Introspect: One step, two step, brostep?

People become obsessed with lists around this period of merriment, and though I keep a hypocritical note of who's sold the most over the past year or who has been subject to the most pairs of used pants whilst performing on stage, I am purposefully u-turning away from New Year lists. What the new year is showcasing to me is an unpredictable music scene where anything is possible, much like There's Something About Jedward's hair, where technology will showboat it's speedy age process with touchscreen everythings and a hundred million* new online music stores, inevitably leading to the disparsement of CD's. CD's will soon become archaic if the growth rate of new technology is in ratio to the exclusivity of the brand spanking new TV bought over this Christmas season.

Lists aside, I will project my roaring excitement at what is to grace our every musical atom over the coming year. First and foremost, music is cyclistic, which in essence opposes my initial 'anything is possible' ethos but only ever so slightly. Electro has revived the 80's, persisting an urban splash of dubstep with every winning stride taken to the finish line. Dubstep has had an exceedingly progressive year and some would say it'll soon be over. That's not the prevailing opinion if you stumble through online forums where the 'dubstep is dead' sentiment is blown to bassy smitherines but overlooked by the cloud-like emergence of sub-generic dub, such as the elusive brostep. Yep, I asked the same thing - What the f***? Joe Nice, a Baltimore DJ who introduced dubstep to the USA, explains rather imperatively: "Brostep is not dubstep. Two completely different things. Two completely different sounds. Brostep is impatient, with a serious lack of bass and no real weight." It's quite easy to pass off any bass heavy tunes as dubstep these days, so the confusion that has been creasing brains up and down will eventually iron out in 2010, defined more by specific dub based spawns.

Dance music had a great 2009, dominating the charts for much of it with the likes of La Roux's 'In For The Kill' (Skream's Version), Deadmau5's 'I Remember' and The Prodigy's 'Warrior's Dance'. Chuck in a bit of Dizzee's originality and Calvin Harris's penchant for a floorfiller and you've pretty much summed up the domineers and high standards of the UK dance music scene. Dance as a collective genre seems stronger than ever.

(Take note of how I've left David Guetta off the list, even though it pains me to say, he should be commended for his world domination. Funny how the more overground he has become, the less I like him. Unfortunately, it's me against the world on this one!)

So what next?

Quite possibly rave. It may seem inevitable that sounds of a bygone rave era will again infiltrate our eager little minds and leave us holidaying in a reminiscent stupor of when house music really made an impact in a world that was in constant revolution. This relies on the cyclistic theory maintaining factual substance. Against the wars, famine and social change, rave music unified a youth counter culture through the incessant use of eye-widening drugs and illegal raves - it was a rave-olution in itself. And to think the foundations of this era blew up right here in 'Madchester' in a humble little venue known as the Hacienda. I look forward to the way in which DJ's will incorporate a tried and tested sound associated to the groundbreaking beginnings of an era and contemporise it so the youth of today can integrate it into their ever-increasing Skins-styled lives.

Maybe, just maybe, I'm looking a few too many years in to the future. What will happen in dance is an increased knowledge of house, a deeper subculture of dubstep and an evolution in drum and bass, incorporating broken beat, lo-fi and ambience.

Chin chin.

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* Not a true representation of figures.

US of yippy-yai-yay.

New York hosted its first festival dedicated to electronic music on the weekend of September 5th and 6th, entitled 'Electric Zoo', where many of the world's DJs came together to put on a critically acclaimed show. What really astonished me was the fact that this is the first electronic music festival in one of the biggest cities in the world and leaves me pondering over why the US of A hasn't caught on to a thriving dance music scene like us Europeans have?

A recent article on the Reuters website had me thinking and Googling away. That article can be found by clicking right here.

I've personally clubbed my feet away on a few patches of European territory and found it accommodating to the liks of me, a 'foreign' visitor - it was easy to feel part of an inclusive, hedonistic vibe. The small difference would be communication barriers as English was in some parts non-existant or more strongly accented than here. Well, unless you find yourself in Liverpool... or Newcastle for that matter.. I guess Scotland too. Come to think of it, there are fewer differences than I originally thought.

Now, it isn't all Dollywood, rock and R&B in the States - the most prolific celebration of dance music in any dance fanatic's diary is the annual Winter Music Conference in Miami. This is where not only hundreds of DJ's gather to put on unforgettable performances but industry professionals, record labels, statutories and more find breeding ground for innovation within production and networking. It is your very own microcosm of a summer in Ibiza. Miami is the perfect location for such an event, with great venues, beautiful weather and plenty of dollars to invest in state of the art equipment, yet in no way does this event reflect the tastes of the wider American population.

As in the article posted above, electronic music only accounts for 1% of all music sales in the US, whereas here in the UK it accounts for 8%. This in comparison is approximately $49.8 million against $99.9 million, respectively. Bear in mind that revenue created from all genres and media of music sales as a whole in the US is more than triple that of the UK - $4.9 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively. The figures show just how much us Brits like those to boogie on down to those electronic beats, spending just under double that our stateside competitors.

Some American 'experts' argue that the American population can't relate to a lyric-less track. So, enter David Guetta. He is taking the US by storm and it is down to his collaborations with prolific urban stars such as Akon and Kelly Rowland. His current smash 'When Love Takes Over' has taken the world over, achieving a number one chart slot in 10 countries, including the US Billboard dance chart. The lyrics commercialise a solid piece of house music, even if it has sampled Coldplay's 'Clocks', who’s piano riff is infectious and the trance-like synths add a reflective, beach worn feel to it.

Guetta has the right idea by maximising his audience, spreading his cheesey work to the US. He isn't doing anything differently to what he was before except for landing some high end collaborations, which is making America listen. Maybe he'll be the one who turns electronic music in the US into a mass market and if that happens prepare for a global dance session.

Here's the Parisian dropping the tune in New York, to a nice, echoed reception.



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Web
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_industry#Recorded_music_retail_sales

http://www.ifpi.org/content/library/Recorded-Music-Sales-2008.pdf