What is it that makes house, techno and their variants so specific and unique? Perhaps the most obvious answer is that these forms stand out in the history of recorded ‘popular’ music in that they eschew verbal meaning. Most house and techno tracks have no lyrics. Vocal samples are used as pieces of sound rather than as meaningful phrases. The fact that dance music is a new form of popular instrumental music is what makes it so striking: it is a music which is not based on songs.
Discographies: Dance, Music, Culture and the Politics of Sound
