80s Dance Music
By the early 80s, disco was fading into history but 80s dance music still had a strong showing on the mainstream charts. Blondie’s uptempo track “Call Me” was the #1 hit of 1980. Irene Cara’s “Fame”, “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc. and “Upside Down” (Diana Ross) were also big hits that year. By 1981/82, mainstream tastes had moved towards pop and new wave and dance culture was in a serious slump. Many clubs shut their doors forever as the public’s desire to dance waned. Athough some of the biggest dance/pop divas of the decade (noteably, Laura Branigan, Sheena Easton, and Belinda Carlisle) launched their careers in 1982, it wasn’t until 1983 that the 80s dance music sound was defined. In that year, two records appeared that were by and large responsible for reviving dance music and getting people back into the clubs: “Let the Music Play” by Shannon and “Holiday” by Madonna. After those records, mainstream artists started to release dance tracks again. In addition, labels began commissioning dance mixes to raise the tempo of pop songs and make them more appropriate for the dance floor. 
Branigan’s contemporary Sheena Easton also jumped on the 80s dance music bandwagon. “A Private Heaven”, one of her best selling CDs, contained three back to back dance hits: “Strut”, “Sugar Walls”, and “Swear”. Although Easton experimented with many genres during her career, she always returned to dance. Her most recent CD “Fabulous” was a collection of disco covers.
Unlike Easton and Branigan, Belinda Carlisle launched her career not as a solo artist but as a member of the new wave group "The GoGos". She went solo in 1986 with the partially electronic chart pop of “Mad About You”. Her biggest selling CD came a year later with “Heaven on Earth” and the dance hits continued courtesy of club mixes.By the late Eighties, the flood gates for dance/pop divas were wide open. The multi-platinum successes of Madonna, Laura Branigan and Sheena Easton showed the industry that female vocalists could sell big numbers. In fact, a handful of artists like Madonna, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, and Kylie Minogue went on to have careers so big that they continue to be a force in popular music today. Their success did not go unnoticed by rival labels. 
In 1988, Arista unveiled Taylor Dayne, their answer to Madonna. Dayne had dance hit after hit with “Tell It to My Heart”, “With Every Beat of My Heart”, “Say a Prayer” and so many others. In the later half of her career, Dayne has become a dance club diva scoring many Billboard Dance Club/Play chart hits. Her latest single, Beatiful (Hex Hector) went to #1 on the U.S. Dance Chart.
Gloria Estefan was already an established star as the lead vocalist for Miami Sound Machine (MSM). Her solo career kicked off in the late Eighties. Her big dance hits of the decade include “Conga” (with MSM), “Rythm is Gonna Get You” and “Get On Your Feet”. Gloria returned to the genre in a big way in 1998 with her top to bottom Donna Summer-inspired dance CD “Gloria”.
Before the decade was over, one final 80s dance music superstar appeared, namely Paula Abdul. Abdul’s CD “Forever Your Girl” hit #1 in Spring/Summer 1989 and spawned five Top Three hits on the Billboard charts. Abdul owned the dance floors in 1989 so much so that her label released “Shut Up and Dance” a compilation of dance remixes to capitalize on her success.
Thanks in large part to the uptempo tracks by Abdul and her contemporaries, the demand for 80s dance music has never subsided. There have been more compilation CDs than one can count, not to mention the infinite options offered by iTunes and the MP3 download sites. 80s dance still lives on.
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