I would like to dedicate this topic to such a musical style as Eurodance. It is the same classic Eurodance of the 90s that everyone who lived in those days will easily recognize. I also love him, and if I want to be a little nostalgic for them, I turn on a few tracks and listen to them with pleasure.
Let's share the best Eurodance tracks in this topic, in your opinion, as well as highlight the novelties that you remember: from Classic to New Generation. It is clear that there are active communities of fans of this musical style on the web, who are much better versed in it and more actively monitor its development. Of course, in this sense, we will not bring anything new here. However, this topic does not pursue such a goal. Within the framework of this topic, I would like the members of our community to tell about their experience. Write down if you like Eurodance, what attracts you in this direction, what is your favorite track, etc.
What is Eurodance?
This term refers to a certain style of club dance music that was created on the European continent during the 80s and 90s. It includes elements of Disco, Hi-NRG and House, and is recorded in the studio entirely on synthesizers and drum machines. The final product is much more influenced by producers than singers. EuroDance, like its close relative euro-pop, is simple, lightweight, catchy music with sweet, repetitive lyrics that are easy to understand for people who speak different languages. It differs from euro-pop in its exclusive and deliberate orientation to the dance club. Most Euro Dance artists strive to create a hit single, followed immediately by an entire album.
Eurodance is a style of European dance music, which is characterized by the presence of male rap and female vocals, forming a unity against the background of energetic, powerful, beat music. In general, the style can be given such a fairly simple definition. But this definition includes three main components of the style by which it can be distinguished from other musical styles: male rap, female vocals and the Eurodance music itself. Of course, all these signs must be considered in conjunction with each other - this is the classical sound of Eurodance style music. Of course, the whole Eurodance style is not based solely on the components described above: some compositions may not include male rap or be without female vocals at all; however, such music will still relate to the Eurodance style - it just so happened.
The music itself is unique, it is its characteristics, samples used in compositions that make the Eurodance style so original and distinctive. If you just scroll through the sound of some Eurodance compositions in your memory, it becomes clear that there is no more music like Eurodance in the dance world.
The presence of a duet between a man and a woman in this style is a very important sign. We can often hear such singing, but, basically, it is a temporary joint singing of two individual performers of different genders. The duet of a man and a woman is also found in Hip-Hop (recently, since about 1998), which, by the way, resembles the Eurodance style (the thought involuntarily arises that the reason for this was Eurodance). So, the peculiarity of the duet in Eurodance is the constant connection, the unity of male and female singing, and the first is more often expressed in rap reading, and the second - in vocal parts (although it may well be a turnaround).
Let's focus a little on the performers of the style themselves. A man who raps is most often black and is a native of the United States or another part of North America. Perhaps for this reason rap is a component of Eurodance; black Americans came and contributed their part of the music that has always been close to this people. Of course, rap in Eurodance can also be read by white men, and they do it as professionally as their dark-skinned brothers. Apparently, they just learned it so well that even by voice it can be difficult to determine what color the rapper's skin is. The people who create Eurodance music can be of completely different nationalities and races, a common interest and goals bring their souls closer together, make them "brothers".
As for the vocalists, they can also be of completely different nationalities, their nationality does not depend on the country of the Eurodance collective itself (either the producer or the record company plays a role here). Yet in Eurodance, in most collectives, the rapper is a black man, the vocalist is a white woman. But, this is only the most common form of the collective, it should not be perceived as mandatory for the style.
Eurodance style combines a beautiful, gentle, romantic feminine beginning and a strong, fast "conversation" male. And all against the background of a bit (a blow in the literal sense of the word). Those who do not understand Eurodance call this bit "slotting". Maybe it is the right definition, but this "slotting" is not in itself, it is part of a single music, a single sound, a single rhythm. Simultaneously with this beat there is a beautiful melodic sound. Eurodance relaxes and turns on at the same time. Here you can compare Eurodance only if with Happy Hardcore (another style in which you can hear a duet of a man and a woman). In the compositions of this also powerful and energetic style, you can hear both a gentle female voice singing about love, sunshine, angels (in a word, about happiness, he is therefore "happy") and a screaming, gruff male voice calling for having fun to the music of Happy Hardcore. So here is Eurodance. Yes, naturally compositions in this style also have a single basis. But each of them contains something unique! Energy! This is such an important part of Eurodance . It literally fills, envelops, when any masterpiece of this style sounds. It gives strength, a start to action. This is positive energy!
Eurodance–style music is part of dance music, and dance music, in turn, is part of all music in general. Eurodance sounds strong! Music necessarily has a beat, a clear rhythm. Percussive sounds can be strong, like the beating of a hammer, soft, like a ball falling to the floor, hard and ringing, like thunder. The blows may be different, but they are mandatory attributes of the style. This bit plays the role of the ringleader, it makes you dance. Unfortunately, at the time of the great popularity of Eurodance, people perceived this style only as a club, to which you can dance. Then they did not pay attention to other shades of sound, to the meaning of this music as a whole, in unity with the meaning of the text. The beat is not all that makes up Eurodance music. It is difficult to dance to the usual beat, to move the body elastically, but the word dance is present in the name of the style. In Eurodance we can hear piano, guitar, violin, wind instruments, etc. Very many compositions of the style are so imbued with the beautiful sounds of various musical instruments that against their background the beat is no longer perceived as something that exists separately, but on the contrary, it complements well, giving the song energy, forcing the listener to focus on the sounding, on the text, on the meaning of the composition. Eurodance music always emphasizes the lyrics and the general meaning of the song.
As you know, Germany has given the world the most Eurodance music. Was it really born in Germany? This country in general in the 90s was a "monster" for the production of dance music of various styles, and to some extent remains so now. We always thought so, but over time it turns out that the roots of the emergence of Eurodance have gone much further than the 90s, when Germany came to power over dance music. Eurodance is definitely a European style, but still its sound is different and has certain features, depending on which country it came from. At the same time, Eurodance music also came from other continents of the world, besides Europe.
