[Thursday]

Let me first say that I am not a fan of modern dance-pop and electro-pop (Ke$ha, Britney Spears) for a variety of reasons. But I am wondering if any fans of the genre would be able to enlighten me as to its tropes and conventions, and possibly explain how they create meaning and effect in the music as a whole. Discussion about specific songs, instrumentation, lyrics, rhythm, tonality, etc. are all welcome.
 
I am currently working on an academic project in which I am exploring genres of music that I hold in low regard. By the time I finish, I'm hoping that I will be able to analyze a dance-pop piece with a broadened scope of appreciation for the music. From what I've seen, Head-Fi is one of the most intelligent and helpful online communities around and I'm hoping that someone here will be able to give me some pointers.
 
Thanks!

 

[Uncle Erik]

It's kinda fun when I've been drinking. Sometimes, you can get up and dance with a cutie at the bar. That's worthwhile.

Though I don't think I'll pick up any CDs to listen to at home.

 

[Thursday]

Quote:

It's kinda fun when I've been drinking. Sometimes, you can get up and dance with a cutie at the bar. That's worthwhile.

Though I don't think I'll pick up any CDs to listen to at home.

Hehe. I guess you aren't a huge fan, but what's "fun" about the music, if you don't mind me asking?
 
(You've got no idea how hard it is to find a diehard dance pop fan who's intelligent enough to sufficiently explain why they like the music.

)
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well there's good dance and there's bad dance, what you referred to is what I'd call bad dance or more like mainstream pop music but I really like old eurodance music especially from around 2000 ~ 2003 or so. But I would never listen to Ke$ha or Britney.
 
Let me show you some examples of what kind of dance music I find good:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHjWLXufpSs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nesWJRbddZ0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAj1TE4pVZ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL9xjQxR7ME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUv_bOs2sgw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2syiIGRsyvI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhOThhx2Jd8
 
 
For me from the above examples why I like it are the catchy melodies and rythm along with the nice vocals that creates a nice synergy as a whole and you want to move along with the music, difficult to explain any better.
 
As for modern electro-pop I like that a lot as well but only very certain artists from europe (sweden/finland mostly) that does it right such as:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TwCU0syg6E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV3jHSUWQ0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J294A-R1Cjk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYLSNMxGV7M
 
 
 
 
 

 

[Geruvah]

I'll try to explain. It's not that I listen to this music, it's just that I swear I've heard this music long long ago, back in 2000-2003 when it was all cheesy house music and people used to make fun of us for listening to this.
 
House music is the most soulful of electronic music that is the simplest and warmest and other than rap (really, a subgenre of breakbeat), is the most human-sounding. So this is where your top40 gets its gimmicky melody and lines. So people hearing this hears its roots, which is party music. That's all house is, party music. And now the top40 are practically merging with it...well an old version of it. You can't tell me Lady Gaga doesn't sound like Madonna singing over Nu Italio Disco.
 
[edit] In fact, if you listen to a lot of the top40 songs, you'll notice they actually sample from house songs or eurodance songs. True, they almost always "sample" (I always think steal) songs from almost every genre, but you'll see that 7 times out of 10 it will be from a gimmicky house song.
 
Quote:

Let me first say that I am not a fan of modern dance-pop and electro-pop (Ke$ha, Britney Spears) for a variety of reasons. But I am wondering if any fans of the genre would be able to enlighten me as to its tropes and conventions, and possibly explain how they create meaning and effect in the music as a whole. Discussion about specific songs, instrumentation, lyrics, rhythm, tonality, etc. are all welcome.
 
I am currently working on an academic project in which I am exploring genres of music that I hold in low regard. By the time I finish, I'm hoping that I will be able to analyze a dance-pop piece with a broadened scope of appreciation for the music. From what I've seen, Head-Fi is one of the most intelligent and helpful online communities around and I'm hoping that someone here will be able to give me some pointers.
 
Thanks!

 

 

[bcasey25raptor]

There is no point. It is for the mindless masses who don't actually listen to music and only want to dance around with their friends. It is also possible they like music but are to lazy to search for what they like. Personally it all sounds the same to me. They also all say dance floor or the club in the song somewhere from what I have seen.
 
But I won't judge the mindless masses. After all they don't know better.

 

[Geruvah]

You won't judge but call them mindless and generalize their listening habits? You judged them, literally, right after you said you won't. Your post has more of an agenda than objective discussion.
 
Quote:

There is no point. It is for the mindless masses who don't actually listen to music and only want to dance around with their friends. It is also possible they like music but are to lazy to search for what they like. Personally it all sounds the same to me. They also all say dance floor or the club in the song somewhere from what I have seen.
 
But I won't judge the mindless masses. After all they don't know better.

 

 

[Borgbox]

My appreciation for modern pop music comes from the fact that it's bringing extremely good EDM out of obscurity because the pop producers all sample out of other, lesser known genres of electronic music. I guess you could call it an indirect appreciation, or just an appreciation of the side-effects of modern pop, but w/o modern pop there are a lot of EDM producers who would still be working out of their bedrooms trying to circumvent the 3-5 piece band structure for success.

 

[Ynoskire]

The value is in the incredible accessiveness of the music. The tunes get stuck in your head immediately, making music that triggers a lot of people is quite impressive. The downside of this accessability is a lack of depth. Overanalyzing propably won't do this accessabilty justice.

 

[Thursday]

Wow, thanks for all the responses so far! I've compiled a short list of the traits commonly associated with music from this genre:
-Heavy use of synthesizers and drum machines, sometimes with repetitive vocal harmony;
-Vamped chords;
-Dance-able beats, sometimes with syncopation;
-Upbeat or four-on-the-floor (4/4 time) rhythm;
-Repetitive melody;
-Simple, shallow lyrics (or am I missing something?)
I am wondering how each of these traits impacts a listener? Are there specific emotional responses brought on by the music?
 
I've also noticed a prevalence of modal harmony, often switching between Ionian/Aeolian (major/minor). In "Words" for example (first video link), the synthesized harmonic progression seems to be: c-minor --> c-minor 6/4 --> common chord --> tonic 6/4, dominant V (b-flat), tonic (e-flat). Can anyone comment on how common this is or why it is repeated, with minimal variation, throughout the entire song?
 
Another question: what is the historical significance of dance pop? How does it relate to other "dance" genres such as funk or disco?
 
@RPGWiZaRD, excuse my ignorance, but I could use a point of clarification -- what are the differences between Euro dance-pop and American dance-pop? What makes good dance good and bad dance bad? I'm very curious about this because to my untrained ear, they sound quite similar.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Tell me like 5 or so american dance or electro-pop songs and I might be able to compare. The ones I listed above are all very "similar" and the sound I'm looking for in dance songs mostly with various melodies/tunes and lyrics but otherwise they are quite similar idd but this is exactly the kind of dance and electro-pop songs I prefer, I yet haven't found any american artists that I could enjoy in this genre which isn't weird as dance music has been so much bigger genre in europe, especially Belgium have had several big dance artists.
 
As far I can tell the tune/melody is the most important for me, I barely make note  to the lyrics, the most important is that there's some lyrics there which is like a "third" instrument along with the melodies and the bass, not what's been sung. xD
 
EDIT: Actually I might like few Katy Perry songs, "Pearl", "Not Like the Movies" and "Firework" are quite ok, the rest are pretty meh though. This is typical pop songs in my ears though.

 

[DJGeorgeT]

Thanks God for Chrispy and remixes, now this is a quality version of that Ke$ha song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgS8cOnyang&feature=related
 
I am very much into Nu disco, drum n' bass, dubstep, and psytrance and there is lots of garbage in those genres of music because it has become cheaper and easier to produce music and to publish bad music. I am into complex drum patterns, intricate synths, and energy.
 
I do think that Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, and Britney make garbage music and are popular because of their image more than the music they make.

 

[Geruvah]

I've never heard of dance pop, but I'll use Europop. Both Europop and Funk evolved in the 90's from Chicago House (classic house) Classic house evolved from soul, disco, jazz, hip hop, the list keeps going. The sound has been there for decades, House just made it "groove-centric" (this is what I remember from a guy named Ishkur).
Funk has evolved from it to have genres like Jazz House, Funk House (redundant name), Disco House, Latin House, and French House. 
Europop doesn't necessarily mean it only is in Europe. JPop also is in this genre. 
 
This is all coming from memory. I would highly suggest looking at Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music, though it hasn't been updated since...god 2002? http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/
Quote:

Another question: what is the historical significance of dance pop? How does it relate to other "dance" genres such as funk or disco?

 

 

[Ynoskire]

I do think some posters here are confusing EDM with modern dance/pop. The OP is propably writing something about chart pop (Kesha, britney spears, bruno mars, beyonce etc.) whilst some of the reactions are defensive to quality EDM which are two entirely different things.
 
OT:
The lyrics should be easy to understand and a lot of people should be able to relate to the lyrics, ie. clubbing, love and school.

 

[deadlylover]

I think I'm one of the very few here that actually likes/primarily listens to the modern mainstream top40 stuff. I just can't explain it, I don't even know why I like the stuff, I guess I'm used to it or something?
The only thing I can say is that the actual 'content' of the music is irrelevant to the amount of enjoyment I get listening. I couldn't care less if the lyrics were about drugs and rape, or if the melody is full of mindless repetition.
It's fun because I like it, it's got nothing to do with meaning and effect (which in the eyes of many here, would be 'questionable' at best ahahah).
 
I'm pretty much the opposite to you guys, I personally hear the mainstream audiophile classical/jazz stuff as meaningless drivel =P
Oh well, whatever brings a smile to your face eh?