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Usher, Ke$ha And More Help Dance Music Go Pop In 2010

But is it here to stay? Our music-industry experts weigh in.
By Akshay Bhansali


Ke$ha
Photo: Andreas Rentz/ Getty Images

In 2010, pop princesses, R&B icons and chart-dominating newcomers all danced to the same beat. Not only did dance music go pop, but pop music caught the club-music bug.

Between Katy Perry's "Firework," Ke$ha's "We R Who We R," Rihanna's "Only Girl (In the World)," Enrique Iglesias' "I Like It," Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" and "OMG" and countless other singles, established artists definitely looked to dance beats for surefire hits. And two of this year's biggest success stories in music were Jason Derülo and Taio Cruz; could there be a soul left in this country who hasn't heard "Dynamite" or "In My Head"?

The love went both ways, with dance music's biggest stars finding mainstream success this year. Dance-music maestro deadmau5 took up house-artist duties at this year's VMAs, and Swedish House Mafia and Usher teamed up for a medley of their gems at the American Music Awards.

So how did this happen? We caught up with some music-industry experts to get their takes.

"You definitely saw tempos go up this year," Jon Caramanica of The New York Times told MTV News. "And I think what you had are a lot of producers who are really familiar with nightclub stuff. They are familiar with Europe. Things are happening on a more global scale now."

"I think everything from Europe, and sometimes even Asia, it comes to America, and we just adopt things a little bit slower," said Jared Eng of JustJared.com. "I think it was just a change. People like different types of music at different times. And dance was of this moment."

Noah Callahan of Complex magazine added: "I think 2010 saw the merging of the pop and dance genres. Pop artists realized that there were best practices that could be borrowed from dance music. And, ultimately, [all] pop music that has been made in the past 20 years had ended up being remixed for the club by dance artists. I think they basically just cut out the middleman and went straight there."

Dance music being introduced into the hip-hop and R&B realms was particularly notable this year.

"I think David Guetta kind of at the end of last year and the beginning of this year spearheaded it," said freelance writer Julianne Escobedo Shepherd. "He produced a lot of tracks. I think as trends go, people revile 'unst-unst.' But it's just coming back around. Big-room techno was a way for people to get decadent in a year that no one could get decadent."

"You have someone like will.i.am, who's like, 'Well, I spent all this time in Ibiza, and this is what they are doing,' and he wants to find a way to bring that into his music," Caramanica said of the Black Eyed Peas mastermind. "R&B especially became dance music. And especially with your Jason Derülos, Taio Cruzes. Guys like that would have literally been blocked at the border two years ago. That would not have made it through customs. And now all of a sudden they have #1 songs. I think will.i.am had a lot to do with that last year."

Elliott Wilson of RapRadar.com added: "It's actually even affected hip-hop. I was talking to Q-Tip, and his next record, I feel like that's gonna kind of go in that vein. I know that was also Jay-Z's thought process with Blueprint 3 at first, that he wanted to make a little bit more of a world music [vibe], a little more dancey. I think the kids today want to go to the clubs. They wanna have a good time. They wanna dance. So I think the artists of today are trying to kind of feed that audience."

"I think it's caught on this year because the people who've done it have been successful," offered Clover Hope of Vibe magazine. "Like 'OMG,' with usher, he didn't have success until he made a dance record. He had 'There Goes My Baby' and these really, like, adult-contemporary records that didn't really catch on. And then once you see that everybody is doing it and that people are liking it, they are like, 'OK, let me just try this out.' It's like Auto-Tune. Like, 'Let me see what I sound like on a record by David Guetta.' They end up liking it and doing more of it."

So does the club-music trend have staying power. According to our tastemakers, not so much.

"I do think it's a blip," Caramanica said. "I don't think that's gonna be something that lasts in America. I think this is gonna be a moment we'll all look back on and go, 'Wasn't that weird when Jason Derülo and Taio Cruz had #1 records?"

"At some point, these R&B artists will get kind of sick of it and be like, 'Let me go back to my soul background,' " Hope said. "When you actually have to say something, dance doesn't really lend itself to substance. And I think that R&B artists, they really want to talk about love and in a deep way, and to do that, you need to do, like, a soul or a traditional R&B record. I want to say that it's kind of a fad."

"I think music is very cyclical," Eng offered. "So I think dance music might be here for a little bit, but I'm sure it will phase out at some point."

Wilson called dance music "the sound of today. I think that people want more aggressive, faster beats, and I think that that probably has legs until at least next summer."

What do you think? Is dance music here to stay? Let us know in the comments!

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2011 SAG winners

2011 SAG Awards

Gathering together to honor the year's best in cinema, the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards winners have officially been named. The complete list of 17th annual SAG winners are: THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES Outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role Jeff Bridges, "True Grit" Robert Duvall, "Get Low" Jesse Eisenberg, "The Social Network" WINNER: Colin Firth, "The King's Speech" James Franco, "127 Hours" Outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role Annette Bening, "The Kids Are All Right" Nicole Kidman, "Rabbit Hole" Jennifer Lawrence, "Winter's Bone" WINNER: Natalie Portman, "Black Swan" Hilary Swank, "Conviction" Outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role WINNER: Christian Bale, "The Fighter" John Hawkes, "Winter's Bone" Jeremy Renner, "The Town" Mark Ruffalo, "The Kids Are All Right" Geoffrey Rush, "The King's Speech" Outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role Amy Adams, "The Fighter" Helena Bonham Carter, "The King's Speech" Mila Kunis, "Black Swan" WINNER: Melissa Leo, "The Fighter" Hailee Steinfeld, "True Grit" Outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture "Black Swan" "The Fighter" "The Kids Are All Right" WINNER: "The King's Speech" "The Social Network" TELEVISION Outstanding performance by a male actor in a drama series WINNER: Steve Buscemi, "Boardwalk Empire" Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad" Michael C. Hall, "Dexter" Jon Hamm, "Mad Men" Hugh Laurie, "House M.D." Outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series Glenn Close, "Damages" Mariska Hargitay, "Law & Order: SVU" WINNER: Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife" Elisabeth Moss, "Mad Men" Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer" Outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy series WINNER: Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock" Ty Burrell, "Modern Family" Steve Carell, "The Office" Chris Colfer, "Glee" Ed O'Neill, "Modern Family" Outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series Edie Falco, "Nurse Jackie" Tina Fey, "30 Rock" Jane Lynch, "Glee" Sofia Vergara, "Modern Family" WINNER: Betty White, "Hot in Cleveland" Outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series WINNER: "Boardwalk Empire" "The Closer" "Dexter" "The Good Wife" "Mad Men" Outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series "30 Rock" "Glee" "Hot in Cleveland" WINNER: "Modern Family" "The Office" Outstanding performance by a male actor in a television movie or miniseries John Goodman, "You Don't Know Jack" WINNER: Al Pacino, "You Don't Know Jack" Dennis Quaid, "The Special Relationship" Edgar Ramirez, "Carlos" Patrick Stewart, "Macbeth" Outstanding performance by a female actor in a television movie or Miniseries WINNER: Claire Danes, "Temple Grandin" Catherine O'Hara, "Temple Grandin" Julia Ormond , "Temple Grandin" Winona Ryder, "When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story" Susan Sarandon, "You Don't Know Jack" Hollywood Gossip Enjoy the pictures from the 2011 Screen Actors Guild Awards. [gallery=750]

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Grammys Give Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber Immediate iTunes Bump

Cee Lo, Esperanza Spalding, Lady Antebellum and more also see post-show sales increases.
By Gil Kaufman


Lady Gaga performs at the Grammys on Sunday
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

It didn't take long for the big winners at Sunday night's Grammy Awards to get an iTunes bump. Less than 24 hours after the show, the iTunes singles and albums charts were flooded with songs that were either performed on the show or which won awards during the program.

At press time on Tuesday morning (February 15), the iTunes singles tally was topped, not surprisingly, by Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," which got its televised debut during the show, followed by Dr. Dre's "I Need a Doctor," which Eminem and Dre (making his first televised performance in nearly a decade) also performed on the show.

Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never" was at #3, followed by Cee Lo Green's "F--- You," which was one of the most colorful and bizarre live spots in the three-and-a-half-hour show thanks to his outer-space Henson Puppet band and a cameo from a sultry Gwyneth Paltrow.

Mumford & Sons also got some iTunes love after playing on the show with folk legend Bob Dylan, which helped their song "The Cave" hit #5, followed by the night's big Grammy victors, Lady Antebellum, and their Song and Record of the Year winner, "Need You Now."

Although she didn't perform "Firework" on the Grammys, Katy Perry's anthem hung in at #7, ahead of Rihanna, who had two shots onstage at the Grammys. Her "S&M," whose video is the subject of legal action, came in at #8, with Bruno Mars' "Grenade" and non-Grammy performer Avril Lavigne's "What the Hell" rounding out the top 10.

Just outside the top 10, there were plenty more Grammy bumps to be found: Cee Lo's censored "Forget You" (#11), Mumford & Sons' "Little Lion Man" (#12), Muse's "Uprising" (#20), Rihanna and Drake's "What's My Name?" (#21), Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie" (#24) and Florence and the Machine's "Dog Days Are Over" (#29).

The iTunes album chart told a similar story, with Mumford's Sigh No More holding on to the #1 slot, followed by Bieber's Never Say Never remixes disc, Album of the Year winner the Arcade Fire's The Suburbs was back in play at #3, proceeded by Grammy performers the Avett Brothers' I and Love and You at #4, with Best New Artist Esperanza Spalding's Chamber Music Society climbing to #6.

Other Grammy album action included: Lady Antebellum's Need You Now (#7), Bieber's My World 2.0 (#8), Eminem's Recovery (#9), Rihanna's Loud (#10), Florence and the Machine's Lungs (#11), Bieber's My Worlds Acoustic (#12), the 2011 Grammy Nominees compilation (#14), as well as albums by the Black Keys (#17), Muse (#19), Bruno Mars (#21) and Spalding's 2009 Esperanza release (#28).

Did you do any post-Grammy downloading? Tell us what you're listening to in the comments!

For more Grammy Awards analysis, interviews, fashion and more, stick with MTV News!

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