "My Humps" did not sound like Rihanna's SOS, which did not sound like Missy's "lose control", then Ciara released "get up" which didn't sound like Justin's "Sexy Back"...etc and Nelly Furtado's "man eater" did not sound too much like any of those (although it did share some beat arrangements of "sos" in some ways). Then when we got to Hilary Duff and Fergie and Gwen doing some electro / breaks type stuff, same thing. It all had it's own sound for the most part. NOW, we've recently had a HUGE FLOOD of people suddenly decide to jump on this electro-pop / dance sound, including many r&b and some hip hop artists, who like to take one element someone has successfully used and then it leads to a whole bunch of different songs from various artists with that same similar sound or element in it. It is usually when this starts happening, the very early signs of the death of a phase are on its way of making itself present. Yes, we have a few like Britney, Lady GaGa, Katy Perry, Flo Rida and others overseas who are helping to influence and push a new, similar but different sound and keep a noticeable difference and variety within the trend, but I'm beginning to hear that same house styled beat with the lack of a hi hat and a synthetic rhythmic pattern along with the auto-tune voice on a lot of tracks now, and very soon, this will all begin to sound the same. Watch, give it ten years, and you'll notice how this time period now will all sound alike, similar to how all the "Planet Rock Don't Stop" songs from the 80's with the electronic voices sound to us now. I notice the people today using the breakbeat style of electro-pop are mostly choosing to not all share the same beat and sound, but the house / r&b style side of things just may be the thing to mess it up - IF this does not stop before it's too late.
So with that being said, the extreme early edge of the signs are present, similar to when a weather forecaster begins to predict the early signs of a tropical storm that MAY develop, BUT, this doesn't mean events and circumstances wont change and disrupt this event from taking place.
ALSO: Lets just say the dance style phase does come to an end. Well, you still have to remember that when a phase ends, it always leads or evolves or makes way for something else, and in this case, we have three large possibilites:
1. It leads to the full return of "real" underground dance music back in the mainstream that remains present and sticks around, while another genre tops the charts, so in the end we have real dance mixed with the new pop, like it was done in the 80's and 90's.
2. It evolves into an even newer generation and sound of chart topping dance hits (along with what is still being considered underground today), or a new genre associated with dance, or something we would never imagine happening today.
3. It just dies again and a completely different genre takes over and we must wait for the entire cycle and process to regenerate itself.
So as you can see, the possibility of bad news for this trend is beginning to become evident, but the results may not necessarily be as bad as people would think, based on past experience. Who knows - remember when reggaeton blew up? Who knew that would happen? Imagine if this happened again in a different way - for instance, latin house blows up out of no where and leads into something else! It sure is possible with Pitbull around leaving the doors wide open for people... There are so many possibilities right now that it's almost unimaginable. The odds of dance to seemingly completely die out again are very low because this new style is what the new generation of kids growing up today are seeing as the "new, normal, and futuristic" sound. The only scary thing is seeing how much hip hop has suddenly changed - we went from all these meaningless, dumb lyric songs, to a bunch of creatively done hip hop songs with decent lyrics, and if someone just happens to do the right record at the right time and make that really takes off as a trend, it does leave that (very slight, but existing) possibility of hip hop bouncing back to the top of the charts and pushing pop and dance to the side. Lets just hope that people don't start making dumb dance hits.. And don't get me wrong, the improvement of lyrics in hip hop surely does help out the dance community. The less gangsta and more meaningful hip hop and hip hop influence pop and r&b and all the stuff topping the charts today become, the more meaningful everyone could be and still feel they can make it to radio without worrying. If people see others making quality material as an attempt to make it in the business, what do you think the people looking up to them will start to do?
With that being said, there is no doubt that eventually this trend will end, but when it comes to how it will affect the long run of things, the possibility of bigger and brighter things to come far exceeds the possibilities of the bad news when it comes to the future of dance. As a matter of fact, we have more proof that global warming is taking place than we do about the very early stages of bad news in the dance trend.
O'Neal McKnight ft Ron Browz - "Champagne Red Lights" was the song that inspired me to write this. Take a listen and you will realize how many (house influenced electro-pop) songs are beginning to sound quite alike.