Top club songs, what are they going to be for 2012? For the year 2011 there were many top club songs from both established artists and new comers. DJ Mog and AfroJack are both relatively new to the scene and both had a stellar year providing top club songs 2011. So what is it that makes up a top club song? What is the criteria? Is it strictly based upon sales? We will look into this in depth and discover what is required to make a top club song across the world.
While there are many different genres of electronic music, far and away the beat that makes up usually a “four on the floor’ or straight beat. You will notice that the biggest commercial successes and club music usually, in 99% of the time are a four on the floor beat. Having a great beat is only one ingredient for a top club song. Other percussive elements are essential, like perhaps unique bongos or hats, etc. With a solid beat in place we are about 1/5 of the way to having a top club song, in our opinion.
If we are going to have a straight beat as our first ingredient, then next we will have to have a baseline to go with it. For this we must start off with some tension in the bassline that has a groove. Right now the most popular baselines are those by David Guetta. While some may debate this, he is considered the top DJ in the world at the time of this article by DJ Mag. His electro-house style is infectious and has friend like wild fire among top club songs all over the world you will hear that unique style of his. Our personal opinion for a top club songs baseline should be one that is easily “hum-able.” Okay so we maybe make enough our own word there, but it's true. Top club songs are not designed to the focused listening. They are designed to danced to when played in a club. Therefore the baseline should be quick, easy and driving. It is good to change it up a little bit, like from verse to verse to transpose some notes and maybe add some glitch effects. And so this concludes phase 2, that is now we have our top club songs be an baseline so what is next? The melody.
Again at 1BMG personal opinion is that simplicity is the key to success. Focused listening is great for some genres of electronic music like dub step. However a hot dance track and top club song needs and instant melody that is easy to dance to and memorable. One example of this is by LMFAO, “Party Rock Anthem.” That song was a huge success and they deserve the credit for that track as anybody who heard it could not help but want to be whether or not you are in your car or in a club. In most club music enthusiasts would agree that they could listen to that song 100 times over and still like it. Part of the reason is because it has a very nice melodic break in the chorus where they sing with a catchy chord/pad progression. Another example of a great analogy for a dance track was Kid Cudi’s “Day N Night.” Now that we have a hot melody place that is easily recognizable and easy to dance to, the pieces of the puzzle are taking shape. So ideally what is next on the agenda? We need a hot vocal.
Depending on the sound artist is going for, without a doubt a strong lead vocal is a driving force on the forefront for top club songs. Both female and male vocals are popular, critics would probably agree female vocals are usually more widely a commercial success then male vocals. All of this is debatable of course, however if you took the top 100 club songs for 2011 on back through 2001… During that 10 year period how many of the top club songs showcased a female vocal versus a male vocal? We do not have those statistics here but we don't think much research is required… We feel it is a safe bet to assume the majority of all top club songs showcased a female vocal. We feel the hottest female vocal voice right now is Nadia Ali. From the days of “Rapture” on up to her new stuff: ”Party in My Head” she has proven herself to be a winner. So what makes a female vocalist like Nadia Ali so popular? Other than the fact she can hit her notes and sounds good on record, her voice is supremely unique, recognizable and memorable. She is not one of those artists that come on and you say, “that sounds like so and so…” When one of her songs comes on you know this is Nadia Ali singing. Great so now we've got hot beat, a sweet melody, and powerful vocal… Thatit right? Of course not, we are only part of the way there. The mastering of top club songs can make or break whether or not it will be actually considered a top club song.
Mastering top club songs.
If you go into professional music forms like gearslutz.com mastering and the equipment that should be used is highly controversial. Our outlook on this topic is that the engineer is key and that the equipment is secondary… In fact we have some artist or label putting out tracks in the equipment and software that they use to produce the tracks doesn't give them justice. So this all has to do with technique and of course human ears. We won't go into mastering in detail any more than saying it is the process of making a good song sound great through equalization, compression, limiting and so on. After top club songs have an exceptional beat, incredibly sweet melody, powerful vocal and are mastered to perfection then you are guaranteed a winner, correct? Fans maybe… But a commercial success? No, there is still more that must be done in terms of marketing and promotion.
Marketing top club songs.
Every commercially successful top club song required help in this department no matter how good it was. People need to know about it over and over again. Part of the reason why we previously mentioned top club songs have easy baselines and recognizable melodies if so the people can know it and associate with it after hearing it only a few times. In this day and age of the Internet and all of the devices which utilize it such as iPads, iTouches, Androids and so on this is becoming an increasing challenge for all professional recording artists. The struggle is getting your music play on all of these different devices in an easy manner. If someone have to click three different pages just to hear an artist music they are going to go somewhere else. Therefore the record label is responsible for handling this for the artist and getting their music heard by as many people as possible. So after the music has the right baseline, the sweet melody, superb vocals, mastered to perfection and everybody has heard it… Then it will be a commercial success and considered one of the top clubs on right? No… But you stand a better chance using this method in reproducing it over and over again. There is an old adage that goes like this: “throw enough shit against the wall and something is bound to stick.” While we don't like to compare music to “shit” this analogy in our opinion rings true to this day.
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