Category Archives: Pop

Disco is often considered a musical anomaly, a cheesy gimmick that existed on an isolated aesthetic island before dying out in the late ’70s. And while the disco’s direct lineage to house and other later dance music movements is well documented, little attention is paid to the way disco morphed and made its presence felt in New Wave and the pop rock of the ’80s. A fascinating musical figure at the center of this era is Nile Rodgers, the last great disco producer.

Best known as the co-founder of Chic, Rodgers, alongside his partner Bernard Edwards, made some of the most brilliant music of the late disco era. Nile played guitar, and Bernard played bass. Together, they injected new levels of musicality into a genre that was fast becoming cliché, creating in Chic a disco band that thought like a jazz fusion band. They had seven straight chart-topping singles, produced albums for Diana Ross, Sister Sledge and Johnny Mathis, and provided the musical backbone for hip-hop’s first hit record, “Rapper’s Delight.”

After Disco Demolition Night famously kicked off a nationwide backlash, times were tough for disco’s posterboys. A few years later, David Bowie recruited Nile Rogers to produce his “pop” album Let’s Dance, in a clear attempt to capture the NYC cool of Chic’s hits “Good Times” and “Le Freak.” Suddenly, Nile was once again an in-demand producer for white New Wave acts looking to inject some funky dance flavor into their sound. He produced huge hits for INXS and Duran Duran, and the album that made Madonna a true pop icon, Like A Virgin.

Nile continued to explore new musical frontiers, moving into scoring films and video games (his first gig was creating the music for Eddie Murphy’s Coming To America, including the infamous “Soul Glo” commercial). In the ’90s, his records got a new life after the Trackmasters and the Hitmen raided his catalogue for samples, providing the soundtrack for the jiggy rap era’s biggest hits, including “Mo Money Mo Problems,” “Gettin’ Jiggy With It,” “Been Around The World,” and “Cold Rock a Party.” Check out my compilation of 30 songs created by this diverse musical genius…

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TRACKLIST + DOWNLOAD LINK…

If Maurice Starr is the king of ’80s boybands (New Edition, New Kids on the Block), then Swedish producer/songwriter Dag “Denniz Pop” Volle deserves his share of credit for the pop music mania the late ’90s, churning our the earliest hits for Backstreet Boys and N*SYNC in his Stockholm headquarters Cheiron Studios. Dagge started as a part of the Swedish DJ crew and studio Swemix in the late-’80s before hitting the Europop scene hard in 1990 with Swedish reggae singer Dr. Alban (“Hello Afrika”), and founding Cheiron in 1992. He solidified his reputation as an international hitmaker with Ace of Base, producing the #1 song of 1994, “The Sign,” along with two top 10 hits for Robyn.

Jive set him up with then-unknown boybands Backstreet Boys and N’Sync, and Pop (along with his protege Max Martin) knocked it out the park with signature singles like “I Want You Back” and “Everybody.” The studio was experiencing unparalleled success just as Denniz Pop battled stomach cancer, passing away in in August 1998 at the age of 35. Cherion eventually closed in 2001, but Denniz Pop’s influence on modern pop music can still be felt 12 years after his death. His partner Max Martin went on to craft breakthrough singles for Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, and Katy Perry. Even Lady Gaga’s producer RedOne can trace his roots back to Pop, starting as a Cheiron assistant in the early ’00s. Check out The Denniz Pop Collection for 30 of my favorite Dagge-produced gems…

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TRACKLIST + DOWNLOAD LINK…