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Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance music.
Genres
Dance music works often bear the name of the corresponding dance, e.g. waltzes, the tango, the bolero, the can-can, minuets, salsa, various kinds of jigs and the breakdown. Other dance forms include contradance, the merengue (Dominican Republic), the cha-cha-cha and Soca (Trinidad & Tobago) Often it is difficult to know whether the name of the music came first or the name of the dance.
Folk dance music
Dance music includes a huge variety of music, including traditional dance music such as Irish traditional music, waltzes, rock and roll, country music and tangos. An example of traditional dance music in the United States is the old-time music played at square dances and contra dances. Brazilian dance music includes Samba, Pagode and Forró.
Historical dance music
While the combination of dance and music is very ancient (for example Ancient Greek vases sometimes show dancers accompanied by musicians) the earliest Western dance music that we can still play with a degree of certainty are the surviving medieval dances such as caroles and the Estampie. The earliest of these surviving dances are almost as old as Western staff-based music notation.
In the Baroque period, the major dance styles were noble court dances (see Baroque dance). Examples of dances include the French courante, sarabande, minuet and gigue. Collections of dances were often collected together as dance suites.
In the Classical music era, the minuet was frequently used as a third movement in four-movement non-vocal works such as sonatas, string quartets, and symphonies, although in this context it would not accompany any dancing. The waltz also arose later in the Classical era, as the minuet evolved into the scherzo (literally, "joke"; a faster-paced minuet).
Both remained part of the Romantic music period, which also saw the rise of various other nationalistic dance forms like the barcarolle, mazurka, and polonaise. Also in the Romantic music era, the growth and development of ballet extended the composition of dance music to a new height. Frequently dance music was a part of Opera.
Before techno, house and electronica music came out; people have danced to older versions of current genres which are now less danceable for newer music. Back when rock and roll was a new genre (circa 1950s); people had a hard time dancing to it as it was more upbeat than many ballad-based songs from before than that people slow-danced to. Ironically, Rock and Roll became the ubiquitous dance genre in the 1960s and that slow-dancing rapidly became obsolete. But then, Rock and roll evolved into a less danceable genre in following decades; but New Wave from the 1980s was a major exception to its pattern in declining danceability.
During the aforementioned period prior to rock and roll; dancehalls used live bands to orchestrate the music that the people danced to; however, the rise of Discothèques and places where DJs played recorded music have rapidly displaced live bands although a few instances of live band dances have continued on. A notable example of live band dances in pop culture include Back to the Future which takes place in the 50's when the concept was on the verge of being displaced; however, it was used in Idle Hands where it becomes a notable occurrence in modern day where people dance to live punk music which is a relatively rare choice of dancing music.
Electronic
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Electronic dance music is a style of popular music commonly played in dance music nightclubs, radio stations, shows and raves. The term "dance music" is usually used for more commercial forms of electronic music. However, both dance music and electronic dance music is made electronically for dancing. Styles include Eurobeat, house, Eurodance, jungle, hip house, trance, techno, funk, garage, and many others. Associated with dance music are usually commercial forms that may not easily be pigeonholed, for example "The Power" by Snap! and "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" by C+C Music Factory. Those tracks are characterized by mixing dance music and hip hop. The chorus usually derives from disco music, the music itself consists mainly of danceable hip hop beats.
Electronic dance music experienced a boom after the proliferation of personal computers in the 1980s, many music genres that made use of electronic instruments developed into contemporary styles mainly due to the MIDI protocol, which enabled computers, synthesizers, sound cards, samplers and drum machines to control one another and achieve the full synchronization of sounds. Electronic dance music is typically composed using computers and synthesizers, and rarely has any physical instruments. Instead, this is replaced by digital or electronic sounds, with a 4/4 beat. Dance music typically ranges from 120bpm, up to 200bpm, with techno, trance, and house being the most widespread. Many producers of this kind of music however, such as Darren Tate and MJ Cole, were trained in classical music before they moved into the electronic medium.
Dansband
- See main article: Dansband
"Dansband" ("Dance band") is a term in Swedish for bands who play a kind of popular music, "dansbandsmusik" ("Dance band music"), to dance partner dance to. These terms came the years around 1970, and before that, many of the bands were classified as "pop groups". This type of music is mostly popular in the Nordic countries.
See also
Classical
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