Course Name: »»»»Dance Music Production
Duration: »»»»»»»» 2 Consecutive Weekends
Producing dance music as we know it today has its roots in Disco and the Hip Hop born out of a ghetto reaction to its mainstream direction in the late ‘70s. DJ Kool Herc came from Jamaica to the South Bronx in ‘76 and mixed a blend of disco and funk while toasting on the mic at street parties. By then mixing two copies of the same record Grandmaster Flash was able to loop the drum breaks indefinitely.... Hip Hop was born.
At the same time something quite different was being developed on the other side of the Atlantic -Techno pioneers Kraftwerk began experimenting with drum machines and synthesisers and were later to have a massive influence back Stateside with the likes of Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson.
In England, US Techno and early House were moulded into Acid House by DJ producers such as Danny Rampling and Mike Pickering at their pioneering club-nights in London and Manchester. From the late ‘80s House and Techno boomed, spawning the array of specialist ‘4-to-the-floor’ genres we know today. As the BPM of breakbeats used in tracks progressed, in hand with music technology, such styles as Hardcore, Drum ‘n’ Bass and Breaks emerged from ongoing experimentation, again pushing MIDI-produced music into new realms.