The Current State of Dance Music
Tags: Electronic Music, Music, Dance Music, House Music, Dance

I​ am an ameteur producer of electronic dance music, as well as an aspiring DJ. For years I have followed the trends of the electronic dance music community, keeping up with the legendary arists that specialize in impactful house, techno, and trance. In many ways, following these artists has helped to shape my life and life’s journey, because I am very impressionable when it comes to auditory stimulation. I am an artist, and a pragmatist, as well as an analytic thinker. I like to dissect the fields that I am interested in. For that reason, I thought it might be prudent to write a few words on how I believe the dance music culture has evolved over the last ten years.

E​lectro house is no longer the powerhouse that it was in 2012. Artists like Mord Fustang, The M Machine, classic Zedd, and Wolfgang Gartner are no longer dominating the charts like they were in the peak years of the electronic music festival scene. Major anthems from the likes of Porter Robinson and Deadmau5 that brought dancers to tears years ago are now considered classics, while the new movement of dance music has been shadowing the height of detroit techno and 90s house music. Artists like Charlotte De Witte, Eric Prydz, Zhu, Boris Brejcha, and deadmau5 have been slaughtering the likes of “festival anthems” with minimal beats of tech house, funky house and dark techno. Carl Cox remains a mainstay on festival lineups while big artists that used to dominate, like Armin Van Buuren, Zedd, and Skrillex fall by the wayside, even though they are still spectacular producers and talented musicians. Labels like Anjunabeats, Mostercat, and Enhanced Music, which used to deliver melodic trance and electro club anthems ripe with searing supersaws have bowed down to melodic deep house and techno labels that are rising to the top.

T​rance, dubstep, drum and bass, and trap have taken a back seat it would seem, making way for labels like Dirtybird, mau5trap, Anjunadeep, Fools Gold, and Drumcode to shine with their more minimal, groovy beats. Sometimes its hard to tell, but it would seem that the trend of bpm, which used to be in the 130–138 range, has slowed to the 115–125 range, making it a little bit more accesible for millions of dance music listeners to move their hips for hours and bob their head to the booms of the kick drum. Even bpms in the 100–115 range have been made popular by the incomparable acts like Rezz and Blanke, slowing the groove down even more to an almost lethargic pace.

G​enre blending has been popular over the last ten years. Arists like Porter Robinson, Knife Party, Mat Zo and Flume have been experts of this, blending styles of future bass, trance, trap, dubstep and house in ways that keep the audience engaged and dancing. It takes a special kind of musician to be able to mix genres AND be able to mix together genre-bending tracks in a set. I refer mostly to one of my favorite artists, who I have been following for years, Mat Zo.

F​or the last couple years, techno and classic house have been kings, but I suspect that there is a shift happening. I believe trance and progressive will make a comeback, but rather than the Solarstone/Aly & FIla way of classic trance in higher bpm echelons, I believe that the new “groove driven” style of house-y trance, or “trouse”, cultvated by the supergroup from London, Above & Beyond, will be the new anthems.

I​ expect the powerhouses in electronic music will be the producers that focus on the ideas of tension and release, with an emphasis on the “less is more” principle. I think Boris Brejcha, deadmau5 and Eric Prydz seemed to have mastered this technique, which is why they are mainstays in the current industry. While I’m a sucker for the melodic styles, The rhythm will always be the driving force behind good dance music.

D​ance music is an genre that will always have a place in the music community, for many reasons. Four on the floor kick drums put the listener in a trance, and forces one to dance, a ritual that has been at the heart of society since the dawn of mankind. As humanity evolves, so will the kick drums and snares. I look forward to seeing what is to come of the next few years.