Styles Of Dance Music

Although there has always been music people can dance to, contemporary dance music mainly derives from the disco genre of the 1970's.  Dance music is generally any type of music designed to get people dancing.  Specifically, dance music is characterized as being music with steady bass drum hits of 4 to the floor or four drum beats per measure.

Today, it comes from a variety of genres such as pop music, hip-hop, house, R&B, and electronic music.

When people think of dance music they mainly think of music that is played in clubs. This type of music is also termed electronic dance music and is produced by electronic equipment. The main types of electronic equipment used are synthesizers, samplers, computers, and drum machines. The music is composed of electronically altered sounds or samples and vocals. Electronic dance music can be further divided into three main categories: house, techno, and trance music.

House music was the first popular type of electronic music played in clubs. Emerging from south Chicago in the early 1980's, DJs in the underground club scene experimented to create music that was more powerful than disco. House music is generally loud and repetitive with heavy beats accompanied by vocals or samples from other recordings. The most well known example of early house music is Pump Up the Jam by Technotronic. Other notable artists include Black Box, Soul II Soul, DJ Junior Vasquez, DJ Hex Hector, and DJ Terry Todd.

Techno music emerged in the mid 1980's from Detroit.  Commonly described as a harmony between man and machine, techno music branched off from house and is more instrumental with a lot of percussion and synthesized sounds. It is often referred to as music with a futuristic sound. Popular techno artists include Moby, Orbital, and Future Sound.

Trance is the third type of electronic dance music. It developed in the 1990's and derives from both house and techno. Trance music is more melodic and relies on a harmonic structure. It is characterized by repeating rhythmic patterns separated by melodies and aims to create a hypnotic effect. Popular trance artists include Paul Van Dyk, Armin Van Buren, DJ Tiesto, Paul Oakenfold, and Sasha and John Digweed.

Many artists today are incorporating elements of electronic dance music into their music. Rap artist Missy Elliot has incorporated electronic dance music beats into her songs as well as Justin Timberlake in his new single release Sexy Back. Club DJs are also able to convert almost any popular song into electronic dance music by simply speeding it up and adding the 4 to the floor beats. Madonna is a great example of an artist whose music has been remixed into different styles of electronic dance music. Dance music will continue to metamorphose as musicians and DJs experiment and further advancements are made in technology.


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