‘Countdown’ Sets Right Tone for New Year

If 1992 was the year punk returned to pop consciousness, 1997 was the year of disco’s revenge.

For all the talk last year of the new sound of “electronica,” it is the ghost of disco’s past--a driving four-on-the-floor beat and a hand-raising optimism--that fuels the grass roots of this revolution in pop culture. The success of Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and Crystal Method on MTV, radio and in the clubs has introduced legions of young people to a glorious place that for too long has been the leper of popular culture: the dance floor.

As many as 5,000 filled the Los Angeles Sports Arena on Wednesday night to bring in the new year in the age-old tradition of dancing. L.A.’s own Crystal Method and Uberzone headlined the event, titled “Countdown,” with engaging performances that were part rock, part dance and all electronic.

There was no sign of the mischief that dogged a similar event last year at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, in which 31 people were hospitalized after ingesting a toxic drink. Police stopped that party with rubber bullets.

America has had a long, strange relationship with getting down, from the proper-distance ballroom dancing of the ‘20s to the no-one-will-admit-they-did-it disco dancing of the ‘70s. As we approach the new millennium, dancing still holds a puritanical sense of sin.

In 1997, the big, bombastic beats of the British (Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Death in Vegas, Lionrock) ensured that any tough guy could step on the floor and still sway with his macho in check, thanks to the music’s hip-hop posture (another descendant of disco).

This could be the year Americans take back the music artistically and commercially. West Coast groups like Crystal Method and Uberzone have what it takes: a vinyl-based following, underground credibility and the photogenic ability to rock the masses. Early Thursday morning, in fact, Uberzone stepped up to the big stage at the Sports Arena and proved that it deserves to be the heir to Crystal Method’s small but influential kingdom of American electronic dance.

Despite the machinations of the music-industrial complex--a world of its own that feeds on radio play, video rotation and magazine covers--the electronic revolution in ’97 was not at all televised. The real action in dance music’s rise happened at events like this, as tens of thousands of new faces graced cool, dark warehouses where deejays threw down a groundswell of bass that lifted their feet until daybreak.

These all-night raves were rarely part of any record company marketing plan, but they are the cradle of a subculture that now reaches every mall record store across the globe.

The suits may or may not be sweating over the future of live popular music, but the future has been happening for a good 10 years (longer than disco and punk the first time around) nonetheless as club kids wearing plastic clothes have been stomping their platforms against a backdrop of lasers and Japanese computer animation.

The question from here on out is not how to reinvent the concert to fit the rise of electronic dance music. The live forum of the rave was what created this chart-climbing phenomenon in the first place. The question is how to build a bridge between the newest Prodigy fans and the dance music underground.

The answer lies somewhere between the predictable safety of rock concerts and the unreliability (with problems ranging from drugs to occasional shady promoters) surrounding some underground raves. Without the underground, there would be no authenticity. But without the guarantee of legal, safe events, the new kids will not and should not come.

The rave scene has had some serious disappointments, considering the worldwide fascination with dance music. Big record companies are unimpressed with album sales. Several major dance events over the summer, including the national Electric Highway tour, were flat-out ghost towns. Even the promoters of “Countdown” hoped to see 10,000 people instead of 5,000.

The scene is begging for an infusion of cash and organization from the same music industry that is hoping to cash in on recorded dance music. It also needs to find unity among its promoters. (On many summer weekends around Los Angeles, there are four major raves drawing as many as 10,000 fans, with each event trying to out-do and undermine the other.)

The infusion of new fans has been a positive blast for live dance music and deejay culture. But this fountain of youth needs to be tapped now, or the opportunity to create a new generation of sound might fade into fad.

“Countdown,” organized by veteran promotion crew Insomaniac, brought in the new year for dance music the right way, striking that balance between concert and rave, and allowing the dance floor to be a star.