[^^ Up] --- [Next >>] Dance music comes in many different forms, from disco to house. Though there have been various dance crazes throughout the history of popular music, Dance music became its own genre in the mid-'70s, as soul mutated into disco and whole clubs were devoted to dancing. In the late '70s, dance clubs played disco, but by the end of the decade, disco was mutating into a number of different genres. All of the genres were collected under the catch-all term "dance," though there were distinct differences between dance-pop, hip-hop, house, and techno, among other subgenres. What tied them all together was their emphasis on rhythm — in each dance subgenre, from Disco to House to Rave, the beat is king.

"...ever since Miles Davis and James Brown transferred their primary creative space from stage to studio, the most succesful musical form in the popular arena has been the dance-groove : where cycles of rhythm, circling ever back to their beginnings, allow for small shifts and changes within the structure to bring with them remarkable shock-force." (Hopey Glass in The Wire).

Dance Music History 1970 - 2000

"The fact that house music got started in the gay clubs makes it tough for some of [the black community] to deal with it." -- Frankie Knuckles

Quoting DJ Pierre, "These days you never know who's going to make the next big hit and what part of the world it is going to come from!" Common sense usually point you in the right direction but when it comes down to music, all one can really do is listen. "I just can't quite explain it," says Paul [Johnson], "When the needle drops on a record, right away I know whether I like it or not."
Club Culture History	Key People	Dance Music Genres	Year by Year
Clubs	Larry Levan	Disco	Seventies
The Paradise Garage	Ron Hardy	House	Eighties
Gay	MAW	Garage	Nineties
The Roots of Club Music	Walter Gibbons	Techno	2000
LISTEN	COLLECT	LINKS

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