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U2's Pop may not fulfill the danceable fun of its title, but disco balls are glittering anew for the rest of the music industry. In what record companies are hoping augurs the return of dance music to the mainstream for the first time since the mid-'80s, Madonna, Toni Braxton, and Celine Dion are currently enjoying breakout club and radio hits with pulsating remixes of their latest power ballads.
Radio's increasingly fragmented nature allows even a chart-topping slow groove like Braxton's ''Un-Break My Heart,'' or an indelible torch song like ''Don't Cry for Me Argentina,'' to benefit from a galloping makeover. ''The whole point of having a remix is to reach radio stations that otherwise wouldn't play the song,'' says Dorsey James, general manager of Braxton's label, LaFace Records.
John Doelp, executive vice president of 550 Music, candidly admits that the souped-up version of Dion's ''It's All Coming Back to Me Now'' is meant to maximize that song's commercial potential. ''Celine's got a tremendous fan base in the dance community,'' he says. ''An artist must recognize her audience and be sure to get a piece of it.''
Remix producer Frankie Knuckles believes the newest crop of record company A&R and promotion people deserve credit for turning the tide pro-dance. Many of these young execs come straight out of the club scene, helping to reduce the lag time that has crippled the impact of past dance remixes. ''It used to take months before the mainstream caught on [to club hits],'' says Knuckles. ''Now songs go to clubs and radio at the same time.''
The changing nature of re-mix culture may also play a part. Advances in technology now allow radio stations the option of having their own mixing crews, who, in turn, give underground music the airplay it needs to achieve mass appeal.
Of course, this resurgence is also typical of a notoriously cyclical industry. The raging backlash against hip-hop and grunge hasn't hurt, either. ''People are tired of the drudgery of hip-hop,'' says Junior Vasquez, perhaps the most celebrated of contempory remixer/producers. The same holds true for alt-rock. ''Dance songs have a message and that message is fun,'' says Bill Thorman of New Orleans' Top 40 KHOM. ''Grunge songs say, 'My life is not good and I should shoot myself in the head.'''
