Dance
Page: 58
A boatload of party people will start next year off with a bang on the 2024 sailing of Friendship, the annual party cruise from Gary Richards.
Richards, who has long produced music as Destructo, has revealed the Friendship 2024 lineup on Wednesday (Aug. 16), with the bill featuring Skrillex, Bob Moses, Chris Lake, Chris Lorenzo, J. Phlip, Todd Edwards, Nina Las Vegas, Rusko, Mr Carmack and a flurry of other stars, in addition to rising artists including Mary Droppinz, NALA, QRTR and many more.
The ship will set sail from Miami on Jan. 6, 2024, cruising to Belize’s Harvest Caye, a site that will host 24 hours of shenanigans including a beachside set from Skrillex. This Harvest Caye trek will also include the first ever island iteration of Richards’ Sunrise Sermon event, which he started in downtown Los Angeles in his early rave promoting days. The boat returns to Miami on Jan. 11.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Outside of music, Activities on the boats will include stand up comedy, skateboarding and a cabaret set from Dita von Teese. Friendship 2024 happens aboard the Norwegian Joy, which can hold 3,500 passengers. While the voyage is already largely sold out, a limited numbers of cabins remain.
“I’m always trying to push the envelope of new music by keeping things interesting and exciting,” Richards tells Billboard. “We have five full days, so I wanted to represent as many parts of the globe as possible to keep it spicy. We have artists from Africa, Russia, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, England, Germany, Italy, Canada, and the good ole US of A.”
He continued, “Some fresh new highlights I’m digging right now include VTSS, Vigro Deep, Sun El Musician, Nitepunk, Raven, Mersiv, A Hundred Drums, Nala, QRTR, G-Rex, Mary Droppinz, Safety Trance, Enoo Napa, and Da Capo. And of course my BFFs as always Boys Noize, Skrillex, Chris Lake, Chris Lorenzo, Bob Moses plus, plus, plus all on a private island in Belize.”
Richards launched Friendship in 2018, with the concept echoing that of Holy Ship, the party cruise Richards launched in 2012 via HARD, the electronic festival production company he founded in 2007 and which was acquired by Live Nation in 2012. Richards departed HARD in 2017.
See the complete lineup for Friendship 2024 below.
Friendship 2023
Courtesy Photo
“The chart will significantly elevate the profile of dance music at radio.”
With the survey dated Aug. 16, 2003, Billboard began the Dance/Mix Show Airplay ranking, with then-dance radio chart manager Ricardo Companioni touting its value to the genre. Billboard also described dance as “an emerging radio format in major U.S. markets” at the time.
Twenty years later, the chart continues to reflect the biggest dance hits on radio each week.
When the list premiered (in Billboard’s pages for the first time in the Oct. 25, 2003, issue), it tracked airplay on eight stations: WKTU New York, KDLD Los Angeles, KPTI San Francisco, KKDL Dallas, WQSX Boston, WPYM Miami, KNRJ Phoenix and KCJZ San Antonio, Texas. (Today, only WKTU remains a reporter.)
In November 2011, the chart was made over from its original Hot Dance Radio Airplay name to Dance/Mix Show Airplay, with its panel of core 24/7 dance stations augmented with mix show hours on pop stations, which now comprise around 80 reporters. Three years later, the chart expanded from 25 spots to its current 40-position depth. (Stations’ airplay is tracked by Mediabase and provided to Billboard by Luminate.)
Over its 20-year archives, the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart has built up a history of achievements by some of the most key names in the genre.
Below is a look at 20 impressive feats achieved on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, from the acts with the most No. 1s to the longest-leading hit and more, from the inaugural chart, dated Aug. 16, 2003, through the latest, Aug. 19, 2023-dated tally.
(Notably, Aug. 16 doubles as the birthday of one of the chart’s most successful performers: Madonna.)
First No. 1
Image Credit: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images
Northern California’s Northern Nights festival celebrated its 10-year anniversary last month with a three-day woodsy bacchanal.
From July 14-16, the festival drew attendees to a campground in Piercy, Calif., a city at the center of Northern California’s Emerald Triangle, which is the United States’ largest cannabis producing region made up of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity Counties.
In addition to music and floats on the Eel River, guests of the fest were once again able to partake in Northern Nights’ cannabis offerings. For the first time in 2023, the festival allowed for sales and consumption to take place throughout the event, instead of one cordoned off area. Northern Nights organizers say that the marked the first time this model was used at a music festival. This year the festival also debuted its own proprietary cannabis strain.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
There was, of course, music as well. This year’s headliners were Big Gigantic, G Jones, Dr. Fresch, TOKiMONSTA, Mura Masa and Netsky, with the rest of the bass, jamtronica-focused bill rounded out by artists including Coco & Breezy, Daily Bread, Mary Droppinz, Random Rab and more.
Didn’t make it? Want to relive it? Memories of it all a bit hazy? Enter the Emerald Triangle of your mind with this trinity of exclusive sets from the weekend.
Big Gigantic
Always known for delivering a heady, hyphy good time, the Colorado-based duo made their Northern Nights debut with a headlining set made up of old music; not yet released music; collabs with artists, including Aloe Blacc; tracks by artists including Knock2, Steve Aoki and John Summit; along with some good old-fashioned body pummeling dubstep.
Megan Hamilton
The Minnesota-born producer performed a funky, playful set that got progressively deeper, harder and (wonderfully) weirder over its hour-long duration.
Forester
With their music written to intentionally mimic the grandeur of nature and evoke the feeling of being in the woods, the live electronic duo was right at home at Northern Nights, where they played an emotive, kinda sexy show featuring loads of their own music and remixes of The Neighborhood, RÜFÜS DU SOL and others.
This week in dance music: deadmau5 mourned the passing of his iconic cat Meowingtons, Transylvania festival UNTOLD collected thousands of pints of blood in exchange for free tickets and we talked to the author of a new academic study exploring why dancefloors foster such physical intimacy among strangers.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
And now, the week’s best new music to get intimate with your earholes.
Anna Lunoe, “Real Love”
[embedded content]
The Label: NLV Records
The Spiel: Anna Lunoe’s first release of 2023 shifts gears seamlessly between house and garage, a foundation upon which the Australian fav layers up piano, siren-like synth stabs and — as the cherry on top — her own voice. These elements build to a tight three minutes of joyous fervor and fun that still demonstrate the depth suggested by the title.
The Vibe: 5 p.m. on a Friday bliss.
Fred again.. & Obongjayer, “adore u”
[embedded content]
The Label: Warner Music
The Spiel: Our lowercase prince returns with some late summer sunshine in “adore u.” A collaboration with Obongjayer, “adore” samples a song the Nigeria-born, London-based singer wrote about his little brother (“I’m so proud, proud of all that you are,” he sings), with Fred’s take starting light before taking quick sharp turn into more percussive territory. The ever-prolific producer debuted the track during his set last weekend at Lollapalooza.
The Artist Says: “This is the first song of a whole new world to me,” says Fred. “One that I cant wait to show you more of. Very very much. Obongjayar made this song for his lil brother. I made it for my lil sister without knowing this. So to me it’s for siblings, in any way that manifests. Like, it doesn’t have to be blood brothers to me.”
The Vibe: Drunken dance party at your next family reunion.
HoneyLuv & Cakes da Killa, “Bring It Back”
[embedded content]
The Label: Insomniac Records
The Spiel: “This thing is out of control,” New York City rapper Cakes da Killa declares on “Bring It Back” — and while the mood on HoneyLuv‘s latest certainly engenders a certain sort of dancefloor looseness, the producer herself keeps the production extremely tight. She layers in loads of percussion, smooth synths and Cakes’ rapidfire flow into a tech-forward heater that’s equally sophisticated and fun. Listen for it at HoneyLuv’s upcoming tour dates at Hï and Amnesia in Ibiza, Elements Music Festival, Life Is Beautiful in Las Vegas, EDC Orlando and many more.
The Vibe: Wild, but never messy.
FISHER & Kita Alexander “Atmosphere”
[embedded content]
The Label: Catch & Release
The Spiel: FISHER once again demonstrates that he’s just got this thing figured out, delivering another undeniably infectious tech house anthem written in conjunction with the song’s vocalist, Australian singer/songwriter Kita Alexander. Together the pair deliver a song that swirls like its titular layers of gas themselves, creating an earworm tune both celestial and heavy like a black hole.
The Artist Says: “[This is] a song that I was really proud of because it sounded most like me”, says Alexander. “Luckily enough, Fisher agreed and loved the track. Turns out the fans also love it. I’m so excited to be featuring on a track with a friend and Aussie legend.”
The Vibe: Entering the orbit of someone you’re into.
Muzi, “EMTUNZINI”
[embedded content]
The Label: Fool’s Gold Records
The Spiel: “Tell me, what’s the secret of looking so fly?” Muzi asks on his latest, “EMTUNZINI” –although the question feels largely rhetorical, given how insanely fly the South African producer/singer sounds on the track and looks in its corresponding video. A breezy four minutes of slick, effervescent house music, with a breezy melody sung in both English and Zulu, the song recounts the love story of Muzi’s parents and functions as the lead single from the artist’s forthcoming studio LP uMUZI, coming October 13th via Fool’s Gold Records.
The Vibe: May we all be even just slightly as fly.
COBRAH, “MANIC”
[embedded content]
The Label: Atlantic
The Spiel: “I’m not dramatic; I just get a little manic,” Swedish experimental electronic artist COBRAH announces on her latest single. She nonetheless keeps the track at a low simmer, with an insistent kickdrum and waves of rumbling synth creating the foundation for COBRAH to deliver rapid-fire lyrics about “getting into the frantic” in her unmistakable baby voice, which juxtaposes the heaviness of the lyrics with the purr with which she delivers them. The pristinely shot and slightly NSFW video finds the artist relishing in the BDSM realm that’s a signature of her general aesthetic. The song comes from her forthcoming EP, SUCCUBUS, coming October 13.
The Vibe: Yes, maybe slightly deranged — but also delicious.
Before they were rich and famous and dwelling in mansions, The Chainsmokers were just two dudes trying to make it as musicians in New York City.
Understanding how hard it can be to keep the lights on in the city while producing new music, the duo is now co-sponsoring a new artist-in-residence program in New York City that aims to help an emerging artist focus on music while eschewing the stress of paying rent.
Being launched in collaboration with The Blumenfeld Group, The Chainsmokers’ own JAJA Tequila and creative agency NOISE, this artist-in-residence program will provide the winner with a free apartment equipped with a music studio at apartment building The Smile. Located in Harlem, it was designed by architect Bjarke Ingels and is named for its curved design.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The 794-square-foot apartment unit was designed by The Chainsmokers themselves, and features dining, working, sleeping and living room spaces.
“We started our careers in New York City and our experiences living in the city really shaped us into who we are today,” The Chainsmokers tell Billboard in a joint statement. “The city is fun and inspiring, but we also know all too well how expensive it can be to live there, especially as a new artist.”
“For the longest time we worked out of a shoebox-sized apartment making music every day,” the pair continue. “We’re so excited to offer a talented artist the chance to thrive by providing a free apartment with a music studio at The Smile for a year.”
The program is currently accepting applications, which require would-be winners to submit some basic information along with a TikTok. You can apply for it here.
“At NOISE we love working with clients who are willing to think outside the box. Especially those who are not only willing to push boundaries in their respective industries but also are excited to create culture-forward and impactful campaigns –– David [Blumenfeld] and the entire team at BDG are one of those clients,” says Joe Laresca, founder and CEO of NOISE and creator of this campaign. “This is definitely out of the norm for a real estate company, and of course, partnering with The Chainsmokers is iconic, but being able to change an artist’s life and career trajectory is something we’re really proud of.”
There’s an anecdote in the opening pages of Together, Somehow where the book’s author, Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta, recounts a moment on the packed dance floor of the infamous Berlin nightclub Panorama Bar.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
In the telling, a young man squeezing through the mass of dancing, sweating bodies pauses in front of Garcia-Mispreta just long enough to utter the question, “Alles klar?” (“All good?”) to the raving ethnographer.
When Garcia-Mispireta responded affirmatively, “Ja Alles klar,” the nameless young man simply smiled, then, “he caressed my face along my jawline from ear to chin, and continued pushing his way through the crowd. I never saw him again.”
Such unsolicited touching would have been intrusive, if not utterly inappropriate, in most other environments. But for Garcia-Mispireta, the moment is a salient example of what he calls “stranger-intimacy,” a gesture that is simultaneously warm and impersonal. An interaction made permissible due to “corporeal copresence, a shared sensorium, and apparent aesthetic affinities.” Or as the academic author helpfully clarifies, “in the flesh, sharing space, atmosphere, and sensuous enjoyment.”
Contradictory behaviors like the one Garcia-Mispireta describes are common in subcultural communities like the underground house and techno scenes of Chicago, Paris and Berlin that serve as the focal point for Garcia-Mispireta’s 320-page study, full title, Together, Somehow: Music, Affect, and Intimacy on the Dancefloor, published this month by Duke University Press.
“My central argument in the book is that the vagueness of how we get together and get along is actually kind of how we continue to do it,” Garcia-Mispireta says on a Zoom call from the U.K., where he is an Associate Professor in Music at the University of Birmingham.
He continues, “It’s part of the way that nightlife scenes in general and club culture, rave culture specifically, manage this weird trick of bringing together crowds where there should be some significant reasons for fracturing and schisms. And instead, getting them to, not get along forever, but to hang out for a party and mostly not get on each other’s nerves.”
Pick up any book about electronic music (there aren’t very many to choose from) and the focus will inevitably be some version of the music’s historical narrative. Authors will make passing mention of the audience as part of the overall phenomenon while mainly focusing on the key artists, records and events that make up the chronological story. But none have delved this deeply into the physical contact that is as distinct to the overall experience of raving as the lights and music.
Take, for instance, Nick, a Chicago raver who told the author, “I’m definitely, to this day, more intimate with my friends in the techno scene than my other friends, in terms of touching, hugging, kissing.”
Or Lisette, a Paris raver who found herself “starved for touch,” according to Garcia-Mispireta, in her daily life in the reserved city.
And it’s not just personal touch that gets, er, touched on. Another chapter explores physical touch by musical soundwaves (“Sonic Tactility”), while others address the beautiful messiness of partying (“The Sweetness of Coming Undone”) and the less-beautiful exclusivity of clubbing (“Bouncers, Door Policies, and Embedded Diversity”). The author writes about each situation in a manner that is rigorous (and rigorously cited), considering psychological and sociological perspectives that leap from broadly human to deeply personal.
Technically, the boots-on-the-ground research conducted for this book took place from 2006-2010, in the cities listed in the subtitle. As such, the book can’t help but offer a window into the fallow decade between the Y2K crash and the EDM boom, when electronic music had largely retreated from mainstream attention.
“For the global North, that was when dance music was picking itself up from the 2000 bust — the end of the nineties,” Garcia-Mispireta explains. “2006 to 2010 was a period when there wasn’t actually a lot of money. Cities’ scenes like Paris and Chicago were struggling to organize events and get enough people out. And there wasn’t huge scrutiny from the outside.”
But documenting this slice of electronic music history is not the focus of Together, Somehow. And despite Garcia-Mispireta’s first-hand accounting, the book is not a memoir or exposé. It is an academic study categorized by its publisher as research in gender and sexuality, LGBTQ studies, music, ethnomusicology, cultural studies and affect theory. As such, you’re more likely to encounter the names of cited researchers in its pages rather than any of the DJs or producers who thrived in this era.
The names of clubs like Berghain (Berlin), SmartBar (Chicago) and Le Rex (Paris) are mentioned with regularity, but this is due to ethnographic rigor rather than the historical importance of specific venues. The fieldwork is balanced out by interviews with individuals conducted outside of the club environment.
The combination of theory, history and first-hand accounting makes Together, Somehow highly readable as far as academic books go. This was important to Garcia-Mispireta so that the book’s readership might extend beyond his fellow academics and into the community it analyzes.
“This is first and foremost an academic book,” he admits. “But I do want this to be a book where the community can see themselves. That’s why the flow is anecdote or vignette, then shift to theorizing, then shift back to storytelling, and so on.”
Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta
Courtesy Photo
The author is qualified to accomplish his dual agenda better than most because he is a card-carrying member of the community he studies. A “queer-presenting Latino dude” who sports gauged earrings and favors brightly-colored clothing that conflicts with the all-black aesthetic that dominates the techno scene, Garcia-Mispireta discovered raves growing up in Toronto, and went on to combine his passion for parties with his academic interest — the latter enabling the former via grants and post-doc positions.
His previous publications include articles with titles like “Techno-Tourism and Postindustrial Neo-Romanticism in Berlin’s Electronic Dance Music Scenes,” “Agonistic Festivities: Urban Nightlife Scenes and the Sociability of ‘Anti-Social’ Fun” and “Whose Refuge, This House? The Estrangement of Queers of Color in Electronic Dance Music.” He also writes for Resident Advisor (check out 2013’s “An Alternate History of Sexuality in Club Culture”) and gives lectures on subjects like “Bouncers, Door Policies, Multiculturalism.”
In 2014, Garcia-Mispireta helped establish Room 4 Resistance, a Berlin-based collective whose parties were among the first to put issues of “collective care, harm reduction, accessibility and experimentation” front and center. Some of R4R’s innovations, such as posting a highly–visible Code of Conduct in venues or having a taxi fund to help at-risk attendees get home safely, have become common practice for promoters around the world.
Garcia-Mispireta acknowledges that some of the light-touch intimacy he writes about in Together, Somehow might be seen to conflict with the safer spaces he works to create with R4R. He is careful to caveat the fine line between stranger intimacy and offensive behavior.
“I always want to keep in mind that there is tons of creepy-ass touching on the dance floor,” he states. “But nonetheless, as I talk to people, especially folks who were most likely to be vulnerable to bad touch — women, trans folks, folks of color, what have you — they would say ‘I have clear boundaries about this. And at the same time, these are the clubs I go to where I can be open with my body.’”
He proceeds to point out the interview subjects in the book for whom dance floor intimacy offers up a positive experience that is otherwise missing from their life.
“Often, there was initially a period of discomfort if they were new to these sort of norms around touch,” he explains. “But for some people, they’ve awoken to an appetite for a kind of human contact that they didn’t get elsewhere.”
Like all things involving humans, the behavior Garcia-Mispireta studies is nuanced. And messy. And constantly changing as culture evolves. Fortunately, researchers like him are working to identify these knotty interactions, even if the ultimate goal isn’t to untangle them. In a world where people are increasingly divided, the appeal of togetherness is hard to ignore.
“My argument is that a lot of [intimacy on the dance floor] happens precisely because we don’t actually know all that much about each other,” he concludes. “We’re happy to sort of sit with that kind of strangerhood within the space of the party.”
Courtesy Photo
In Bram Stoker’s 1897 classic novel Dracula, the titular count consumes the blood of those who cross his path, using the substance to gain terrible strength and power.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Untold Festival, a dance music festival that’s happened in Romania’s Transylvania region annually since 2015, has used this regional vampire folklore to also gain power and give strength, but in this case for a very good cause.
With its Blood Network program, Untold has collected thousands of gallons of blood over the last eight years, with donations going to medical centers throughout Romania. In exchange for their blood, donors receive a complimentary day pass for the festival, the eighth iteration of which took place this past weekend (August 3-6), hosting roughly 420,000 attendees. The lineup featured more than 200 genre-spanning dance artists including Eric Prydz, David Guetta, Bebe Rexha, Amelie Lens and Tale Of Us, along with headliners including Armin van Buuren and Imagine Dragons.
“We thought, ‘What if we make a campaign based on the idea that vampires from Transylvania usually suck blood — but in this case they don’t suck blood, but [rather] donate it?’” Untold co-founder Edy Chereji tells Billboard.
From this simple, sanguine premise, Untold Festival launched their blood drive campaign in tandem with 2015’s debut festival. Initially called Pay with Blood, this Year One campaign got 1,500 Romanians to donate blood at transfusion centers around the eastern European country, which borders Hungary, Serbia and Ukraine. The mountainous, forested Transylvania region is in the heart of Romania, with Untold taking place at the Cluj Arena in the region’s metropolis city of Cluj-Napoca.
Beyond helping people, the campaign helped get the word out about the event, which upon its launch became Romania’s largest electronic music festival. It remains one of the only dance music festivals in the greater region, drawing fans from throughout Romania, along with Bulgaria, Moldavia, Ukraine, Albania and Greece. In 2016, Untold’s parent company, Untold Universe, launched a second event, Neversea, which takes place in the Romanian beach town of Constanța. A winter event, Massif, takes place in the ski town of Poiana Brasov, and Untold will launch another dance festival in Dubai next February.
But despite these national and international moves, Blood Network remains quite local. In its second year, Blood Network donors were able to give blood at both transfusion centers and via a mobile donation center that traveled around the country and which has since become a standard facet of the campaign. Donors can show up to this donation center on wheels, give their blood and immediately receive a free day pass for the fest.
Ahead of this year’s Untold, the caravan touched down in 12 Romanian cities between May and June. During this period, more than 5,000 donors gave more than 2,200 liters (roughly 580 gallons) of blood, with thousands of gallons also collected over previous years. Blood Network partners with doctors from Regina Maria Private Healthcare to coordinate these blood drives, with Regina Maria also receiving the collected blood.
While many dance events have charitable components, arguably few have the immediate effects of Blood Network, which isn’t just a festival marketing tool but a provider of life-saving blood in a country where it’s acutely needed. “Unfortunately, the donation in Romania is low, around 2% of Romanians donate blood,” says Ania Vladescu, Strategic Partnerships Manager at Romania’s Regina Maria Private Healthcare. “The Blood Network campaign created by Untold is very good, necessary and welcomed — it helps a lot.”
Vladescu estimates that over the last eight years, the campaign has gathered more than 37,000 donors, whose blood has helped and saved the lives of more than 100,000 people. She adds that blood donated by one person can save three lives.
“Anyone else who would have done such a campaign, anywhere in the world, would not have had the same trigger of authenticity as Untold, being a festival in the heart of Transylvania, the so-called land of Dracula,” Vladescu adds. “The vampire who normally sucks blood, this time invites you to donate blood to help people who suffer and save their lives.”
Anyone familiar with the world of deadmau5 is well-aware of the producer’s cat, Meowingtons.
The artist has announced he’s saying goodbye to the 16-year-old feline, due to, he wrote, “some cat medical bulls–t.” In a statement posted to Instagram Monday (Aug. 7), deadmau5 shared that “yeah meowingtons is just a f—en cat, but I’ll just say to me, he’s one of my best friends.”
“i don’t say that casually,” the statement continues. “16 years. he was my peace and quiet from the beginning of this bats— crazy rollercoaster career… the entire ride. no matter how frustrated, exhausted, depressed, stressed the f— out ive been, there he is. being the first person i see when i get home from some crazy flight and lugging my bags to the front door… watching his little floor duster wobble while he comes to welcome me home… the first person i see in the morning, and the last one i see at night when i’m ready to f—en clock out on the bed.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“well due to some cat medical bulls–t, tomorrow I have to help him cross the rainbow bridge. my heart is broken… it’s really a personal issue and normally i keep things to myself and I can kinda work through it on my own, but professor meowingtons phd is so special to all of us, i felt like i should let you know because he’s touched so many lives in stupid ways.”
The statement goes on to note that the producer, born Joel Zimmerman, will be taking “a small break” while he navigates the loss. The next scheduled deadmau5 show is Aug. 13 at Montreal’s ÎleSoniq Music Festival.
The artist provided a brief update on Tuesday (Aug. 8). In an Instagram post showing socked feet with chips crumbled around, deadmau5 wrote that he was spending some quality time at home with his beloved cat before saying goodbye. “he is very happy and lucid and isn’t suffering at all… we’re having a good time,” Zimmerman captioned the post. “He destroyed half a bag of doritos, so he’s in a good spot.”
Meowingtons is indeed well known to deadmau5 fans. In 2011, the Canadian artist launched the Meowingtons Hax Tour, naming the compilation LP made for this tour the Meowingtons Hax Tour Trax. Meowingtons’ image also graced the cover of the 2012 deadmau5 classic >album title goes here
This week in dance music: Kylie Minogue reached No. 1 on Dance Mix Show/Airplay with her unstoppable “Padam Padam” and we explored how the time honored tradition of the slow dance is shifting for Gen Z.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
And new music? We’ve got loads of it. Here are the best new dance tracks of the week.
Nia Archives, “Bad Gyalz”
[embedded content]
The Label: HIJINXX/Island Release
The Spiel: The U.K. jungle producer’s last few months have included opening for Beyoncé on the London stop of her Renaissance tour, a Coachella debut and very buzzy shows at Glastonbury and Primavera. Archives keeps this big time momentum going with her latest, “Bad Gyalz,” a cool, catchy ode to the junglist ladies turning out for her shows, which continue through the summer and fall with dates throughout Europe and Asia.
The Artist Says: “I was on ma way to the studio with Clipz listening to Ranking Ann who is one of my fave MCs — period. And then I was just thinking about tha fact that like, whenever I go to one of my shows, it’s 85% women ages 18 -25 which is so amazing! And they are all baddies, absolute junglists. So I wanted to make a song that represents that and tha women that come to ma raves. And that’s how ‘Bad Gyalz’ was born!”
The Vibe: Blissfully sweaty on a packed dancefloor with all your fellow gyalz.
David Guetta & Bebe Rexha, “One In a Million”
[embedded content]
The Label: Warner Records
The Spiel: As Guetta and Rexha continue their major Hot Dance/Electronic Songs hot streak with “Good (I’m Blue)” — which is currently sitting at No. 1 in its 48th week on the chart — the pair double down on their collaborative magic with “One In a Million.” As Guetta layers up characteristically peppy piano stabs Rexha declares, “I can’t believe we’re both alive at the same time” in her signature chromatic purr, altogether creating the euphoric, unabashedly saccharine dance vibes that both are so skilled at, and are especially good at together.
The Vibe: Screaming along in the car, certain you sound excellent.
Grabbitz & bbno$, “Ticking Away”
[embedded content]
The Label: Riot Games
The Spiel: A leader in the headbanging space where electronic music meets rock, Grabbitz returns with another banger in that realm, “TICKING AWAY.” A collaboration with rapper bbno$, the propulsive, deliciously heavy song is the official anthem for the VALORANT Champions Tour, for which the Riot Games’ brand will host performances and activations around Los Angeles (including an event with Brownies & Lemonade on Aug. 23), leading up to the VALORANT Champions Finals on Aug. 26 where Grabbitz and bbno$ will perform the song live for the first time.
The Artist Says: “It’s been an honor to work with VALORANT for three years in a row now,” says Grabbitz. “To see the impact the songs have had on the community and the players has been astonishing.”
The Vibe: Riding the rail (of your favorite first-person tactical hero shooter game.)
Spencer Brown, Wilt Claybourne & Ladysmith Black Mambazo, “Awu Wemadoda”
[embedded content]
The Label: diviine
The Spiel: Spencer Brown comes hot out the gates with “Awu Wemadoda,” the lead single from his third studio album Equanimity, set for release this fall. A collaboration with the legendary South African choral outfit Ladysmith Black Mambazo and producer Wilt Claybourne, the song is a beauty — breezy, soothing, uplifting and the very essence of the title of the album from whence it comes.
The Artist Says: “Every day, I saw a rapid-fire stream of contradictions: sugar-coated highlight reels balanced by extremism and negativity from the news, designed to game our emotions for attention,” Brown says of life during the pandemic. “After enough nights driven by pain and uncertainty, I realized that all I can control is how I let external stimuli affect my being. At first, I tried to eliminate the things causing my day to worsen; then, I realized I had to be OK with them. I had to accept difficulties and let them pass through me. During this period, a friend introduced me to the concept of equanimity, describing it as “calmness and composure, especially in a difficult situation.” This was the exact skill I had unknowingly been trying to find. But like a muscle, it takes time to engrain deep strength in the core. In reality, peace exists around us if we can stay unaffected by the noise. Written between 2019 and 2023, Equanimity describes how I learned to be OK when external stimuli are out of my control. All we can do is work on how we react to the world around us.”
The Vibe: Calmness, composure, cathartic dancing.
Swedish House Mafia, “Ray Of Solar”
[embedded content]
The Label: Republic Records
The Spiel: The Swedes swing for the fences on their latest single “Ray Of Solar.” Built around a sort of spooky, crystalline vocal from singer Tove Burman, the production ramps up quickly and heavily with a sudden wave of piano stabs and a stuttering synth hitting peak time mode around the 1:30-minute mark. The song follows “See The Light,” with the pair of tracks expected to serve as the two lead singles for a new upcoming SHM studio album.
The Artists Say: “Once we recorded these vocals we really got transcended to space,” the trio say in a joint statement. “We listened to it on repeat all night and imagined floating in space. This is the summer record for us and even though we’ve heard it a million times and still feel the power of it, it’s a really special one, the unique vocal with our style of writing melodies makes it special! Doing this together with Tove was incredible as we really felt we gave it a true Nordic sonic landscape. We love every second of it and can’t wait for the world to hear it!”
The Vibe: Sonic strobe light.
Kylie Minogue rises to No. 1 on Billboard’s Aug. 5-dated Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart with “Padam Padam.”
The song gained 16% in plays July 21-27, according to Luminate. In all but one of its six chart weeks dating back to its July 1 debut, it has made double-digit percentage gains.
By climbing to the top, Minogue replaces Rita Ora’s “Praising You,” which features Fatboy Slim via a sample of his 1999 classic “Praise You.” That track had been No. 1 since before “Padam” entered the chart, beginning its six-week reign on the June 24-dated tally.
The two No. 1s before Ora’s were also collaborations, with David Guetta, Anne-Marie and Coi Leray teaming up on “Baby Don’t Hurt Me” (three weeks) and Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding on “Miracles” (two). On average, collaborations have ruled for three of every four weeks in the last three years (73% of the last 157 frames), with Minogue one of just nine solo women to get to No. 1 since summer 2020.
But Minogue is no stranger to the top spot, though it has been a while. She last led with “Red Blooded Woman,” for two weeks in May 2004. That track was sandwiched between her other top 10s: “Slow” reached No. 7 in 2003 and “I Believe In You” hit No. 4 in 2005 (marking her last top 10 until “Padam”).
“Padam Padam” is Minogue’s second Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart-topper and 10th chart entry, although her career pre-dates the list’s 2003 launch; she first reached rankings in 1988. She boasts five top 10s on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, with Disco having become her first No. 1 in November 2020.
Meanwhile, being promoted to pop and adult radio, “Padam Padam” — the lead single from Minogue’s album Tension, due Sept. 22 — debuts at No. 40 on the Adult Pop Airplay chart. It’s her first entry on the chart since “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” which reached No. 23 in April 2002. That song became her second of two top 10s, reaching No. 7, on the all-genre, multimetric Billboard Hot 100, after “The Loco-Motion” hit No. 3 in November 1988.