Frequently Asked Questions

(Version française) (English version)

What is Eurodance ?

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 :
Eurodancehits - The Dance Dictionnary
Eurodance article (Wikipedia)
What is eurodance ?
 

Is Eurodance just a commercial music ?

This is the main criticism to Eurodance : producers are cynical and mercantile, female vocalists are just models or dancers unable to sing for real, live appearances are just play-backs, projects members 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...

Is Eurodance just a music for dancing (or for fitness trainings) ?

No. You can also listen to Eurodance at home, on your mp3 player 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.

What does Eurodance talk about ?

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 such a website ?

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...

Is Eurodance dead ?

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 recent eurodance projects, such as Digital Base Project, Free 2 Night, Alex, Acting Lovers or Groove Empire.

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

How can I search the Encyclopaedia ?

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.

How do the search engines work ?

Very nicely, 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 23907 sound samples chosen and gathered by Yef and I. 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 6803), 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)

How often is the Eurodance Encyclopaedia updated ?

More or less every day (news), otherwise once a week. Unless something unexpected prevents me from uploading the next update.

Do you sell CDs ?

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...

How can I setup a ringtone in my cell phone ?

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.

How can I see eurodance artists on TV ?

Europeans can buy a satellite kit with a satdish and a digital sat decoder, it is 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 now all disappeared). 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 months, 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.

Why becoming a member of the Eurodance Encyclopaedia mailing list ?

The newsletter is paused for the moment. Subscribing allows you to vote for the hitlist every week. Just fill out the form on the profile page with your name and e-mail address and click on the Submit button. It is totally free

What are your projects for the Eurodance Encyclopaedia for the next future ?

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

How does the hitlist work ?

Every sunday at midnight, the hitlist automatically picks up the 50 most recent singles among the discographies databases (based on complete dates). The older ones disappear from the hitlist.

During the week, you can vote once for your 5 favourites. The more votes a record gets, the higher it goes in the hitlist. One week after another, singles keep the points they cumulated during the previous weeks.

You can also show your support by buying the releases through the links to the partner shops

How can I help ?

Help me getting a decent hosting server, faster and really available 24/7 ! Shop from our partner shops (see right column). And allow display of ad banners by desactivating AdBlock on this site...

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.

Guidelines for submitting informations

Here are a few guidelines for efficient help and to save your (and my) time and to be credited :

Submitting a new artist or project

• if you wish to submit a new eurodance project, please provide sound samples or the URL of a site where I could listen to their music, in order to be sure that they really correspond to classic eurodance definition. This is not the electro Encyclopaedia !
  You don't have to send anything else till I tell you the project is valid.
• After I validated, please send all necessary infos to create a biography and discography.
  • Write biography in English. It has to be unique. No copy and paste from other website ! And please check your spelling...
    Ex : "Italian eurodance project XX was founded by Y and Z. They released their first single in..."
  • If available, provide a picture that could fit into a square
  • List all releases, albums first then singles, with release date and tracklisting
    Ex :
    I'll Stand By You (1994)
    I'll Stand By You (Tekno)
    I'll Stand By You (Downbeat)
    
    Somewhere Over The Rainbow (1994)
    Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Remix)
    Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Original Mix)
    Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Acappella)
    
    Brass In Pocket (1995)
    Brass In Pocket (Extended Mix)
    Brass In Pocket (Outside Mix)
    Brass In Pocket (Internal Mix)
    In My Pocket (The Master Mix)
    
    
  • Attach records sleeves pics or paste them into the mail (see below for guidelines regarding pictures)
  • If there were videoclips, please provide any info available (shooting date, place, director...)

Submitting updates

• pictures : I don't need huge pictures ! As you may have seen covers and sleeves are about 200x200 pixels. Don't send too small pics 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 numbers (these are automatically added). Please write titles of tracks with capitals at the beginning of every word.
  ex : Move On Baby (Mars Plastic Edit)
  Move On Baby (Mars Plastic Mix)
  Move On Baby (House Mix)
  Move On Baby (Overture & R.A.F. Zone Mix)
  Move On Baby (KM 1972 Mix)
  Move On Baby (Original Mix)
  Move On Baby (Extended Mix)
  Move On Baby (Sound Of Love Mix)
  Move On Baby (Tribalism Mix)
  Move On Baby (Plus Staples Mix)
  Move On Baby (DJ Pierre Trance Mix)
  Move On Baby (Ralf & Professor Mix)

 

 

KDJ Eurodance Ltd - The Eurodance Encyclopædia is a creation of Karine "KDJ" SANCHE.
Created on March 1999 - First uploaded on January 2000 - All rights reserved © 1999 - 2023
www.eurokdj.com

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