Beyond Thump-a-Thump Disco

If the guitar is the instrument of the boomer generation, the computer chip may be the musical instrument of today’s youth.

Indeed, the kids in Douglas Coupland’s twentysomething novel “Shampoo Planet” (the follow-up to the buzz-begetting “Generation X”) listen to “hot electronic tunes sung by depressed British children”--to techno-pop, hip-hop and “psychedelic revival dance mix(es).”

If dance music today is largely defined by computer-generated sounds, however, it is not just thump-a-thump disco. Dance music is so diverse today that it comprises several ever-changing genres. To help sort it all out, here is a list of current dance music styles and the best 12-inch singles in each. Twelve-inch singles--good old vinyl--thrive in this genre because they provide the best way for deejays to synchronize their music for continuous dancing. New CD mixers, however, are making CD maxi-singles more common.

* Acid Jazz: The term was defined in 1987 when London deejay Giles Peterson referred to his turntable mixing of jazz and rapid-thump “acid house” dance beats as “acid jazz.” Since then, the form has evolved to include jazz snippets and live brass laid over the slower beats of hip-hop.

The current champion of the genre is the Digable Planets, a New York rap trio whose debut single “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” (Pendulum/Elektra), is No. 3 on Billboard magazine’s maxi-singles sales chart. It is a feast of sampled horns, acoustic bass and understated rapping that sticks to the subconscious.

* Ambient: This often frameless electronic music can be traced back to the prolonged chords of mid-’80s techno-rock group Art of Noise and even the spacey rock of the Steve Miller Band (remember 1976’s “Fly Like an Eagle”?). This British-dominated style is growing with recent releases by the Orb, Opus III and Fortran 5. But the standout is Orbital, a group that takes listeners on a synthesizer space journey with “Halcyon” (available only as a CD maxi-single). The song, No. 6 on Rolling Stone’s dance chart, samples the dreamy yodeling from another ambient standout, Opus III’s “It’s a Fine Day.” * Dub: Jamaicans started the sound in the early ‘80s when they mixed dancehall (electronic reggae) on deejay sound systems to augment or isolate their favorite bass-inflected sections--much in the same way rap was invented when New York deejays distilled disco. Snow, a white 22-year-old who grew up in the projects of Toronto, has produced a competent, bass-heavy hit, “Informer” (EastWest), complete with rapid-fire toasting (Jamaican-accented rapping). “Informer” is No. 1 on the rap chart.

* Gangsta rap: Some critics felt that this hood-on-the-street style had let off all its steam. But Ice Cube, for one, has reloaded his shotgun in the form of “Wicked” (Priority). Set to pounding, slow hip-hop, the intense, hard-core single invites arm-swinging on the dance floors.

* Hip-hop: By definition, rap can include any form of music that contains chanting rhymes. Hip-hop, on the other hand, is rap paired mainly with slow beats derived from James Brown’s “Funky Drummer.” The Pharcyde is the latest group to take hip-hop past its drum-chant boundaries and into the realm of art. The group’s “Ya Mama” (Delicious Vinyl) is a wonderfully goofy schoolyard testimonial to dissing.

* House: This disco of the ‘80s flourished in Chicago and in New York’s gay dance-club scene. The main ingredients here are 120-beats-per-minute, bouncing bass, smooth R&B; vocals and looped melodies. With “Club Lonely” (Epic), Lil’ Louis & the World jazz up the genre with skillful loops, live piano riffs and the sweet, deep vocals of Joi Cardwell.

* Industrial: The heavy metal of the dance floor, industrial pairs driving beats with clanking sounds and aggressive vocals. Pioneers include Nitzer Ebb, Skinny Puppy and Front 242. But an unlikely master is MC 900 Ft. Jesus. In 1989’s “UFO’s Are Real” (Nettwerk), the Dallas maverick tears away the genre’s tense, Germanic boundaries by adding funk-inflected melodies, deep bass and distorted vocals.

* Italo house: This style was developed in Italy at the beginning of the decade. It pits diva-style singing against uplifting piano bridges and bouncy beats set at a house pace. Rozalla, a Zimbabwe native who resides in England, perfected the style last year with “Are You Ready to Fly” (Epic), the follow-up single to her underground smash “Everybody’s Free.” The WinKing mix of “Are You Ready” is particularly danceable. It pares down the song’s tracks so that all that remains are spacey, ambient melodies that climax in the sample line, “Reach for the sky.”

* Miami bass: Luther Campbell’s 2 Live Crew and his label Luke Records created so much controversy over lyric content in the ‘80s that hardly anyone noticed that they also created an entire new sound--Miami bass. The sonic style, taken to the top by Vanilla Ice with “Ice, Ice Baby,” is defined by fast beats with elongated bass at skipped counts. The style influenced techno and other genres. Unfortunately, because of the vacuous lyrics involved--those that are both “nasty” and “clean”--we can’t recommend much from this genre.

* Splatter rap: Made famous by the Geto Boys (remember “Mind Playing Tricks on Me”?), splatter rap is to music what horror is to the silver screen. MC 900 Ft. Jesus is no Edgar Allan Poe, but he’s the best when it comes to splatter rap. His psycho-next-door tale “Killer Inside Me” (Nettwerk), is overshadowed only by his 1989 album with DJ Zero, “Hell With the Lid Off.”

* Techno: This 125-beats-plus-per-minute sound has emerged as the soundtrack for all-night dance parties called raves. It is a descendant of the Kraftwerk-influenced “electro” of Afrika Bambaataa, the squawking “new beat” sound of Belgium and the speedy acid house music of England. At its farthest edges, techno touches nerves with its fast tribal bass and drug-influenced synthesizer overlays. And nobody does this better than the Prodigy. The English foursome’s “Out of Space” (XL/Elektra)--No. 43 on Billboard’s club-play chart--is a masterpiece with menacingly sped-up rap loops, thin, tense melodies and a driving 145-beats-per-minute chassis. Its refrain? “I’ll take your brains to another dimension/Pay close attention.”

* Techno pop: Depeche Mode. Erasure. Information Society. The genre is pretty familiar fare. Its ingredients are pop hooks and hummable electronic melodies and electronic textures. It ranges from the dance-rock fusion performed by Jesus Jones to the computer symphonies of the Pet Shop Boys, who are by far the class of the field: 1988’s “You Know Where You Went Wrong” (EMI), the flip side of “It’s a Sin,” is a little-known techno-pop masterpiece of satire.