Collins Ch. 8: Electronic Dance Music

A sample of genre labels within electronic dance music (one musician’s interpretation)

 

Donna Summer, “I Feel Love” produced by Giorgio Moroder (1977)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX8n6o-MH4Y

 

Giorgio Moroder, From Here to Eternity (1979)—listen for song transitions at 5:40, 7:30, 10:20, and 13:45; note the tempo of each B-side song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32SvQB6idNc

 

Interviews recalling drug abuse, promiscuity, and oppressed groups in disco clubs

 

Historian Keith Hughes on the 1969 Stonewall Riots. The first part of the video also explains the history of oppression and private clubs in the twentieth century,

 

On disco clubs and Bronx block parties

 

Kool Herc’s dance parties in the Bronx, New York City, and his unique turntable technique

 

Grandmaster Flash’s turntable technique

 

The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel (1981), an example of early virtuosic turntablism, recorded live without editing

 

Coke La Rock on the origin of rapping at Kool Herc’s parties

The origin of The Sugarhill Gang and “Rapper’s Delight” (1979)

 

The Sugar Hill Gang, “Rapper’s Delight” (1979)

 

Chic, “Good Times” (1979)

 

But is it all sampling/turntablism? Listen closely:

https://www.whosampled.com/sample/100/Sugarhill-Gang-Rapper%27s-Delight-Chic-Good-Times/

 

Composing a beat with an Akai MPC sampler/drum machine

 

Chemical Brothers, “Leave Home” (1995) sampling The Pharcyde, “Ya Mama” (1992)

http://www.whosampled.com/sample/16406/The-Chemical-Brothers-Leave-Home-The-Pharcyde-Ya-Mama/

 

Missy Elliott, “Lose Control” (2005) sampling Cybotron, “Clear” (1983)

http://www.whosampled.com/sample/218/Missy-Elliott-Ciara-Fatman-Scoop-Lose-Control-Cybotron-Clear/

 

On the origin of house music in Chicago

 

Classic beats from the Roland TR 808

 

The Roland TB 303—play for a minute, then skip to 11:00 to see Phuture’s Acid Tracks (1985)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLQwwtjtiY4#t=5m53s

 

On the origin of techno music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gElNoedRj5Q#t=11m3s

 

Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit Techno Music (1988)—listen to the opening, then Juan Atkins’s “Techno Music” at 43:34

 

A 1990s style German techno rave (held in 2004)

 

Thomas Bangalter (Daft Punk, France) performing in 1999

 

 

 

 


Not on the test but also of possible interest and relevance to upcoming assignments:

FACT Magazine’s account of the origins of several electronic dance music genre names, with examples: http://www.factmag.com/2013/07/10/the-fact-dictionary-how-dubstep-juke-cloud-rap-and-many-more-got-their-names/7/

 

A different side of the backlash against disco, from the perspective of musicians seeing disco as corporatizing culture and threatening musicians’ jobs

 

On hip hop: Remember Afrika Bambaataa?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lDCYjb8RHk

 

Here he is explaining how his organization was formed to steer people away from gangs and provide education in music production, dancing, graffiti and other arts, etc. as well as socio-political awareness.