Time and Time again, one of my friends will say to me, “You’re still listening to Dance Music? When are you going to grow out of that, there hasn’t been anything new in years?”… Me: “No, you haven’t heard anything new in years”.

“And listen to what?” I always say. “That crap you have in your glove box?”

I run into people and friends all the time that “Used to” listen to Dance Music, and claim knowledge of the most popular and listened genre of music in the world, but in all reality, they just really jumped a bandwagon at the time the radio was playing a lot of C and C Music Factory, Black Box, KLF, Pet Shop Boys, and every Top 40 artist had to have a “Club Mix” and thought that they were in “The scene” for a time period.

Then radio moved on to the “next big thing” and like sheep, they went with it, or reverted back to what they were listening to before. The fact of the matter is, Radio, MTV, and other mainstream outlets play what image they think they can sell you, not what’s really good, or popular. They create popularity. That is their business.

The Death of Dance Music has been predicted by one writer or another over the last 25 years and it always makes me laugh. Some of the same guys, (and gals) that were hitting the clubs in the 90’s, wearing their best Z-Cavaricci’s, Cham’s, Polo’s, Alexander Julian Shirts, Roots Shoes, Baby Doll Mini’s, Coach Bags, and “Jacked up” on enough Cocaine to stimulate the GNP of Bolivia, are now the same writers and “haters” that lost touch with what is going on, had a kid or 2, sobered up, and since it wasn’t on the radio anymore, and assumed that everyone stopped listening, and continued to be force fed the same 40 songs as everyone else in the country, until you heard it enough times, that familiarity tricked you into believing that you liked it.

Nothing, as we all know, nothing could be further from the truth but I always get a kick out of my friends and associates that don’t give any respect to the form, and pull out an old Megadeath, Journey, or Phil Collins TAPE, and say, “See now, this was the good stuff”

I have been listening to House, and Techno/Trance since the beginning, and not only is the old ground breaking stuff still able to hold it’s own on any dance floor, but it has evolved and gotten better over the years and has spread around the world like an infectious plague, and planted a flag firmly in the culture of most every civilized society on the planet. I love it when I play something from “back in the day” and somebody in my car will say, “Hey , I like that new stuff you’re playing…Who is that?”. And I’ll say something like, “Um, that’s Todd Terry with Martha Wash…it’s 10 years old”

Now I don’t know any other form of music that holds it’s groove after 10 years or more like good Dance, House, Techno, and Trance.

So in Honor of some of the most held on to forms of music that have gone Bye, Bye, while everyone has been claiming the Death of Dance Music Over the last 20 years, I would like to give my last respects to some of the genre’s that some thought would last forever, and won’t let go of:

(The birth and death dates, are just estimations based on my own experience)

* Motown 1957-1975 (Surviving family members, Michael Jackson, Dianna Ross, Lionel Ritchie)

* Classic Rock 1969-1974 (They call it “Classic” for a reason. It ain’t coming back, and you don’t remember most of it anyway…”You were high!”)

* Disco 1973-1980 (maybe earlier, but where would Dance Music Today be without it)

* Good Rap 1982-1997 (Don’t get me started, just read my rant)

* Alternative 1983-1985 (You know, Thomas Dolby, Men Without Hats, Yaz, OMD….at least that’s what they were calling it back then)

* Grunge 1990-1994 (died with Curt Cobain, I think Bush is the only thriving survivor)

* Metal 1974-1980 (I have nothing here)

* Glam Rock 1987-1990 (You remember?-White Snake, White Lyon, Great White, Nelson, Ratt “Out of the Cellar”…and back in again)

* Funk 1969- ? (as long as George Clinton is Alive, Funk will never be dead, although we lost a lot when Rick James passed away…”Bitch!”)

* Speed Metal 1989

* Good Hip Hop 1990-1994 (Bell Biv Devoe, Wrecks in Effect, Red Head Kingpin, Soul 2 Soul, Tony, Toni, Tone, and the “New Jack” stuff)

* Boy Bands 1983-1997 (New Edition, New Kids on the Block, Boyz to Men, Menudo, N-Sync. God that lasted a long time!)

* Alternative Rock 1984-1994 (New Order, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys..although I am a big fan of this era, and it will never truly die to me, and the fact that they are still making music, just not much airplay in the states)

* Tibetan Chanting Haunting stuff: 1994-1995 (Enigma, Deep Forest, and a slew of “Monks”. I still listen to Deep Forest, it’s timeless to me, but there was a time every house wife had an Enigma CD in her car)

I have liked or owned all of this through out the years, and I am from Detroit, so Motown has a place in my heart and is part of my Detroit culture that i am most proud of, and still have a lot of it, but nothing has been as consistent as House, and Dance Music.

So when I hear the constant calls for the Death of Dance Music, it makes me chuckle. I just consider the source, and look inside thier tape collection, and I understand.

The bottom line is, at some point in most of our lives, we just stop becoming open to new forms and either go with the wind, or hold on to that time in our lives when everything was great, and we were open to new things, and searched for something that made us unique from the norm that we could relate to. I swear I had, and still have friends that believe Jim Morrison, and Curt Colbane were speaking for them in some alternate psychic reality.

You may have noticed that I didn’t mention Country Music. There is no need. Country Music has held it’s own, respectably, and it’s fan base for years. It also, is not going anywhere.

Thank God I was born a House Junkie . House, Trance, and all of it’s forms that rock the dance floor, make you feel good, make you want to party, make you want to sweat, and not just remind you of past good times, but that new times are yet to come, and it “keeps on keeping on”, year after year with great Dance Floor Rockin’ stuff contributed from artists from all over the world over.

To all the other forms, and bandwagons that have come and gone, I bid you a fond farewell, “It’s been fun” and R.I.P.

Harold Mansfield
124 Beats Per Minute

http://www.124bpms.com

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