How dance music finds its audience has changed completely four times in the last 50 years. Vinyl and radio defined the first era. Pirate radio and tape culture defined the second. The internet and MP3 defined the third. Streaming algorithms, SoundCloud, and TikTok define the present one. Kate Bush reaching UK number one in 2022, 37 years after “Running Up That Hill” was first released, because of a Stranger Things scene and a Spotify algorithm, is either a remarkable story about the endurance of great music or a cautionary tale about what the algorithm decides is worth surfacing. Probably both.
The social and discovery posts in this section document how music spreads. The full archive is part of the Culture & Scenes section.