what got you out of dance music?

also.....i am wery auld

Dance music is like Modern architecture for me. The buildigs are so beutiful in pictures, but then you see them, and you see people spitting on them, hanging their clothes out to dry, pissing in their corners, putting ugly shades on the windows, and the buildings lose their magic. As cheesy as it sounds, the music is part of a spiritual quest for me, and to see the whole scene become routinized, well, I become sad.

I still love the music though, and I hope that maybe if I get my shit together, I will run a night that will cater to the seekers out there without any of the quasi-spirituality of "deep" house, etc.

"deepness"

haha...care to extrapolate?

Not enough experimentation with rhythm. A retreat from rhythmic intensity to, yes, 'deepness' and 'intelligence'. IDM. DJs with narrow tastes controlling the evening. A discovery that much of what I was craving could be found in metal.

Forgot one - the general disappearance of humour from dance music, replaced by an attempt at sophistication. Music became less wonked out. Someone, somewhere, needed to put a donk on it.

My answer to this question is simple: I got old and stopped going out dancing. ;_;

i think that's basically everyone's answer, it's just that most don't admit it

(it is not my answer! yet! i love dance music)

A discovery that much of what I was craving could be found in metal

i really really hope this never happens to me though. age i can deal with, metal no.

Forgot one - the general disappearance of humour from dance music, replaced by an attempt at sophistication. Music became less wonked out. Someone, somewhere, needed to put a donk on it.

also basically every sentence here is wrong-headed in some way? i mean there have been a slew of funny dance tracks this year alone (including 'put a donk on it' which you yourself cite), but this "humour" vs "sophistication" binary is one that needs to be ended right now (though if you have to choose one, god, obviously sophistication, i will never understand why people fear it so much)

xpost lex: It hasn't happened to me (re the Metal), and yeah I cannae dance (not that I ever was)..

Still, out of Dance Music? Hmm.....

nah.

Mixmag and the Mixmagisation of Dance from the death of trance onwards.

In late 90's Britain (this used to be my playground) the availability of Mitsubishi's, coupled with euphoric trance & big beat gave dance music a surge overground that eclipsed all in its path. With this new popularity, magazines like Mixmag suddenly saw reader numbers explode and since then have (like all indie Mags) desperately tried to over hype and create scenes in order to convince readers that "they never had it do good". They will literally put a hat on anything and call it a scene.
Compare a Mixmag from 93 & 03 and its like the editorial have suddenly all had frontal lobotomies, then got 15 year olds to type what they drooled.

couple that with the acceleration due to the Internet of dance music fans' need to canonise & disseminate all new sounds and you get a situation where everything is available and already rated by the time anyone but a select coterie of insiders get to it. Being 3 months late to a track and all the hype has gone.

yeah, the above pretty much dampened my fire for the Kickdrum.....

that and paying £8 for a 12"

I stopped buying Mixmag in the late 90s. It was truly horrible by then. Got some great issues up in my loft though.

Too much self-referentiality and obssessive search for the "next big thing", too much wankery, too much borrowing from rock (if not rock sounds and forms then at least rockist attitudes and the rockist star system), too little fun and naive experimentation (instead of serious, artsy experimentation). That's some reasons that got me bored of dance music by the end of the 90s. Also, I began to delve deeper into older genres (funk, jazz, soul, etc.), whereas previously I'd always wanted to hear just the latest and coolest electronic (and rap) music. I still listen to electronic and dance music a lot, but much of it is older stuff. It's been years since I actively followed the current scenes and trends.

I agree the humour v sophistication thing is a red herring - the best dance music acts as a canvas for your own goofiness and silliness. That's kind of the point.

To be honest though, I think a lot of it has to with how forms of music naturally develop. When I found electronic/dance music in the beginning of the 90s, it was still a new thing and it felt like anything was possible. New sounds were being created every month and the genre boundaries weren't solid yet, so it felt like the music could go to infinite interesting directions. But then the genres got segmented, the sounds became more established and the scenes more rigid, so it didn't seem so exciting anymore. However, in hindsight this seems to be a rather natural course for any new form of music to take, so I can't really say something went "wrong".

(x-post)

Incidentally I still view the 'Take Me With You'/"dance is dead" 2002-era as a golden age for dance music - so many amazing tracks.

Actually, I think the beginning of the end could be pretty much pinpointed to "Firestarter" by The Prodigy. Not that it's a bad tune in itself, but a lot of negative trends started from there.

I actually started getting into dance music more once the typical dance fan got out of it. Not because of the dancing, but because it has some interesting sounds. Plus it got more melodic.

I predict in 2010 Geir will be dancing to James Brown on youtube

To be honest though, I think a lot of it has to with how people naturally develop. When I found electronic/dance music in the beginning of the 90s, i was still a new thing and i felt like anything was possible. New sounds were being heard by me every month and i wasn't aware of genre boundaries yet so i felt like the music could go to infinite interesting directions. But then my taste and awareness became segmented, my life became more established and my bones more rigid, so it didn't seem so exciting anymore. However, in hindsight this seems to be a rather natural course for any person to take, so I can't really say something went "wrong".

Except for maybe 2-3 occasions when I was out of my mind on dope or drink, I haven't attempted to dance since 1994, when I happened to see myself (on video) dancing at a wedding, and was mortified at the results. (Imagine Elaine's "little kicks", then imagine me WISHING I was that funky/graceful.) Like team sports, I think dancing's just fine for somebody else to do. And dance music = same deal.

Actually, it wasn't until dance music started to define itself as part of the canon, and got more artistic ambitions than just "having fun" that it became worth paying attention to. It was also the moment when the musicians behind got the attention they deserved, instead of the exaggerated fixation on DJs that was typical of the 90s.

o_0

Actually, it wasn't until dance music started to define itself as part of the canon, and got more artistic ambitions than just "having fun" that it became worth paying attention to. It was also the moment when the musicians behind got the attention they deserved, instead of the exaggerated fixation on DJs that was typical of the 90s.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 19 January 2009 15:34 (6 minutes ago)

Please, please qualify this with some examples. It's just so completely bananas.