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This was the sort of year that made youwant to turn to the dance floorfor refuge.
How, then, will historians remember the role dance music played in 2020?
Last night we danced, and I thought you were saving my life is how Ware opens her song.
Its the canonically central idea of this music: a night, a connection, a moment of freedom.
The same could be said of dozens of other musicians who released dance songs in 2020.
Dont make me think about it!
The rest of the industry are the ones who need to be thinking.
Well, this lushly detailed ballad could be a whole stand-alone movie.
The protagonist: a girl named Annie.
The setting: a small town.
The story: a boy named Johnny and a dream.
To Arca and Sophie, both actions have always been intertwined.
Charli glides over a smattering of synths thatll turn your brain to soup.
Its precisely what made People, Ive Been Sad such a rare 2020 treasure.
The beat is designed for lonely nights, pushing and writhing as if Letissier were exorcising an emotional demon.
And this year, it wasnt a hard feeling to know at all.
Dancing, by Katie Dey
Katie Deys voice is distinctly human trembling and staticky in her digital collages.
I need you to be my choreographer, she sings.
Alas, the song gave disgraced producer Dr. Luke his first No.
The opening track, not even two minutes long, sets the stage for Rodriguezs club revelations.
Over the next 30 minutes, Mama Rodriguezs daughter makes good on this theory.
That makes Impact special for many reasons.
Its Robyns first studio linkup with the entrancingly groovy Compton singer-rapperChannel Tres, who opened her 2019 American tour.
Robyns feature is also an invaluable co-sign for producer SG Lewis, an up-and-comer in this latest dance boom.
Yes, thats an impact.
But when the song is this polished and convincing, its also totally earned.
But Say Something practices a decidedly hopeful form of longing fixed on the future.
Can we all be as one again?
Minogue wonders, then gives us a song to unite around.
The recording was inspired by the funky live bands of Motown, but Monet fast-forwards to disco on Experience.
Subtle touches like this are what prove Murphy is an unheralded master of the dance floor 25 years on.
After all, she puts it best: Life just keeps you wanting.
She repeats the line until the drop, dark and forceful, swallows her voice.
When she reaches the surface again, shes able to finish the line: With you.
I Just Want to Dance,by SAULTSAULTs groovy protest music moves to a near-constant, percussive beat.
Yet its a song in service of the same call to actionable justice as the rest of SAULTs music.
We lost another life, life, life, life, Cleo Sol sings.
4 American Dollars, by U.S. She knows its just one fleeting night to her, that means anything can happen.
Why else do we dance?
