Show me some melody in modern electronic music.

[cron]

James Blake's earlier stuff might interest you if you're looking for substance (I personally haven't much time for the later), although I'd say it's more harmonically interesting than melodically so.

[ghettosynth]

ABBA is still popular today and a lot of people who like them are too young to have been exposed to them heavily when they were popular.

Are you sure that they haven't heard ABBA many times on the radio or TV or music shows or even in shopping malls?

Playing a song over and over is the best method to make it catchy (given that the songwriting is good, too)...

If they would play the similar pop act "Ace of Base" over and over, they would even be played as an evergreen in 30 years...

Murial's Wedding gave ABBA a boost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel's_Wedding

"Life should be as good as an ABBA song."

[ZenPunkHippy]

But there once was a time when much of the most successful dance music had the staying power to still be listened to today.

A few classics are well known, the rest is largely forgotten.

Anyway, here's my advice ...

At risk of repeating what has already been said, what you've described as "ideal dance music" is exactly what someone from the outside looking in would say about modern house / techno / trance.

The best solution to this "problem" is to go the gonzo journalist route! Immerse yourself in the culture and music for a few weeks. You don't need to get smashed on drugs. It's perfectly possible to have an good time without doing that. The people are generally really friendly.

Basically, what you're chasing can't be documented on a piece of paper or posted on a forum: it's a feeling. So get out there and experience that feeling first hand!

Peace,
Andy.

[ghettosynth]

James Blake's earlier stuff might interest you if you're looking for substance (I personally haven't much time for the later), although I'd say it's more harmonically interesting than melodically so.

Great stuff, I think that you've posted some of those before in another thread just like this one. Of course, that's only dance music for a very liberal interpretation of dancing.

Here's your dance audience...

[Tricky-Loops]

ABBA is still popular today and a lot of people who like them are too young to have been exposed to them heavily when they were popular.

Are you sure that they haven't heard ABBA many times on the radio or TV or music shows or even in shopping malls?

Playing a song over and over is the best method to make it catchy (given that the songwriting is good, too)...

If they would play the similar pop act "Ace of Base" over and over, they would even be played as an evergreen in 30 years...

Murial's Wedding gave ABBA a boost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel's_Wedding

"Life should be as good as an ABBA song."

And there surely are some other boosts, too. What I wanted to say is that not every song known as evergreen and still being played, is an outstanding great song in points of songwriting. It's the continuous repetition of these songs in all kind of media that makes them so memorable. You can hear a lot of "killer melodies" that you won't remember in 30 years. But if they are played CONTINUOUSLY, they will be remembered. Songwriting is an art. But marketing is an art, too.

[zircon]

Please check out my concept EDM album "Identity Sequence". I was very heavily focused on emotional melodies, memorable tracks, lyrics, etc. to create an evocative soundscape.

http://zirconstudios.bandcamp.com/album ... y-sequence

[cron]

Great stuff, I think that you've posted some of those before in another thread just like this one. Of course, that's only dance music for a very liberal interpretation of dancing.

It's true: the more interesting the music, the further you're moving away from a certain type of dancefloor. Although having said that, in the early days of dubstep most people said you couldn't dance to it. They said it was too slow, not really understanding that the dancefloor worked at 140bpm rather than the 70bpm that dubstep technically is. Now it (or some bastardised version of it) is the big thing on mainstream dancefloors worldwide!

[cytospur]

I'm surprised that Orbital hasn't been mentioned yet.

[Tricky-Loops]

And if Orbital is mentioned, "William Orbit" should be mentioned, too - he makes MELODIC AND ATMOSPHERIC electronic music...

[Meffy]

I always suspected Al was William's brother.

[A.M. Gold]

ABBA is still popular today and a lot of people who like them are too young to have been exposed to them heavily when they were popular.

Are you sure that they haven't heard ABBA many times on the radio or TV or music shows or even in shopping malls?

Playing a song over and over is the best method to make it catchy (given that the songwriting is good, too)...

If they would play the similar pop act "Ace of Base" over and over, they would even be played as an evergreen in 30 years...

Murial's Wedding gave ABBA a boost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel's_Wedding

"Life should be as good as an ABBA song."

And there surely are some other boosts, too. What I wanted to say is that not every song known as evergreen and still being played, is an outstanding great song in points of songwriting. It's the continuous repetition of these songs in all kind of media that makes them so memorable. You can hear a lot of "killer melodies" that you won't remember in 30 years. But if they are played CONTINUOUSLY, they will be remembered. Songwriting is an art. But marketing is an art, too.

Maybe, but marketing successful enough to give 40+ year staying power (like in the Stones and Beatles, the Who, CSNY, and more groups from the 60's & 70's than I can take the time to list) requires something of real substance. There is no marketing on Earth effective enough to make something well liked for that long unless it has something truly infectious about it (in the positive sense) to begin with.

ABBA and Queen got resurgences from movies because somebody thought their material was good enough for the movie, and then many in the (in many cases fairly young) audience said "Hey, there's really something here, glad to know about it!) and then went out and bought the songs from iTunes.

And part of why the Beatles and Stones remained popular, among others, is because of so-called classic rock radio stations. Back when radio was still strong (say up into the early 2000's) those stations played what was then 25-40 year old music because there was still enough demand for those songs to be on heavy rotation that the stations could stay in business.

I don't buy it that demand for a 35 year old song is purely because of some clever marketing that happened at some point. Marketing and pure exposure wear off more quickly than that. Classic rock became "classic" because the quality of the content was high enough to sustain very long term interest.

[Tricky-Loops]

ABBA and Queen got resurgences from movies because somebody thought their material was good enough for the movie, and then many in the (in many cases fairly young) audience said "Hey, there's really something here, glad to know about it!) and then went out and bought the songs from iTunes.

You compare ABBA to Queen??

Queen -- this is really GREAT songwriting if you listen to the arrangements and the song structure. ABBA is just average middle-of-the-road pop music...

[A.M. Gold]

ABBA and Queen got resurgences from movies because somebody thought their material was good enough for the movie, and then many in the (in many cases fairly young) audience said "Hey, there's really something here, glad to know about it!) and then went out and bought the songs from iTunes.

You compare ABBA to Queen??

Queen -- this is really GREAT songwriting if you listen to the arrangements and the song structure. ABBA is just average pop music...

You're missing my whole point.

I wasn't comparing anything to anything, I was stating a fact that both of them got boosts from exposure to a new audience in popular movies. The reason the new audience went out and bought their music was because they heard them, in many cases for the first time because they were too young to have known about them in the past, and they really liked what they heard.

I'm definitely not going to get into an argument about who was better, ABBA or Queen. That's the furthest thing from my mind.

[Tricky-Loops]

Nothing can make me believe that (many) people are liking ABBA because of their "killer melodies" and greatness of songwriting. It's all about repetition and marketing - and even younger people have heard ABBA many times on the radio, TV, advertisements, musicals, shopping malls, from their parents...and I include myself, without all those marketing I wouldn't know anything of ABBA...

[A.M. Gold]

Nothing can make me believe that (many) people are liking ABBA because of their "killer melodies" and greatness of songwriting. It's all about repetition and marketing - and even younger people have heard ABBA many times on the radio, TV, advertisements, musicals, shopping malls, from their parents...and I include myself, without all those marketing I wouldn't know anything of ABBA...

So ABBA is purely popular because of what...Soooo much repetition 35 years ago that it somehow resonates forward even to the current day?

Who else does this apply to? The Beatles? The Stones? Michael Jackson? Elvis?

And if this is the sole reason ABBA is still popular, why does this logic not also apply to Queen, who had massive radio repetition in 1980-81 with Another One Bites the Dust?

I think what you're really saying is you don't like ABBA and as a result you can't conceive of why anyone else does, other than that they must have been brainwashed.