The breakdown on Dancerock
If you've been to a rock club in the past few years, you'll have noticed a growing trend in what the DJ's are playing. In addition to the current popular rock tracks (“Dani California”, “Steady As She Goes”) and the rap metal classics (“Killing In The Name Of”, “Rollin”) we're seeing an influx of rock bands that write dance songs with house rhythms.
The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Metric and crossover superstars Gnarls Barkley all use house rhythms instead of the break-beats common to most rock and urban music.
If the 60's were about revolution, the 70's about individuality, the 80's about technology, and the 90's about disaffection. Now, dancerock is bringing it all the way back to the 50's — rock music as party music.
There are two branches of dancerock, one originating in New York City (dancepunk), and one in Britain. In New York in the mid-80's, punk band Gang of Four decided to merge ska bass, Latin drums and punk attitude to create dancepunk.
Today fast dance beats, dissonant guitar riffs, aggressive bass and stop-start dynamics characterize the genre. Dancepunk-influenced bands include Franz Ferdinand, The Rapture, Bloc Party, Interpol, Death From Above 1979, and LCD Soundsystem.
In the U.K. in the late-80's, the Stone Roses were inventing modern Britpop and their influence ensured that spacey soundscapes would become a fixture of U.K. dance music through the 90's. Irish band My Bloody Valentine's 1991 release Loveless redefined the potential of the guitar in terms of what sounds it could produce. Also in '91, Scottish band Primal Scream decided to merge their indie rock sound with the looped electronic sounds common in the U.K. house scene.
Great Britain never came up with a word for this fusion other than Britpop, because bands like Blur and Oasis always had a toe in the water of the electronic music scene.
The focus on dance in U.K. rock didn't come until 2001, when New York band The Strokes released Is This It. Because North American audiences hadn't caught on to The Strokes yet, U.K. audiences adopted them as their own, and by the time we did figure it out, Great Britain was incubating a ton of dance bands to conquer our club scene a couple years later. Some of these were dancepunk bands; others, (Ladytron, Kasabian, The Editors) used the trippy fusion sounds from the early 90's.
I'm predicting that dancerock will be the first thing that people remember about music from 2000-2010 — its popularity has been unfailingly increasing in the past six years and the talent of the bands involved ensure that this will be an influential trend.
The Ultimate Dancerock
I've put together a list of essential dancerock songs that can jumpstart you into what I'm talking about, if this sounds like your cup of tea. Be warned — these songs will get you moving
Bloc Party — “She's Hearing Voices” (2005)
Kasabian — “Club Foot” (2004)
Ladytron — “Destroy Everything You Touch” (2005)
LCD Soundsystem — “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” (2005)
The Rapture — “House of Jealous Lovers” (2002)
The Editors — “Munich” (2005)
The Bravery — “An Honest Mistake” (2005)
The Strokes — “Reptilia” (2003)
Death From Above 1979 — “Romantic Rights” (2004)
The Stone Roses — “Fools Gold” (1995)
The Rapture — “Get Myself Into It” (2006)
The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Metric and crossover superstars Gnarls Barkley all use house rhythms instead of the break-beats common to most rock and urban music.
If the 60's were about revolution, the 70's about individuality, the 80's about technology, and the 90's about disaffection. Now, dancerock is bringing it all the way back to the 50's — rock music as party music.
There are two branches of dancerock, one originating in New York City (dancepunk), and one in Britain. In New York in the mid-80's, punk band Gang of Four decided to merge ska bass, Latin drums and punk attitude to create dancepunk.
Today fast dance beats, dissonant guitar riffs, aggressive bass and stop-start dynamics characterize the genre. Dancepunk-influenced bands include Franz Ferdinand, The Rapture, Bloc Party, Interpol, Death From Above 1979, and LCD Soundsystem.
In the U.K. in the late-80's, the Stone Roses were inventing modern Britpop and their influence ensured that spacey soundscapes would become a fixture of U.K. dance music through the 90's. Irish band My Bloody Valentine's 1991 release Loveless redefined the potential of the guitar in terms of what sounds it could produce. Also in '91, Scottish band Primal Scream decided to merge their indie rock sound with the looped electronic sounds common in the U.K. house scene.
Great Britain never came up with a word for this fusion other than Britpop, because bands like Blur and Oasis always had a toe in the water of the electronic music scene.
The focus on dance in U.K. rock didn't come until 2001, when New York band The Strokes released Is This It. Because North American audiences hadn't caught on to The Strokes yet, U.K. audiences adopted them as their own, and by the time we did figure it out, Great Britain was incubating a ton of dance bands to conquer our club scene a couple years later. Some of these were dancepunk bands; others, (Ladytron, Kasabian, The Editors) used the trippy fusion sounds from the early 90's.
I'm predicting that dancerock will be the first thing that people remember about music from 2000-2010 — its popularity has been unfailingly increasing in the past six years and the talent of the bands involved ensure that this will be an influential trend.
The Ultimate Dancerock
I've put together a list of essential dancerock songs that can jumpstart you into what I'm talking about, if this sounds like your cup of tea. Be warned — these songs will get you moving
Bloc Party — “She's Hearing Voices” (2005)
Kasabian — “Club Foot” (2004)
Ladytron — “Destroy Everything You Touch” (2005)
LCD Soundsystem — “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” (2005)
The Rapture — “House of Jealous Lovers” (2002)
The Editors — “Munich” (2005)
The Bravery — “An Honest Mistake” (2005)
The Strokes — “Reptilia” (2003)
Death From Above 1979 — “Romantic Rights” (2004)
The Stone Roses — “Fools Gold” (1995)
The Rapture — “Get Myself Into It” (2006)
