R&B/hip hop/soul, one of the strongest forces on the charts for more than a decade, seems to be trying something new. Dance grooves have started to creep in over the past few years, and are now finally hitting the charts full force. When the decade began, R&B/hip hop/soul artists ruled the airwaves, most often with a very particular formula—guy rapper, with a chorus sung by a female. But it seems many of the biggest soul artists are beginning to turn to the black house underground sounds of the late 80s for inspiration these days, and radio is finally catching on. Sure, everyone from Destiny’s Child to Brian McKnight was featured on club mixes of their hip hop hits at the beginning of the decade, but those were specifically remixed versions that had no input by the artists.
Dance music stemming from the traditional disco 4/4 beat has struggled to make a showing on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for more than a decade now, with just an occasional track breaking through by one hit wonders like Cascada and DHT. But this decade has also seen a resurgence of the ‘electro’ movement…the synthesized dance music of the 80s. While this retro sounding music has remained, once again, mostly underground, it has managed in the latter half of the decade to reach the charts via big pop acts. Songs by mainstream white artists like Metro Station’s “Shake It,” Miley Cyrus’s “See You Again,” Katy Perry’s “Hot & Cold,” Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You, and Good Charlotte’s “I Don’t Wanna Be In Love (Dance Floor Anthem)” have brought the ‘new wave dance pop’ formula back into the mainstream, competing against numerous crunk tracks that dominate the airwaves.
However, now soul artists are beginning to record dance tracks, rather than waiting for club mixes of their R&B tracks to surface. Last spring, I saw a video for Ne-Yo’s then brand new track “Closer” and was blown away, not only by the video and his dancing, but also by his complete dedication to recording an all out club song that didn’t even need a remix to make it to the dance floor. And I watched in despair as the track failed to get any radio airplay for MONTHS. Coming on the huge chart success of his previous album, I was shocked. But someone must have paid the right promotions people the right money, because radio finally started playing it, and it ended up being a hit. Even Ne-Yo said in an interview that it took fans a while to catch on to him doing something new, but they finally got it.
And he’s not the only one doing ‘something new.’ Again, last summer, I heard an infectious song on the radio that sounded like it was emulating a classic bouncy synthdance Erasure sound. It turned out to be the song “Forever” by Chris Brown. And how can I mention Chris Brown without mentioning Rihanna? “Umbrella” may have shot her into superstar status, but the club stomper “Don’t Stop the Music” is the track, from the same album, that radio hasn’t stopped playing for the past year and a half. And she followed that chart hit with another dance track—“Disturbia.” Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child recently released an album almost entirely filled with dance songs, and called it, as if with a wink wink to fans, “Unexpected,” because it was moving away from her standard soulful roots. And Kelly Rowland, also of Destiny’s Child, has just joined forces with electro dance star David Guetta to bring us an absolute club anthem with “When Love Takes Over.” Sean Kingston has given up the hip hop and rasta rhythms to bring us a dance scorcher with “Fire Burning.” Black Eyed Peas have just released an album loaded with all out dance cuts, and have admitted to being inspired on this album by a trip to a big club overseas. The Pussycat Dolls offered a smooth dance hit with “I Hate This Part.” Justin Timberlake duets with Ciara on the slinky dance track “Love, Sex, Magic,” completely transforming her former hip hop chick persona for an equally slinky and sexy image. And two of the best dance anthems on Madonna’s album Hard Candy were produced by hip hop hotties: Pharrell giving us the stomper “Give it 2 Me,” and Kanye West handling the production on “Beat Goes On.” And Kanye’s own huge hit “Love Lockdown” scaled the charts on the merit of the electro club mix, which was the only mix being featured on Top 40 stations in New York.
What’s ironic about this trend is that a recent Dr. Pepper commercial features Dr. Dre crashing a pool party where a DJ is blasting thumping rave music and no one is dancing. Dre walks over to the turntable and ‘slows’ it down to a hip hop beat. Suddenly the party is started, with people dancing with their hands in the air and Dre claiming that “slower is better.” Seems Dre didn’t get the memo that disco never really died and hip hop may be going on hiatus.
