July 24, 20168 yr Author I'm still trying to get a hold on what exactly defines tropical house. Basically songs in the style of Felix Jaehn, Kygo, Lost Frequencies, Sigala etc. There's an article on it on Wikipedia I believe.
July 24, 20168 yr Thanks. Just reading it. Learning about the common characteristics. Very minimal. You can clearly hear the XX aesthetic in all this stuff. Like chill-wave it sounds interesting at first but then every song starts to use the same tricks.
July 24, 20168 yr Isn't tropical house mainly deep house with some chill-out tropical vibes? that's what I thought actually so far
July 24, 20168 yr Tropical house is very cool and minimal sounding like deep house but it has tropical instruments in it like pan pipes, saxophone, steel drums, saxophone, trumpets or accordion. The first big tropical house hit was Dario G - Sunchyme. Then a particular producer who had hits that make it on to the thread in 2005 and 2006 may have been tropical house too. But the first one that sounded like today's tropical house was Stereo Love in 2010. I preferred 2000s funky house as it was less minimal, had more to it, those epic disco strings like in that Moloko track and also it had a retro feel too due to the disco influence in it. Also it tended to have disco style vocals as you will see later on in the thread towards the middle of the decade. Whereas tropical house tends to have extremely chilled sounding vocals. I find funky house to be warmer sounding like disco, whereas deep and tropical house sounds cool and distant. I compare the two because funky house was the main lighter, crossover form of dance music in the 2000s whereas tropical house is now in the 2010's. The harder forms of dance music in the 2000s were trance and electro whereas now in 2010s it is minimal and tech house. Not all of Sigala's tracks are tropical house, Give Me Your Love is funky house whereas Say You Do is actually similar to 2000s cheesy 'Clubland' eurodance c.2003-early 2004 for me especially with the vocals. Also similar to clubland is Galantis - No Money it has those immature vocals that many 'Clubland' eurodance songs had. Edited July 24, 20168 yr by Mountain Marquis
July 24, 20168 yr The general pattern for many dance trends tends to follow roughly this: * Emerges underground, perhaps not quite fully formed yet but with some of the characteristics already there - will later form the basis for arguments on dance music forums about which songs "came first". * Evolves quickly into a huge scene - one or two tracks stand out as huge club favourites and anthems of the time. Record labels perk up their ears. * Said one or two anthems are cut down to three minutes, released as singles and become massive chart hits, at least one of them going top 5 or even #1. The "mainstream" takes notice. * Another dozen or so tracks that sound fairly similar jump on the bandwagon and fill the top 40, many of them with ill-fitting raps or vocal tracks - some from people you'll later see announced as the BBC Sound of (YEAR) in January - awkwardly thrown over the top to sound more commercial. A "The Sound of (GENRE)" compilation is immediately released with as many songs crammed on as possible, along with a ton of underwhelming remixes to fill up the album. * Various dodgy cover versions of 80s songs remixed to sound vaguely like the genre in question get rush-released, gain little to no critical acclaim but do stonkingly well in the charts, probably outpeaking the tracks they inspired. "Not as good as the original" arguments rage until the end of time. * Pop acts jump on board and quickly stick smatterings of the elements of the genre onto their newest singles, watering down the original sound even further but getting the needed top ten hits they require. * The inevitable "novelty" hit or two, sampling a kids TV show/viral youtube video/bloke in the street etc gets released, barely sounding like the genre at all anymore and by this time it's all retreated back underground or died a sad death, UNTIL... (twenty years later) * A new dance track uses elements of the original genre, sounding hugely inferior to the tracks it's been inspired by, is labelled a "revival" and the whole thing begins all over again. Rave, Eurodance, UK garage, dubstep, every time...
July 24, 20168 yr Author that does seem to often be the case. The first sign that a dance genre has peaked is when pop stars all jump on the craze (see Britney Spears and Taylor Swift putting "dubstep" on one of their songs followed by the genre quickly falling out of favour). Today it's Justin Bieber and tropical house, just wait a year or so and there'll be a new dance sub-genre taking over. must be hard for dance producers who specialise in one sub-genre, unless your name is David Guetta or especially Calvin Harris and you're eternally relevant.
July 24, 20168 yr I think trance died out because there was a shift to more retro stuff. One track in particular in mid 2004, Lola's Theme by The Shapeshifters I think was responsible for this. By the middle of 2006 I think there was a shift to futuristic stuff again. Again one track was responsible for this - Bodyrox and Luciana - Yeah Yeah. It was a battle in the 2000s between the futuristic dance music (trance and later electro) and the retro sounding stuff (funky house). For a period in early 2001 funky house started to take off and then by mid 2001 it had died away for a while as trance took off again. It only takes one iconic track to completely change things I think. Also I agree about things sounding similar too even outside tropical house now there seems to be a formula for a deep house dance song now whether it is How Deep Is Your Love, Freak Like Me or Piece Of Me, a soulful R&B vocals buildup with ever more passionate vocals as it reaches the drop and then the drop and the inevitable chopped up vocals. For future bass it is also formulaic, chilled out vocals of Took A Pill in Ibiza, Sex, Dont Let Me Down and then the similar trap sounds for the drop often including high pitched vocals. I think there was more variety between trance songs, funky house songs and garage songs in the 2000s than there is between songs this decade. Even for deep house this decade, Kieszas Hideaway, Karen Hardings Say Something, David Zowies House Every Weekend and DJ SKTs Take Me Away all had similar music, ie a similar electronic bassline and percussion. Edited July 24, 20168 yr by Mountain Marquis
July 25, 20168 yr Where is the new entry :) ? If this thread is completed it will be a miracle. :lol:
July 25, 20168 yr Where is the new entry :) ? If this thread is completed it will be a miracle. :lol: Relax. :D
July 25, 20168 yr The general pattern for many dance trends tends to follow roughly this.... Brilliant summary.
July 25, 20168 yr my favourite from the ones we got so far is Chicane's Don't Give Up. Chicane really got some fantastic singles, especially the early ones like Offshore... he kinda lost me when he did the one making a dance cover of Sigur Ros :/
July 25, 20168 yr Not really... There were gaps of days when Dr B & the Antoinettes did their 90s one. These things don't have to be rushed.
July 25, 20168 yr Author He's joking guys. If you look at his posts closely, it may give you a hint of what the next song on the rundown is going to be :D
July 25, 20168 yr Not really... There were gaps of days when Dr B & the Antoinettes did their 90s one. These things don't have to be rushed. :wub:
July 25, 20168 yr I will never forget that chart week where the top 6 was new entries (Fill Me In, Flowers, Song For The Lovers, The Bad Touch, Deeper Shade Of Blue, Blow Ya Mind) plus Rank 1's Airwave new at #10. Edited July 25, 20168 yr by N-S
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