Frequently Asked Questions

(Version française) (English version)

Eurodance is a very global term, and depending on the websites you will visit each webmaster will have his own definition, including or excluding some musical trends. Definitions evolve with time, and confusions are easily made. As for me I chose to include the "classic" or "true" Eurodance projects (which are also my favourites), but also some projects that I like and which could be rather classified as "euro-NRG", "bubble gum" (Aqua, Daze, Hit'n Hide), "happy hardcore" (Scooter), "trance" (Sash, ATB, Antiloop), "dream dance" (Robert Miles), "handsup" (Cascada).

A "classic" Eurodance song could be described as a song containing a strong beat ranging from 110 to 150 beats per minute (BPM), a creative and catchy synth melody, female vocals for an easy-to-remember chorus (or sometimes for the entire song), male rap or ragga-rap (sometimes male vocals too).

Eurodance is named from the fact that it is mainly produced in Europe : Italy, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands... Contrary to certain generally accepted ideas, there are hundreds of Eurodance projects, from the most popular ones (2 Unlimited, Cappella, Culture Beat, DJ Bobo, E-Rotic...) to the most anonymous (Ten Minutes, DIP, X-ite, See:3...). Eurodance's power is also its endless creativity.

To read more about Eurodance and its definitions, try these links :
Chou's definition of Eurodance
Eurodancehits - The Dance Dictionnary
What is Eurodance ?
Eurodance article (Wikipedia)
 

This is the main criticism to Eurodance : the producers are cynical and mercantile, the female vocalists are just top-models unable to sing, the live appearances are just play-backs, the members of the projects are fired when they become too demanding or when they don't fit the criteria anymore... Think about a music that is not a part of a huge commercial system including the major disc companies, the radios and the CD-shops ? Moreover, who cares who sings as long as the singles released are awesome ? Eurodance projects are just as nice watch as they are to hear...

No. You can also listen to Eurodance at home, in your walkman or in you car, wherever and whenever you want. This music is full of positive energy, it will keep you smiling all day long. You don't need to push it to high volume and wake up the neighbors to appreciate it.

So many people will tell you that Eurodance lyrics are repetitive and empty. That is false. Like all the other musical trends, Eurodance talks mainly about love, of course, this theme is boundless. The second main theme is the joy of dancing, moving one's body to the rhythm of the beat. But lots of Eurodance songs also have some deeper meanings, they often carry messages of peace, tolerance and self-esteem, or they tell personal stories. Some projects are built around a specific topic such as the Roman empire (Imperio) or the antic Egypt (Pharao). So far I have never heard a Eurodance song promoting violence !

Why not ? :-) Eurodance is my favourite music. And I felt very depressed about the fact it that was not popular in France anymore. All the people that used to dance to it and appreciated it seemed to be suddenly struck by amnesia. Meanwhile, the first websites dedicated to Eurodance (such as Eurodance WWW or Eurodancemix) began to close. So it was an emergency to save all these informations doomed to disappear...

I began to work on this Encyclopaedia in February 1999. At that time, it was only a personal project aimed to gather all the  informations that were available on the web and in musical magazines in reference to the Eurodance projects. But during the summer holidays I decided to convert the original Word file to a website...

No of course, not ! There are still some projects such as E-Rotic in Germany, or the SAIFAM projects (Wienna, Morgana...) in Italy that keep on releasing some awesome "classic" Eurodance tracks. As well as more recdent eurodance projects, such as Alex, Acting Lovers or Groove Empire.

Eurodance will live as long as there are fans like you and me to appreciate it.

As you want ! There are many ways to browse through the Eurodance Encyclopaedia. The main way is to search for a group, a singer or a producer by alphabetical order. You may also search through a search engine (by name or by song title), or by theme.

Very fine, thanks for asking...

Biographies (go to page)

This form allows your to find the biography of an artist, a group, a producer, or to get informations about a company or a label. You can search by name (a part of the name) - category, country, and/or genre.

Please note that artists and producers are identified by their name, followed by their first name (ex : Schleh Tommy and not Tommy Schleh). If you search for a group and you are not sure of the right orthograph, just type the first letters of the name. You will get all the groups which begin with these letters.

Searching is not case sensitive. Characters allowed are numbers, letters, and the symbols & : - . . Symbols such as “ , ' , § , #, etc are not understood and will be removed automatically from request.

In this example, the search engine will search for all Italian eurodance groups containing the letters "ac"

New ! You can also search inside the biography's text itself (use the second form of the page) ! The research may take a lot of time since the engine will browse through all the biographies texts.

Songs (go to page)

This form allows your to find a song from its title, or to display all the albums or the singles released in one year.

In this example, the search engine will search for all singles and albums released in 1994 containing the word "Dreams" in its title

Song samples (go to page)

Ever wondered what eurodance sounded like ? The song archive contains 10020 sound samples chosen and gathered by Yef. For any question regarding the archive, please contact him. The samples are 45 sec long. Some artists are in the Encyclopaedia (you can go to their biography by clicking on the bio link). Some others are not.

The form allows your to browse through the sound archive. Search by artist name (or just a part of the name), song title, or just display the entire archive (don't fill the form, just click Search - This may take a long time to display all tracks of the archive)

Lyrics (go to page)

If you already know the song title or the artist name, you can use the first search form. You can also access the lyrics by clicking on the logo in the albums and singles tracklistings. Or display lyrics by alphabetic pages in the lyrics archive.

If you just have a few words of the song, type them in the second form. Since there are a lot of lyrics in the archive (currently 3954), the research may take some time. If you use common words such as dance, love, beat etc, the research will return a lot of results)

Normally once a week. Unless something unexpected prevents me from uploading the next update. Currently I only update the news and reviews.

Unfortunately not. But you can find some links to online CD-shops where you may find what you are searching for. If you shop on partner shops (see the right column), this won't be more expensive for you, but this bring the Encyclopaedia a small commission percentage...

Monophonic ringtones

You need to have a mobile phone of these following brands : Nokia, Siemens or Ericsson. Moreover, it has to include a melody composer (check your user manual or get it on your phone's official website). You enter the ringtons manually by pressing the keys indicated. These are monophonic ringtones.
Some compatible mobile phones : Nokia 1110, Nokia 2100, Nokia 2300, Nokia 2600, Nokia 3310, Nokia 3410, Siemens S40
Please mail me if you know other cell phones which include a ringtone composer.

Polyphonic ringtones

A cellphone compatible with MIDI ringtones is required. You can transfer the ringtone to your cellphone using a cable, or a wireless (infrared or bluetooth) connection. Check your cellphone's manual for more informations.

Europeans can buy a satellite kit with a satdish and a sat decoder, both analogic and digital are now pretty cheap. Why not buying a PCI sat card, so that you can record your favourite artists directly on your computer ?

Orient the satdish towards Astra (19,2° E). You'll be able to get channels such as Viva, or RTL II which from time to time invite eurodance and eurotrance stars. If you buy a digital sat decoder you'll be able to see more channels (analogic channels tend to disappear). The Italian channels are located on Hotbird (13°E). The Flemish and Dutch channels (Jim, VTM) are on Astra1, they are digital and encrypted. The Swedish channels such as SVT can be found on the Thor2 satellite (0.8° W), they are encrypted too.

On my website's main page are displayed all the broadcasts I know about for the 2 coming monthes, with days and hours (Paris time) Those written in black are confirmed, those in grey not yet (I usually wait till the name of the guest is clearly mentioned in the programs of the channel's website). It may happen sometimes that, in spite of my research, some dates prove to be wrong.

To be informed about eurodance news (releases, concert dates), about the Eurodance Encyclopaedia's updates, when they occur and what's inside, to be warned about the possible connection problems, etc. Just fill out the form on the main page with your e-mail address and click on the Submit button. It is totally free and you can unsubscribe whenever you want.

I have lots of projects for the Eurodance Encyclopaedia, and I will keep on updating it weekly as long as I can...

Help me getting a decent hosting server, faster and really available 24/7 ! Shop from our partner shops (see right column). And click ad banners...

I still lack informations, covers, pictures, lyrics, tracklistings, etc. All of them, as well as suggestions to improve the website, will be welcome. And you'll have your name written in the credits. And once again, a big thanks to all the people who helped me building the Encyclopaedia during all these years.
Here are a few guidelines for efficient help and to save your time :

• pictures : I don't need enormous pictures, as you may have seen covers and sleeves are about 200x200 pixels, so if possible please don't send pictures bigger than 500x500. And not too small because it's hard to get something decent from a stamp-size picture.
• tracklistings : please no track duration (I have to remove them), nor the track numers (these are automatically added). Please write titles of tracks with capitals at the beginning of every word.
  ex : Move On Baby (Mars Plastic Edit)
• if you wish to submit a new eurodance project, please provide a sound sample or the URL of a site where I could listen to their music, in order to be sure that they really correspond to eurodance definition