Like a lot of subcultural scenes, dance music is usually reduced to a few token entries on the year-end lists of general interest publications. As the former editor of wide-eared music site Stylus, Todd Burns did more than his fair share to turn people on to dance records that went deeper than the kind normally covered in your average indie rock webzine or glossy rock mag. His dance-centric essay for this year’s Pazz And Jop poll, however, is an object lesson in how not to turn people on to the unfamiliar, mostly by spending a few hundred words telling them why they suck for liking records with things like hooks. Did you know that you should feel guilty for enjoying poppy crossover dance records? Somehow I don’t think this kind of conscience-stricken Catholicism is exactly what all those old disco cats who equated the dancefloor with “church” had in mind, exactly.
Burns’ essay opens with this unbearably snobby, straight-faced breakdown:
There are three kinds of people who love dance music: people who love dance music, people who love dance music, and people who love dance music.
That means: people who vote for token crossover electronica albums (like Justice or Basement Jaxx) in rock critic polls; people who listen to superclub trance and bridge and tunnel house; and people who measure their blog scene cred fandom based on how big of an import vinyl bill shows up each month on their credit card statement. Naturally Burns falls into the third category, and if folks happen to fall into the first category, they’re not just doing it wrong, “they should be ashamed of themselves.”
Apparently the crucial failing for crossover electronic albums is that you “can’t dance to” them the way you can a hardcore, nine-minute, bleep-blorp German techno single, that something released on Cadenza inherently funks harder than something on Ed Banger. Their reason for their lack of danceability? The hooks and vocals and short running times and riffs apparently trip your feet up? Yeah, I don’t get it either. But then again I’ve seen rooms full of gay guys and indie kids and even late-’90s NYC clubbers (people who “loved dance music,” no less, at a time when Basement Jaxx was very much the face of crossover) lose their shit to Basement Jaxx at various points over the last decade and even more of ‘em lose their shit to Daft Punk.
(As for Justice, I remain a nominal fan and I think the folks at Vice have a very canny marketing team. But whether or not you appreciate their sonics or their scene positioning, I’m wary of passing judgement on a band’s fans as getting down in the “wrong” way. If their dancin’, they’re dancin’. And while I may not want my own personal rave to be full of cokeheads in oversized neon sweatshirts and trucker caps, it’s pretty easy to avoid them without wanting to “correct” them.)
Burns also never really bothers to explain why listeners should be ashamed of themselves for showing an affinity for dancing short, hook-y, song-y songs. Does he only have a problem if it has a 4/4 beat and sold as “dance music,” thereby excusing the bazillions who dance to R&B, hip-hop, dancehall, country, polka, and so on? (Short, hook-y, and song-y all. Which seems to make Burns’ issue here more an issue of categorization than music.) The only real explanation put forth for Justice and Simian Mobile Disco’s technic “failings” as capital-D dance music seems to be that there were plenty of dance records released in 2007 that Burns thought were better, but that didn’t get more love from centrist critics who cling to media-approved hype acts.
The rest of his essay–which breaks down into a list of underground records Burns likes and you should like more than Justice and SMD–turns into another music snob dick-measuring contest (so, so glad we could transpose this to every genre) where a guy lists a bunch of esoterica and sets it against the dreck enjoyed by the unwashed ringtone buyers. (You know, totally not crossover records like the Field and Glass Candy.) Burns, like most (indie) rock evangelicals, has his heart in the right place. I’ve no doubt he really does “love dance music”; why else would he be trying to push his less-heralded faves on anyone within earshot, like a good critic.
But while he acknowledges the “difficulty” some of those faves present for casual fans–nine-minute bleep-blorp German techno singles are not so immediately accessible, you know–he knows it’s hard to actually inspire them to actually come over to the dark side. Instead of explaining why or how rock critics should or could get into underground German techno or Baeleric revival records–what might appeal to them about these not-necessarily-pop-friendly, oddly structured, or just hook-free records–it’s easier to guilt them for their supposedly unchallenging tastes, to point out that if they were really cool they’d already be dancing to this instead of that, to call their enjoyment into question, to fight a supposedly homogeneous mainstream mindset by proposing an equally homogeneous underground canon. Don’t get me wrong, many of Burns’ records deserve championing. They just deserve a less alienating argument in their favor than the one proposed here.
Why We Love Justice (And Shouldn’t) [Village Voice]
I’m glad you commented on Burns’ rather silly article. Even weirder is the assertion that people only like the Field because of its gimmicky samples. I didn’t even hear any of the samples except for the super-obvious Flamingos one at the end.
I’ll go along with him on the Field in that one of the funnier things I saw last year was people TRYING to dance to the Field at Baltimore’s Ottobar. As for Justice, well people go crazy over that and its only in the hermetically-sealed world of music dorks that Justice wouldn’t be considered fairly weird, out-there, aggressive, whatever…what Justice and the Field did that most dance groups- authentic or false- is make a wholly listenable, filler-free album.
It’s been a banner week for quality techno coverage:
[blogs.suntimes.com]
I see what he is trying to do with the “cross-over” tag… but comparing Justice and Simian to Fatboy Slim and Moby? Why, because someone in Phi Beta Kappa grooves on Justice? Simian and Justice injected a sense of fun into their albums, got everyone dancing, and hopefully got them wanting to hear something similar. I used to be this guy. And I still hate and will always hate trance, and post “Everything Is Wrong” Moby. But it is much better (and nicer) to use albums like ‘Cross’ to gauge what someone might like, then say “You should check out Alter Ego.” Not “You like Justice? Psshhhh.” Why be an asshole? And yes, Nate, everyone needs to get the Kathy Diamond album NOW. And I mean everyone. I open the floodgates to her, and hope she and Maurice Fulton sees success.
My sympathies are definitely torn here. I think this article and the response piece above are both fairly indicative of the total dismissal each side of the ‘hip-populist’/’serious’ dance music divide has for the other, and I don’t foresee the great debate going anywhere anytime soon, for better or worse.
First, I use the term ‘hip-populist’ ’cause I don’t think blog-house really encompasses everything here. Simply saying ‘populist’ I feel is that separate, megaclubmix crowd, who are certainly the bottom rung of this debate. I hope this term to encompass the French scene discussed so at-length, as well as the neo-disco and nu-Balaeric scenes that are growing quite popular, so far as I can tell, as well as numerous other splinter groups that really go on to prove that the year-end factions, as stated above, really aren’t that dismissive of “all but one” segment of dance music.
Between the ’serious’ (minimal-accepting) and this, then, it’s not too hard to see why the beef. These camps are both comprised of fans who consider themselves somewhat savvy of their selections. Many (if not most) ‘hip-populist’ fans, in my experience, will freely admit that they find the ’serious’ stuff(minimal, extended, or most of the UK garage diaspora e.g. dubstep, for that matter) quite boring. They cherry pick “what sounds good to them”, and yes, they have more than enough right to enjoy 3 minute hook-laden “pop” stuff.
But woe be to the ’serious’ fan, the one who craves a new Philip Sherburne or Martin Clark article or has payed way to many international fees to Boomkat, who is certainly put on the defensive when the debate rages up. Can Deepchord’s great 2007 album really be so easily dismissed as “wallpaper” by so many critics? Granted, usually it is not a specific artist, but the entire genre. I remember reading an interview with Diplo where he had some scalding remarks on how Berlin basically made him want to kill himself, or some such. Well! Sorry for dancing here.
So maybe a frontal attack on hooks isn’t the best way to go about this, and maybe it is really just a matter of preference, immediate rush and apocalyptic release vs a patience and willingness to explore detail over repeated listens or immersion in repetition, etc. But still I can understand his defensiveness. There’s a lot of the genre that feels under-represented, and the desire to shed some attention-giving light on the ‘nuum may have lead him to produce a bit more bile than was good for the article. Perhaps that’s an understatement, but what can I say… I know which side of the divide I twitch, ever-so-slightly, on (in spite of my maximalist word count here, for which I apologize and accept my deserved punishment…)
Can I get really 5th grade on this whole thing and ask an obvious question? Good, because I’m about to.
Whatever happened to liking what you like how you like it because you like it and not just because someone else tells you how?
It’s not some sign of outward maturity and growth as a music listener to intellectualize every whiff of music that piques one’s interest. People who listen to total crap and don’t know any better seem like they’re better off than people whose identities revolve around the music they listen to.
@loudersoft: There is much less hand ringing involved, that’s for sure.
“What need for purists when the demotic is built to last, / To outlast us, and no dialect hears us?” (John Ashbery)
@loudersoft: exactly. as a club vj i play the music that is fun and i have a good time shaking my rump in the booth too. it seems anytime a “sound” catches fire the poo-poo’ing begins.
@quincyhoist: Nicely put. The biggest problem for me (that never seems to be adequately addressed) in these arguments is CONTEXT. How many of us are listening to dance music in what the artist would consider an appropriate/expected setting? Dancing like a fool around your apartment for a few minutes to Justice versus 9.5 minutes of Deutsch blip techno…it’s not what one would prefer but it does a bit towards explaining why certain things get popular and others do not, no? If that makes any sense right now…
“I’m Mr Burns, blah blah blah. Do this! Do that! Blah blah blah. I think I’m so big, blah blah blah.”
Excellent, well-written reaction piece. Also, sad that Burns came off this way, considering how often his writing is kinda great.
I hear if you hang on to a lump of coal tightly enough it will become a diamond, too.
@loudersoft: Like in Superman III.
@Lucas Jensen: Underrated movie.
i’m unable to figure out what his point is either, but his constant positioning of himself as a lover has conjured up the image of will ferrell and rachel dratch in that snl sketch.
maybe he’s got a bad back.
Honestly, I think it’s that middle group of people who “listen to superclub trance and bridge and tunnel house” who are committing the gravest error here, if one is being made.
Wow, don’t give us “music” lovers a context for appreciating dance music when you can just lay down a polemic that’s too sober to even be funny instead.
Personally, I’m in that category of people who only know about the crossover stuff. Every time I try to get into anything else, especially if I’m not just trying to dance to it, a little switch flips in my brain and says “This is bullshit. You still haven’t made a good effort to get into Led Zeppelin, Biggie, or whoever those guys are from Austin who keep getting really good notices on the blogs. Turn this crap off!” Not that I necessarily think that dance music is bullshit, but that the little voice who is piloting things doesn’t really have an arguement against him yet.
There’s something funky with the VV website for the 1999 poll so I can’t do a ballot contrast-and-compare, but I’m going to suggest that, contrary to what Burns says in his essay, there was very little overlap between the folks who voted for Play in 1999 and those who voted for Kish Kash a few years later.
So three people voted for Kathy Diamond’s great nu-disco record Miss Diamond to You in their albums ballot. Todd Burns was one of them. The other two — myself and Robert Bishop — also voted for Cross and “D.A.N.C.E.” Weird.
@natepatrin: If I understand the piece, I think Burns is saying you’re a hypocrite.
“…bleep-blorp German techno single” just sent me into a wild fit of giggles. Thank you.
Oooh, What’s this?
Is it dance??
Is it pop??
I can’t tell!!
It’s like some kind of cross-over freak-hybrid mutation!
(Hmmm, I don’t like the looks of this..)
Help!
It’s comming!!
KILL IT!!
IT IS EVIL!!!!
The people re-establishing and cementing the false divide between minimal house and techno and Justice etc here have no real right to criticise Todd.
Every time this is discussed somebody makes it sound like the average underground house fan sits in a cold bath reading Proust listening to clicks and pops for hours on end, whereas those crazy Justice kids are neon hooded and wild and free.
This is actually complete bullshit (especially if you live outside America) “Fun” music doesn’t always mean “fun” listening/consumption, and of course “serious” music doesn’t mean serious listening/reception.
I majorly disagree that people don’t dance to Justice or that it’s not dance music (and long ago ceased to care about those sort of divides, probably after a massive Justice argument on ILM made me realise that actually I don’t particularly care if people like them and it’s my problem if I don’t)
I do think you can see the roots of Todd’s frustration in these very comments though.
The problem is I think the piece fuels a false distinction between serious house and techno and Justice etc. It makes one seem detached and intellectual and the other seem visceral and fun.
And I don’t really buy that split.
God bless Todd, but yeah, if he thinks people can’t/don’t dance to Basement Jaxx, he is crazy.
“it’s not a big stretch to imagine germanic bleeps and blorps getting getting over — there’s lots of elements to easily grab on to: obvious beats, diatonic melodic elements, fun sounds. won’t todd burns be fuxored when that happens.”
I’d say Todd would be delighted if that happened. But I bet you the entirety of my pathetic dance critic’s bank account that it never ever does.
That music is made to ensure it’s never popular, it undercuts itself at every juncture to ensure anything that’s getting popular is shedded like old skin.
ed banger was all the way underground, what, two years ago? now they’ve gotten popular goddamn it, and justice have gotten REALLY popular.. there’s some hooky elements in justice’s music no doubt but there’s some weirdness too: the nasty distortion (in dance music?!?!) the cut and paste edits. and daft punk comparisons not withstanding they are pretty damn original. but they got popular, so there goes their underground cred.
it strikes me as arbitrary that certain artists and subgenres come out of the underground and get popular. it’s not a big stretch to imagine germanic bleeps and blorps getting getting over — there’s lots of elements to easily grab on to: obvious beats, diatonic melodic elements, fun sounds. won’t todd burns be fuxored when that happens.
What about the fact that a lot of successful hip-hop is seriously bleepy-and-bloopy? I think that mainstream audiences are more accepting of aggressive/weird/minimal sounds than Todd and Co. are giving them credit for.
wait, so he’s arguing that [cough] Proper Dance Music ISN’T made by Serious White Dudes?