You Can’t Break Beyoncé’s Soul, The Race For Dance Music Heats UP

As the battle for dance music dominance heats up between two of the biggest names in music, the beehive has been staying focused on their Queen Bey.Her first track from her forthcoming album Renaissance is Break My Soul was released on Tuesday.Beyoncé’s Renaissance is expected to drop July 29, and from all indications it will be a dance album, just like Drake’s “Honestly, Nevermind”. “Break My Soul,” is an uptempo bounce bop that takes us back to the era when dance music reigned supreme and it features New Orleans Bounce Music rapper Big Freedia. She can be heard chanting, “Release your anger, release your mind.”5 hours into its release the song is now No. 3 on Us iTunes and will more than likely hit No. 1 by the end of the day.

Drake had previously released a music video for the single, “Nice for What,” which enlisted the gay musician for the intro. Similar to Beyonce’s Break My Soul, Freedia is the opening voice in the Nice For What, just before Drake’s voice is heard saying “Everybody get your (expletive) roll on,” which is also an ode to the 2000 Cash Money Big Tymers break out hit, “Get your roll on.”

Freedia tweeted that “it feels surreal to be on a track with the Queen Beyonce,”

Among the credits for composition on Break My Soul is Jay Z and the song is co-produced by Beyonce, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart (Umbrella, Single Ladies), and The Dream.Break My Soul creditsRenaissance is Beyonce’s sixth straight leader and sources say the new LP has elements of country and the dance-floor.Beyonce says about her upcoming album, “I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love, and laugh again. I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible.”Electronic Dance Music make 4 billion dollars per year according to the Ibiza International Music Summit (IMS) business report. In the United States, dance/electronic music makes up 3.3% of total recorded
music volume, (a 3% rise over last year.)

The genre reached an all-time U.S. high of 4% in 2016, the height of the EDM boom. As last year’s “IMS Report” predicted, hip-hop’s U.S. market share dropped in 2021, hitting 27.7% after reaching 28.2% in 2020.EDM is now a part of the mainstream music industry especially in Europe, but as the genre struggled to make it into mainstream in the 90s it fused with the sub-genres techno music, house music, hardcore rave (hardstyle), dub, trance, and drum and bass which helped propel it into popularity.

DJs and artist earnings were up $400 million — that’s 111% — over 2020, largely due to the return to live music and shows in 2021.Dancehall is also one of the original forms of electronic dance music and has contributed to the EDM industry’s revenues, but there were no major dancehall-EDM hits or Jamaican shows last year.

Events like Colour Fest, Electric Butterfly Music Festival, were not held, and stalled Paradise Lost Festival was set to generate billions but have not managed to stage an event in a couple years.Among the top paid DJs and artists, Diplo who has been involved in Jamaica’s EDM development is at No. 7 but there are no dancehall or Jamaican DJs, even though the report boasts of improvement in diversity.

The report found that representation and demand for people of color in the “DJ Mag Top 100” — an annual ranking of the world’s 100 most popular electronic artists — grew in 2021.A trip to a Las Vegas or club in Dubai last year would have been met with Major Lazer EMD originals and remixes such as Vybz Kartel ‘Pon Di Floor’ that was sampled by Beyoncé for ‘Run The World’.

They also did Busy Signal’s Bumaye, Damian Marley’s Make It Bun Dem featuring Skrillix and Sean Paul’s One Wine and Come On To Me, add to the modern dancehall-EDM catalogue.Charly Black and Gyptian have also found success with EDM, via both remixes and original tracks. Black’s “Party Animal”, Busy’s Bumaye and just about any Sean Paul hit can be heard at NBA basketball games all across the US.

Billboard.com tells the story of how EDM is as Jamaican as Ackee And Saltfish.

One which suggests that successful EDM DJs and events are actually the offspring of King Tubby and his pioneering work. EDM DJs who dissect and otherwise manipulate their tracks while playing live, are following an innovation established by the brilliant Jamaican engineer, sound system owner-selector, the late King Tubby (born Osbourne Ruddock).

“While working as a disc cutter for Duke Reid and using a two-track recording console, Tubby eliminated vocal and instrumental segments, sometimes stripping a song down to a single thunderous bass line – which he embellished with echo and reverb effects – in a process called dub. Because of his expertise with electronics, Tubby was able to recreate the dub effects live on his sound system, something no one had ever heard, making his set the most popular of the early 70s,” Billboard reported.