POP MUSIC : This Ain’t No Disco : Unlike the ‘70s, today’s dance music is based on a radical mix of styles that may signal a new era in pop

Will dance music--so maligned during the ‘70s disco era--have the last laugh in the ‘90s?

It’s not a bad bet.

At a time when rock is suffering from a lack of creative vitality, dance music is becoming a growing creative and commercial force in pop music.

Far more creative than the mainstream dance-pop of Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson, today’s dance music has a radical and daring sound that has risen from underground dance clubs, especially in New York and Europe.

It’s a sound built around a mix ‘n’ match aesthetic that draws from the full range of the pop spectrum.

Deee-Lite’s Top 5 pop success last summer with the propulsive “Groove Is in the Heart” was one of the earliest signs that something was stirring. (See story on Deee-Lite on Page 61.)

Other evidence of the new dance energy ranges from the two Top 30 hits last year by the Italian house-music group Black Box (“Everybody, Everybody” and “I Don’t Have Anybody Else,” with the current “Strike It Up” about to follow suit) to the more recent impact of the Dutch group Urban Dance Squad, whose mutant adaptation of Ray Barretto’s “Deeper Shade of Soul” also broke into the Top 30, to England’s Jesus Jones, whose second album is on the edge of the Top 30.

These touchstones signal the start of a new phase where a different set of musical elements--hip-hop, dancehall reggae, rock guitar, ‘60s soul, ‘70s funk and the slow groove of Soul II Soul (see terminology guide on Page 69)--are replacing the blues, country and ‘50s rock that have been the bedrock of pop song craft for ages.

C+C Music Factory’s scintillating “Gonna Make You Sweat” album--which has been in the national Top 10 for weeks--may be the most convincing sign of things to come.

The electrifying title track--a No. 1 single earlier this year--throws together hip-hop rhythms with a party rap, a riveting, clipped-off guitar riff, Martha Wash’s rousing “Everybody dance now” shout and even a few quotes from the be-bop anthem “Salt Peanuts.” (The group appears at the Universal Amphitheatre on May 24).

“The C+C Music Factory is a collage of our experiences over the years growing up, the music that we feel,” says Robert Clivilles, who founded the group with production partner David Cole. “It’s (based on an attitude) of, ‘Drop the rules--let’s do what we want.’ That’s why there’s such a mixture in each of the songs.

“When I was a kid in New York, I was a radio fiend, so growing up I was used to the different styles of music. . . . A rock station, a dance station, a black music station. . . .”

The new dance-music scene has already made a substantial mark in Europe, where house music, the ultra-fast update of ‘70s disco, began filtering from Chicago during the mid-’80s. European clubgoers embraced the sound, helping inspire the English offshoot, renamed “acid house,” and an “industrial” school that downplayed the soulful R&B; to emphasize mechanical grooves.

The latest British outgrowth: the much-touted Manchester scene, spearheaded by such bands as Happy Mondays that have adapted the new dance rhythms and techniques into an aggressive rock ‘n’ roll framework.

All this may be only the beginning.

Part of the excitement of house music and hip-hop--another key component in the new dance scene--is that artists can move in a variety of directions, applying whatever musical style or idea interests them.

Artists, in fact, are encouraged by the technology and the adventurous audience to move in new directions--unlike so much of rock and pop, where the forms have long been defined and tampering is almost discouraged.

One critical element in constructing the new dance mix is technological: sampling.

Most pop fans think of sampling as simply lifting an instrumental hook or vocal refrain from one record and using it in another. But sampling actually means a digital recording of any sound--a phrase from a political speech, a TV commercial jingle, Phil Collins’ drums.

Sampling was first used in recording studios 10 years ago, but the practice became an issue around 1987 when rap artists began using snatches of old soul and funk songs as the underpinnings of their backing tracks.

To many outsiders, this seemed like a clear-cut case of thievery, particularly since many early cases of song sampling took freely from the work of such varied artists as James Brown (time and again), Steely Dan and Johnny Cash without crediting them.

But sampling can also be used to create dense sound collages, to alter the tone of instruments and voices, and to combine rhythms, vocal phrases and instrumental hooks from several different songs in a new work.

Adding to the momentum of sampling is the fact that the machinery is becoming more readily available.

“We’re excited because the technology is getting cheaper,” says Lady Miss Kier of the group Deee-Lite. “Because of the technology, more kids can write music so there’s more independent labels and more people putting out tracks written in their living rooms.”

What does the future hold?

It’s still early in the game. Many artists for whom the mix ‘n’ match approach is natural have released only one album, so staying power is a question.

And the legal and ethical questions surrounding sampling and other aspects of this high-tech studio trend still have to be resolved. Singer Martha Wash has sued both Black Box and the Clivilles-Cole production team for not properly crediting her contributions on some of their hit songs and the music videos that promoted them. Her case, and others, may be the start of a shake-out process as the music industry comes to grips with these new creative and technological developments.

Another danger is the transformation of innovations into stale formulas, inviting an anti-dance backlash akin to that of the disco era.

But that may not happen this time.

The array of styles being mixed together is extremely broad, and one element in the new dance mix--hip-hop--has established a strong audience for alternatives to pop song conventions.

Like Urban Dance Squad and Jesus Jones, the rock groups Pop Will Eat Itself and Renegade Soundwave are mixing samples with live instruments. Tackhead is incorporating the sonic experimentation of producer Adrian Sherwood’s dub reggae work into an avant-funk context.

C+C’s Clivilles believes another strength of the ‘90s dance scene is the emphasis on song , not just strong instrumental tracks.

“This is kind of a birth or an embryo of new songwriters,” he says. “It’s very important now to add (a real song) to the groove.”

Larry Flick, dance-music editor for Billboard magazine, also thinks the movement has legs.

“What’s going to save it from the backlash of the disco era is that a lot of the people making these records are writing the songs themselves, so there’s more depth to the writing and production.

“A lot of the cookie-cutter records are just being ignored, whereas in the ‘70s anything that had a disco beat and a woman who sounded like Donna Summer would sell, and it got out of control.”