Dance music is back! LF SYSTEM and rising East London DJ Eliza Rose lead electronic takeover in UK Top 5

Four of the tracks in the Official Singles Chart Top 5 all hail from the dance world - proof that the genre is marking a massive commercial re-birth in the UK.
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It’s official – dance music is well and truly back dominating the UK’s Official Chart! 

New data from the Official Charts Company confirms that this week, for the first time in six years, four of the five tracks that make up the Official Singles Chart Top 5 are dance tracks. It’s the first time since September 2016 – when The Chainsmokers and Halsey were at Number 1 with smash hit Closer – that this has happened, and is further proof of the dance renaissance taking over the UK this summer.  

The charge is once again led by Scottish DJ duo LF SYSTEM, who hold on tight for a seventh consecutive week at Number 1, with Afraid To Feel raking in over 5.2 million streams, making it the most-streamed track in the UK.  While further dance floor hits from the likes of Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal (2), Beyoncé (3) and David Guetta, Becky Hill and Ella Henderson (5) all join the Top 5 Official Chart leaderboard. 

East London DJ Eliza Rose’s rising breakout hit B.O.T.A (Baddest Of Them All) poses a real challenge to LF System’s residency at the top - the house slammer jumps up eight spots to a new peak of Number 2 after transcending its viral TikTok success. After leapfrogging Beyoncé’s Break My Soul, can Eliza go all the way next week?

MORE: Discover more about Eliza Rose and the story behind B.O.T.A in our exclusive interview here

It’s Crazy What Love Can Do, and it’s crazy how patient David Guetta, Becky Hill and Ella Henderson have been. After weeks of inching closer, their collab finally leaps up two spots to break into the Top 5 (5) for the first time. 

OneRepublic’s Top Gun: Maverick smash I Ain’t Worried is up three (6), DJ James Hype and Miggy Dela Rosa zoom up eight with Ferrari (9) to provide James his first UK Top 10 in five years and Calvin Harris, Justin Timberlake, Halsey and Pharrell jump three (10) for Calvin’s 28th, Justin’s 21st, Pharrell’s 9th and Halsey’s 4th UK Top 10 hits respectively with Stay With Me.  

Elsewhere, Steve Lacy climbs three with Bad Habit (12), Derbyshire rapper Bru-C also hits a new peak with No Excuses (14) and Luude’s Down Under follow-up Big City Life with Mattafix is up eight (16). 

This week’s highest new entry comes courtesy of rap superstar Nicki Minaj, whose new single Super Freaky Girl enters at Number 15. Famed for her prolific collaborations, the track which interpolates Rick James’ 1981 hit Super Freak, becomes Nicki’s highest-peaking solo single since 2013’s Anaconda, and delivers her a 40th UK Top 40 entry.  

Joel Corry and Becky Hill’s late summertime anthem History is up two this week (18), as Tiesto and Charli XCX heat up to a new peak thanks to the release of Hot In It’s music video (24). Meanwhile, Burna Boy and Ed Sheeran also reach new heights with collaboration For My Hand (25). 

Chris Brown’s new track Under The Influence rises six slots (32), while two acts gain their first-ever UK Top 40 single today. Irish singer-songwriter Cian Ducrot is this week’s highest climber, vaulting twenty-five with All For You (29) and California-born artist Nicky Youre and producer Dazy are up eight with summer anthem Sunroof (33). 

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Lancashire Anglo-Saxon

0

Did dance music ever go away? Up until at least the late 80s it had always included hiphop, funk, R&B and even pop-dance. But for some reason the British record business decided to split it into separate categories while letting rock music include everything including folk bands, plus people like Elton John and Rod Stewart who hadn't released a rock record for decades. This was obviously done so they could desperately try to come out with ridiculous stats like 40% of albums sold were 'rock" when really as anyone with any common sense and merest interest in music knows that rock music had gone the way of jazz did in the mid-1960s when after decades as the dominant musical form surrendered its place to the new music that was starting to be venerated by the critics, that is post-Beatles rock music. I don't know why they bother with this Luddism but the music industry has always seemed slightly uncomfortable with electronic music - probably just the innate conservatism of big business they were probably the same when the advent of the Beatles started to make jazz based forms irrelevant with the young.

In reality dance (electronic) based music has more or less taken over the record industry - aside from a couple of singer-songwriters who themselves are very associated with dance mixes etc. And it's not just about what is obviously the music of the day but the fact that during the jazz years the majority of pop and easy-listening music was based on jazz structures, just as gradually as rock took off pop even became electric guitar based. Now pop and music in general on a mass level is electronic and dance rhythms based.

No rock band has broken through on anything approaching a household name level for about 16 or 17 years. If that doesn't show the supremacy of electronic based music forms I don't know what does.The two most consistently selling selling rock albums in 2022 are Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" released at the start of 1977 and Queen's '"Greatest Hits''released in 1981 which because of the comparatively few albums sold these days look as though they will remain in the top 40 albums in perpetuity or until they don't publish an album chart as albums are eventually phased out. It seems musical forms have about 50 years as the cutting edge music de jure before they become antiquated with the young and significantly the critics. Jazz from about the mid 1910s to the mid 1960s then rock music from the mid-60s to the mid 2000s. Electronic (dance) music has gradually become what the young are into arguably starting back in the mid-80s onwards and building from there but not becoming completely dominant till about 15 years ago.

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Riley

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19 weeks of Yo-yoing for CWLCD and now it’s in the top 5!!! Incredible slow burning summer anthem :)

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QuantumPulsar

0

listen to the extended mix it's even better 🔥

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🧡 oliviasnoodles 🍜

1

dance music is not “back”. it’s still here, but 90% of it is just the same radio filler.

unless youre talking about newer acts and big names such as drake turning to dance, then that’s just artists trying something new.

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Will

1

Somewhat agree. We've had pop house (e.g. Crazy What Love Can Do, Stay the Night, History) and slap house around for a bit already but now there seems to be a wave of more vanilla house and post-bassline, not to mention the drum & bass revival.

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QuantumPulsar

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but Eliza Rose and LF System are both "new" artists, we've had very few "new" artists get to top 5 in past few years (iirc since 2018 we've had only Billen Ted & 220 KID for Wellerman, Nathan Dawe for Flowers, MEDUZA for POYH, Joel Corry for Sorry)

compare that with the number of rap artists and it's painfully low in comparison, furthermore artists like Calvin Harris & David Guetta (which makes CWLCD reaching #5 even more of an achievement) who consistently had #1s ~10 years ago now struggle to break top 20 [RIP by your side :(]

although I will admit that there is a certain degree of homogeneity, I only really listen to dance music but hardly any of it gets in the chart
you have lots of other subgenres piano house, tech house etc. and artists like John Summit, Franky Wah, Solardo who make popular dance songs but they never get in the chart
it's mostly only established artists like Guetta, Corry, Sigala, Dawe that even chart in the first place and their new songs are not very different from each other (I find myself humming the tune to Lonely when listening to History lol)

AUCF

Angry UK Chart Fan

3

What do mean it's "back"? Dance music never left.

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QuantumPulsar

0

there were a few weeks around March 2019 (after Promises had left the chart but before Piece of Your Heart entered) when there were no dance songs in the top 40 (not counting Giant but that wasn't counted in the dance chart).

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Will

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There's no way Giant isn't dance but I get your point. Interesting stuff

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QuantumPulsar

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I agree with you but Giant wasn't included in the Dance singles chart for some reason

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Piran

6

93-45-10-2… surely ‘Baddest Of Them All’ could be #1 by next week? 👀

I’d be very shocked if it didn’t get there eventually!

Really good song though, glad to see it keeping up this kind of momentum. :)

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TheContinuityGuy

3

Wouldn’t be surprised if it is #1 by next week. It’s #1 in Ireland right now.

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QuantumPulsar

0

Would love CWLCD to dethrone BOTA after BOTA knocks Afraid to feel off the top
that'd be 3 dance #1s in a row
(but sadly unlikely to happen)

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Piran

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#2 in the First Look! We'll find out how close it is when the figures are posted soon after the update. 🤔