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Uptempo

T

TonySantiago

While in attendance at the WMC panels, I often hear the word "uptempo" now being associated not only with the dance music "brand" but with the rhythmic crossover "brand" blending into our sounds as well. Is this a term that we should use more often on a radio sense?

It's strange because I've always called our music "dance music" but with things going on and so as not to "pigeonhole" dance music to the rhythmic uptempo sounds happening as of now, is it time that we should change our thinking to label all of the rhythmic beats (meaning beats from approx 110 - 140+ BPM) as "uptempo". Is this how we should start marketing our music? Will this help our image so as people can think of our music in a different way and not label it as "techno" or "disco", etc?

Granted, I'm not going to change my organization to the "Uptempo Coalition", :) but if somehow radio can "buy" into this thinking in terms of taking all aspects of what is going on now and creating a format combining all of those elements, then it would be a good thing.

Love to hear your thoughts on this.
 
The line between dance and pop is blurring with every new pop hit that sounds just like a pure dance song.

However, I guarantee that if a relatively unknown dance artist sang "Hold It Against Me" with the exact same lyrics and beat, instead of Britney Spears, that song wouldn't have seen the light of day on the CHR charts. We'll see how "Electroman" does on the charts, it sounds similar to Pitbull - Hey Baby and that song was a smash hit. It's time that CHR started embracing unknown artists as well as the superstars. It worked for "Stereo Love" which was top 5 on the dance chart most of last year and top 5 on the CHR chart for 2 months.
 
I just took a second glance at this thread and it occurred to me that the word uptempo is one that I have been throwing around quite a bit for a while to describe the new dance sound emerging on radio. In fact,I remember either making a thread or posting how we should move away from using the word dance. I think most were against it at the time but I'm glad that now the word uptempo is being preferred.
 
Morpheux,

The person who stated this to me isn't so far from your neck of the woods.....Tom Calococci, Power 96 program director (WPOW - Miami) along with Issy Sanchez over at Elite Music. John Parker was there as well, as one of the panelists.

In that sense the term is beginning to take some "legs" now and, like I said, if this is going to help our music then I am all for it.
 
I've already confessed my 'high level of dislike' for this new American genre called "uptempo" on the U.K. boards. No point in doing it here since this is the country that's been music genrely corrupted with the "call it whatever you want" idea. We've forgotten the true genre sounds, titles, and their meanings here, and the end result to this may be hip hop being the last real, established genre to make it big in America (unless of course the next generation comes along and repairs this "everyone just call it what you like" thing and brings back the use of sensible classifiable genre terms). With the "death of everything fast being techno" comes the new word, "uptempo", now, because since most of the cool hit music has "gone techno", it can no longer just be called that!

I'll say that a lot of today's UPTEMPO hits have gone more in a house direction, and house is a genre that more people are familiar with. HOWEVER, the problem is that pop dance "isn't good enough" to be called house. Therefore, even the current mainstream house sound is rejected and sort of remains without an official genre name and is called whatever people choose.

Imagine if we adopted this way of classifying music today and started labeling things in ALL areas of life the same way - just call everything whatever we like, or throw one large sump of it into one category! All movies - eh, no need for comedy, action, suspense, horror - just call it ALL whatever you like and file it all under "action movies" since they all have some sort of action. Books? Eh... who cares about non fiction, science, romance, novel...etc. Just have fiction and non fiction, then call whatever else remains whatever you want. The United States? Eh... why name states? Just call it all America. The continents are enough. Why do we need states and cities and counties, towns, neighborhoods, highway & street names...etc.? Forget all that old fashioned labeling system now- that's just a waste of time. "Awww she's having a baby! What will we call it?" "Wtf why name it? Just call it kid, teenager, or adult when the appropriate times come. Just boy or girl. That's enough".

There was once a time when remixes and genres were appropriately labeled. Now, it seems everywhere I go, I see "Uptempo Remix" and it's up to me to investigate further and find out what style of music I'm REALLY getting. Thank goodness for the internet and music samples because I'd sure hate having to go to the store and trying to find a certain style in the UPTEMPO section.
 
By the way, as I've stated before, anything without a specifically established genre name will never be fully remembered or fully get the credit it deserves. At least, though, it's already been agreed by most that hip hop has died and the hip hop community rather agree with "it's dead" than let this new uptempo sound be considered a part of it, so hip hop will not take any credit from this new dance sound - like some of us once worried. I guess it will all just be pop and go down in history as.... well, who knows. It will be interesting to see how people look back on this nameless sound. And, why is only the dance sound that is suffering from namelessness? Not just dance, but AMERICAN dance. Go overseas and this problem ceases to exist.
 
KDM 7000 said:
By the way, as I've stated before, anything without a specifically established genre name will never be fully remembered or fully get the credit it deserves. At least, though, it's already been agreed by most that hip hop has died and the hip hop community rather agree with "it's dead" than let this new uptempo sound be considered a part of it, so hip hop will not take any credit from this new dance sound - like some of us once worried. I guess it will all just be pop and go down in history as.... well, who knows. It will be interesting to see how people look back on this nameless sound. And, why is only the dance sound that is suffering from namelessness? Not just dance, but AMERICAN dance. Go overseas and this problem ceases to exist.
Click to expand...

KDM, then what do we do?

As it is we only have four stations (minus a translator); only 2 of them being commercial. Nothing significant has happened on terrestrial radio for dance music since the demise of Party FM on 87.7 in New York, which happened 2 years ago. Every major radio executive is convinced that dance music as a format does not work because it is too niche. So what do we do?

If whatever is happening music can help our brand of dance music, then we have to consider that option. That doesn't mean that you should go out and start buying up Rihanna, Akon, records if that isn't what you are into to support this. Overseas doesn't have this problem because you have a lot of major support over there for the music because of the exposure, something we have very little of here.

Besides, "uptempo" is just a word. No different than "urban contemporary".

Let's go back to history on that, stations like WBLS in New York were considered "black" and "soul" back in the 70's. However what started happening during the 80's was plenty of crossover of the rhythmic sounds into that format. whereas more whites and Latinos started getting into the stations such as 'BLS and 98.7 Kiss-FM in NYC. All of a sudden, you could hear something by the Isley Brothers followed by Madonna, then Gwen Guthrie, Raw Silk, Hall & Oates, etc. The first time I ever heard of The Police? It was on WBLS with "Voices Inside My Head". So, you couldn't pigeonhole the traditional "black" sounds anymore...thus "urban contemporary". And you know who you could credit for that? Frankie Crocker, for having the foresight to realize what was going on. And yet, with "urban contemporary" things actually GREW. 98.7 Kiss-FM in New York was riding high on the ratings because of it.

So my point, as long as our branded artists and rhythmic artists get the same respect, with the station having that "edge" over CHR, then if it has to be called "uptempo", so be it. It won't change the music as dance and no one is going to throw away dance for "uptempo". No one is going to say that they're hitting an "uptempo" club, the same way no one is going to say that for an "urban contemporary" club.

And when you think about it, stations like Pulse 87, Party FM, Z-88.9 (Brett, this is where you come in :) ) , just to name a few have always been "uptempo" and play all aspects of rhythmic and dance branded music.

It's really only a name but if that "name" can sell our format better, then we should at the very least be supportive of it. Bottom line, it's about our music.
 
This is why it's imperative that we coin our own term and define the music or else you will get humorous terms like "turbo pop".Sounds like the backlash is starting to happen as that term only implies that the music is too sped up.Perhaps,we should call songs from the likes of Adele and Christina Perri "Ambien Pop". On a side note,we do have to incorporate other beat structures than the 4 on the floor beat.It is being overused and will be the death of the uptempo songs on mainstream radio if it continues.Besides,there are catchy uptempo songs that don't use the 4 on the floor formula like:

Beckwith Feat. Ineabell - No Time To Waste (Radio Edit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai0TueMBxDg

Benny Benassi ft. Gary Go - Cinema (Skrillex Radio Edit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0xL32XNOzA
 
It's the same ol argument. However it's quite simple. We need to go back to the roots. We are now all spoiled in 2011, and all these sub genres only create snobs and DJs that are too cool for the room. Back in the Day, Pop music was basically short for "popular" which could be anything. Over the years, Pop got attached to music like NKOTB, Debbie Gibson, Backstreet Boys, Britney...whatever. But it shouldn't be that way. Pop might lean a certain direction, but it usually includes a varitey of formats....whether it be rock, rap, dance, country, bubblegum, etc.

With that being said.....Uptempo is a "remixed" version of Pop if you will. It sort of omits the slower stuff, and favors the club versions of whatever is charting. Coincidently, the music being released today doesn't always need a remix, as a good amount of it is already "uptempo" and is also DJ friendly as is. Sure the dance purists don't like this idea, but any good DJ knows you can't play dance all nite long. However, if you can disguise it with Uptempo versions of the Pop crap that the masses love, then you can easily sandwich some appropriate club tracks in the mix without losing your floor. I think it's same is for radio too. Throwing all these new buzz words out there only confuses the average person. We all know Pop. We all know Uptempo. They are relatable with a wide net of music. Don't get me wrong...I love House. I love Progressive, Electro, Underground, Nu Disco, and so on. But I don't think the goal is to bring the snobs to our world. They already know about the crossover stuff and are not interested. I believe the goal is to bridge the 2 worlds. Bring the open minded fans of music together who prefer a little variety, instead of the same 20 songs in a row. Anyhow, I hope this isn't too long. I vented...I'm done.
 
The first thing that comes to mind when Im reading this post is, does it really matter to the average listener what the musics called? Dance music is in a very good position right now and we keep beating the same dead horse. We need to call it this we need to call it that and we also need a pure dance station. Well what's pure dance? Because honestly no one will ever agree on that concept. The word uptempo could be used in the hip hop or rock world. The genre has 50,000 different sub genres in it and half the time we cant even agree on those. What we should be doing is making great songs not just good songs. Plus we need to work together. Hip Hop does it all the time. The rock bands do the same thing. Besides the producer or DJ, when was the last time you heard two major dance vocalists work together on project and come out on top? Heck the quote unquote awards show for this genre gives the title to best US dance station to a station that doesnt play dance music! How pathetic can you get? C89.5 should have won that for championing this genre longer than anyone.

We now have success stories all around us. B104 in Allentown PA, yes Allentown PA has a dance show on Friday nights. The Remix Top 30 with Hollywood Hamilton, he is a huge supporter of this genre and has been pushing dance records on it. Fire in your new shoes was in commercials and NCIS Los Angeles. I could go on and on.


Instead of worrying about what to call it, lets embrace what we got and get some great records to radio.
 
Brett,

I was thinking this more along the lines of corporate marketing, not necessarily what the average listener is going to think.

People are still going to call dance music "dance music". People will call pop "pop". People will call hip-hop "hip-hop". Either or, we have to strengthen our brand up somehow.

I do get your point and you know better than anyone how much I support and love our music. And based on that Rebecca Black song "Friday" (which I finally heard :-\ ), it hammers the point that WE NEED TO GET BACK TO WRITING GOOD SONGS, not just a auto tuned self-serving monotone "going with my friends, go check out my ride".

I wish somehow we could all work together, but there is so much petty politics going on (that I want NOTHING to do with), so much BS with one thing or another that makes this concept difficult. I praise hip-hop for putting that aside and just doing the task at hand...bringing out the music. I'm willing to do whatever I can for our music but if you have people "in the way" for whatever self-serving needs they care about, then how can we all win?

I'm just looking at what's in front of me and, admittedly, I can miss something.

And yeah, KCRW winning again was a farce. It should have been C89.5. It should have been Party FM. It should have been YOUR station! I would have even accepted KTU or 93.9MIA over KCRW!

Like I said Brett, this is more about corporate marketing versus what WE should call it. Dance music will always be dance music to me. This is just another "horse" if you will. :)
 
Tony Santiago said:
Besides, "uptempo" is just a word. No different than "urban contemporary".
Click to expand...

Early this morning, I saw an ad in my twitter claiming that a certain dj specialty music site was having a special and everything was only 99 cents for a limited amount of time. I thought to myself "hey, I might as well check it out...". I get there and realize I am unfamiliar with all the dj's and remixes on the site. Therefore, I couldn't "gravitate" towards any one particular sound or dj style I desired and had to actually type something into the "search" box to stir me into the right direction.

I typed in certain genres, and unlike back in the day, very little came up under those once fully established terms.

THEN, I typed in "uptempo", and BAM! An incredible amount of... stuff! Needless to say, I had to listen to each an every single one of them just to find out what type of sound it was exactly. I even found "Lollipop" by Lil Wayne at 74 bpm in there as well, and discovered the reason why it was in "uptempo" was because - the remixer added faster high hats to the ORIGINAL EDIT of the song! I guess "Uptempo" does good for at least giving the fast sound something to call it other than just techno, but it certainly doesn't help anyone who may desire a certain sound style or two or three, but can't find it because they don't even know where to begin to look for it, so they just give up on it or settle for something that's close enough.

I'm sure no one in urban contemporary has any problems finding any particular style of urban music they wish because they could easily just type in r&b, hip hop, ... crunk music, east coast rap, New Orleans Bounce... etc. and they surely wont get everything from alternative remixes to experimental downtempo to underground house dubs all in one search.

I don't think there's any solution to this problem really. You can't really just hold a world meeting, make an announcement, and declare a new name for certain sounds while updating the dictionary accordingly. I also think the internet somewhat kills any desire for more genre names since everything is pretty much on demand. The "attitude" is "who cares what it's called? - just look it up and YouTube by name and artist and download [steal] the song somewhere". I guess when everything is on demand, you really don't need a bunch of genre names to find & classify things by anymore. It's you either know what you're looking for and find it, or you just don't know and you do without it and get what you are fed or told is hot by your peers & the media. The days of being able to find compilations of, or support specific sounds, and easily find people who also like those same specific sounds as you, are long gone - UNLESS it's something generic like "rock", "rap", "alternative", "pop", ...etc.

By the way, in 45 minutes, I did happen to find ONE remix, buried within the bunch, that I liked on that site. It turns out that that sound actually does have a genre name, and that remix would've been MUCH easier found - if labeled properly.

But nevertheless, lets just enjoy the ride NOW, and just be happy that there is faster music on the radio. Whatever makes it big enough to be remembered later on will eventually have a name - "old school" (until, of course, so much time passes by that we will need to sub-categorize "old school" because there are just too many generations & decades of it..).
 
By the way, I may seem to give the folks across the pond a lot of credit for their "genius music genre labeling system", but I wouldn't exactly say they've solved ALL the problems - by having a new name almost annually for every new style / trend of UK Garage that surfaces. Yes, it does make it much easier to find, follow, and promote specific sounds when you have "bassline", "UK Funky", "figet house", "dubstep", "DUBle step"...etc, AND have people not only know the terms, but also agree on the terms. However, they tend to have ALL of that labeled under "uk garage". Not only is that "self limiting", but there becomes a problem when the sound "dies and comes back". To fast forward straight to the point, eventually some genius coined the term "future garage" - for the new 2 STEP sound.

Well hmmmmm..... do I REALLY need to explain how this could lead to some problems down the road?

Keep in mind all the things that "uk garage" consists of, and then think about the ONE sound "future garage" is being used for...

Maybe sticking with the simple "uptempo" is really better after all!
 
The sound of "pop" music has changed. In the 40s, pop was big band. In the 50s/60s pop was doo-wop. In the 70s, pop was disco. In the 80s, pop was "classic rock". In the (late) 90s, pop was boy bands. In the 2000s, pop was hip hop. Now, it's uptempo. It'll likely stay at this style for many years, but it will change. The time for dance music to get popular is now!
 
Thank You. This is somewhat the point I was trying to say. However, don't forget that Dance was always very dominant in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. It just didn't have the stereotype it does today. It blended in well with other styles. Whether it be the Disco of the 70s, New Wave of the 80s, or Hip House of the 90s. It was simple back then. Radio had no issue with playing Crystal Waters next to Naughty by Nature. Or C&C Music Factory next to EMF. Even Alternative stations played Rhythmic stuff like New Order or Shamen once apon a time. It became so seperated in the 2000's. But I think it's safe to say that radio is somewhat more open minded now like before.
 
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