thanks, sophie

Sophie Ellis-Bextor. It’s vocal talent like this, coupled with tracks like Murder On The Dancefloor, that make me wonder how anyone could possibly reject dance music.

Her voice is like hot syrup swirling around inside you. When she does her little “I know, I know, I know” bit, you’re pretty sure you’re melting.

In 2001 the world went mad for Groovejet, a sexy vocal layer over a shwank but unheard-of Italian house number. Spiller took it to #1 worldwide, with much of the credit due to Sophie’s sexy voice.

She followed up with a solo album in 2002, and three of those tracks went top 10 in Europe. Over here we got the biggest of those, Murder On The Dance Floor, and we ate it up.

So. Sexy.

When I was spinning at 11Stones I would run a poll, saying simply: “house or hip-hop?” There would be the usual stream of bar stars clamouring for me to “stop playing that techno crap and play some real dance music”, and there would be the enthusiastic and generally more positive crowd asking for more dance tracks. I’d run the poll for an hour or so during peak time on Saturday nights. Interestingly, very few of the house-voters complained about the hip-hop. Most of the hip-hop-voters, however, didn’t seem to have the same level of acceptance. The same, dare I say it, love of variety.

After an hour of polling votes I was invariably surprised. Which way do you think it went?

Every time, the house votes would take it. Just by a few. But every time.

So I ask- here I am, playing what was labeled a top40 club and therefore appealing to the broadest spectrum possible, playing the despised “techno”- why were the house votes winning? If I were to believe the bitching of these hip-hop girls (and bitch they did) then I wouldn’t have expected the house music to get a single vote, much less pack a dance floor (and pack it they did).

Conclusions? Well, obviously we can surmise that there are some very vocal top40 drones out there, who simply cannot accept anything they haven’t already heard on the radio a thousand times. I don’t like those people. No imagination, and certainly no love of dance except as mating ritual.

Would it be fair to say that hip-hop fans reject house? That’s a blanket statement, and if there’s any truth to it, I wonder how they’re dealing with P. Diddy’s foray into club music? (Let’s Get Ill – produced by Deep Dish). The mighty Sean “Puffy” Combs? Making a house track? WTF? Danger, Eminem, danger! People DO listen to techno! Jackass. If hip-hoppers are making club tracks (Missy’s done it too, you just didn’t notice because she’s clever that way) then suddenly all the hard-line commercial hip-hop fans are without a leg to stand on. My prediction- Eminem will make house tracks, and it will probably be Dre’s idea.

Anything else? Well, there’s the other obvious one. Generally speaking, house fans love to dance, and therefore they appreciate hip-hop as just another vehicle for dancing. And that’s why they don’t bitch like the hip-hop girls. Poseur vs dancer. Tart vs trancer.

Now don’t go picking sides. Most of us are somewhere in the middle. It’s just been my observation, having to listen to all of them, that the loudest are also the most closed-minded.

Shut up. And dance.

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*edit- mp3 link removed to save bandwidth, sorry!