Post
by Bonkers » 10 Jun 2014, 05:00
I think what I fail to understand is how many of you are trying to compare the possible marketing potential of Eurobeat to that of American dance-pop marketing.
America, for one, has NEVER been the market for commercial electronic dance music. Period. PERIOD! P-E-R-I-O-D! The 80s sparked the New Wave dance that blossomed in both Europe and the States. That gave away in the 90s when Eurodance became the "it" genre for mainstream media. EVERYTHING had to be eurodance! That worked great until American media circuits did their best, and succeeded, at stomping out the eurodance craze in favor of American-mad boy bands, pop divas, soul artists, and rappers. It suddenly became accepted to look down upon the dance music lovers (also, during this time, the rave scene was booming in the States, so other underground dance genres like Hard Trance, Happy Hardcore, Hard house, techno were building the underground scene that most people had no idea of unless you went to an actual rave).
All this was exactly how the record companies wanted. The only commercial dance music would be club extended remixes of pop songs...maybe a eurodance (now just vocal trance) thrown in here and there to keep it spicy. This has been the formula ever since. That was until Lady Gaga appeared on the circuit with her "Just Dance" trance-influenced "dance pop" sound. She became, and still is, an icon for the American club sound. David Guetta, Tiesto, Armin Van Burren quickly saw potential in this and picked up on the bandwagon. Their reputable names would bring in the crowd and boost CD/Download sales for this rehashed, "dance remixes of pop tracks" formula. And that's what we're left with currently.
So, in the States, you have the mainstream club circuit, full of your electro-house, trance, house, dubstep genres consisting mostly of remixed material. You also have the rave circuit, boasting a wide-genre; mostly foreign following: Happy Hardcore, UK Hardcore, Hardstyle, Hard Trance, Drum'n'Bass, dubstep, goa trance, psytrance, Hard Dance/NRG, UK Hard House, techno, etc.
As for the data on Happy Hardcore music sales in the States: "The first Happy2bHardcore release in 1997 sold 100,000 copies, a staggering number fo the genre. Over it’s lifetime, the series has sold over 400,000 CDs."
#1 Best Selling Electronic Music CD – Happy 2b Hardcore Chapter 1″
Nielson Soundscan (I would say this was honored circa 1997).
That number in CD sales for all 7 volumes is AMAZING for an underground genre that wasn't even produced in the States! NO commercials, No Advertising. Sales were strictly from creating a fan base (Candy Ravers) around the genre in the North American rave scene. And.....there is NO FACE image of the vocalists (except for Darren Styles & Re-Con). Except for a few dutch titles, there are no music videos for HHC. So ya...that's something Eurobeat & HHC share.
Eurobeat can see that potential if DJs would start playing it out instead of only playing Eurobeat at anime cons. People need to hear, experience, feel, be one with this genre by actually hearing it for what it is...dance music. Chaotic dance music. Music that breaks the rules. Music that has its own identity. Start holding your own parties! Most cities have rental venues. Rent one out, blast this genre over the sound system. Once you hook people, they are gonna want more, and that's where you build in your sales.
Gruzky...you are so fixated on Eurobeat fitting an image of the typical American. Stop focusing on trying to make Eurobeat fit this image. Its negative. Eurobeat's fan base is going to be within in the underground, just as it is in Japan. WHY would you even want the "typical American" in on this music? Like I said, it would only be reformed to fit the what would be deemed acceptable to the popular crowd. Let people COME TO THE MUSIC! Just like you did! Just like I did! Just like everyone on this forum did!
Last edited by
Bonkers on 10 Jun 2014, 05:19, edited 1 time in total.