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'Dance-pop' is a subgenre of pop music that evolved from disco, circa the early 1980s, that combines dance beats with a pop song structure. Because there is such an emphasis on fully-formed songs in dance-pop, it is often viewed as a separate classification unto itself apart from pure dance music.^[1] Dance-pop is also closely related to the teen pop^[2] and Eurodance movements in the mid- and late 1990s, the rise of boy bands and girl groups, and the reintroduction of the vocoder and similar such innovations.
Like its disco forebear, dance-pop is often viewed by musical historians as a producer's medium, as a great many musicians and songwriting teams arose from the genre. Musicians like André Cymone and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (all of whom had been musically connected with Prince) and Patrick Leonard (who'd been a member of the band Trillion), as well as DJs like Jellybean Benitez and Shep Pettibone, became stars in their own right due to the sleek productions they lavished on artists like Madonna, Jody Watley and Janet Jackson. Another dance-pop production team of note is Stock Aitken and Waterman, who sculpted polished production for the likes of Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley and Bananarama. Indeed, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, (both of whom had been stars in the disco era as part of the group Chic), were able to flourish as producers of material for newer artists in dance-pops rise. Another dance-pop Singer Cher has the biggest selling dance-pop song ever having sold over 10 million copies worldwide for her Dance-pop song Believe and "Believe" is also the third most successful song released by a solo female musician worldwide.
Of course, a select few artists were able to arise in dance-pop to refute the notion of the subgenre as strictly producer-driven. Artists like Michael Jackson, as well as the aforementioned Madonna, Kylie Minogue, and (for a time) Janet Jackson were able to achieve superstardom, while Jody Watley has since went on to international acclaim and continued to garner critical praise.

Contents

Notable dance-pop artists

See Also

References

Notable dance-pop artists

★ Paula Abdul

★ C+C Music Factory

★ Taylor Dayne

★ Cathy Dennis

★ Janet Jackson

★ Cher

★ Backstreet Boys

★ Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam

★ Michael Jackson

★ Madonna

★ Kylie Minogue

★ Jody Watley

★ Pebbles

★ Britney Spears

See Also

★ Disco

★ House music

★ Synthpop

References

1. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:8
2. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:7232