Cascada's breaking down anti-dance barriers on US radio

It's been a while since Philly's Q102 (WIOQ-FM) has played a real dance track in brainwash rotation, not since the Roc Project's "Never (Past Tense)" three years ago. They have been resistant to playing other dance songs that have crossed over into the US Top 40, such as Madonna's "Hung Up" and the dance version of D.H.T.'s "Listen To Your Heart (though they took the ballad version and played that to death). At one time Q102 was once known to play a lot of dance music. But now in these hip-hop heavy times, it seems that the station's staff is afraid that if they played a song that's faster than a human heartbeat the studio will crumble like Sodom and Gorrmorah.

But now they have been giving massive exposure to a hot club/trance track "Everytime We Touch" by the German dance act Cascada, featuring lead singer Natalie Horler. According to radioandrecords.com, Q102 has played the song 82 times in the past week. With stations across the nation adding the track onto their playlists, the single has been rising up the American charts; last week it broke into the US Top 40 last week at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. (It's risen to #32 this week.) It's a breath of fresh air to all the rap and R&B acts that are dominating radio. It's opening doors to getting on pop stations that usually turn down dance songs, like the now "thugged-out" Q102.

In the past year the few dance songs that have crossed over into the US pop charts have had a heavy air of nostalgia about them. If they weren't outright dance re-makes of 80s hits such as Crazy Frog's "Axel F" and the asformentioned D.H.T. with "Listen," they musically harked back to prior musical eras such as "Hung Up" with its Moroder rhythms and its sample of "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" from ABBA, as well as Missy Elliot's (okay she's known primarily as a hip-hop artist but still...) and Ciara's "Lose Control" which went back to the days when rappers weren't afraid to experiment with a track that went at about 120 beats per minute with its Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" vibe. The thing that sets "Everytime We Touch" apart from the recent crossover dance songs is that EWT is rooted in the here and now. Nothing nostaligic-sounding here, it's trance/dance-pop for the 2000's. Even though Natalie was raised in German she's actually of English descent, so she has no problem with singing in English. She sounds quite good here, with a hint of country. (Kind of like LeAnn Rimes.) BTW the other two members of Cascada are producers DJ Manian and Yanou.

The CD maxi-single of "Everytime We Touch" is currently out at the usual record stores and is availible for download as well. There will also be an album, also titled Everytime We Touch, which will be released on February 21 via the Robbins label. (And you can also listen to several tracks at Cascada's MySpace page.) Let's hope that the success of the song will help open the door for other dance acts at US Top 40 radio (particularly in Philly)!