Dance has long been an integral component of music culture; from Michael Jackson’s legendary moonwalk to K-pop hit routines and beyond. But how has dance come into the picture?
Tim Lawrence, an expert on disco music and author of Love Saves the Day joins us to explore six ways dance music changed the world.
Origins
Dance music has long been composed to accompany various social events and celebrations. This genre usually contains rhythmic patterns with catchy melodies; its lively character and diversity contribute to cultural vibrancy.
Early 1970s dance music saw its start when nightclubs employed DJs instead of bands for entertainment purposes, as this proved cheaper. At first, these disco DJs played upbeat funk and soul songs – however by mid-1970s they began introducing danceable tracks that combined elements of funk with Latin rhythms for an all-night party-esque beat known as disco which artists such as Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor had huge successes with.
In the 1990s, rave culture generated new dance music genres that combined techno and disco. Artists such as Michael Jackson and Prince created funky dance tracks that made both the pop and dance charts. Berlin in Germany became a center for these unconventional parties, producing artists like Kraftwerk – an influential synth-pop quartet from this region.
EDM, also known as electronic dance music (EDM), has grown immensely over time. A global phenomenon, EDM can now be found across genres like dubstep and progressive house and has enabled artists to connect with fans like never before – thanks primarily to social media which has transformed how musicians promote their music.
EDM has also brought EDM into the mainstream, where its influence can be seen across numerous other musical genres and this has had a positive effect on how people view dance music overall.
Evolution
People everywhere are celebrating dance music to an unprecedented degree, from stadium-shaking stadium events and chart-topping artists, to millions of enthusiastic fans worldwide. All this points towards one thing: Modern dance music has undergone significant transformation. What has caused its evolution?
From its inception, dance music was a subculture within music. It served as an outlet for those marginalized from mainstream society – particularly women, African Americans and Latino Americans who used dance music as an outlet to express themselves emotionally and visually through movement and performance art. Dance music provided them a place where their emotions could be released through movement while embodying freedom of expression through dancing to its sound waves.
Dance music’s development was further driven by the rise of club and concert/festival culture. Pulsing lights and pulsing beats created an emotional bond with audiences that transcended music alone; DJs served as modern-day shamans curating sonic landscapes while leading them through an enriching experience.
As a result, dance music quickly became the new home for numerous musical stars and genres, providing a platform for iconic figures like Grace Jones, Gloria Gaynor, and Donna Summer to launch their careers with songs about overcoming hardship that were deeply connected with gay community life. New technologies facilitated its rapid development across global cultures.
MIDI technology enabled electronic instruments to interact and achieve perfect synchronization, opening up dance music production to an increasingly digital environment and giving rise to genres such as dubstep and techno.
Social media was instrumental to the rapid proliferation of dance music. Platforms like TikTok allow dancers to upload videos of themselves dancing on popular dance trends like Dougie or Soulja Boy routines, creating global movements of short, catchy routines. As a result, dance music trends like Dougie or Soulja Boy have quickly gained worldwide acclaim and grown exponentially since their introduction.
Impact
The 1980s may be best remembered for grunge rock and boy bands, but dance music also took on a new form during that decade with the rise of techno. Synthesisers, repetitive beats and crisp production gave rise to some of the biggest DJs today – including Madonna and Daft Punk who laid down the groundwork for future generations of electronica music. The 1990s brought about pop/electronica hybrids which fused elements from various genres into something entirely unique – giving rise to some iconic DJs among them all of whom today remain legendary.
With the Internet came YouTube and social media platforms that provided musicians a global platform to create and distribute their work, which enabled people to experience music they love like never before – from Harlem Shake to Dougie dance moves, which have united millions worldwide through shared movements.
Research has demonstrated that dancing to energetic music can increase happiness and positive mood, most likely because rhythm, tempo, and intensity of dance hits induce feelings of euphoria.
As dance music began to develop, it broke down barriers of race, culture, social class and age. Disco pioneered a new wave of performers that appealed to audiences typically excluded from mainstream entertainment such as African Americans, Latino Americans and women – songs in Disco typically focused on survival and emotional resilience that resonated with these communities.
Studies have also demonstrated the effects of collective dance on feelings of empathy and connectedness, with Wiltermuth et al. [96] using group music-making to elicit kinaesthetic empathy in neurotypical children towards peers with autism, while Conz and Slaughter [70] used screen dance workshops presenting immigrant stories from diverse countries to provoke both participants in these workshops as well as viewers of their film, in order to generate similar effects of increased kinaesthetic sensitivity and empathy among both participant workshop participants as viewers of film audiences alike.
Dance music continues its steady evolution by adapting into ever-new genres and styles, from hardstyle and progressive (house) house, drum n bass and dubstep; pushing boundaries and expanding audiences worldwide.
Influence
Dance music now fills stadiums around the globe, tops charts and inspires millions of ecstatic fans, but its journey began much smaller. What has since become one of the world’s favorite forms of entertainment began as small underground clubs where synths, repetitive beats and crisp production could be found; today this style can also be found influenced by other genres as well as environmental elements in our environment.
Dance music emerged during the 1970s during gay liberation movements that culminated at Stonewall in June 1969. Disco was seen as an expression of this newly found freedom, leading to DJs mixing tracks that kept dancers moving – thus marking its origins and giving rise to today’s modern dance music culture.
At the close of the decade, disco was coming to an end and a new era was beginning. DJs started experimenting with mixing techniques, transitioning from using live instruments to more synthetic sounds in their mixes – giving rise to house as a genre and inspiring many subgenres of electronic dance music.
Germany had a considerable impact on this incarnation of dance music. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Germany quickly emerged as an incubator of techno and other forms of dance music production and DJing; DJs and producers found new ways to explore deeper sounds through DJing and producing. Music from this era often had industrial undertones while Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode pioneered synthetic sound-based synthesizers such as drum machines.
Social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok were responsible for sparking a worldwide fad for short dance routines in the 2000s. These trends became cultural touchstones and motivated millions of dancers worldwide to unite under shared dance challenges – whether Michael Jackson’s mesmerising moves from “Thriller” or Blackpink’s fierce choreography are inextricably linked.
Studies have revealed it to be difficult to differentiate dance and music, as our emotional experiences are connected by an amygdala in our brains. When listening to and dancing to music accompanied by catchy beats it becomes even harder.