Two important things to realize about the resurgence of electronic music in America, dance and otherwise, are the increases in hybridity of audiences as well as the increased importance on song-writing and purpose.

I'm in class (reading slate!) so I can't get too much into this now but essentially the first bit was just a fancy way of saying everyone is dancing together now; people who primarily listened to rap or house or indie can now all attend the same parties and get along fine. Its a positive feedback loop - as DJs play more music at each party, more people are likely to come and then be exposed to more music which in turn allows for DJs to remain popular...when spinning additional kinds of music at those parties. A "Whatever makes the people dance..." mixed with a greater curiosity and open-mindedness are propelling this trend.

"Whatever makes the people dance..." bleeds into the second topic; electronic music is improving because its focus is getting stronger. There has always been electronic music made for different applications but recently, at least in my opinion, the artists have had a much stronger idea of what they wanted to do with their music. Artists who are making songs for non-dance floor listening are taking greater care to make their music more expansive and melodic rather than just sonically interesting. In the same way, artists making club music are figuring out what works and why; not to compare music making to math but on the dance floor somethings have a greater force than others; low repetitive baselines that stray from a simple 4-on-the-floor, and high synth melodies. Depending on the audience these things can all change one way or another, but now that American artists have had a decade or so to sort things out for themselves, the quality of the material is feeling a positive effect.

But to me the resurgence of electronica is not quite the resurgence you seem to suggest. First of all, electronica will always be bogged down by the fact that it is in inorganic listening experience. The farther and farther away music gets away from a human being, the more fleating the experience, and the more cold you feel listening to it.

I am a huge Brian Eno fan and Moby fan. But Brian Eno essentially nailed what electronica is best at when he issued his original groundbreaking albums in the 1970's. Electronica is perfect for existing to serve another purpose other than just listening for the sake of listening itself. In other words, whether it be dancing, studying, writing or playing video games, electronica can provide music without being distracting (exactly why it works so well in advertisements - it never distracts from the product being sold, since it never makes a statement). But there is something unnerving about this music when the music is suppose to exist as the activity.

Another reason that it failed the commercial success of rock and roll or even hip-hop is that the electronica in general is a hypnotic/mesmerizing form of music. This is great when you want to dance or if you want to zone out and relax, but a complete buzz-kill kill when any other social function is intended. In addition, because it is so unorganic and industrial, it never quite fits the mood for parties, especially when outside.

Hipster prognosticators aside, electronic music will never achieve the sort of commercial popularity in the US that many continue to predict for it for two very simple reasons:

1. The best electronic music - Eno, Fripp, Maeror Tri, Lustmord etc. - has always been the music at its most purely ambient end. Everything about this music - the lack of accessible hooks, the absence of traditional melodic content or even identifiable instrumentation of any sort, songs often clocking in at that 20+ minutes, a structuralist and narrative approach to composition - makes it a music for a niche subgenre, accessible only to people capable of high levels of abstract thought.

2. The more accessible end of 'electronica' is the same old gay friendly white boy club music that it's always been...and Americans will never forget or forgive disco.

+1 on the point on the fact that the best electronica is the more ambiant, less accessable form of music. As long as Britney Spears comeback is still considered something anyone should pay attention to, great electronica will also be relegated as a sub-genre.

But great ambiant music also escapes the trait that so much electronica (and quite frankly, most commercial music) comes across as: superficial.

The resurgence of electronica is correctly noted. To dub it 'the music of the future' misses the point, but can be traced back to the (wrong) 1997 idea that electronica would replace rock music.

I know it is hard to think beyond boxes, but there is no electronica, there is electronic influence in non-dance music. More than the importance of acts like Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem and Justice proving that electronic acts can produce 'real' songs, the influence can be seen in traditionally more rock-oriented acts like U2, REM but most of all Radiohead introducing electronic elements into their music. Heck, even Coldplay on their latest show influences from Eno and Kraftwerk.