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David Guetta and Bebe Rexha ascend to No. 1 on Billboard‘s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart (dated Oct. 29) with “I’m Good (Blue).” Guetta gets his record-tying 12th No. 1, matching Calvin Harris and Rihanna for the most dating to the chart’s August 2003 inception. Rexha achieves her first leader on the list.
“Good” is scoring core-dance airplay on KMVQ-HD2 San Francisco, SiriusXM’s BPM and KNHC (C89.5) Seattle, among other stations. (The Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 70 top 40-formatted reporters.)
Here’s a look at Guetta’s dozen dominations on Dance/Mix Show Airplay:
Title, Artists, Year (weeks at No. 1, if more than one)
“The World Is Mine,” feat. JD Davis, 2007 (two)“Love Is Gone,” with Chris Willis, 2007“When Love Takes Over,” feat. Kelly Rowland, 2009 (nine)“Sexy Chick,” featuring Akon, 2009 (six)“Gettin’ Over You,” with Chris Willis, feat. Fergie & LMFAO, 2010 (two)“Without You,” feat. Usher, 2011 (two)“Turn Me On,” feat. Nicki Minaj, 2012 (three)“Stay (Don’t Go Away),” feat. RAYE, 2019“Let’s Love,” with SIA, 2020“Bed,” with Joel Corry x RAYE, 2021 (three)“Heartbreak Anthem,” with Galantis & Little Mix, 2021“I’m Good (Blue),” with Bebe Rexha, 2022
“Good,” which interpolates Eiffel 65’s classic “Blue (Da Ba Dee),” a No. 6 Billboard Hot 100 hit in 2000, also leads the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (for a fifth week), Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs (sixth) and Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (also sixth). “Good” garnered 26.8 million all-format radio airplay audience impressions, 11.5 million official streams, and 7,000 downloads sold in the U.S. Oct. 14-20, according to Luminate.
The song concurrently pushes to a new No. 13 Hot 100 high. On Pop Airplay, its hits the top 10 (11-10), becoming Guetta’s seventh top 10 (and first since 2015) and Rexha’s fifth (and first since 2018).
Speaking of the Hot 100, the chart’s new No. 1, Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy,” surges to the Dance/Mix Show Airplay top 10 (22-10). Smith’s seventh top 10 and Petras’ second, the collab is drawing significant core-dance airplay on SiriusXM’s Diplo’s Revolution, among other outlets, thanks to Disclosure’s remix.
“Unholy” is only the third song to reach the Dance/Mix Show Airplay top 10 in just two frames this year, joining Diplo and Miguel’s “Don’t Forget My Love” (12-3, in March) and Drake’s “Massive” (17-9, July).
On the multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, Oliver Tree and Robin Schulz’s “Miss You” also rises in its second week (10-7), earning top Streaming Gainer honors. The track, whose profile has been boosted by TikTok, tallied 5.1 million streams, up 174%. Concurrently, “Miss” lifts 5-4 on Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs, marking Oliver Tree’s first top 10 and Schulz’s third.
Further on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Farruko flies in with “Viaje,” the chart’s leading debut (No. 23). Starting with 942,000 streams, his latest Latin-EDM crossover follows three consecutive top 10s (which upped his career total to four): “Nazareno” (No. 7, this June); “El Incomprendido,” with Victor Cardenas and DJ Adoni (No. 4, October 2021); and “Pepas” (No. 1 for nine weeks, beginning in August 2021).
Plus, Tove Lo and SG Lewis team on two Hot Dance/Electronic Songs debuts: “Call On Me” ( No. 27) and “Pineapple Slice” (No. 48). Tove Lo’s 10thand 11th appearances and Lewis’ 11th and 12th, the former starts with 836,000 streams and the latter with 484,000. Both cuts are from Tove Lo’s Dirt Femme, which debuts on Independent Albums (No. 24) and the Billboard 200 (No. 153), among other surveys.
When the Oasis Tree emerges, it brings worlds together. This surreal intersection of realms provides a transcendental place to rave to futuristic music. Cartoons come to life in speakeasies. Cuddly animated DJs stand proudly as statues.
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No, these aren’t plot points to a far-out science fiction novel. They’re real things to be found at Porter Robinson’s ambitious Second Sky festival, happening this Saturday (October 29) at the Oakland Arena Grounds in Oakland, California.
Founded in 2019 in tandem with Goldenvoice — the promoter behind events like Coachella and Stagecoach — Second Sky provides a space for prominent electronic artists across myriad strains of electronic music to share a stage.
This year’s Second Sky features performances from artists including RL Grime, Bladee and Hudson Mohawke, on top of a full band live set from Robinson, who will also perform as his alter ego Virtual Self during a b2b with G Jones. Skrillex was also added to the lineup on October 14, after Fred Again.. dropped off the bill.
But the stacked lineup is far from the only selling point. For the second time, Robinson and Goldenvoice called upon theme park industry veterans Nassal to transform Second Sky into an immersive experience, essentially building a Porter-themed theme park that comes to life for a single day.
Second Sky 2021
Courtesy of Goldenvoice
The Orlando-based design company is behind endeavors like The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios locations in Florida, Los Angeles, and Japan, and Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland. The Nassal team initially got involved with Second Sky in 2021 after Robinson’s manager, Aaron Greene, hit them up out of nowhere through their website to ask if they were behind the aforementioned theme park work. Greene felt there was a bigger story to tell with Second Sky than just a bunch of artists on a stage, and he and Robinson had a hunch that Nassal could help manifest their vision in a meaningful way. That instinct proved wildly correct.
Nassal’s work leading up to this weekend has taken 11 months to design and six months to build in myriad warehouse spaces. Installing Second Sky on site has taken 28 specialists 11 days, in addition to two days of teardown. The production is so ornate that it takes six days for three people to just sort and prep all of the flowers used.
Both the Nassal team and a representative for Robinson declined to comment on Second Sky costs, although a source close to the event notes that festival and touring costs are 30-40% above pre pandemic numbers across the board and that the team “knows how to stretch a dollar the most we can,” adding that “Porter’s production team is incredible, and Nassal are some of the best creatives I’ve ever worked with.”
“Everything has to be story-driven first,” Nassal’s Vice President of Global Development Melissa Ruminot tells Billboard. “A guest doesn’t actually need to know the details of the story, but they have to get it inherently the second they walk in… You need to enfold somebody into it. You need them to feel like they weren’t just involved in it, they were actually part of creating it.”
Last year, Nassal executed this mission by using elements like synthetic nature and statues of Robinson’s quasi-mascot Potaro to subtly establish the cartoonish whimsy that the Nassal team frequently refers to as “The Porterverse.” This year, they’re adding even more of these elements to build on what they previously explored.
The two teams collaborated over Pinterest to integrate the physical infrastructure of the event site into a narrative experience that would guide what Morrow describes as the “eco-brutalist” aesthetics of its design. There is a lot of intentionally mysterious depth to the story, but the primary theme is that once a year Second Sky materializes; it can go wherever it wants, and it’s anchored by the Oasis Tree, which brings worlds together. After Second Sky appears and draws people to it, it then quickly disappears, leaving no trace. In the year between festivals, this elusiveness allows new lands to emerge.
B Morrow Industries’ Creative Director of Theming Brian Morrow teases that this year will include a new realm and new characters from the video for Robinson and Mat Zo’s 2013 collaboration “Easy.” There are also gathering spaces for fans to rest, pulling focus away from the stage to further establish the festival’s universe. The Robinson and Nassal teams even worked together to devise a made-up language that appears in lieu of English everywhere except for essential spaces like restrooms.
The team listened to Robinson’s music while they designed, with this soundtrack helping Second Sky’s designers, creators, and builders connect with the brand and visual language Robinson uses in his work.
Second Sky 2021
Courtesy of Goldenvoice
But when the Nassal team started lifting ideas from Robinson’s videos and album covers, Robinson was quick to steer them in a different direction. They were pushed to create a nuanced world that feels welcoming for all of his colleagues and friends, with Second Sky tethered to a utopian feeling that considers every artist on the lineup. With the exception of a few elements lifted from the “Easy” video, its world is agnostic to individual creative identity, focusing more on nestling each artist’s set against a cohesive backdrop.
“As theme park designers, we’re, like, ‘Let’s crack open the movie and figure out how to manifest it in the real world,’” says Morrow.
This year, the production team also worked to create a VIP-only experience that includes access to an exclusive space called the Easy/Speak lounge, a speakeasy with custom refreshments and other exclusive offerings that’s intended to add context to the “Easy” video. Next year, the team plans to move this VIP lounge into the GA area, while creating a new world for 2023 VIPs to explore.
“Porter is really breaking a mold when it comes to a festival experience for a guest,” Ruminot says when asked if there were festivals Nassal turned to for inspiration. The team intentionally avoided taking cues from other music-centric events, instead drawing from story-driven architecture at theme parks like Disney and Universal to make Second Sky unlike any other festival production out there. Ruminot cites the general feeling of Wizarding World as key sources of inspiration for Second Sky.
Such care proved effective at last year’s Second Sky, a homespun, wholesome affair during which Robinson’s parents roamed the site in matching blue vests that announced “I’m Porter’s mom/dad, say hi!”
Adds Morrow of the family feel: “We were nervous that people were going to climb things or take things. What we found is that the fans and the guests of Second Sky treat the space with this love and respect that we’ve never seen before.”
Nassal’s admiration for their audience seems to have impacted their willingness to put such a concentrated effort into a short event. Morrow says Goldenvoice recognizes that the festival is more than a spectacle, and rather that the promoter is invested in its heart and meaning, identifying a loyal fanbase looking for a loving, soft environment.
And while Morrow and Ruminot aren’t able to give away too many specifics about the surprises in store, they’re quick to assert that they believe their work is truly one-of-a-kind. They recommend fans try to translate the language and stay on the lookout for a Halloween-centric Potaro — and that VIPs should hang out inside Easy/Speak Lounge for at least 30 minutes to see how things unfold, noting that attendees will find the answers to their questions slowly over the course of the festival.
“It’s what you would expect from last year,” says Ruminot, “plus so much more.”
KYIV, UKRAINE — “Respect my borders,” the large entry stamp reads, pressed in bold black block letters down my forearm.
Here, a massive courtyard is flanked on one side by a crumbly brick building well over a hundred years old and on the other side by the yellowing building’s new, stainless-steel addition. Techno is pulsating through the open door of the building — the leading techno club in Kyiv, Ukraine.
The space officially has no name. Located at the edge of Kyiv inside a former brewery, the club’s logo and de facto identifying mark is a mathematical sign, ∄, used in high-level calculus to indicate the value for a formula that does not exist. It also reflects the club’s interest in self-promotion — nonexistent. For pronunciation and reference, Kyiv’s techno community knows ∄ as “K41,” a moniker that combines the venue’s street name and building number.
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And in keeping with the ∄ symbol’s meaning, team members at the club don’t want to insert themselves into the club’s bigger story — they prefer to remain anonymous and peripheral to their venue and community. “Instead,” several from this group explain to Billboard, “we are all just members of the ∄ team.”
Though initially intended to remind guests that despite the world of possibility inside the club, personal boundaries are to be observed and respected, my entry stamp’s commandment has taken new meaning since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. It is a reminder that Ukraine is in an existential fight for its existence.
The ongoing invasion ended ∄’s latest season, called Dance.Delivery, just two days before its scheduled opening weekend in this past February. But on Oct. 15, after nearly eight months of war, ∄ reopened its doors to Kyiv for the first time and revived the canceled season, in a defiant display of Ukrainian resiliency during the war.
At the Oct. 15 event, hundreds of club goers clad mostly in black revel on the dance floor. For many, their first time clubbing in nearly eight months provides an outlet for joy and the release that comes from dancing together. “The crowd today is different,” one of ∄’s team members says. A palpable lightness filled the space. “Less naked bodies,” she quips. “Maybe because it’s the first event, maybe it’s because of the music today; it’s calmer.”
Much of the building’s original texture is preserved. Dancefloors and soundsystems are woven into the brewery’s architecturally complex interior, which has been fashioned into nine separate dance spaces that can altogether host upwards of 15,000 attendees. Original 1870s-era logo mosaics are juxtaposed against glittering glass-and-tile DJ booths and pits that once housed enormous copper brewing vats are transformed into vast, pool-like seating areas.
The front lines of the war are hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian capital. And while the city is slowly removing the concrete-and-sandbag checkpoints and steel vehicle obstacles it had scrambled into place during the early days of the Russian invasion, the decision to reopen ∄ and revive its aborted season did not come easy.
On Oct. 10, just days before the planned reopening, early morning blasts shook the Ukrainian capital awake as Russian rockets and missiles struck civilian targets in Kyiv and other cities throughout Ukraine. The attack in Kyiv killed at least eight people and wounded scores of others. ∄’s team wrestled with their desire to revive techno in Kyiv. Could they kick off the canceled Dance.Delivery season? Should they go forward with the event?
All of Ukraine is currently under martial law, a response to the Russian invasion that provides the legal framework necessary for curtailing movement during the war. Military-age males are not allowed to leave the country and large gatherings like sporting events are forbidden.
Kyiv’s ∄ club
Kateryna Smirnova
After deciding to move ahead, ∄’s team members opted to cap the first installment of Dance.Delivery at a few hundred attendees, opening just one of the venue’s spaces to keep the event intimate and out of concern for guest safety amidst potential Russian shelling. And rather than throwing a typical night event, the space opened in the afternoon and closed its doors before 10 p.m. in order not to run afoul of Kyiv’s city-wide nighttime curfew restrictions.
Practical hurdles had to be overcome as well. During the early days of the Russian invasion, ∄’s team members took advantage of the former brewery’s thick concrete and brick architecture, transforming the building into an ersatz bomb shelter and temporary housing for the displaced. Sound equipment and DJ booths were moved to make space for bunkbeds and cots.
One of ∄’s sound engineers voiced his worry that sound equipment might not work because of humidity exposure during its nearly eight months of storage. “If the electricity cuts out because of a blackout or any other reason,” he says, hinting at the slight but genuine possibility of an explosion somewhere in the city, “we have backup generators. We’ll be fine.”
The first installment of Dance.Delivery was thus undoubtedly far from typical — but it was a defiant and resounding success. As afternoon turned to evening, dancers gradually fill up ∄, with a mishmash of fresh, youthful faces mixed in with ∄’s veteran crowd all moving to sets by Ukrainian artists Cantrust and Human Margareeta. Three flavors of dress prevailed: blacks and whites, leathers and fishnets, and not much at all.
A Small But Growing Scene
Ukraine’s techno scene is smaller than scenes in other European cities, but it’s burgeoning — and no less fervent. Though relatively new, ∄ offers a space for the kind of easy abandon enjoyed by techno communities in Berlin or London. At the former brewery in Kyiv, clubbers and dancers enjoy the freedom to experience music, dance and community, restricted only by the boundaries other visitors make for themselves, boundaries that are scrupulously respected.
For Vlad Shast, an exuberant 40-something drag queen and one of the club’s wide ensemble of standout regulars, ∄ is a profoundly meaningful space — and not just because of the music. “Before K41 opened, I never felt like I had a place where I belonged,” Shast explains between stints on the dancefloor. Shast has been fixture at ∄ since the space opened in 2019 and is closely involved with ∄’s ХІТЬ, a word that translates to “lust,” and the name of a regular queer party series the club held before the Russian invasion.
“I can show my inner creator and be fully accepted by people around me. I can be truly myself, truly me,” he says of ∄’, twirling the edge of a translucent gossamer dress he made in February before the Russian invasion, specifically for the first installment of ∄’s Dance.Delivery season. “After the beginning of the war, I didn’t have time to realize how much [the club] meant to me,” Shast adds, brushing strands of an ornate, homemade headdress made of woven black zip ties away from his face.
But, he acknowledges, at first, after the rocket attacks, he couldn’t imagine going back to ∄. “I felt like I would be dancing on people’s graves,” he says.
After deep conversations with ∄’s organizers and friends, Shast concluded that reopening is a question of prioritization. Following the rocket attacks in the capital, “we were so focused on the dead,” Shast says. And while this is entirely understandable for a community so directly faced with the challenges of war, “we should be focused on the living,” he says.
The decision to reopen is one that Shast appreciates. It was only during the middle of the party, “when I had a moment by myself, that I fully felt what the Russians took away from me,” Shast says. The invasion, he continues, took away the “ability to share my art, my ability to connect with my people, my ability to connect with my community.”
For him, this night on ∄’s dancefloor was a celebration of life, not a commemoration of death.
A Tie to Berghain and German Ravers
The space has a deep connection to Germany. ∄’s founders tapped the same group that designed the world capital of techno — Berlin’s Berghain — for their space. In 2020 and 2021, Berliners took weekend trips to Kyiv en mass to escape Germany’s strict Covid lockdowns and Berlin’s shuttered techno clubs.
Cognizant of both the techno scene’s particular proclivities as well as the increasingly international audience that ∄ pulls into its orbit — international acts including LSDXOXO, Ben UFO, and DJ Stingray have all played there — the club passes out fliers to partygoers in Ukrainian and English that explain how various drugs can interact if taken together, how to prevent overdosing and hangovers, and how to navigate sexual consent while partying. Other cards carefully explain what to do if stopped by police, citizens’ rights, and how police in Ukraine are allowed to interact with people on the street.
Several of ∄’s team members sought refuge in Berlin during the early days of the Russian invasion. And though grateful for the initial support Germany offered Ukrainians fleeing war, many Ukrainians who came to Germany had what they call a profoundly frustrating, even maddening experience during their stay.
“Before the Russian invasion, I thought Europeans were very privileged,” a ∄ team member explains over a beer at ∄’s bar. “Affordable health insurance and a high standard of living” are certainly things to be admired, she says, draining her beer and setting it resolutely on the bar counter. “But now I know that Ukrainians are the ones that are privileged.”
When asked why, she stares me dead in the eye. In this war, “Ukrainians know that pacifism is not an option,” she says, voicing frustration with some European countries commonly heard in Ukraine — and with Germany in particular.
Kyiv’s ∄ club
Kateryna Smirnova
Exasperation is felt particularly acutely towards the clamoring for the laying down of arms and calls for immediate peace — viewpoints many on the ∄ team call increasingly out of step with the reality of battlefields in Ukraine, where civilians are regularly targeted and where evidence of brutal Russian war crimes in recently liberated towns and villages is steadily mounting.
Though some of ∄’s approximately 130 team members are still abroad, many have returned to Ukraine, homeward journeys that brought them back to a country at war. Their reasons for returning are myriad, but the ∄ team member at the bar says that some of their security staff enlisted in the Ukrainian army and are now fighting at the front lines.
∄ is throwing everything it has behind its friends and family fighting at the front. This first Dance.Delivery event ultimately raised 150,855 Ukrainian hryvnia (nearly $4,100) through donations at the door. The money went towards the Hospitallers paramedic group, a Ukrainian organization of volunteer paramedics.
Just two days after the first installment of Dance.Delivery, another series of explosions ripped through downtown Kyiv, striking cultural sites, one of the city’s primary power substations, and other non-military infrastructure. The attack killed at least four people and injured dozens more — a stark reminder that despite the weekend’s semblance of normalcy, conflict elsewhere in the country has not ended.
“Our building survived two world wars,” one of ∄’s team members explains. “I hope it will survive this war too.” Yet, despite the air raid alarms and the explosions, for a single night, both ∄ and Kyiv were alive — and dancing.
Matthew Ward, best known as house/disco producer DJ Mighty Mouse, died suddenly in his sleep at his home in Spain Oct. 20 at 48. According to a statement from his label, Defected Records, Ward’s passing was unexpected.
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“We are devastated to confirm that Matthew Ward aka Mighty Mouse, died suddenly last Thursday at his home in Spain,” read the statement. “Matthew died in his sleep from an aortic aneurysm. We are all lost without his enormous presence and talent. Our thoughts are with his partner, Ellen, and his Mum, Judy, as well as his wider family and many, many friends and fans.”
Though active for more than a decade as a DJ/producer and beloved for his Disco Circus remix series, Ward’s 2019 song “The Spirit” was his breakout anthem, released on Defected’s Glitterbox imprint and named Hottest Record in the World by BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac’s show. His edit of ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!,” “Midnight Mouse (Revised),” also reached cult status after French DJ Folamour played it during his set at the FLY Open Air Festival in 2019.
Earlier this month, Ward released a remix of Ridney & Inaya Day’s “Like You,” saying in his final Instagram post that the track had “loads of support and it goes down really well in the club.”
Ward was slated to DJ a Halloween party at The Lofts in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on Saturday (Oct. 29).
See Defected’s statement, and some tributes from fellow DJs and British singer Rowetta, below.
AMSTERDAM — While dance music makes up a relatively slim portion of the global music industry — earning a $6 billion valuation in 2021 — the genre felt like the center of the universe last week in the Netherlands.
Or at least the center of Amsterdam’s fairytale Centrum district, with dance/electronic music taking over this canal-lined neighborhood and points beyond for the 26th edition of the Amsterdam Dance Event, or ADE, the world’s largest gathering of the global electronic industry.
Launched in 1996 and returning for its first full-fledged edition since 2019 — with 2020 and 2021 moved online and trimmed down dramatically due to the pandemic — the four-day conference drew an estimated 10,000 agents, managers, label owners, product developers, publicists, execs, data analysts, journalists, veteran and emerging artists, event producers and all other varieties of dance scene professionals from across global markets, with a heavy influx of European and U.S. attendees.
Think of it like the global electronic industry going on a field trip to the Dutch capital together, with one-on-one discussions, panels, product demonstrations, mixers, many stroopwafels and a lot of dancing all on the packed itinerary of the four-day ADE, which spanned Oct. 18-22.
ADE 2022 also featured more than 1,000 club and festival shows, which were geared towards both delegates and the roughly 450,000 fans who took part in the bacchanal.
A Pro portion of the conference — designed for established professionals, with scene newcomers taking part in ADE’s parallel Lab programming — featured more than 130 discussions in 10 meeting spaces located across two stately historic buildings over four days. They addressed a dizzying range of topics, with a few key themes emerging.
One was how a sound fostered by technology is itself keeping up with emerging tech. While other music industry conferences have made Web3 a focal point following the explosion of the sector, ADE programming didn’t linger on the topic, with just a handful of discussions on the metaverse, AI and NFTs. Even without the official spotlight, however, Web3 was a hot topic on the ground, with one representative from an electronic-forward NFT company noting that while non-fungible tokens may not be something every artist is especially passionate about, their company is seeing real evidence of NFT sales allowing for emerging and middle-tier artists to earn a living wage. For them, this revolution in earnings potential adds a very human, and thus widely compelling, dynamic to the sector. (And to a field, they also noted, which could use a diversity influx, given its current domination by “cis, white crypto bros.”)
Others observed that it will take Web3 coalescing into an umbrella company like Google or Apple for the possibilities that the technology presents to be adopted by the wider population. One person involved in signing up attendees of a major U.S. music festival with crypto wallets as part of the event, noted that months later, only a small fraction of the crowd is still using this tool.
Amsterdam Dance Event 2022
Kapa Photgraphy
On a more holistic level, several panel conversations touched on the FOMO-fueled rat race many artists and others in the scene are experiencing as a function of social media. “Perception is the new reality,” noted Jori Lowery of management agency Conflux during a Wednesday afternoon panel discussion, observing that many artists in the scene struggle when comparing their careers with other acts who appear to be busier.
During a Friday afternoon conversation between veteran producer Seth Troxler and journalist Joe Muggs, Troxler observed how the internet has fueled the dance scene’s growth during the last decade, but not always necessarily in a good way. “That switch from the club culture and the localization of culture to these really large events and this kind of FOMO culture, where it’s like, ‘I want to go to a big-ticket event, see everyone, get the picture,’” Troxler said.
“Maybe the party’s not even good,” the DJ continued, “but there’s loads of people there and no dancing, whereas you go to a small party with 100 people and it’s a great vibe, and that’s cool too. It doesn’t have to be this mega thing all the time, even though the mega thing is cool, or it’s accessible, at some point it grows our culture, but also kills our culture.”
A Wednesday afternoon conversation with Ultra Records founder Patrick Moxey — at ADE to speak on the launch of his new label Helix — emphasized that the real necessity for artists to be online, and particularly on TikTok and Instagram, is because both platforms can be powerful tools for fanbase development, even as these platforms present new challenges. One member in the audience observed that while many artists are reluctant to put themselves online, thinking that a heavy digital presence is uncool, it’s necessary for acts to “get over their egos” to gain real traction. The observation drew applause from the crowd.
The audience was quieter during a Thursday afternoon panel on doing business in conflict areas — both in the U.S. and around the world. Panelists discussed if and how artists and brands should work in U.S. states that have banned abortion and in regions with a records of human rights violations like Saudi Arabia. (Members of the team from MDLBEAST, the Riyadh electronic festival launched in 2019, were on the ground at ADE, with many delegates pondering if and how to do business with the fest, with some keen to participate and others remaining more reticent.) While some on the panel and in the audience expressed reasonable ethical qualms about hosting events and sending artists to play in such controversial regions, others argued that it’s unfair to advise on best practices in any area that one hasn’t personally traveled to.
If there was a consensus from this conversation, it was that it’s vital for each sector of the scene to first acknowledge and work on its own issues before engaging in finger-pointing, particularly with respect to the scene’s consistent allegations of sexual misconduct amongst DJs and others involved in nightlife culture and a pervasive lack of diversity. (“It’s still a systemic issue of most agents and managers being white men,” observed one delegate who spoke to Billboard on the condition of anonymity, in regards to why inclusivity isn’t happening more quickly.)
But while ADE demonstrated the scene’s varying challenges, it also highlighted the many people working to solve them. A variety of panels focused on fostering greater diversity in the scene and featured leaders in the dance music space, including Black Artist Database (B.A.D.) co-founder NIKS and BEAUTIFUL label founder SHERELLE, who spoke to how B.A.D., a crowd-sourced list of Black artists, producers and creators, is helping Black artists form community outside of traditional power structures. There was also a full day of ADE Lab programming designed by She.Said.So, an organization that works to connect and empower underrepresented communities in electronic music and beyond.
At a Friday night mixer hosted by Spotify – which ended with a drone show soundtracked by Tiësto — one longstanding ADE attendee noted that in terms of inclusivity, ADE 2022 felt like a legitimate shift. This attendee noted more diversity among attendees and lineups and how delegates also generally seemed more open and interested in chatting. “There’s been a temperate change in the event overall,” they said.
Amsterdam Dance Event 2022
Tom Doms
Meanwhile, a full day’s worth of programming about sustainability initiatives in the scene offered glimmers of hope in the face of climate change. One longstanding attendee noted that in this part of October the canals of Amsterdam used to be frozen over, while last week it was often possible to walk around without a jacket. (A weekend festival by Dutch festival producer DGTL, which has a strong sustainability program, demonstrated that even large-scale events can operate with reusable cups and meat-free food vendors.)
And of course, several conversations turned to Berlin’s iconic techno club Berghain, which has been rumored to be shuttering soon after the closure of both its in-house label and management agency. One source well-connected in the Berlin scene noted that the venue may be converted into residential lofts, and that given the potential revenue of this project, the building’s current owners “are struggling to reject the deal.”
Elsewhere during the week: Tomorrowland premiered its 25-minute after-movie of its 2022 festival at the elegant art deco Royal Theater Tuschinski. (The film’s lessons about the power of community and catharsis in the dance world elicited a few actual tears.) Eric Prydz blew peoples’ minds while performing his much-lauded HOLO shows — a few delegates called the performance the best they’d ever seen. Honey Dijon headlined a buzzy Back to Black showcase with a lineup including Kerri Chandler and TSHA. Claude VonStroke announced that EMPIRE had acquired his previously independent and much-beloved Dirtybird label and Diplo gave a keynote address about his career trajectory, noting that his musical history in Jamaica began when he was booked to play the seafaring Jam Cruise festival and just got off the boat on the island nation because he wasn’t enjoying himself onboard.
Delegates also buzzed about Pioneer DJ’s acquisition of DJ Monitor — the software that tracks what songs artists play during their sets will soon be integrated directly into Pioneer hardware, which many feel will be a big step forward for royalty collection. (ADE is itself sponsored by Dutch collection agency BUMA.)
Ultimately, after a long absence of togetherness, ADE 2022 functioned as an industry show and tell, a four-day reunion and the dance scene’s prevailing place to dissect, solve and celebrate the incredible number of issues, sounds and scenes that exist within it.
This week in dance music: The first full-fledged Amsterdam Dance Event kicked off in the Dutch capital on Tuesday (watch for our full recap early next week), Claude VonStroke’s iconic Dirtybird label was acquired by the San Francisco-based EMPIRE, Oliver Tree and Robin Schulz hit the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, and we went deep with one of the actual inventors of electronic music Jean-Michel Jarre.
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And bangerz with a Z? We’ve got those too. Let’s dig in.
Bonobo, “Defender”
Before Bonobo completes his North American tour this weekend, he’s leaving a parting gift. New single “Defender,” out on his Outlier label in partnership with Ninja Tune, is another surprise drop following previous loosie “ATK.” Both deliver on the producer’s rich, textural electronica, but whereas “ATK” was bouncy and more straightforwardly upbeat in its approach, “Defender” sees the return of his tender touch. Floating above propulsive drums, the crystalline thumb-piano melody is light as a lullaby, joined by a gentle vocal scat. Even when blaring foghorn synths add heaviness, Bonobo keeps the magic alive with swirling synths and accents that twinkle like stars at midnight. “Defender” might not be your first thought when it comes to club tracks, but we’d still rave to this any day (or night). — KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ
Fred again.., “Delilah (Pull Me Out Of This)”
If you don’t know about Fred Again.. by now, you probably just won’t ever. That said, to quote Drake, if you’re reading this, it’s too late and you have now been bitten with the collective Fred-a-mania. Much like aforementioned hip-hop superstar, the pop-hit producer-turned-hypest act in electronic dance loves to turn bits of voicemails, samples and IRL recordings into divine slices of melodic funk, and he names these tracks after the friends and artists he folds into the music. His latest portrait is dubbed “Delilah (pull me out of this),” and he paired the video with a recording his buddy nabbed at a festival in Los Angeles.
“So a few days ago I played a show in LA and my friend theo was filming stuff in the crowd,” Fred tweets. “He stumbled across this absolutely beauuutiful moment right at the back of it all.
To me this song is about a time I sorta had a panic attack in a club and needing your person to pull you out of it, so the moment at the end when they both stand up and jump away feels particularly muchhh to me. There’s obviously a whole story that’s goin on for them too, you can see on their friends faces at the end! I’ve spoken to them about it, i think it’s maybe better not to explain that, cos like different people think different stuff when they watch it, n that’s always great to me.”
He also had some good news to share in the YouTube description box: “Okayyyy,” Fred writes on YouTube. “SO I am so so really very VERY happy to say that Actual Life 3 will be out on October 28th!!!!!” After months of hype, we can confidently say we’re very happy, too. – KAT BEIN
Gorgon City feat. Flirta D, “Sidewindah”
Gorgon City lean deeper into their U.K. roots on new single “Sidewindah.” The track has been a frequent fixture and requested ID in the duo’s live dates for a hot minute, and it’s clear why. Their dancefloor-friendly house music gets a grime infusion courtesy of veteran MC Flirta D, whose altered vocals stutter and skid with short-circuiting delirium. Add some serpentine synths, hyperspeed shakers and gigantic, gelatinous bass wobbles, and you’ve got a good time. In addition to releasing “Sidewindah,” Gorgon City have just announced their return to Colorado’s famed Red Rocks next April for a Realm label showcase. — K.R.
Lastlings, “Get What You Want”
Getting up off the couch and getting after your dreams is hard, but music can help. The Rocky theme is a bit played, and while it’s great and all, “Get What You Want” from sibling duo Lastlings has a sultry motivational groove that can move your body, heart and mind toward your greatest self with a bit more electronic edge.
“We spent a week writing in 2021 and this was one of the first songs that came from the session,” the group’s Josh Dowdle says. “We had two rooms. One writing room for Amy with a piano, and one for me where I made the instrumental.”
“It explores mental health and the relationship that I have with myself,” Amy Dowdle adds. “It’s about putting myself out there and not letting doubt get in the way of what I truly want. ‘I’ve got a lot of enemies that live inside my head.’ This song isn’t about love for another person, it’s about my relationship with myself. ‘You’ refers to a darker version of myself that I am trying to fight and overcome.”
The brother and sister band are signed to RÜFÜS DU SOL’s label Rose Avenue, and this single marks the first bit of original material since its debut album First Contact, which dropped in 2020. – K. Bein
Tiësto’s DJ Mix
Our mainstage main man Tiësto is taking himself on, via a flurry of edits of his own tracks. Produced exclusively for Spotify, the playlist includes edits of hits including “The Business” and “The Motto,” and comes as part of a series that includes similar packages from Aluna, Yung Bae and BLOND:ISH. All of these acts have released these edits in conjunction with the Amsterdam Dance Event, which is wrapping up today in The Netherlands. To celebrate, Spotify is tonight hosting a release party at ADE, during which each act will unveil their edits with an accompanying drone show.
“When playing my mix I hope listeners can feel the energy of my live set,” Tiësto says. “Play it while you workout, while gaming, in your car, anywhere – wherever you play it, it should feel like the soundtrack to the best day or night of your life!” — KATIE BAIN
Listening to Jean-Michel Jarre speak is like hearing a pitch for a French arthouse film that is sure to be a frontrunner for an Academy Award. An early pioneer of electronic music, Jarre’s experiences start in the aftermath of WWII and traverse many cultural and musical eras, across continents and key moments of global change.
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At 74, Jarre only looks to the past to tap into ideas that he can reimagine in the most futuristic way. This is what he has done with Oxymore, the 22nd album of his half-century-spanning career. Out today (Oct. 21), Oxymore is built upon stems and samples from one of Jarre’s early mentors, Pierre Henry, the godfather of France’s musique concrète movement, under whose tutelage at Paris’ legendary Groupe de Recherches Musicales Jarre cut his electronic music teeth.
Continuing the exploratory and experimental ethos of what he learned from Henry, Oxymore, taps into immersive audio possibilities. Conceived in 360 spatial audio and binaural, the album was mixed in binaural and Dolby Atmos at Radio France’s Maison de la Radio et de la Musique — one of musique concrète’s homes. Taking this same boundary-pushing ethos to the live space, Jarre is presenting Oxymore live in-person and as a VR experience. For the latter, he has created Oxyville, a VR world that include a custom avatar of himself and which invites viewers to become active participants in the experience.
Jarre speaks to Billboard from his native France, where despite designer shades covering his eyes, his excitement and passion come through loud and clear.
1. Where are you and what is the setting like?
Paris, in my flat, where I live and where I have my home studio. My real recording studio is outside Paris, not that far. I’m in the 8th district. Every Parisian seems to think they are living in the center of town. The 8th district is nice, because it’s on the west side and easy to get to the airport. It is business, but cool at the same time.
2. What is the first album or piece of music you bought for yourself and what was the medium?
The first record I bought was a single from Ray Charles, “Georgia on My Mind”/“What’d I Say.” I’ve always been fascinated by textures in music, even at an early age. What really impressed me about Ray Charles’ sound was, he was definitely working on texture, his voice, but also his sound as a producer. He was producing sound in a very innovative way at that time — still in some aspects innovative now, this mixture of spiritual with R&B and street art. He had this paradox. My new album Oxymore is the idea of putting two things together which are not meant to be together. Ray Charles is a very good example of an oxymoron by putting groovy textures and spiritual aspect, but also, joy and melancholia. Happy songs, but behind them sadness is hidden. I have really been touched by that.
3. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid?
My mom was a quite an extraordinary woman. She was a great figure in the French Resistance during the war. She was caught by the Nazis three times, and she escaped three times, even from the deportation camp. She was the central character in my childhood, because my father left us when I was five years old, and I didn’t have any contact with him for a long time. He was kind of an abstract figure for me. My mom played, with great talent and subtlety, the role of a mother and a father. When you are an only child, it’s always a problem to have a mom not being too invasive, too intrusive, and too protective, or not enough. She managed this beautifully, and I really respect that.
We were like a duet, where each of us was concerned about what would happen if we were to lose the other one. We didn’t have lots of money. We were living in the south of Paris, in a very small apartment. At a very early age, I was concerned with trying to help her financially, to try and get some jobs. She always took care of me saying it’s very important to her for get me a decent education.
My father was a great soundtrack composer, Maurice Jarre. He wrote Dr. Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia.
4. What was your parents’ reaction when you started doing music?
My mother was very open to arts. She opened my eyes and my ears. One of her best friends was a totally crazy woman called Mimi Ricard who opened one of the most influential jazz clubs in Paris, called Le Chat Qui Pêche, The Fishing Cat, where people such as Don Cherry, Artie Shaw, John Coltrane and Chet Baker were playing. My mom would visit her friend, and I would go down to the cellar where these musicians were rehearsing.
For my 10th birthday, Chet Baker sat me on the upright piano, and he played for me. That was, for me, my first emotion in terms of the impact of sound on your body, my first physical experience with music. Every time I think about this, I still feel the air of the instrument on my chest. Because he knew I was interested in music, and he told me, “Melody is very important, but what is even more important is to escape from the melody as soon as possible. That is what jazz is all about. What is important in jazz is sound.” This is something that I always kept in my mind. The electroacoustic music I make is quite close to jazz, because it’s all about textures. It’s all about sound design. Jazz has been quite influential in my life.
My father and I had a total absence of conflict. It’s better to have conflict with your father because at least you have somebody to build yourself against. The absence is something much more sneaky, much more difficult to deal with. It’s like a black hole. You have to build from nothing rather than from something, or against something.
We bumped into each other maybe 20 times in my life. Each time, he would ask questions, but in a polite way. It took a long time for me to accept this. I felt resentment for quite a long time. I realized later — and this is the advice I could give to lots of people, because, as Freud says, we all have problems with our parents, and it’s absolutely true — you have only one father and one mother. Whatever you do, you are the result of that. The earlier you accept this, the better you will feel for yourself. If my father was not able to express his emotions or his feelings — because it was the same with my half-sister, she was exactly in the same situation as me, so it was not because of me — probably something we ignored happened to my father when he was a child, which is why he had a handicap on the heart side. I was like a son without a father.
5. Did you have a job before you started doing music in a professional capacity? When were you able to leave the job and focus on music full-time?
I had lots of small jobs to help my mom. She had a stand at the French flea market, which was really cool and fun. The flea market was where you had lots of artists and writers. I was helping her every weekend, getting up quite early to put the stand in the street. Some people were selling paintings. I was doing some painting, but a kid of 13, 14 has no credibility, so I invented a fake older brother, and I pretended I was selling his work. And I sold some of my art so I was quite proud.
I played in rock bands. We were beginners in college, getting a little money in local clubs. When I studied electronic music in Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris, it really changed my life. I started to get money by writing music for commercials, producing artists, doing pop songs, writing pop songs for singers, music and lyrics. I built quite a reputation as a lyricist in my 20s when I wrote big hits in France. I went to L.A. to produce French artists. It was in the days where if you had hits, record companies gave you lots of money for studios and to spend time in studios. I spent time with the best session musicians in L.A., like Ray Parker Jr. and Herbie Hancock. It was a great experience for me. I learned a lot about the studio and how to produce a record. But I always had this idea of creating a link between experimental avant garde music and pop music, which I explored in my own recordings.
6. What was the scene like in Paris when you first started making music?
When I was a teenager we had lots of contact with rock music, American bands and British bands. It was a time where we had a very famous concert hall called Olympia where you had lots of unknown bands. The beginning of Pink Floyd, the beginning of Soft Machine, The Who. Olympia was open most of the time until 4:00 in the morning. This was the music of my generation, but it was not an evolution. When I went into electronic music, I thought, “This is my own revolution. This is where I can bring something different from what I listen to.” It was also in the middle of all the student revolutions in Europe and in the US. It was cool to rebel against everything, including the establishment of rock. Electronic music for me has really been the perfect opportunity to lead my rebellion.
7. What’s the first non-gear thing you bought for yourself when you started making money as an artist?
I think it was a car. I have a passion for old cars. I found a French car from the 1930s. It was an amazing car. I was so proud of it. Cars motorbikes, especially in the ‘60s, were a symbol of escape and freedom — particularly when they’re a convertible.
8. Was there an album that got you into electronic music?
When I started, there were no albums of electronic music. My first attempt at electronic music was by doing it at the music center lab where we were stealing oscillators and filters from the radio station, which were made for maintenance and not at all for music. We were just a bunch of crazy kids doing music with what was considered machines, not instruments. They are still called machines.
9. What the last song you listened to?
Just before this I was doing a radio show called Open Jazz for the release of the album. I had a very interesting session with talking about jazz, and they played an Ella Fitzgerald track. It’s not necessarily what I’m listening to, but it’s what I heard two hours ago.
10. What’s the first electronic music show that really blew your mind?
I’m saying this with humility, but it was my first show, which was in front of a million people. It was in 1979. It was the first time there was such a massive audience, and the first time dealing with mapping, giant projections on buildings, a format which is now very linked with electronic music.
At that time, to perform my music, you didn’t have a lot of choices. In Europe, small halls more for theater or jazz or rock, or you have this kind of multiplex hall where you have Tupperware or Toyota conferences and basketball, and you play music in this place where you have very strange vibes.
I really needed something else. This is the reason why I started to be involved in outdoor concerts. I always liked the idea of one-offs. You have no second chance for the audience or yourself. After COVID, we changed paradigms so much, we are somewhere else.
11. Is VR figuring largely into how you’re moving forward?
I’m very involved with VR, and I’ve done quite a lot of concerts in the past few months in VR. It’s democratizing a great deal for people who have ideas for stage design or architecture. You don’t have any gravity so you can play with things you cannot play with in the real world. People that were isolated for geographic reasons, social reasons or reasons of handicap can be connected live with other people, there is the social aspect of it.
When we presented the beta version of Oxymore earlier this year, we invited guests and fans. We had a Q&A session after. The beauty of VR is we were in the same room and there was a guy from Shanghai, another guy from Rio and this girl from Manchester, very energetic, asking lots of questions. I talked to her after and discovered that she was paraplegic. It was the first time she went to a gig in her life, and she was dancing. This is something which is quite great about the possibility of VR.
12. What is the best setting to listen to and experience electronic music?
Because of the COVID period where everybody changed their relationship with digital interfaces, the development of VR and the metaverse is going to be part of our DNA as creators, and also as an audience.
I’m much more interested to develop my music, ironically, and go back to what sound is all about. What I mean by this—and this is linked to my album, when we talk about VR, immersive worlds, everybody’s talking about visuals, and very few people are talking about sounds. We forget that the visual field is 140 degrees where the audio field is 360 degrees. Stereo doesn’t exist in nature. When I’m talking to you it’s in mono. The real thing is the 360 relationship we have as human beings with our ears and the environment with the sounds of our day-to-day life. It’s quite strange that we’ve had, for almost centuries, a frontal relationship with music.
The fact that you can deal with a totally different space is a game changer. It’s what I did with Oxymore. The specificity of Oxymore is that it’s the first album totally conceived and composed from day one in 360. It’s a totally different approach to music composition. We really have the feeling for the person to be inside the music, and that is the future of electronic music.
13. You’ve already implemented these ideas in your presentation of Oxymore?
What I am doing for the release of the album in Europe is a series of showcases almost in the dark where there is nothing to look at. The only experience is about sounds and multi-channels with 20 PA systems around the audience. The visual side will be VR where I have built imaginary city between Metropolis and Sim City where I am going to play live, and at the same time, in VR. VR is going to be another mode of expression, not weakening live shows but reinforcing live shows like cinema reinforced theater.
14. You said you kept the immersive audio component in mind when making Oxymore?
Yes. For centuries in electronic music the sounds you were using were fixed forever by the person who devised the piano, the clarinet, saxophone. Suddenly, you can become your own craftsman. This is another way to get lost. At the same time, it’s a new territory to explore, a new way of writing and expressing your imagination and your ideas. I felt a huge sense of freedom with this process. It was a huge relief. If I put all these elements in stereo, I would fight a lot to try to make them not a mess. Every sound has its own space, its own place. It’s like putting your head inside a painting. It’s very liberating.
15. Does the fact that immersive audio has moved away from being just for audiophiles and become very accessible as it gets integrated into basic consumer products motivate you to work more within it?
I feel very privileged to have been to have to have lived three moments of disruptions. The first one was the emergence of electronic music. The second one was the emergence of digital era with computers. And the third one is the birth and the dawn of immersive worlds. This one is probably the most crucial one. For young artists today, it’s a real opportunity because big moments of disruptions are always very positive for artists and creators.
16. What is one thing about electronic music now that is far better than it was at the start of your music career and what is one thing that is far worse?
What is far better is what would take me two hours can take me two seconds. I started with tape recorders and when I wanted to make a beat, I had to use scissors and tape to physically edit the tape to make a loop. That was quite time consuming. Now I just do it with a few clicks. The downside of this is because everything can be instant, you have less and less time to think about what you’re doing, because you’re almost doing things before having finished your thought. Every musician will tell you this is the problem: The time between the idea and the realization of the idea is long. Now, we have the reverse problem. The gap in time is quite interesting for maturing an idea, to make it different.
17. What was the best business decision you ever made?
To sell my catalog this year. It’s in keeping with a sense of nostalgia, and also, to reset and to feel, in a sense, like a beginner. It gives me the freedom to do whatever I want.
18. Who was your greatest mentor, and what was the best advice they gave you?
My best mentor was my teacher at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, Pierre Schaeffer, the father of musique concrète. This whole Oxymore project is a tribute to this French way of approaching the roots of electronic music. By actually dealing with sounds rather than notes and injecting the sound design approach to music composition, people have no idea about how big their contribution is in the way we’re doing the music today,
He told me two quite important things: Don’t hesitate to go to the unexpected, to mix the sound of a bird with a clarinet, to mix the sound of a washing machine with a trombone. This is what Oxymore is about. And he said, don’t waste your time experimenting, because your path is to create a bridge between the experimentation we are doing is here in this group and pop music and the audience. That helped me save a lot of time.
19. What’s the best piece of advice you’d give your younger self?
What people don’t like in you, do it, because it’s yourself.
20. Your life would make a great movie, don’t you think?
That’s very nice. What you’re saying is very touching. There are two categories of people. One category is people thinking that their life is so interesting that it should become the most beautiful movie. The other category is people who probably have a more exciting life, but they never realize it because they’ve been the main actor.
There are Madonna albums with more hits (True Blue) and others with more critical acclaim (Ray of Light), but Erotica — the Queen of Pop’s fifth studio album — was a game-changing classic that found her at the peak of her powers as a pop provocateur. Released 30 years ago on Oct. 20, 1992 — in tandem with her scandalous Sex book, a coffee table tome featuring Isabella Rossellini, Naomi Campbell, Big Daddy Kane, Vanilla Ice, Tatiana von Fürstenberg and others — the LP showed that Madonna’s artistic ambitions were only getting bigger after the heights of 1989’s Like a Prayer. Enlisting “Vogue” producer Shep Pettibone and “Justify My Love” producer André Betts, she continued to push boundaries — and buttons — liberating her creativity as well as her sexuality.
The album was not as big of a hit as its predecessor, the blockbuster Like a Prayer, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, making it her first studio LP since her self-titled debut not to reach the pole position on that chart. And while four of its singles were top 40 hits on the Hot 100 – including the No. 3-peaking title track and the No. 7 hit “Deeper and Deeper” – some felt that was a disappointment compared to the No. 1 peaks reached by then-recent previous singles “This Used to Be My Playground,” “Justify My Love” and “Vogue.”
But 30 years later, it’s abundantly clear that Erotica paved the way for other pop divas — from Janet Jackson to Beyoncé to Christina Aguilera — who were willing to get their freak on. Here, we rank all 14 tracks on an iconic album that forever sexed-up pop music.
Oliver Tree and Robin Schulz secure a top 10 debut on Billboard‘s multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (dated Oct. 22) with “Miss You” at No. 10. It’s the first top 10 for Oliver Tree, who has notched 14 entries, including two top 10s, on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, and the third for Schulz, following “Prayer in C,” with Lillywood (five weeks at No. 1, 2015), and “Sugar,” featuring Francesco Yates (No. 2, 2016).
“Miss You” manages nearly the entirety of its chart points from streaming, as it earned 2 million official streams in the U.S. in the Oct. 7-13 tracking week, according to Luminate. Concurrently, the track begins on Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs (No. 25), the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart (No. 93) and the Billboard Global 200 (No. 125).
Elton John and Britney Spears gain on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in the wake of the Oct. 7 release of Joel Corry’s remix of “Hold Me Closer,” as the collab claims top Streaming Gainer honors (6.3 million streams, up 7%). The song, which ranks at No. 2 for a third straight frame after debuting at No. 1 (Sept. 10), also drew 32 million radio airplay audience impressions, up 13%, and sold 3,000 downloads, up 15%.
Additionally on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Alok locks in his eighth appearance, Sigala scores his 17th and Ellie Goulding earns her 11th with “All by Myself” (No. 42). The team-up, which tallied 489,000 streams, contains multiple musical elements of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence,” the band’s 1990 crossover smash from its Violator album that served as the British new wave act’s sole Billboard Hot 100 top 10 (No. 8), topped the Alternative Airplay chart for three weeks and reached No. 6 on Dance Club Songs.
On Dance/Mix Show Airplay, Doja Cat adds her fourth top 10 with “Vegas” (15-10), thanks to strong mix show support. (The Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 70 top 40-formatted reporters.) Previously, she culled top 10 placements with “Say So” (12 weeks at No. 1, 2020), “Kiss Me More,” featuring SZA (No. 3, 2021), and “Get Into It (Yuh)” (No. 10, this July).
Plus, Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal bow on Dance/Mix Show Airplay with “B.O.T.A. (Baddest of Them All)” (No. 36), the initial appearance for each act. The song is lining up core-dance airplay on SiriusXM’s Diplo’s Revolution, Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel and SiriusXM’s BPM, among other outlets. On Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, “B.O.T.A.” holds at its No. 8 high, driven most prominently by 3.5 million streams.
Indie label, distributor and publisher EMPIRE has acquired tastemaking electronic label Dirtybird, the imprint founded by producer Claude VonStroke in 2005.
Per the terms of the deal, EMPIRE now owns the entirety of the Dirtybird brand, outside of Dirtybird’s live events including its annual Dirtybird campout. The deal includes Dirtybird’s back catalog and all future releases, with EMPIRE also now handling distribution and publishing for the San Francisco based imprint. A representative for EMPIRE declined to disclose financial details of the deal.
VonStroke, born Barclay Crenshaw, will continue to A&R the San Francisco-based Dirtybird label and also direct creative for Dirtybird apparel.
The sale marks the first foray into the electronic music space for EMPIRE, a San Francisco-based multi-hyphenate music company founded by Ghazi in 2010. The company has offices in New York, Nashville, the UK and the Middle East and has worked extensively in the hip-hop, Latin, country, R&B and Afrobeats, helping build the careers of artists including Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, XXXTentacion and Fireboy DML.
“Growing up in San Francisco and the Bay Area at large, dance music has always been a huge part of our music scene,” says EMPIRE CEO and Founder Ghazi. “EMPIRE at its core is a company that is for the culture. Dirtybird embodies the independent ethos and understands the cultural nuance of everything San Francisco and dance music.”
“I’m so excited to join another incredible independent Bay Area music company,” says Crenshaw, also the CEO of Dirtybird. “I will continue to A&R the Dirtybird label and direct the creative for the music and clothing, while EMPIRE has the capacity and resources to grow the brand globally. This is a dream come true.”
Since it’s 2005 launch, Dirtybird has become one of the United States’ leading independent electronic labels, helping develop and popularize the underground house and tech-house genres via releases by VonStroke and the cadre of Dirtybird artists including Justin and Christian Martin, J Phlip, Justin Jay, Walker & Royce and Nikki Nair. Crenshaw has run Dirtybird alongside his wife, Dirtybird COO Aundy Crenshaw, since launching the imprint.
EMPIRE and Dirtybird are formally announcing the partnership today (October 20) at ADE, the annual electronic industry conference happening this week in Amsterdam.
“Our deals are full-on partnerships,” Ghazi told Billboard in March of this year, “so the way the rights are written, recoupment is likely; master reversion, if there is a reversion, is likely; and artists tend to have a lot more creative input, not control.”