Dance pop

Every genre of music always has its rise and fall in terms of popularity. It also happened in disco music, which in the 1970s achieved its peak as the popular genres in many countries of the world. However, the term disco finally gets outwitted during the 1980s, after following the emergence of some of the new subgenres of music, and one of them is dance-pop music. Basically, dance-pop music combines dance and pop music, which have simpler nuance with pop songs forms and dance energetic and up-tempo beats. Hence, dance-pop music becomes one of the popular genres at that time. So, it can be seen that Dance-pop music itself is rooted in the disco. The distinctive characteristic of Dance-pop music is uptempo, which designed for club songs. It also employed the hooks, a short, catchy passage intended to makes the audience easy to remember. Due to this reason, dance-pop music becomes versatile, which means that it can be played in the clubs and also in contemporary radios. During the early emergence of dance-pop music in the 1980s, some of the artists also employed the elements from other genres, for example, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston who have the funk influences in their dance-pop music, or Janet Jackson who combines dance-pop with swingbeat.

Dance-pop music becomes a mainstream popular genre during the 1990s. Many western girl band and boyband emerged during this era, as the famous ones are Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys. The pop singers such as Madonna, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera also produce some songs which are considered as dance-pop music. For example, the dance-pop uptempo nuance can be seen in Madonna’s Vogue and Deeper and Deeper and Christina Aguilera’s Xtina’s Xmas and The Christmas Song (Holiday Remix). Hence, with all of these highly qualified artists, dance-pop music become one of the major trends during the 1990s. Some of the artists also tried to incorporate their music with dance-pop, for instance, Cher. Her album entitled Believe, received a considerable commotion worldwide, and her name peaked as one of the top pop artists and critically acclaimed as one of the best divas of all time. Cher also becomes the first singers who utilize the technology called autotune. All of these artists remain dominant in the music industry during the early 2000s.

During this era, dance-pop is affiliated with the heavy influence of other electronic music genres, for example, trance, house, and techno. One of the evolutionists of dance music is Lady Gaga with her Just Dance and Poker Face, while Rihanna, one of the notable dance-pop artists, also has the influence of the electronic music in her Don’t Stop the Music. Several new significant-top dance-pop musicians during this 2000s-2010s are Katy Perry (my personal favorite), Ariana Grande, and Taylor Swift. Most of the dance-pop musicians are not entirely emphasize on dance-pop subgenres only, but also experiment in other electronic music, which makes this music has distinctive personal styles for each musician. As dance-pop musicians’ best artists can be considered as abundant, try to listen to some Michael Jackson’s work and Whitney Houston for the 1980s dance-pop. Consider the Christina Aguilera, Madonna, and Cher as a must for the 1990s dance-pop. From the 2000s onwards, there will be many artists, but Katy Perry is my personal favorite. Happy listening!