Let’s Dance!

A Look At Today’s Dance Music

Do you remember The Twist, The Pony or The Watusi? Then you’re OLD!! J Dancing has certainly gone through a number of permutations since the 1960’s and CSS Music, while not fast on our feet, has kept up with all styles of today’s dance music.

If you look at our Hand Picked Genre List, you’ll see we’ve broken Dance music into two sub genres: Hip Hop-Rap-Dubstep and Club-House-Trance-Electro. Besides the wide differences in sounds, these two styles vary greatly in tempo. Unless you’ve been living in a monastery for the last 40 years, you’ve heard hip hop or rap music. With tempos ranging from as slow as 70 beats-per-minute (bpm) all the way up to 120 bpm or higher, hip hop is famous for its kick (bass) drum-- usually electronic--pitched super low to make a subwoofer thunder. Add a tight, high pitched electronic snare drum and you’ve got the foundation of a hip hop groove! Guitar riffs, synthesizer licks, short sampled loops, (Note: all CSS Music tracks use only licensed loops) record scratches and just about anything else you can dream up can be used to create hip hop music. And Rap? That’s pretty much a hip hop track with rhyming, spoken word over the track. A close cousin to Rap/Hip Hop is Dubstep. The typical formula for dubstep is 32 bars of an 80 bpm “intro” that concludes with a “drop,” or large electronic effect, that usually sweeps from high to low. Then the dubstep begins with its relentless noise-meets-music, punctuated with micro-edited sound clips and obligatory quarter note triplet figures.

On the flip side of today’s dance music is the very high-energy Club-House-Trance-Electro that also includes Electronic Dance Music, or EDM. This type of music is typically heard in nightclubs and harkens back to the Disco Era. The styles are very similar with respect to tempo and underlying rhythm. Like disco from the late 1970’s, a “four on the floor” kick drum pattern holds the track together. With Club, there’s usually a vocal riff that is used throughout the piece. While sung, there’s really not a lyric line; it’s more akin to instructions—i.e. “Let’s dance, get on up, shake your groove,” etc. House music comes from the disc jockey combining elements of different records to create his/her own “house mix.” When you hear Trance, you’ll understand the name. Relentless repetition of a musical figure with only slight variations—for example, dropping out the drums for 8 bars—makes this music ideal for those on drugs. (Kidding!) Electro music is very synthesizer based and is noted for a short “hook” that’s used repeatedly throughout the piece.

There you have it! While your show may not have a need at the present time, you never know when a scene with fashion show runway music wouldn’t work. Or perhaps you have an urban scene that could be enhanced with a gritty, street-sounding hip hop/rap track. We want you to know that at CSS Music we’re keeping our ears open—and feet moving—to the latest trends in Dance music!