erally went unacknowledged by mainstream critics
and news media. However, the same sounds that had
fueled clubgoers in urban American dance clubs
were readily adopted by popular musicians and pro-
ducers as musical background for singers’ lyrics and
vocal melodies. Particularly influential in the spread
of electronic music into the pop mainstream, C+C
Music Factory, an American group formed by two
former deejays, Robert Clivillés and David Cole, re-
leased their incredibly successful debut album in
1990,Gonna Make You Sweat (Ever ybody Dance Now),
which combined the sounds of Chicago house music
with R&B female vocals and deep-voiced male rap-
ping. Though the contribution from dance genres
to the genres of R&B, rap, and hip-hop varied in the
1990’s, C+C Music Factory set a standard of combin-
ing electronically produced rhythms with soulful vo-
cals and rap lyrics in all three categories.
Marking a general turn in popular music, the dee-
jays and producers of dance music became crucial
participants in the production of mainstream popu-
lar music. An early example, two British dance music
producers, Neal Slateford and Nick Batt, remixed
American alternative musician Suzanne Vega’s 1981
a cappella song, “Tom’s Diner,” which became a hit
upon its release in 1990. Beyond the remixing and
sampling that became common among dance music
deejays in the 1990’s, controversial singer Madonna
collaborated with dance and ambient musician Wil-
liam Orbit for her 1998 album,Ray of Light, which
won three Grammy Awards in 1999. Deejays such as
Orbit, who also worked with rock musicians Seal,
Sting, Peter Gabriel, and Prince, were often behind
the scenes as collaborators and producers of some of
the most popular songs of the decade.
Impact While deejays earned modest sums per-
forming at clubs and raves, they left an indelible
mark on popular music, as described above, and in
American film. In addition to the widespread use of
Moby’s music in television and film, ambient and
techno music began to appear more prominently in
film. The often eerie soundscapes ambient compos-
ers were able to produce fit the dark moods and seri-
ous tone of psychological crime movies, such as Mi-
chael Mann’sHeat(1995), which featured tracks
composed by Brian Eno, William Orbit, and Moby.
Dramas and action films such as Danny Boyle’sTrain-
spotting(1996) and Larry and Andy Wachowski’sThe
Matrix (1999) incorporated more upbeat tracks
from techno groups like Underworld and The Prod-
igy. Fitting the overall trend toward Americans’ in-
creased reliance on electronics, electronic music
both reflected and influenced this trend.Further Reading
Gilbert, Jeremy, and Ewan Pearson.Discographies:
Dance Music, Culture, and the Politics of Sound. New
York: Routledge, 1999. This critical study on
dance music and culture engages with the inter-
section of conservative ideologies and social per-
ceptions of the body, a combination that explains,
in part, the hostility to this subculture.
Holmes, Thomas B.Electronic and Experimental Music:
Pioneers in Technology and Composition. New York:
Routledge, 2002. A well-documented study on
the people and innovations that made electronic
music possible, this book focuses on the aesthetic
production of music rather than the troubling
task of categorizing all electronically produced
music.
Manning, Peter.Electronic and Computer Music. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2004. While the in-
fluence of cultural factors are touched upon in
this historically insightful book, its strength rests
on Manning’s insight into the technological evo-
lution of instruments that led to modern elec-
tronic music.
Shapiro, Peter, ed.Modulations: A Histor y of Electronic
Music—Throbbing Words on Sound. New York:
Caipirinha Productions, 2000. With chapters
written by musicians and interviews with some of
electronic music’s innovators, this survey of the
major electronic music genres serves as an excel-
lent introduction to this diverse and growing
field.
Lawrence SchweglerSee also Boy bands; Digital audio; Ecstasy; Hip-
hop and rap music; Madonna;Matrix, The; Milli
Vanilli; MP3 format; Music; Nine Inch Nails; Raves;
Science and technology.The Nineties in America Electronic music 309