The electronica establishment (for lack of a better corny term) is holding its breath before the release of two "big" electronic records: The Chemical Brothers' Push the Button and Daft Punk's Human After All. The NY Times' Simon Reynolds ponders the upcoming make-it-or-break-it moment for what could be dance music's last two hopes in America, and also tracks the rise, subsequent hype of, and fall of electronica in the States. (Quoted in the article is one of Coolfer's favorite music bloggers, Dennis Romero, a.k.a. Danceblogga.)

"In the new millennium, the mainstream profile of dance music dipped alarmingly. This downturn occurred on both sides of the Atlantic, but it was particularly precipitous in America, where electronica was edged off of the charts by the twin juggernauts of nu-metal and pop-punk, along with the perennial might of hip-hop. But it wasn't just a case of mass-media gatekeepers abandoning electronic music. Something was ailing at the grass roots of the scene. Formerly packed superclubs began to close, or move to smaller venues. Large raves, once the mainstay of dance culture, became nearly extinct."

So what happened?

"One cause is the continued fragmentation of dance culture into myriad micro-genres with narrow aesthetic parameters and niche followings. Another factor is musical overproduction, which effectively divides the pie into smaller slices. But the overall pie also seems to be shrinking as well. Dance music has simply lost the ear of the floating consumer. This may be, in part, a matter of fashion: electronic dance music had been around long enough to lose its 'new kid on the subcultural block' status. The music had become familiar, and familiarity bred ennui."

And now what? Reynolds lays out his argument for an "If you can't be 'em (rock bands), join 'em" movement.

"Last year's biggest dancefloor anthem was Alter Ego's 'Rocker,' whose simple, chugging rhythm and squealing riffs are transparently modeled on heavy metal. Swaths of Daft Punk's new album, Human After All, resemble an electronicized version of hard rock. Two highly touted early 2005 albums, the self-titled debut from LCD Soundsystem and Mu's Out of Breach, have a rough-hewn, 'live' garage punk feel to much of their contents. ... Perhaps the most bizarre example of dance music ransacking rock's archives was last year's fad for schaffel (German for shuffle), which involved producers renovating the stomping rhythms of 70's glam rock artists like T. Rex and Gary Glitter."

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