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UNIT I
Lesson 1: Pop Dance
Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythm of your life. It’s
the expression in time and movement in happiness, joy, sadness and envy.-Jacques
D’Amboise
Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the early 1980s. It
is generally up-tempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being
danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a
combination of dance and pop with influences of disco, post-disco and synth-pop, it
is generally characterized by strong beats with easy, uncomplicated song structures
which are generally more similar to pop music than the more free-form dance genre,
with an emphasis on melody as well as catchy tunes. The genre, on the whole,
tends to be producer-driven, despite some notable exceptions.
Dance-pop is known for being highly eclectic, having borrowed influences
from other genres, which varied by producers, artists and periods. Such include
contemporary R&B, house, trance, techno, electropop, new jack swing, funk and pop
rock.
Dance-pop is a popular mainstream style of music and there have been
numerous pop artists and groups who perform in the genre. Notable ones include
Cher, Madonna, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Christina Aguilera, Spice Girls, Paula
Abdul, Backstreet Boys, Michael Jackson, NSYNC, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson,
Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Ariana Grande.
Lesson Objectives
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
A. Acquire facts on the history of pop dance,
B. Trace the time evolution of pop dances,
C. Perform a pop dance interpretation using a music of choice.
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Reading I
Before you can understand the history of Pop dance, you need to understand
what pop music is. The term "Pop" comes from the word "popular" and refers to the
fact that it is delivered to the masses on a very large scale. This genre of music is
commercialized and record companies use every kind of media tool available to them
such as television, movies, and the Internet. The evolution of Pop dance goes hand-
in-hand with the evolution of popular industrialized music.
Vaudeville and Ragtime Dance
The widespread commercialism of music and dance dates back to the turn of
the century when Vaudeville was the popular venue. Vaudeville was a theatrical style
of entertainment that lasted from the 1880s to the 1930s. Since there was no
television and you couldn't watch people dance on a radio, you had to keep up with
the popular dances of the time by watching chorus lines and other stage shows.
Ragtime music and dance were also popular during the turn of the 20th century.
Swing and Jazz Dance
Ragtime evolved into Swing and Jazz dance moves in the 1930s and 1940s.
Dance moves became more informal and ballroom dancing was replaced by the wild
dance moves that characterized Swing and Jazz. These forms of dancing are also
traced back to African dance moves that were blended into American culture. This
type of dance was also the new generation's way of rebelling and expressing their
independence from their parents' generation.
Rock And Roll
In the 1950s Swing and Jazz dance steps evolved even more with the birth of Rock
and Roll. With the invention of the first Jukebox in 1951 people no longer had to go
to clubs where live bands were playing. Artists such as Elvis Presley popularized the
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more risqué hip-shaking style of dance that is a big part of the Pop dance of the new
millennium. Popular culture could now be mass communicated even more now that
most American households owned a television set or a record player. Dance moves
also got more inventive with "The Twist", "The Stroll" and "The Madison."
Psychedelic and Disco
In the 1960s young people had FM radio to listen to music and watched
shows like the Ed Sullivan Show and American Bandstand to keep up on what was
popular in music and dance. From this time and into the 1970s, rock music started
to get more edgy and the psychedelic rock movement rose in popularity. Popular
dance moves were more free-form up until 1975 when Disco dancing came on the
scene. Saturday Night Fever turned the Disco dance style into a sensation, which is a
good example of how mass media determines what is popular and what isn't. Disco
dancing involved a lot of structured arm movement as well as leg work, like the Pop
dance moves of the new millennium.
MTV and the Birth of "Pop"
In the summer of 1979 a protest was held against Disco in Chicago which is
referred to as the "Disco Demolition" and by the year 1980, disco was dead. By now
a new, more melodic and technology-based form of rock began to take the form of
the "Pop" music you recognize today. Performers such as Michael Jackson and
Madonna were at the forefront of this kind of music characterized by electronic and
choreographed dance moves. These performers pioneered Pop music, as well as the
style that modern Pop dance moves have.
Boy Bands and Pop Divas
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"Boy Bands" became the craze in the late 1990s as well as R&B groups such
as Destiny's Child and young female singers like Britney Spears and Christina
Aguilera. Backstreet Boys and N*Sync sang in harmony but their performances were
focused mainly on their tightly choreographed dance routines. The young female
"Pop Divas" as well as many Pop singers of the new millennium employ a lot of
dance in their performances and back-up dancers to add to their show. These dance
routines are what we think of when we think about Pop dance. Hip-hop dance
moves are also a big part of Pop dance and these two styles are becoming more and
more integrated in the 21st century.
Reading II
1980s
As the term "disco" started to go out of fashion by the late 1970s to early
1980s, other terms were commonly used to describe disco-based music, such as
"post-disco", "club", "dance" or "dance-pop" music.These genres were, in essence, a
more modern variant of disco music known as post-disco, which tended to be more
experimental, electronic and producer/DJ-driven, often using sequencers and
synthesizers.
Dance-pop music emerged in the 1980s as a combination of dance and pop, or post-
disco, which was uptempo and simple, club-natured, producer-driven and catchy.
Dance-pop was more uptempo and dancey than regular pop, yet more structured
and less free-form than dance music, usually combining pop's easy structure and
catchy tunes with dance's strong beat and uptempo nature. Dance-pop music was
usually created, composed and produced by record producers who would then hire
singers to perform the songs.
In the beginning of the 1980s, disco was an anathema to the mainstream pop.
According to prominent Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Madonna had a
huge role in popularizing dance music as mainstream music, utilizing her charisma,
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chutzpah and sex appeal. Erlewine claimed that Madonna "launched dance-pop" and
set the standard for the genre for the next two decades. As the primary songwriter
on her self-titled debut album and a co-producer by her third record, Madonna's
insistence on being involved in all creative aspects of her work was highly unusual
for a female dance-pop vocalist at the time. The staff of Vice magazine stated that
her debut album "drew the blueprint for future dance-pop.
In the 1980s, dance-pop was closely aligned to other uptempo electronic genres,
such as Hi-NRG. Prominent producers in the 1980s included Stock, Aitken and
Waterman, who created Hi-NRG/dance-pop for artists such as Kylie Minogue, Dead
or Alive and Bananarama. During the decade, dance-pop borrowed influences from
funk (e.g. Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston), new jack swing (e.g. Janet
Jackson and Paula Abdul), and contemporary R&B.
Other prominent dance-pop artists and groups of the 1980s included the Pet Shop
Boys, Mel and Kim, Samantha Fox, Debbie Gibson, and Tiffany.
1990s
By the 1990s, dance-pop had become a major genre in popular music.
Several dance-pop groups and artists emerged during the 1990s, such as the Spice
Girls, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Backstreet Boys, and
'NSYNC. During the early 1990s, dance-pop borrowed influences from house music
(e.g. Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy", Taylor Dayne's Soul Dancing, and Madonna's
"Vogue", "Rescue Me" and "Deeper and Deeper"), as well as contemporary R&B and
new jack swing (e.g. Shanice's "I Love Your Smile").
By the late 1990s, electronic influences became evident in dance-pop music;
Madonna's critically acclaimed and commercially successful album Ray of Light
(1998) incorporated techno, trance and other forms of electronic dance music,
bringing electronica into mainstream dance-pop. Additionally, also in 1998, Cher
released a dance-pop song called "Believe" which made usage of a technological
innovation of the time, Auto-Tune. An audio processor and a form of pitch
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COLLEGE of HUMAN KINETICS
modification software, Auto-Tune is commonly used as a way to correct pitch and to
create special effects. Since the late 1990s, the use of Auto-Tune processing has
become a common feature of dance-pop music.
Celine Dion also released a midtempo dance-pop song, "That's the Way It Is" by the
end of 1999. Also during this period, some British bands connected with Britpop and
alternative pop experimented with dance pop as a form - examples include Catatonia
single Karaoke Queen, Kenickie's final single Stay in the Sun and Romo band
Orlando's major label debut single "Just For A Second." Another Britpop band,
Theaudience was fronted by Sophie Ellis Bextor who went on to a successful solo
career primarily in artist-driven dance-pop.
2000s
Kylie Minogue, a popular and successful dance-pop musician from the late-
1980s until the early-2010s
At the beginning of the 2000s, dance-pop music was still prominent, and
highly electronic in style, influenced by genres such as trance, house, techno and
electro. Nonetheless, as R&B and hip hop became extremely popular from the early
part of the decade onwards, dance-pop was often influenced by urban music.
Dance-pop stars from the 1980s and 1990s such as Britney Spears, Christina
Aguilera, Madonna, Janet Jackson and Kylie Minogue continued to achieve success
at the beginning of the decade. Whilst much dance-pop at the time was R&B-
influenced, many records started to return to their disco roots; Kylie Minogue's
albums such as Light Years (2000) and Fever (2001) contained influences of disco
music, or a new 21st-century version of the genre known as nu-disco; hit singles
such as "Spinning Around" (2000) and "Can't Get You Out of My Head" (2001) also
contained disco traces. In Madonna's case, her album Music (2000) contained
elements of Euro disco, especially the successful eponymous lead single.
Nevertheless, it was not until the mid-to-latter part of the decade when dance-pop
music returned greatly to its disco roots; this can be seen with Madonna's album
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Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005), which borrowed strong influences from the
genre, especially from 1970s artists and bands such as ABBA, Giorgio Moroder, the
Bee Gees and Donna Summer. Britney Spears' album Blackout (2007) contained
influences of Euro disco.
Britney Spears is among the main faces of 2000s and 2010s dance-pop music.
The mid-to-late 2000s saw the arrival of several new dance-pop artists,
including Rihanna, Kesha, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. This period in time also saw
dance-pop's return to its more electronic roots aside from its disco ones, with strong
influences of synthpop and electropop.
2010s
The 2010s so far have, similarly to the late 2000s, seen strong electronic
influences present within dance-pop and also heavy emphasis on bass-heavy drum
beats. Dance-pop artists such as Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Katy
Perry, Madonna, Kesha, Christina Aguilera, Usher and Rihanna remain very popular,
and several new recording artists within the genre have or are starting to emerge.
American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift's albums Red (2012), 1989 (2014) and
Reputation (2017) contain more of a pop-influenced sound which features
production by dance-pop record producers Max Martin and Shellback. Ariana
Grande's single "Problem" featuring Iggy Azalea was a big hit in 2014 and reached
combined sales and track-equivalent streams of 9 million units worldwide the
following year.
Characteristics of Pop Dance:
Dance-pop generally contains several notable characteristics, which are listed here:
1. Up-tempo, upbeat music intended for clubs, with a danceable or dance-
centered character.
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2. Catchy songs with an easy, pop-based structure,
3. A strong emphasis on beats, grooves and rhythms.
4. Prominent hooks.
5. Simple lyrics.
6. Polished productions.
(Sample video presentation on time evolution of pop dances.)
FURTHER READING
● Post-disco
Post-disco is a term to describe an aftermath in popular music history circa 1979–
1984, imprecisely beginning with an unprecedented backlash against disco music in
the United States, leading to civil unrest and a riot in Chicago known as the Disco
Demolition Night on July 12, 1979, and indistinctly ending with the mainstream
appearance of new wave in the early 1980s.Disco during its dying stage displayed an
increasingly electronic character that soon served as a stepping stone to new
wave, old-school hip hop, euro disco and was succeeded by an underground club
music called hi-NRG, which was its direct continuation.
An underground movement of disco music, "stripped-down", and featuring
"radically different sounds" took place on the East Coast that "was neither disco and
neither R&B", This scene known as post-disco catering to New York metropolitan
area, was initially led by urban contemporary artists partially in response to the over-
commercialization and artistic downfall of disco culture. Developed from the rhythm
and blues sound as perfected by Parliament-Funkadelic, the electronic side
of disco, dub music techniques, and other genres. Post-disco was typified by New
York City music groups like "D" Train and Unlimited Touch who followed a more
urban approach while others, like Material and ESG, a more experimental one. Post-
disco was, like disco, singles-driven market controlled mostly by independent record
companies that generated a cross-over chart success all through the early-to-mid
1980s. Most creative control was in the hands of record producers and club DJs [
which was a trend that outlived the dance-pop era.
Other musical styles that emerged in the post-disco era include dance-pop,
boogie, and Italo disco and led to the development of the early alternative dance,
club-centered house and techno music.
● Popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large
audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and
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performed by people with little or no musical training. It stands in contrast to
both art music and traditional or "folk" music. Art music was historically
disseminated through the performances of written music, although since the
beginning of the recording industry, it is also disseminated through recordings.
Traditional music forms such as early blues songs or hymns were passed along
orally, or to smaller, local audiences.
The original application of the term is to music of the 1880s Tin Pan Alley period in
the United States. Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the
two terms are not interchangeable. Popular music is a generic term for a wide
variety of genres of music that appeal to the tastes of a large segment of the
population, whereas pop music usually refers to a specific musical
genre within popular music.[9] Popular music songs and pieces typically have easily
singable melodies. The song structure of popular music commonly involves repetition
of sections, with the verse and chorus or refrain repeating throughout the song and
the bridge providing a contrasting and transitional section within a piece.
In the 2000s, with songs and pieces available as digital sound files, it has become
easier for music to spread from one country or region to another. Some popular
music forms have become global, while others have a wide appeal within the culture
of their origin. Through the mixture of musical genres, new popular music forms are
created to reflect the ideals of a global culture. The examples of Africa, Indonesia,
and the Middle East show how Western pop music styles can blend with local
musical traditions to create new hybrid styles.
References:
1. ^ "Interview With David Guetta: Where Pop Music Meets Dance Music". The Huffington Post.
Retrieved 19 April 2015.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Glenn Appell, David Hemphill (2006). American popular music: a
multicultural history. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. p. 423. ISBN 0155062298.
Retrieved 12 May2012. The 1980s brought the dawning age of the synthesizer in rock. Synth
pop, a spare, synthesizer-based dance-pop sound, was its first embodiment.
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f "Dance-pop". AllMusic. 30 October 2011.
4. ^ Smay, David & Cooper, Kim (2001). Bubblegum Music Is the Naked Truth: The Dark
History of Prepubescent Pop, from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears: "... think about Stock-
Aitken-Waterman and Kylie Minogue. Dance pop, that's what they call it now — Post-Disco,
post-new wave and incorporating elements of both." Feral House: Publisher, p. 327. ISBN 0-
922915-69-5.
5. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Madonna (Madonna album) at AllMusic. Retrieved September
4, 2009.
6. ^ "The 99 Greatest Dance Albums of All Time". Vice. July 14, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
7. ^ "100 Best Songs of the 2000s: Madonna, 'Music'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
8. ^ Bogart, Jonathan (2012-07-10). "Buy the Hype: Why Electronic Dance Music Really Could
Be the New Rock". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
P.E 13 DANCE 1ST Semester, CSU-CHK AY 2020-2021
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COLLEGE of HUMAN KINETICS
9. ^ Lamb, Bill. "Rihanna - Don't Stop the Music". Top 40 / Pop. Archived from the originalon
2012-03-03. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
10. ^ "IFPI publishes Digital Music Report 2015". www.ifpi.org. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
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