What would be the first thing that came to your mind if I mentioned dance music? Depending on your age and musical conditioning, the answers could range from anything to one of ABBA’s more upbeat numbers to a techno anthem that is currently doing its rounds in the clubbing scene. However, how would this change if I was to utter the phrase electronic music? Sure, a majority would go blank. Most of the others would think Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Kraftwerk to name but a few. And the minority left would bark out a barrage of names such as Aphex Twin, Autechre and Venetian Snares with pretentious glee. Who? I hear you ask. Fearless and challenging pioneers of a generation, the fanboys would have you know. These names may not have the stadium-filling abilities of Fatboy Slim, but the critical acclaim is there for all to see.
It’s time to find out who is really driving electronic music forward and which artists are getting the most recognition by fans and critics. Everyone knows that trance music died around the time of the millennium. It is no longer the major force it once was, and many top trance DJ’s realised this and moved on. The reason it’s not still as popular today is because the limits of the genre meant that producers hit a brick wall. Everything had been done. The genre had been “nailed”. This meant that two genres that had taken a back seat to trance were able to blossom in the early noughties. House and techno are now the recognised genres in mainstream electronic music. This summer in particular saw a surge in successful techno-house hybrid tracks. As I write this, the second biggest dance tune of the summer, Fedde Le Grand – Put Your Hands Up For Detroit, lies fourth in the Official Top 40. Despite the mainstream acceptance of these three types of electronic music, the talent of their most respected DJ’s must be questioned. The 4/4 beat that is the signature of almost all of the tracks now sounds tired to many listeners who are in search of something edgier. An exception can be made for a certain type of techno music. This is minimal techno, or less commonly, microhouse. While some are sceptical, there’s no denying that some fascinatingly unconventional sounds are emerging from this fairly new subgenre, especially from gurus such as Ricardo Villalobos and Richie Hawtin.
While a small amount of techno and house producers continue to keep the music sounding fresh, there is an underground community that is constantly breaking boundaries and conventions. The fan base has been understandably limited to those with an open mind throughout its lifespan; however there have been certain artists who have become huge. Most readers will not be familiar with this type of music, and would more than likely be horrified if they heard something at the extreme end of its spectrum. The music is most commonly referred to as Electronica. This word is a product of the American media and should not be used at all. Instead, it is experimental electronic music, ambient music or increasingly IDM (intelligent dance music). These are descriptive names. The first two give the listener an idea of what to expect, but IDM is possibly the most absurd genre name in the history of music. It is often debatable whether the music is intelligent, whether it is danceable and there have been occasions whether the tag ‘music’ is deserved. A healthy number of artists that produce this music have acquired a mainstream audience. Brian Eno and Kraftwerk were and still are household names for creating ambient and electro respectively in the 70s. More recently Air, Röyksopp and Moby are among the artists who have become famous for their brand of “chillout” music. The more experimental side, and arguably more ground breaking, has seen artists such as Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and Boards of Canada acquire a less significant mainstream fan base. Despite this, the examples above are among the many artists who have sparked the most curiosity and acclaim among music critics, especially in the past few years.
It’s been established for some time that critics are not blinded by the most popular trends and know how to judge electronic music, but what about listeners? I decided to peek into the world of Last.fm, a thriving music community on the internet, which tracks members listening habits for others to view, to get an insight. Winners of the Best Music Community award in the BT Digital Music Awards 2006, the expanding project is providing increasingly accurate figures on exactly how popular any given artist or track is at the time. The charts make for very interesting reading. And they are almost completely incomparable to the top 40. These are figures that have been unattainable until the birth of Last.fm, and they reveal information that is surprising to say the least. For example, Aphex Twin is in 150th position in the artists chart, hovering just above the likes of Elton John, Bob Marley and, yes, Fatboy Slim. Casual music fans would see this as an anomaly, but those ‘in the know’ would almost expect him to be commanding this kind of position. Boards of
The top of the charts are more predictable and annoyingly rarely budge from week to week. The top 10 consists of sickly pop acts such as Green Day, Coldplay and The Killers. It’s then quite a way down until the first strictly electronic act appears. In fact, it’s not until number 78 that mainstream electronic artists Air, The Prodigy and Daft Punk appear in a cluster. It’s like waiting for a bus. Many will argue that the reason these artists can reach such lofty heights is because the majority of Last.fm users are nerdy shut-ins, and they are probably right, but how will the charts change when Last.fm inevitably and deservedly gains a varied mainstream audience?
If underground electronic music artists continue to put out fresh and challenging records, there is no doubt we’ll see new mainstream success stories, like Röyksopp and Daft Punk, but despite major support from music critics, there is little chance you will see five or six electronic albums in the charts at the same time for many years to come.
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