What is Dance pop?
Dance pop originated in the late 1970s/early 1980s. It is characterized by a disco and synthpop influence, strong uptempo beats, catchy melodies with a positive mood and easy pop music song structures. Dance pop shall be danceable and at the same time suitable for mainstream contemporary hit radio. Therefore, dance pop was/is always influenced by other genres like hip hop, contemporary rnb, house or electro pop.
Like other dance genres, dance pop is mainly producer-driven, prominent example being aforementioned British producer trio Stock/Aitken/Waterman. They were responsible for many 1980s hits like Kylie Minogue’s »I Should Be So Lucky«, Rick Astley’s »Never Gonna Give You Up« or »Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now« by Samantha Fox (all 1987). A later example of successful British dance pop are girl group Spice Girls, known for »Wannabe« (1996).
In the 1990s, Sweden developed into a center of dance pop with producers like Deniz PoP and Max Martin, being the masterminds behind groups/artists and hits like Ace of Base and »All That She Wants« (1992), Backstreet Boys and »We've Got It Goin' On« (1995) and »Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)« (1996) as well as *NSYNC and »I Want You Back« (1996) or Britney Spears.
Nevertheless, dance pop is not always producer-driven. US artist Madonna, who was crucial in popularizing dance pop, was always involved both as a songwriter and co-producer. A recent example for artist driven dance pop is fellow American singer Lady Gaga.
