A Spoonful of Sugar... [April 2025]
Who knew "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies became a lightbulb moment for young Nile Rodgers? Well, it is a catchy little bugger, a No. 1 hit for another virtual band (since the Chipmunks).
Nile Rodgers on the roots of his artistry [►]
Go to our dance music history page, click on the Pioneers 4 tab, and check out the Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards playlist.
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Megamix Highlights [April 22]
Here are the latest adds for the week.
Megamix
Audien x Arty - One More Thing
GT_Ofice, Matthew Topper & Petie - Something New
KSHMR & Izzy Bizu - Diamond in the Rough
Ely Oaks - Running Around
Max Rae x Montell Jordan - How We Do It
Bonus Tracks
Above & Beyond & Zoe Johnston - Quicksand (Don't Go)
James Carter - 2 Days
Cosmic Gate & James French - I'm on Fire
Doechii - Anxiety
Kouss - The Moment
Lavern - Where Did You Go
Jared Lee - Back 2 Life
PLS&TY - Leave the Light On
Skrillex - Voltage 2025
Sub Focus & bbyclose - On & On
OTF
On the Fence again.... These are songs that may be added in the future. A look back at 2024.
...
For more details, go to our Megamix page.
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Another Music Doc [May 2024]
PBS will air a three-part BBC documentary Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution in June. Check your local listings. In the Bay Area, KQED Plus (Channel 9.2) will air the entire series this Friday, May 31, starting at 7 pm. If you live in the U.K., you can stream it on the BBC site until June. This 2023 documentary is not to be confused with the 2009 documentary Soundtrack for a Revolution. Here's a review in The Guardian.
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Didn't See This Coming [March 2024]
The saga ends tonight...at last. You'll recall KREV played dance music for nine months from 2022 to 2023. Well, it was finally sold at an auction. While we usually frown on outsiders buying media outlets in the Bay Area, the fact that KREV will become KEXP's sister station is not so bad. Seattle's noncommercial KEXP is one of the few eclectic stations left in the country (not counting college stations). It's a new era for KREV starting March 19. Let's hope the new owner will boost the station's weak signal.
San Francisco Chronicle article
KQED article
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DJ Swap [February 2024]
Due to a family emergency, Tiesto had to give up the honor as the Super Bowl's first in-game DJ. So the NFL quickly found a replacement DJ who's quite familiar with Las Vegas: Kaskade. He will be the one spinning during game breaks. We expect to hear some of his work with Deadmau5 (Kx5) and maybe his earlier records ("Steppin' Out," "It's You, It's Me"). This will be a full-circle moment for NFL broadcasts. If memory serves, the networks used to play snippets of dance music whenever they went to a commercial break years ago.
Kaskade's Super Bowl experience
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Super Bowl [February 2024]
Well, the NFL only got half of what it wanted. Instead of Taylor Swift (Kansas City) versus Eminem (Detroit), it's the Swifties against the 49er Faithful. San Francisco is probably more motivated because they want redemption after losing to the Chiefs just four years ago. Their quarterback ("Mr. Irrelevant") has more to prove. And they didn't play like the No. 1 seed in their conference the last two weeks.
A word about Sin City. While Las Vegas is still the gambling capital of America, it has become a mecca for food, music (residencies), and now sports (NHL and NFL teams and an MLB team in a few years). Hosting Super Bowl for the first time just shows how far it's come from its seedy mobster past. It's the city in the middle of a desert that keeps reinventing itself. Will it become a technology hub in the future? Don't bet against it.
Just as the Emmys rotate among the four major networks, Super Bowl should rotate among these four cities: Miami, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Santa Clara. They all have decent weather in January/February. Yes, we're picking Vegas over Arizona and Southern California. Glendale/Phoenix is not a major tourist destination, and Los Angeles already hosts the Oscars, the Grammys, and other awards shows. Miami and New Orleans have hosted the most Super Bowls to date.
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G-Predictions [November 2023]
It doesn't happen very often, but three of the biggest hits of 2023 got a lot of love from industry peers when they announced the Grammy nominations recently. Indeed, the No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 songs of the year are competing in the top categories. Of course, we're talking about Miley Cyrus' "Flowers," SZA's "Kill Bill," and Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero," respectively. They are nominated for record of the year and song of the year. And their parent albums are up for album of the year.
Cyrus' album is a long shot in that category even though "Used to Be Young" was added to the digital edition five months later. The front-runner is Swift's album for all the obvious reasons. It's loaded with hits with the public and critics. And Swift is at the peak of her career now. It would be a way for the industry to celebrate what a year she's had—her massive concert tour, the top-grossing concert film of all time, and the success of the re-recorded 1989 album, not to mention four of her albums are currently in the top 10. She's won album of the year three times already. SZA's album is Swift's biggest competition. Radio and critics also love this album. Swift and SZA own the No. 2 and No. 3 albums of the year, respectively. If they cancel each other, someone like Jon Batiste might sneak in. After all, he was the surprise winner two years ago.
Some people like to compare "Flowers" with Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," which won a Grammy for best disco recording (the only time there was a dance category until the late 1990s). "Survive" was nominated for record of the year and song of the year. Since the song of the year award goes to the songwriter(s), voters of all ages could easily get behind Cyrus' self-empowerment anthem. We predict it has a slight edge over the other two.
If SZA wins record of the year, that would mean these three women each get one of the major awards and there's no sweep by anyone. But we're not sure older voters love "Bill" as much as the other two songs (SZA did get the most nominations). So "Flowers" just might take record of the year as well. Note that Swift has never won record of the year or song of the year. In a way, "Anti-Hero" is overshadowed by one of her older songs, namely, "Cruel Summer."
Grammy voters love Billie Eilish, so "What Was I Made For?" could win song of the year or even record of the year. Unless they're thinking she'll win an Oscar later as a consolation prize. CBS will broadcast the Grammys on Sunday, February 4, 2024.
Update: Thanks to Thanksgiving promotions, Swift is now the only living artist to claim five albums in the top 10 concurrently. Prince also did it in 2016 posthumously. And she became the first entertainer to be named Time magazine's Person of the Year as an individual. In 2005, Bono was recognized for his philanthropy along with others. In 2017, Swift herself was included in a photo representing the silence breakers. We still feel they should've named social media instead. Without it, the #MeToo campaign wouldn't have spread across the country and around the world.
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The War on What? [October 2023]
When disco dominated pop music during the late 1970s, was a backlash inevitable? Perhaps. In June 1979, one MLB team in Chicago decided to organize a promotion with the help of a disgruntled radio DJ. It was not headline news back then. If they did something like that today, it would be more of a national story thanks to social media. Nowhere near as infamous as Orson Welles' "The War of the Worlds" stunt on radio, Disco Demolition Night was destined to be a footnote in the history of radio pranks and MLB promotions. To our surprise Billboard published an article about it when the White Sox chose to mark its 40th anniversary in 2019. Is there more to this incident in light of book banning and the larger culture war? American Experience will present "The War on Disco" this week on PBS.
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DWTS 32 [October 2023]
By law we're obligated to support someone from the music industry. Thankfully, Jason Mraz ("I'm Yours") is a pretty good dancer, judging by his first performance in last week's premiere of the new season of the U.S. edition of Dancing With the Stars. He was at the top of the leaderboard until a couple tied with him and another one scored one more point. We don't have anyone among the 14 contestants with years of dance lessons. And even though we have another Bachelorette alumna who's overscored by the judges, Mraz should make it to the finals. His big advantage is his professional partner, Daniella Karagach, who helped NBA player Iman Shumpert win it all in Season 30. She choreographed some of the most eye-popping routines for Shumpert (you'll find them on YouTube). We saw a little bit of that originality during Mraz's cha-cha-cha. She flipped the script and had him on the floor for the drop.
This season's sentimental favorite has to be Barry Williams (The Brady Bunch). As much as we love Alyson Hannigan—Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer—she'll be eliminated soon. The show is not the same without Len Goodman; we also miss Tom Bergeron.
LG Tribute [►]
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Brandshifter [August 2023]
From Pirate to Revolution and now The Hustle. KREV changed branding again for the third time in nine months. And this time the station decided to change format to R&B/hip-hop as well. As we pondered at the outset, the endgame here may be a search for a buyer. So who knows what they will do in the future? Does anyone care anymore?
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The Joy of the Internet and HDTV [August 2023]
Thanks to HDTV, we were watching a local station's subchannel, and it triggered a deep dive into that island song 21 years later. This is the first time we've published an update to an old post—one of our earliest posts (click on the 2002 tab). Doing research in 2023 is a lot easier than back in 2002, which was easier than before the Internet. There was no YouTube in 2002, Discogs wouldn't become what it is today until 2005, and Wikipedia was only a year old. So we were not able to listen to any of the songs we mentioned in that 2002 post (except for the Japanese original), and there was nothing relevant on Wikipedia that we can recall.
We thought then that it was strange the DJ Fluid remix had no male vocals while we knew the original version contained Alfredo Casero's vocals (born Alfonso Caruso?). Was this another case of Milli Vanilli or Black Box? And who was that mystery female singer?
Now we have the answers we were looking for. Casero's remake of The Boom's "Shima Uta" on his album Casaerius is a duet between him and fellow Argentine singer Claudia Oshiro. In fact, the album included a dance mix featuring more of Oshiro's vocals than his. In a way, this trance mix was like a blueprint for a remix pack that included DJ Fluid, DJ Salvation, and DJ Grego. Note that the trance mix is listed as 9:42 in length but is really only about 5:17. It's silence until the very end when you hear something in German (?). Casero is an actor, comedian, songwriter, and singer, so this could've been him having a bit of fun. He's sort of like Argentina's Jack Black. You'll agree the video for a medley of the rock version and the trance mix is a little trippy.
DJ Fluid is American Christopher Smith, and Izzy is British singer Izzy Cooper.
The Boom - Shima Uta (1993) [►]
Izzy - Shima-Uta (2001) [►]
Casero - Shimauta (Cancion de la Isla) (2002) [►]
Casero - Shimauta (Cancion de la Isla) (Trance Mix) (2002) [►]
Casero - Shimauta (DJ Fluid's Remix) (2002) [►]
Casero - Shimauta (music video) [►]
The DJ Fluid remix will always have a special place in the heart of anyone who listened to dance radio back in the day. We can now fully appreciate the other versions. Everything starts with The Boom's original composition. We like how their recording picks up the tempo at the end. Both it and Casero's remake feature a Japanese string instrument. There's something admirable about Casero's earnest vocals. It's not easy singing in a foreign language—just ask Mr. Bieber. And Oshiro's vocals take Casero's cover to another level. Is there a little bit of Pachelbel's Cannon in the trance mix? If you're into Sarah Brightman, Izzy is probably your jam.
So how did we get here? A public TV station in the Bay Area has three subchannels broadcasting France 24, NHK World-Japan, and Deutsche Welle (all in English). NHK is kind of like Japan's PBS. We were watching the Amami Oshima episode of Document 72 Hours last month when the Chitose Hajime cameo took us back to our 2002 post. And the Amami Oshima episode of Design x Stories visited a children's shima uta club. God bless the Internet and HDTV.
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Before Aqua... [July 2023]
Don't know why we didn't think of this sooner, but after Barbie's boffo box-office weekend, we'd like to draw your attention to Barbie & The Kens, one of Bobby Orlando's (The Flirts) creations. "Just a Gigolo" was the only B&K song that garnered any airplay circa 1981. It's a little bit of Devo meets new wave and dance (and James Bond theme as well). This may be the official music video ([►]). Oh, those wacky lyrics. Someone also posted the entire four-track EP recently ([►]). For other pioneers of dance music, go to our History of Dance Music page.
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A Surprising Turn [June 2023]
After playing the same 100 songs for seven months—nice royalties for these songwriters—KREV has gone from "Pirate Radio" to "Revolution," the same branding when it was a mainstream top 40 station. The surprise is KREV sounds less mainstream dance than before. Ironically, by ditching the "Pirate Radio" moniker, it sounds closer to KSFE, Albuquerque's "Pirate Radio." Note that the same person programs both KSFE and KREV.
Inside Radio article
Radio Insight article
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Win City [June 2023]
Las Vegas might get a baseball team in a few years. The city has just won its first Stanley Cup, and now KGHD has joined our Megamix panel. Thanks to the Internet, anyone can tune in.
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Missing in Action [May 2023]
Remember in 2018 when Billboard published the top 600 songs since 1958? Like others, we focused on what was in front of our eyes and not what was missing. Well, when we were updating our crossover page recently (click on Top Crossover Hits tab), we noticed one Four Seasons song should've been ranked higher and at least a dozen tracks are curiously missing. Oh, and let's not forget the DQ Dozen....
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The Sky's the Limit [April 2023]
Last year we mentioned some Twitter alternatives. Here's another one to watch.
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Elvis on Big Screen and Small Screen [March 2023]
PBS will broadcast tonight Elvis Presley's landmark TV special, which first aired in December 1968, followed by a new documentary The Seven Ages of Elvis. His biopic on the big screen was a hit last year.
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Streaming Interrupted [February 2023]
Radio Danz claims it was hacked last Friday. Why would anyone want to hack a listener-supported Web station?
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Christmas Just Came Early
Like most new stations, KREV is playing the same 100 recurrents for now. It's not often we don't recognize something on a mainstream dance station. After some detective work, we ID'd one that piqued our interest.
Me & My Toothbrush - Are You Gonna Rock (2020)
Some of you might know him as Calippo. You're welcome. Scroll down for the launch playlist.
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Better Late Than Never [December 2022]
You'll recall KREV was supposed to return to Bay Area airwaves with a dance format last May. Well, it finally happened last month. The owner ended up working with a New Mexico station. So no "Pure FM" and say hello to "Pirate Radio" instead. You can listen at pirate927.com. And check out KSFE Albuquerque at pirate967.com. We would categorize KREV as mainstream dance and KSFE as something a little different (it sounds like one continuous mix).
Inside Radio article
Radio Insight article
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Give Him the Bird? [December 2022]
As Twitter continues to struggle under new ownership, here are just a few articles with some alternatives.
We don't tweet, but we read good things about Mastodon.
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Breaking News [May 2022]
According to Inside Radio and other sources, a dance station could be returning to the San Francisco Bay Area airwaves around May 7. We'll believe it when we hear it. Even if it turns out to be true, it might be just a temporary stint until a buyer is found. Someone registered 927purefm.com in April. If nothing happens by Memorial Day weekend....
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Win Some, Lose Some [December 2021]
In case you missed it, these two things happened during 2020 lockdown. KPBA-HD2 Austin, Texas ("Mega") stopped playing dance music after 11 years, and ElectricFM came back on-line.
The January issue of Mega6 is out. Enjoy.
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Will They or Won’t They? [September 2021]
As dance clubs around the country begin to reopen gradually, Billboard will probably resume its club chart in the next few months if not weeks. Will they heed our advice and fix it at last? Don’t bet on it.
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Avicii Celebrated by Google (?!) [September 2021]
Google displayed an Avicii Google Doodle to celebrate his 32nd birthday in about 45 countries. If you clicked on it, you would've landed on a short YouTube video.
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Speak of the Devil [June 2021]
According to USA Today, Facebook is one of the mobile apps you should remove from your phone.
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Free at Last [June 2021]
It’s so liberating not having to deal with Facebook’s myriad software problems. We didn’t get a chance to ask the burning question: how are you guys doing out there? Did you survive the last 15 months with your sanity intact? We hope you and yours are doing fine. At least Zoom didn’t catch you doing something in private.
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WTF: What the...Facebook [June 2021]
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This Is What You Came For
We figured if Dance Radio Post didn't do it...who? Here's KREV's launch playlist (excluding mix shows). It's deja vu all over again because it was 20 years ago when we published KPTI's playlist, which led to the birth of Dance Radio Post. KREV and KPTI have different owners but the same frequency.
2022
Alok & Bastille - Run Into Trouble
Anyma - Running
The Chainsmokers - High
Charli XCX - Beg for You (Charlie Lane Remix)
Cheat Codes - Tell Me You Love Me
Codeko & April Bender - Not Alone
Craig David & MNEK - Who You Are (M-22 Remix)
Deadmau5 - Hyperlandia
Diplo With Miguel - Don't Forget My Love
Dubdogz x Ofenbach - On My Shoulders
Duke & Jones - Vertigo
Fredrik Ferrier, Dan Carasco & Yann Muller - Ain't No Sunshine
Dillon Francis - Goodies
Funkerman - Bad Things
Galantis x Lucas & Steve x ILIRA - Alien
Glass Animals - Heat Waves (Oliver Heldens Remix)
The Knocks - River
Kungs - Clap Your Hands
Chris Lake & Grimes (NPC) - A Drug From God
Fedde Le Grand x Robert Falcon - Heaven
Fedde Le Grand & 22Bullets - Down
Morgin Madison - Running
Ofenbach - 4U
Gabry Ponte x R3hab x Timmy Trumpet - Call Me
Regard - Hallucination
Nicky Romero & Gattuso - Afterglow
Swedish House Mafia & Sting - Redlight
Tiesto & Deorro - Savage
Tiesto & Ava Max - The Motto (Tiesto's VIP Mix)
2021
ATB & Topic - Your Love (9PM)
Banners - Someone to You (Philip George Remix)
Clean Bandit - Higher (Andrew Marks Remix)
Jason Derulo - Take You Dancing
Doja Cats - Streets (Disclosure Remix)
Martin Garrix - Pressure
Masked Wolf - Astronaut in the Ocean (Los Padres & Jay Mac Remix)
MK - Lies
David Solomon - Cross Your Mind
Swedish House Mafia & The Weeknd - Moth to a Flame
Alan Walker - Fake a Smile
2020
Bonnie x Clyde - Love Is Killing Me
Diplo & Sidepiece - On My Mind
Hot Since 82 - Make Up
Jack Wins - We Are Diamonds
Dua Lipa - Physical (Remix by ?)
Me & My Toothbrush - Are You Gonna Rock
Bart B More - Round & Round
Ann Nesby - So Much Joy (Alaia & Gallo Remix)
Purple Disco Machine - Hypnotized (Club Dub Mix)
Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike - Say My Name
The Weeknd - In Your Eyes (Ray Isaac Remix)
Winx & Josh Wink - How's the Music (Go Higher Mix - Harry Romero Edit)
2019
Disco Fries - Forever [***Googlewhack? Details below.***]
Gorgon City - Elizabeth Street
Kaskade & Meghan Trainor - With You
Major Lazer - Que Calor
Milk & Sugar - That Body (Mattei & Omich Remix)
R3hab - All Around the World (La La La)
Tiesto & Mabel - God Is a Dancer
Yves V - We Got That Cool
2018
Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa - One Kiss
Kelis x Freejak - My Milkshake
Kris Kross Amsterdam x The Boy Next Door - Whenever (Joe Stone Remix)
Vassy & Afrojack - Lost
2016
Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha - In the Name of Love
Alicia Keys - In Common (Kaskade Remix)
2015
Disclosure - Magnets
2014
Disclosure - Latch
Tove Lo - Habits (Stay High) (The Chainsmokers Remix)
Todd Terry Project - Da Bango (Pete Gooding's Paradise Remix)
ZHU - Faded
2012
LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It
2011
David Guetta - Who's That Chick?
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Nicki Minaj - Super Bass
Rihanna - We Found Love
2010
The Black Eyed Peas - The Time (Dirty Bit)
Pink - Raise Your Glass (DJ Vice & Riddler Remix)
2002
Dirty Vegas - Days Go By
DJ Sammy & Yanou - Heaven
iio - Rapture (Tastes so Sweet)
Jamiroquai - You Give Me Something
Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You out of My Head
Kylie Minogue - Love at First Sight
Sinead O'Connor - Troy (The Phoenix From the Flame) (Schiller Airplay Edit)
2001
ATC - Around the World (La La La La La)
Daft Punk - One More Time
Darude - Sandstorm
Groove Armada - Superstylin'
Ian van Dahl - Castles in the Sky
Madonna - What It Feels Like for a Girl (Above & Beyond Club Radio Edit)
Pink - Get the Party Started (Ernie's All Night Party Anthem)
Crystal Waters - Come on Down (Live Element Radio Mix)
2000
Alice Deejay - Better off Alone
Fragma - Toca's Miracle
Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby (12-Inch Mix)
Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400
1999
DJ Jean - The Launch
1990
Black Box - Everybody Everybody
Total = 99
A Googlewhack is a search term (limited to two words [?] with no quotation marks) that results in exactly one match. Well, we have something that's kind of a Googlewhack. If you Google the following
lyrics "i just can't stay mad at you forever"
you'll see exactly one match--and it's one of our pages! Guess this means we'll have to keep the key lyrics feature on our Megamix page.
Cool Web Surfers Don't Cut and Paste
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