The U.S. Dance Music Hall Of Fame was established to create a point of reference of how we got from disco to EDM. The HOF is a comprehensive look at the bodies of work from those who’ve contributed to the acceptance of dance music as a legitimate music style as opposed to the ‘bastard child of music’ it had often been labeled. To understand the struggles of dance music, one has to go back to disco and understand that ‘dance music’ here in the States had never been taken seriously by the Program Directors, Music Directors and radio stations. Through the years, dance music [and those who created, promoted, worked within the field and DJ’D] were never given the respect they so rightly deserved. From the days before Studio 54 to disco’s peak at clubs like The Saint, Cinderella Rockefella, Faces and others – careers for the U.S. Dance Music Hall of Fame were formed. In these hallowed virtual halls are names like Larry Levan, Tom Moulton, Frankie Knuckles, John Luongo, Francois K, Steve Silk Hurley, Joseph Carvello and others who are the equivalents [from the past] to today’s Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren, Hardwell, Skrillex, Pasquale Rotella and others. Their contributions to the advancement of dance music, electronic dance music and EDM through the years has helped us to get where we are today. Today’s palaces of Dance and EDM are multi-million dollar complexes like The Palladium, The Marquee in NYC, Hakassan and Club XS in Las Vegas and countless others. The festival scene that used to be simply be called “raves” in the UK, Germany and across Europe in the 90’s are now today’s biggest grossing events. Names like Electric Daisy Carnival, Nature One and others help make Dance Music and EDM a 20 Billion Dollar industry today (2013) The roots for where we’ve grown were planted back in the days of disco to the sounds of post-disco; The B-Boy sound, Arthur Baker’s street sound of NYC, HI-NRG, The R&B dance from D Train, Lakeside, Gap Band to early synth-pop of Depeche Mode, Yaz, Bostich and then Freestyle from TKA, Expose’ and others. In the midst of all that we had the initial stages of techno from the Detroit to Rotterdam and places in between. The 90’s saw a bit of a resurgence with club hits, euro dance om the late 90’s and the early stages of Trance with ‘Dream House’ and of course ‘Electronica’ via Chemical Brothers, Crystal Method and others. The resurgence of dance music has an irony to it all. The irony begins in our home city of Chicago where ‘dance music’ (in the form of disco) was both laid to rest and reborn again in 1984 with Jesse Saunders, Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson, Farley Jackmaster Funk, The Hot Mix 5, Ron Hardy and other ‘Founders’, ‘Godfathers’ and ‘Originators’ of House Music where many of the roots for today’s EDM were planted. Of course there’s DnB, Dubstep, Trap, Goa-Psy and other forms of EDM. Today’s underground is massive and vibrant as well. This organization will honor all those who’ve had their hand in making dance music, club music, electronic dance music and EDM what it is today here in the U.S.A. Dance was ‘underground’ after disco. While it [from time to time] popped its head up [every now and then], mass media always helped to kill it. We see some of that today in certain trash rag publications taking shots at the scene by ‘marginalizing’ the accomplishments of dance and EDM artists today. Hip-Hop had to endure the mass media wrath and overcame it – ruling American airwaves for 20 years along side rock and pop. Today? dance music, electronic dance music, EDM, they’re the new pop music and reigning music style much of America’s youth finally have a chance to be exposed to unlike generations before. Today’s dance music styles are the pop, they’re dance, the underground and every level between. EDM itself consumes it all and brings it in, its ‘inclusive’ of all music as opposed to ‘excluding’. While we’ve had many false starts in the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s with dance music, today it’s firmly entrenched in the culture and in the lifestyles of millions here in the U.S.A. and grows everyday. With the birth of the internet, electronics and entry levels [into music production] removed (to be a DJ or a producer/artist), Dance and EDM are part of that group now. What’s most incredible about Dance and EDM is that millions of people used to have to go online [for the most part] to hear it in the U.S. Today, dance music is now part of the ‘scene’, part of the ‘mainstream’ and heard on the traditional media outlets that never acknowledged its existence. We hear it in commercials, movies, TV shows and more. Even the underground gets exposure on mix shows on the weekends on major market commercial radio stations. The U.S. Dance Music Hall Of Fame honors and respects those household names of today to those from back in the day. Their contributions to this industry helped get us from disco to today in the U.S.A. The initial honorary induction of the 100 of the most important people in the movement occurred on Dec. 5, 2013. The inductees are names you’ll know and names you’ll get to know. It’s the past, present and future of Dance and EDM in the U.S.A. The initial list is not the end, there will be another induction of the most influential names from the past and in the here and now. There will not be a #1 or a numbered approach to the U.S. Dance Music Hall Of Fame. It will be an alpha order because they’ve all had their hand in getting the scene to where it is today. No one more important than the other but collectively, a major force that has helped get us from from to disco to today in dance music and EDM.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 12:00:43 +0000
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