Dance
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It seems hard to imagine now, what with all the provocative TikToks, trap remixes and tour announcements in which she asks Amy Schumer how she licks a certain part of her husband’s anatomy. But there was a time back in the mid-1990s when Madonna appeared to be settling into adult contemporary respectability.
There was Something to Remember, the 1995 compilation that rounded up her ballads. A year later came Evita, the big-screen adaptation of a Broadway musical that saw her belt out Andrew Lloyd Webber-composed classics like “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” (and nabbed her a Golden Globe). Not to mention her mid-‘90s smash “Take a Bow” — a demure, lush love song co-written by Babyface that topped the Adult Contemporary chart and became her longest-running Hot 100 No. 1 ever.
Of course, they don’t call Madge the Master of Reinvention for nothing. Exquisitely co-produced by then-relatively unknown ambient maestro William Orbit, her seventh studio album, Ray of Light, proved to be her most forward-thinking, a vibrant amalgamation of trip-hop, trance, techno and countless other electronic genres that don’t necessarily begin with the letter ‘T.’
Heavily informed by the birth of her daughter Lourdes and her newfound interest in all things spiritual, Ray of Light undeniably restored Madonna’s reputation as the Queen of Pop. Not only did it notch the highest first-week sales by a female artist in the Nielsen SoundScan Era up until that point, but it spawned four Hot 100 hits, won four Grammy Awards and has sold 3.9 million copies in the U.S., per Luminate. It’s also generated 123.1 million on-demand official U.S. streams to date, according to Luminate.
In celebration of its 25th anniversary (Feb. 22), here’s a ranking of the career-defining record which proved that she could still very much dance.
“I can’t believe we threw a rave at Madison Square Garden,” Skrillex announced at the mid-way point of his marathon set at the venue Saturday night (Feb. 18.) in New York City.
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Indeed, gazing around around the packed arena — where hanging Knicks jerseys were lit with the flickery glow of the six disco balls spinning for the show — the vibe was vastly more Boiler Room than big room, with loads of fans in sunglasses, fuzzy hats, bunny ears and other ravey paraphernalia altogether giving the arena a loose, festive, familial feel that ramped up in tandem with the music during the five-hour headlining show from Skrillex, Four Tet and Fred again…
Indeed, after a long absence, dance music was back at the Garden for a night that felt ecstatic, historic and rare. Throughout the evening both Skrillex and Fred again.. noted that playing MSG had been Four Tet’s idea, and what a stroke of genius it was, with the show selling out two — yes, two — minutes after going on sale the Wednesday (Feb. 15) prior, after having been announced just earlier that day.
The trio — key figureheads from different generations of dance music who’ve been referring to each other as “brothers” in their recent Instagram posts — played b2b2b from 7p.m. until the house lights came back on at midnight. It was altogether the climax of a week-long commandeering of New York City, with the guys playing small room pop-up shows in Brooklyn and Manhattan on Tuesday and Thursday and on Friday (Feb. 17) pulling a crowd of thousands to Times Square to celebrate that day’s release of Skrillex’s sophomore album, Quest For Fire.
This masterclass of album rollout hype-building began in January with a litany of new Skrillex singles, with the impeccably orchestrated effort reaching a place beyond frenzy last night when, around 10:30 p.m., Skrillex got on the mic to announce “I dropped an album last night, and I dropped another one right now.”
Indeed, the 20,000-person celebration for Quest For Fire incorporated the surprise release of Don’t Get Too Close, the second Skrillex album in 24 hours and his third in nine years, with the pair of LPs coming after the long stretch following the producer’s 2014 debut, Recess. “Surpriiiiise!” Skrillex said upon announcing this second album, which features Justin Bieber, Pink PinkPantheress and Bibi Bourelly among others, and which Skrillex described as “not really as much rave music as something you guys can listen to on the way home.”
This was just one of many high points of the extended affair, with Fred — wearing a black T-shirt and saggy khakis — getting on the mic at 8:15 p.m. to advise a crowd steadily filling out the venue from the pit to the rafters that, “We’ve got four more hours. We’re going to build this thing slow.”
Indeed, the show started with the house lights on, with the scene and sound, as promised, growing darker, louder and more intense (think lots of lasers, the aforementioned disco balls and, inevatibly, a burst of white confetti) as they together played the breadth of Skrillex catalog, from classic collabs like “Where Are Ü Now” with Jack Ü and Bieber and “In Da Ghetto” with J. Balvin, to long stretches of straight-up body pummeling dubstep including the all-time Skrillex classic “Bangarang” (special shout out to everyone in Section 106, rows 1-5, who all headbanged in tandem), along with every track from Quest For Fire, a deeply texturous, sophisticated, heavy, smart, danceable and often euphoric album that’s not only been extremely well received in the 60 hours since its release, but which sounds even better through stadium speakers.
Quest For Fire‘s Lead single “Rumble” — which based on the crowd reaction can be filed as a new classic less than two months after its release — was rinsed at least four times, with plays later in the night trading the “killers in the jungle” lyrics for “Skrillex in the jungle, Fred again.. in the jungle, Four Tet is in the jungle.” The words became a sort of mantra for the show itself and the three artists at its center, who powered the sweaty, loud, often raucous party from a simple set-up located on a slightly raised platform on the floor of the Garden. While MSG famously became an EDM prestige play during the genre boom 10 years ago, Saturday night the vibe was much more pared down from the massive stage setups of old, reflecting the maturation of the U.S. scene itself.
Added to this friend group was Porter Robinson, who came out to play his ecstatic Quest For Fire closer “Still Here (with the ones that I came with)” a sentiment that felt especially special and true given the duration of Robinson and Skrillex’s friendship. (“I love you,” Robinson told Skrillex over the mic, the only thing he said during his appearance.) Everything else from Quest For Fire — particularly “Tears,” “Hydrate and “Inhale Exhale” — sounded tough, rich, massive and the right kind of aggressive. It was especially thrilling when Skrill stretched out the Missy Elliott featuring “RATATA” — winding the crowd up by stop-starting five or so times until letting it play out, to ecstatic effect.
“This is a very special night,” Skrillex announced amidst this long tease. “This night will never happen again.”
But while Skrillex was the reason for the season, it was also very much Fred Again.. and Four Tet’s show. Each of the U.K. producers played their own biggest songs, including Fred’s “Kammy (like i do),” “Strong” and “Jungle” — the latter of which came near the end of the set and created such intense energy rush throughout the crowd that a lot of people were simply just screaming with their hands in the air. Four Tet, dressed first in a pink hoodie and then a pink T-shirt, was playful as always, remixing Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” over percussion-heavy IDM while dropping loads of riddim and U.K. bass, along with his most recent hit “Looking at Your Pager” and his edit slow-build edit of Donna Lewis’ “I Love You Always Forever,” which deserves an official release and which saw many in the crowd FaceTiming those who couldn’t be there, with those joining via screen seen dancing in their respective kitchens and living rooms.
It was, as intended, a special night, with the factors leading to show creating a singular energy that everyone in the room could feel — and that Fred, Four Tet and Skrillex seemed acutely aware of throughout the evening.
“A couple of days ago, we were in the Empire State Building just hanging out, and I had to go downstairs to make a phone call,” Skrillex announced at one point. “I knew we had just put the tickets on sale for this show. I thought maybe the day of, maybe we’ll almost sell out — you know, maybe. But then Kieran comes downstairs and he’s like, ‘It’s done. It’s done mate.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean it’s done?’ He’s like, ‘It’s done, all the tickets are done.’ I almost fainted, all the blood rushed out of my face.”
Whether or not this supergroup will continue beyond Saturday night remains to be seen, but the show demonstrated how much cross-collaboration they’ve done over a relatively short time, with Four Tet on Quest For Fire‘s “Butterflies,” Four Tet working on Fred’s “Jungle,” Fred working on “Rumble,” etc. What’s certain is that the NYC takeover and the music that’s powered it has, if only ephemeral, been a meeting of the masters, with Saturday night pulling a Venn diagram of the fans who love them. Many younger fans knew more Fred than Four Tet songs, with others in the crowd dancing more heavily to Four Tet’s output and pretty much everyone in attendance going hard for Skrillex, who 12 years after exploding into the scene, remains one of its best and most beloved artists.
“I want to thank everyone here so much for just being here,” Skrill continued in his speech. “It’s simple, it’s not that deep, we’re just here dancing together. I really like this crowd, everyone here looks really respectful. Everyone’s got room to dance, everyone’s taking care of each other; everyone’s allowing each other to be themselves. We’re all family out here. There’s enough s–t going on in the world. We can have this moment right now and just love each other and appreciate the differences in each other and love each other for the different parts. Fred, Kieran and I are all from different backgrounds, but somehow we made it on the stage at MSG with all you people, and, I don’t know — that’s it.”
Skrillex — who started the night in a black puffer jacket and who by the end was wearing a Skrillex jersey given to him by someone in the crowd along with a towel on his head — then spent the next several minutes just standing on the decks, soaking up the the energy of the arena as thousands of fans held their phone flashlights in the air and cheered for him. One felt truly happy for the guy, who — after previously addressing that he’s had a tough year following the death of his mother– has returned in rare form with an excellent album (two, actually) a sold-out show at one of the world’s prestige venues and backing from a pair of good pals who also just happen to be fellow scene heroes.
Perhaps Skrillex could have done it all on his own, but certainly it felt better and more special to celebrate alongside friends. That same energy extended into the the crowd, where people who’d been strangers at the beginning of the night were seen hugging each other goodbye, grateful to have shared the experience.
The set fittingly wrapped with a mashup of Skrillex’s 2011 “Cinema” remix, Four Tet’s “Teenage Birdsong” and Fred’s “Danielle (smile on my face)” then a Skrillex-led singalong of Fred’s “Billie (loving arms.)” Fred, who spent a good deal of the show dancing on the decks, then got on the mic once more, closing the night with incredulous gratitude.
“Thank you so much for coming out tonight,” he said. “I swear, it is the honor of our lives, thank you so much. We will never forget this. What is going on?”
We’re halfway through February, and there’s a massive new batch of music to sift through by everyone from P!nk to Skrillex. With so many new options, we want to know which new release you’ll have on repeat going into Presidents’ Day Weekend.
The pop veteran unfurled her ninth studio album, Trustfall, complete with singles “Never Gonna Not Dance Again,” the anthemic title track and “When I Get There” as well as guest features from The Lumineers, First Aid Kit and Chris Stapleton, while Skrillex dropped his long-awaited sophomore album Quest for Fire. The follow-up to 2014’s Recess features high-octane collabs with the likes of Missy Elliott, Fred Again, Pete Wentz, Porter Robinson and Joker.
Meanwhile, Janelle Monáe teamed up with Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 to deliver carefree new single “Float,” and Niall Horan kicked off a new era with “Heaven,” the swoon-worthy lead single off his upcoming third solo album, The Show.
Plus, Omar Apollo treated fans to the dreamy mathematical rebound conundrum that is “3 Boys” — his first single in the wake of his star-making 2022 debut Ivory. And Polo G tapped Future for the contemplative “No Time Wasted.”
Depending on how your Valentine’s Day went, you also have Kelsea Ballerini‘s post-divorce EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat and Caroline Polachek‘s hot-and-heavy new studio set Desire, I Want to Turn Into You to keep on rotation as you work out the emotional rollercoaster that is love.
No matter what you’re listening to this weekend, vote for your favorite release in Billboard‘s weekly new music poll below.
This week in dance music: Diplo’s Mad Decent Publishing sold its catalog to Iconoclast, the masters Depeche Mode made an appearance on Hot Trending Songs, Skrillex, Fred again.. and Four Tet announced a set at Madison Square Garden happening tomorrow (Feb. 18) night, we unpacked the story of a Twitch channel recreating the sound of legendary New York club Danceteria each week, Alison Wonderland, Kaskade and GRiZ were announced as part of the lineup for Insomniac’s Moonrise fest this August, DJ Hanzel dropped by the Billboard News studio to talk major s–t about his nemesis Dillon Francis, Beyoncé’s dance output saw chart surges in the wake of her Grammy wins and Skrillex released his sophomore album, Quest For Fire.
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That’s a lot, but you know there’s more. Let’s dig in.
Icona Pop & Galantis, “I Want You”
Valentine’s Day may have come and gone for 2023, but it’s still not too late to shoot your shot. Don’t know how? Allow Icona Pop and Galantis to assist. The trio have teamed up on a catchy dance tune for Ultra Records: “I Want You,” which basically says for you all the things you wish you had the courage to say to your kinda, maybe, possibly-boo. “We don’t have to play these games,” sing Icona Pop. Their vocals smolder and swell alongside Galantis’ production, a series of windswept breakdowns, euphoric synth stabs and throbbing choruses to turn up the heat. “I Want You” is sweet and definitely not subtle. — KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ
LP Giobbi feat. Little Jet, “Can’t Let You Go”
“Once in a while, you get shown the lights in the strangest of places if you look at it right.” That’s a lyric from the Grateful Dead’s “Scarlet Begonias,” a song that means an awful lot to LP Giobbi’s dad, and therefore LP herself. She actually just got the line tattooed on her arm, and it also served as the inspiration for the title of her recently announced debut album, Light Places.
“I am grateful and proud to be raised by two magnificent Dead Heads who have danced their way through life seeking joy, sharing love and cherishing moments,” LP says. Today, we can all dance our way toward the album’s full release on May 12 with the help of its fourth single. “Can’t Let You Go,” with Little Jet, is a psychedelic slice of prog-rock cool that melts into a sturdy foundation of bass-walking groove. A vintage veneer shimmers across its disco-tized surface, fitting nicely into the style of preceding singles “All In A Dream,” “Forever And A Day” and “Body Breathe.” The full album is due out on Ninja Tune’s Counter Records. Let the countdown begin. – KAT BEIN
Kx5 & Sofi Tukker, “Sacrifice”
“Will you sacrifice for me if I don’t sacrifice for you?” Kx5 (Kaskade x deadmau5) ask the uncomfortable questions on their latest single “Sacrifice,” a collaboration with Sofi Tukker. Somehow, Sofi Tukker member Sophie Hawley-Weld’s soft vocals come off as vulnerable and uneasy against the brooding production, whose atmospheric melodies erupt into rip-roaring techno. It’s a fraught battle between light and dark, where the darkness ultimately comes out with the edge.
“This song stings with the truth. It’s ultimately about ambition and about choosing yourself and your job over someone you love,” writes Sofi Tukker. “It’s one of our favorite songs we’ve ever written, in part because it comes from such an honest and real place.” — K.R.
Vindata feat. Ozer, “No Service”
You ever hear your phone vibrate and feel like throwing it at the wall? Sounds like you might need to head to a spot with “No Service” and just let the vibe ride. Luckily, Vindata’s first single of the year is here to inspire inner peace via some garage-style synth layers and lightly broken beats. It’s a real “disconnect to connect” moment, and it feels like the absolute right path for a funkdafied future.
“I’m really excited to kick-off 2023 with ‘No Service,’” Vindata’s Branden Ratcliff says. “I think this song sets the tone for much of the direction I’m heading in creatively.” “‘No Service’ is my first track into the EDM/house sound, and what better way than to do a silky and fly track with the one and only Vindata,” vocalist Ozer adds. “Vibe out to the track and put your phone on airplane mode to avoid life’s distractions. Sorry for not replying. All 2023, I don’t have ‘No Service.’” – K. Bein
HUGEL x Ryan Arnold x El Chuape, “Pa Lante”
French producer HUGEL may be an unlikely source of Latin house music, but as the internet makes the world and dance scene ever more connected and compact, today we get the dually steamy/hyphy “Pa Lante.” A collaboration with U.K. producer Ryan Arnold and the Dominican Republic’s El Chuape, the song is a white-hot peaktime anthem for those parties where the dancefloor is just the beach. The collab also marks a big moment for HUGEL, following his recent collaboration with BLOND:ISH, a remix of Madonna’s “Sorry.” — KATIE BAIN
Tiësto & Cristobal Tapia De Veer, “Renaissance” (The White Lotus Theme) [Remix]
The White Lotus‘ season two theme song has already been subject to a series of excellent bootleg remixes, and now Tiësto has gone ahead and made it official with his very own, very HBO-sanctioned edit of the track. A staple of Tiësto sets for the last few months, the edit turns up the BPM and the intensity on the yodel-ey heater, giving it the same ominous-but-sexy vibe as say, a luxury hotel perched on the edge of a cliff in Sicily. “As a huge fan of The White Lotus I couldn’t be more excited to be releasing the official remix” said Tiësto. “I was instantly hooked on the theme song so I had to put my spin on it for my live sets… every time I play it, the crowd goes crazy! I’m thrilled HBO wanted to partner and make it official.” — K. Bain
Let’s start by taking a moment to consider the landscape in 2014. EDM was EDM-ing hard as DJs became the new rock stars, made insane bags, pulled in giant crowds and took over top 40 in a way never before seen or heard in the U.S.
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It was a wild, heady, thrilling and often extremely silly figureheads. With his fantastically aggressive, machinistic dubstep, the SoCal-based producer pushed forward the sound of electronic music at large with a style dismissed by many Serious Cultural Critics as “brostep,” but which nonetheless thrilled thousands of kids in the pits at his shows along with many cultural gatekeepers. Skrillex won three Grammys (and earned a best new artist nomination) in 2012, as he achieved global fame during an apex period punctuated by the release of his 2014 debut album, Recess, his only full-length to date.
Until today! Riding a tsunami of hype with a steady stream of single releases, Skrillex’s sophomore album, Quest For Fire, was unveiled on Friday (Feb. 17) via his own longstanding label OWSLA and Atlantic Records. Certainly much attention gets paid to the EDM veterans dropping albums amidst this new era of electronic music, with mixed reactions to last year’s albums by Calvin Harris and Swedish House Mafia, who have both changed their sounds significantly since the boom days.
But with Quest For Fire, Skrillex eschews overt reinvention. Instead, he presents music clearly made from the same DNA as his older stuff, but which has grown and evolved in the same way the scene has, and we have, and Skrillex — now 35 — has. (The album overtly references the earlier days, with opener “Leave Me Like This” sampling the iconic “OH MY GOD” from 2011’s “First Of The Year” and the 48-second “Warped Tour 05 With Pete Wentz” composed of a recording of Skrillex, then known as First To Last Singer Sonny Moore, doing a backstage interview with Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz.)
But while Quest For Fire nods to the past, it’s ultimately ultra-fresh, highlighting the impeccable sound design that Skrillex has always been a master of, while embracing and expanding his bass origins. The album incorporates D’n’B, grime, IDM and hip-hop in ways that are inventive, artful, emotional and often just plain hyphy fun. (To wit, five of the album’s previously released singles are currently on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs.)
At 15 tracks, the album is weighty but without filler, incorporating a party’s worth of collaborators including Missy Elliott, Aluna, Fred Again.., Porter Robinson, Starrah, Noisia, Four Tet, Mr. Oizo, PEEKABOO, Kito and more. It seems reasonable to anticipate that many of them will be in attendance on Saturday night (Feb. 18) when Skrillex celebrates the album release with a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden.
In the meantime, here are five essential, previously unreleased tracks from Quest For Fire.
“RATATA” Feat. Missy Elliott & Mr. Oizo
Skrillex and Missy Elliott have crossed paths before (see the Missy remix of Jack Ü’s “Take Ü There“), but here, Skrillex builds a bridge between their two catalogs with a spare update of Elliott’s all-time hit “Work It.” Skrillex goes wild with “this the kind of beat that goes ra-ta-ta” from that 2002 track, isolating that moment and expanding it, with Elliott’s voice spread out all over spare, plucky percussion while she delivers brand-new flows at a rapid-fire pace. The track is a co-production with French legend Mr. Oizo, one of many genre-spanning icons contributing to the star-studded LP.
“Tears” Feat. Joker & Sleepnet
A bass track that favors brooding waves of synth and galactic laser sounds over hitting listeners over the heads with bricks of low end, “Tears” is a richly complex collaboration with British dubstep star Joker and Sleepnet, the new project from Noisia’s Nik Roos. The brooding track ends with a spare skittering that segues immediately into the similarly vibed “Rumble.”
“Inhale Exale” Feat. Aluna & Kito
Skrillex and Australian producer Kito take the iconic voice of Aluna and chop it to bits so that her directive to “inhale, exhale” sounds like a fight for life. An ambulance siren punctuates the production, and she then declares, “too high, gotta come down” while passing thunderclouds of low end add an ominous feel.
“Hydrate” Feat. Flowdan, BEAM & PEEKABOO
UK grime MC Flowdan had a breakout moment on Quest For Fire‘s lead single “Rumble,” and here he gets even more screen time, entering with massive swagger and declaring with a growley flow that “it’s simple, not complicated, so when it’s hot, just stay hydrated.” Flowdan’s entrance on the track marks an ominous turn after the song starts with Jamaican-American singer/rapper Beam brightly singing about “life abundance.” The tough, deliciously womp-ey track is a collaboration with longstanding bass producer PEEKABOO, who gets more of the spotlight he’s always deserved.
“Still Here (with the ones that I came with)” Feat. Porter Robinson and Bibi Bourelly
Arguably the mission statement of the entire project, “Sitll Here” finds Skrillex, Porter Robinson and Bibi Bourelly ending the album with sweetness and buoyancy via an homage to riding with the same crew now that you have for all these years. (And if you remember that iconic photo of Skrillex, Robinson and Zedd from the heyday, you know the track’s sentiment is very much true.) With bright, emotive production that sounds like it’s been touched by fellow Quest For Fire collaborator Fred again.., Bourelly sings the song’s title on a loop — a declaration that feels like a victory that’s perhaps a bit hard-won but ultimately euphoric, like the best moments in life.
Feel the rumble? After a long nine years, Skrillex is back today (Feb. 17), with his sophomore album, Quest For Fire.
The LP drops amidst a very big moment for our guy Sonny Moore, who came hard out the gates in January with a litany of new singles, starting with the Fred again.. and Flowdan collab “Rumble.”
That track is its sixth week on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, where it peaked at No. 10 and is currently lodged at No. 16. “Rumble” was followed by “Leave Me Like This” with Bobby Raps (currently at No. 25 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs), “Way Back” with PinkPantheress and Trippie Redd (currently at No. 29), “Xena” with Nai Barghouti (currently at No. 21), “Real Spring” with Bladee (currently at No. 40) and “Don’t Get Too Close” with Bibi Bourelly.
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In addition to taking over the chart, Skrill is currently also taking over New York City, playing a pop up set with Fred again.. and Four Tet at Good Room in Brooklyn this past Tuesday and the trio doing another small room show last night (Feb. 16) at LPR in lower Manhattan.
In a serious demonstration of going big or going home, the guys — who’ve been referring to each other as brothers in their IG posts — will close out the week with a show at Madison Square Garden this Saturday, February 18. Tickets sold out in less than three minutes, demonstrating the zeal for Skrillex and the continued market value of electronic music.
But first, Quest For Fire. It’s stacked with assists, including guest spots from the likes of Missy Elliott, Pete Wentz, Swae Lee, Four Tet, Mr. Oizo and many more. Stream it in full below.
Beyoncé, fresh off her historic wins at the Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, takes more honors on Billboard‘s Feb. 18-dated dance/electronic charts.
On the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, the superstar enjoys a 13th week at No. 1 with Renaissance, which won the best dance/electronic album Grammy (among her four wins this year, upping her career total to a record-breaking 32). The set earned 37,000 equivalent album units, up 109%, in the Feb. 3-9 tracking week, according to Luminate.
On the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs survey, the set’s lead single “Break My Soul” bounds 9-6, earning the top Streaming Gainer award with 3.5 million official U.S. streams, up 41%. The track, which dominated the chart for 11 weeks last July-September and won the Grammy for best dance/electronic recording, also sold 1,600 downloads, up 30%, and drew 4.3 million radio airplay audience impressions, up 18%.
Concurrently, “Break” bolts 5-4 on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart and 18-7 on Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs. It spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on each tally, as well as five frames atop Dance/Mix Show Airplay.
David Guetta and Bebe Rexha roll back to No. 1 for a 20th week atop Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales with “I’m Good (Blue),” The track – nominated for the best dance/electronic recording at the Grammy Awards – sold 9,000 downloads, up 118%. The track ties DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s “Turn Down for What” (2014-15) for the seventh-most weeks at the summit in the chart’s 13-year history; Elton John and Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)” ruled for a record 44 frames in August 2021-June 2022.
“Good” claims top Sales Gainer honors on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, racking up a 21st week at No. 1, the ninth-most dating to the chart’s January 2013 premiere. In addition to its sales, “Good” collected 76.9 million airplay impressions and 11 million streams Feb. 3-9.
“Good” also adds a 14th week at No. 1 on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, tying “Cold Heart” and Rihanna’s “We Found Love,” featuring Calvin Harris (2011-12), for the sixth-most weeks on top since the chart’s August 2003 inception; the Chainsmokers’ “Closer,” featuring Halsey, leads with 20 weeks at No. 1 in 2016.
Shifting to Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs, P!nk powers into the top 10 with “Trustfall,” up 12-6 in its second week. Her first top 10 on the chart totaled 4 million streams, up 35%.
Also noteworthy on Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales is Depeche Mode‘s second-ever showing with “Ghosts Again,” new at No. 12. The Feb. 9-released track, from the band’s album Memento Mori (due March 24), sold 900 downloads in its first day of release. It’s the electronic-rock legends’ second appearance, following their 1990 Billboard Hot 100 No. 8 classic “Enjoy the Silence” (which reached its No. 5 high on Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales in May 2022).
For as long as Dillon Francis has been a fixture in dance music, so, too, has his arch rival DJ Hanzel been around telling anyone who will listen why Dillon is actually terrible.
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Now DJ Hanzel (who keen eyes will notice in fact looks a lot like Francis), raised the stakes in this longstanding rivalry with his debut album, Anti Everything. Released in late January via Hanzel’s own One Deeper Records, the album features eight slick cuts of house music, all intended to fulfill DJ Hanzel’s mission of taking listeners one deeper, and then one more deeper.
To mark the album’s release, DJ Hanzel made a rare appearance at the Billboard News studio, where he sat down to discuss his rivalry with Francis, the many DJs who are “very not deep” and the deepest artist of all time. Watch the interview above.
“Here’s my quick message to Dillon Francis,” Hanzel declared without prompting during this conversation. “You’re a cheat, you’re a lie, I hate you. You’re one of the worst people to ever exist in the world. Just a walking sack of bile.”
Additionally, Hanzel ran down the list of DJs he considers “really not deep” — jokingly, of course — including David Guetta, Martin Garrix (“he’s also a baby”), Kygo (“stay in Norway”), Zedd (“like, very not deep”), Dom Dolla (“wow, a mullet, so original”) and Steve Aoki (“I don’t think he plays any music; he’s just a baker.”)
Hanzel also revealed that he doesn’t actually listen to music, that rather than eating, he absorbs nutrition through the light of the sun (“I’m like a solar panel”) and Francis’ 2021 album Happy Machine made him throw up “three times.”
This summer, the moon will once again rise over Baltimore. Insomniac Events is returning to the city for the eighth annual Moonrise, happening Aug. 12-13 at the Pimlico Race Course, just north of the city.
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The lineup features a spectrum spanning collection of electronic artists including Alison Wonderland, a redux set from Kaskade, psychedelic sax hero GRiZ, white hot phenom John Summit, beloved trance trio Above & Beyond, live electronic duo Forester, and loads of bass and dubstep by genre leaders including Zomboy, Big Gigantic, Ray Volpe, Malaa and powerhouse b2bs from Borgore and Whipped Cream, Sullivan King and Wooli, Rusko and Dirty Monkey, Getter and Space Laces.
Moonrise is presented in partnership with Washington, D.C.’s, Club Glow, which Insomniac purchased in 2019. The venue includes D.C.’s legendary 34,000-foot Echostage and the smaller Soundcheck. Club Glow will host a variety of Moonrise pre and after-parties, with lineups for those events forthcoming. Moonrise launched in Baltimore in 2014, taking 2020 and 2021 off during the pandemic. Tickets for Moonrise 2023 are on sale now.
Insomniac Events Founder & CEO Pasquale Rotella was among the honorees of Billboard‘s 2023 Power 100 list, citing a year’s worth of accomplishments that included more than 40 festivals, 200 concerts and 1,500 club nights, which Rotella says drew a total of 7 million fans.
Insomniac Events will also stretch its sea legs this legs this November with the launch of its party cruise EDSea, an offshoot of the company’s flagship festival, EDC Las Vegas. The cruise will host roughly 3,800 guests, with the lineup be to be announced later this year.
See the full Moonrise Festival lineup below:
Courtesy Photo
It was 1982, and Rafe Gomez wasn’t supposed to be on the roof.
Then in his early 20s, Gomez had taken the elevator to the top of the building at 30 West 21st Street in Manhattan. When the doors slid open — “there were no guardrails or anything was so dangerous,” he recalls — he was in the mix at a private party Madonna was hosting for her debut single, “Everybody.”
For her performance of the song, a trio of backup dancers point oversized flashlights at the future Material Girl, then a fixture of New York’s mega-dynamic club scene. Gomez had the sense he was witnessing history as he watched her sing and dance as the lights of the city twinkled beyond.
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“That’s what the energy was like there,” Gomez recalls of Danceteria. “You never knew what you were going to experience that was going to eventually become the thing.”
Certainly Danceteria left big impressions on those who partied there. The January announcement of Madonna’s intensely anticipated Celebrations Tour revealed that the GA pit section will be called “Danceteria” in honor of the club. Meanwhile Gomez launched a Twitch channel, Danceteria Rewind, on which he plays songs and artists heard at the club each Thursday evening from 8-10 p.m. ET, from the comfort of his home in New Jersey.
Launched as a passion project during the pandemic, Danceteria Rewind has since amassed more than 27,000 subscribers who tune in each week to hear music by artists like dance-punk group Liquid Liquid, indie-funk trio ESG and hip-hop pioneer Kidd Creole. Debbie Harry was at Danceteria. And Basquiat. Actress and Madonna associate Debi Mazar worked the elevator, as did LL Cool J. Sade tended bar. The Beastie Boys and Keith Haring were busboys. Then-emerging acts like New Order, R.E.M., Run-DMC, Nick Cave and Depeche Mode all came through for performances. Resident DJs included Mark Kamins, who helped get Madonna signed to Sire Records in 1982, and also dated her during this period.
“It was where influencers went before there were influencers,” says Gomez. It was an especially significant refuge for Gomez, who grew up in northern New Jersey and at Danceteria found a world of art, music, hedonism, style and fun that had escaped him in his hometown.
“They referred to us as bridge-and-tunnel people because we’re from outside of Manhattan,” he says, “but we went into a place like this and saw what we’d been missing this and just embraced it. We paid full price at the door, we paid for all our drinks, and we were there all night long.”
Gomez’s goal with Danceteria Rewind is to recreate the club’s vibe for people who attended, and to give a sense of the place for streamers who were too young or too far away to ever dance there. “My goal was taking all of these superstars, taking the best of everything they did and combining them every week into a two-hour journey.”
Since launching the channel in 2021 after three months of research, Gomez — whose day job is sales consulting — spends hours each week researching Danceteria and the artists who played there, recreating sets as faithfully as possible, often by digitally converting vinyl tracks that don’t already exist as purchasable digital files and remastering eight-track recordings. Tim Lawrence’s 2016 book Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor has been particularly valuable, with Gomez poring over the text for clues about what to play. While Danceteria only existed for a few years, he says the music options for his program are endless.
The channel is resonating with listeners, with upwards of 20,000 people tuning in to the stream during its biggest broadcasts. During shows Gomez is both playing music and chatting with listeners, a mix of people who were there “and are like, ‘Oh my god, haven’t heard this for 30 years,’” to younger people hearing the origins of many recognizable samples for the first time.
This pandemic project, which Gomez says does not yet turn a profit, started as a way for him to escape his house, if only mentally, during the dark days of the pandemic. Through it, he returned to an especially dynamic period of New York City club history, when, he says, “You could come in as an a creative person from across the country and find an apartment with some friends for $50 a month.”
Venue operators also capitalized on the situation, opening thousands of clubs throughout the city in the late ’70s and early ’80s, with Mudd Club, Paradise Garage, Limelight, Tunnel and others all becoming thriving destinations. But amidst this scene, everyone knew Danceteria was different.
“Unlike Studio 54 and some of these other clubs uptown, which were all about money and cachet and the guest list,” Gomez says, “at Danceteria it was almost as if they were saying, ‘If you get what we’re doing here, come on in.’ It was a refuge for people.”
Danceteria was opened by the German-born Rudolf Piper, a wealthy former stockbroker who was embedded in the downtown club circuit. (“That place had an un-fucking-believable magic, and, as you were part of it, I need to explain no longer,” Piper said of Danceteria in 2010.) After his first Danceteria location closed because it didn’t have a liquor license, Piper moved it to West 21st Street, then, Gomez says, “a s–tty part of town.”
Piper rented the first several floors of the building, forging what he called a “supermarket of style.” For the next five years Danceteria became a destination for the artsy crowd, entertaining crowds with multiple rooms of music, art performances and other sundry creative fun, until the landlord raised the rent and Piper had to shut down. Danceteria later opened at a location in The Hamptons, but, Gomez attests “it wasn’t the same.”
Forty years later, the location at West 21st Street is now occupied by luxury condos, but you can still get close to the spirit of Danceteria through Gomez’s show, a recent episode of which featured Billy Squier‘s 1980 scorcher “The Big Beat” and UTFO’s 1984 classic “Roxanne, Roxanne” — seemingly disparate tracks that illustrate how eclectic the club actually was.
And given that Danceteria Rewind is not publicly archived due to licensing issues, each show has the same special and rare quality that Gomez felt in the brick and mortar venue 40 years ago.
“You’ve just got to be there each week,” he says.