First things first, this is perhaps the most true-to-life commercial you will ever see. Thanks to Comrade Anthony for the link.
Sometime after another synth-punk or post-post-punk or whatever band played at Underground last night, I ran into Comrade Robert. He started talking about Audion and I mentioned some Tiefschwarz stuff and somehow we got onto the subject of You Could Do So Much Better...With Franz Ferdinand, one of my two favorite albums of the year. (Bands: You have six weeks to blow our minds, three if you want to end up on the end-of-the-year-lists.) I told him how I get annoyed with the vast majority of supposed dance-rock bands, as if such a hybrid should even exist on account of the fact that rock music made people dance very early on in its career. I thought that maybe my dismay was the result of an unusual amount of bands intended to make us dance employing subpar drummers. Then I read the interview with FF in Urb and all of a sudden, it made sense.
To summarize, Alex Kapranos said that the difference between FF and other dance-rock bands is that many other bands rely on the technology of dance music without going into the structure. On the other hand, Kapranos tells journalist Andrew Parks that FF tries to "use other instruments to do what a synthesizer would do in a dance track. Like we'll use the bass or guitar to work out something similar to the synth in 'I Feel Love'" (Urb. September, 2005. p. 81).
Another problem I find with dance-rock is the lack of good songwriting. Dance music focuses heavily on rhythm, but the strongest tracks, the ones that become bonafide hits (both at clubs and the crossover arena) are well-structured pop songs. Consider Daft Punk's "Da Funk," which remains a party favorite nearly ten years after its release. The song is intrumental, yet it follows the pop song format. There is a hook that catches on the back of your scarf and forces you to move. There is a melody that sticks in your head for hours, if not longer, after the party. There is a bridge that makes you want to freak yourself and, still, you know exactly what is going to happen after that bridge. It is both a piece that a DJ can properly mix into the set and a song that a radio programmer can punch into the computerized playlist.
The third problem is live performance. I realized this a few years ago when, after playing "House of Jealous Lovers" at every gig for months on end, I finally saw the Rapture live and realized how completely boring the band was inside the El Rey. It was as if every piece of magic on that single was the result of the producer. This is not always the case, however, as bands like Out Hud and !!! are every bit as intense about the party onstage as they are on album. More often than not, though, the shows are a huge let down. This, I suppose, refers to the Kapranos statement and the lesson therein: don't focus on the technology, focus on the structure.
Admittedly, I am no expert on music. I have never even attempted to learn an instrument (mostly due to intimidation and the knowledge that I would drive myself crazy in an attempt to make my guitar sound like Johnny Marr's). My voice sounds like a death grunt and, while I can beatmatch well enough to get through a club set without causing everyone to run for the door, I'm not a producer. I'm just a person who has been obsessed with music ever since I fell for Duran Duran back in pre-school and has, over the years, acquired some sense of what works and what does not.