well, you were just blunt and honest. You are Simon Cowell. LOL I basically said the same thing in my January email to them, but I was a little nicer about it. I gave them some constructive feedback and offered suggestions, one of which was to come here and get opinions. LOL I see how that worked out.
Since Doug posted his honest opinion I will go ahead and quote my email to them last month.
Before I give the email, I need to set up the context from which you are reading this. The person I am emailing first emailed me with "This is a fairly new genre, and we want to spread the word!". And here we pick up with my response.
Along those thoughtlines, Christian dance music goes all the way back
to 1991, when former New York top club DJ / remixer (Debbie Gibson,
Madonna, Information Society, etc) Scott Blackwell got saved and
wanted bring dance music to Christianity. It is very well documented.
Also around the same time, British music producer Zarc Porter had the
very same idea as Scott. The two have collaborated many time from 1992
- 2000. Scott started N*Soul Records in Southern California which
globally was recognized as THE only label making Christian themed
dance music. Scott left the label around 1999 due to personal reasons.
N*Soul is currently a dead label being barely kept alive by the
current owner, Phillip Kim.
During Scott's time running N*Soul, Christian dance music was BOOMING.
There were many indie artists and other Christian labels who were
putting out dance releases. Basically, what I am saying is Dance music
mixed with Christian lyrics is well known all around the world. For
Dream Lab to promote this genre as new, makes you look silly,
uninformed, and totally out of touch and you will never be taken
serious in the existing Christian dance community. It's rough, but it
is the truth.
In reference to Dream Lab's music, there are good things and bad
things. The good is the fact is the music sounds very well produced
with very good vocals. The guys who are behind this KNOW how to make a
song sound professional. However, the bad is a huge bad that the good
just can't make up for. The big issue is the fact that the music
sounds like it is well over 10 years old. Nothing about Dream Lab
sounds current. As I was listening to "Club Revival", I was reminded
of so many chart topping songs from Snap! and Chumbawamba, as well as
Scott Blackwell's Nitro Praise series and Zarc Porter's World Wide
Message Tribe. This is a major problem you are going to have if you
try to market this to dance music fans today.
I know from personal experience. In 2006, I released a song called
"Deep Inside" that I thought was great. My closest friends had to
break the news to me that my old school influence really made my song
sound like it was recorded in 1999. I called on some producers to make
remixes of my track so I could market it.
"Hymnotica" actually was very good and my favorite of the two CDs. It
still had the issue of it sounding very dated.
My recommendation for Dream Lab is to go to Beatport.com and listen to
the top house, trance, and breaks tracks. Study them and try to
understand the sounds used in the Dream Lab project are dated and very
different sounds are being used in today's dance music. Please
understand that I am in no way trying to insult you guys. I like the
idea of a new label focusing solely on Christian Dance music and want
to see you suceed. With the current CDs you guys have, you may win
some fans of a classic sound or people who don't keep up on modern
music trends. Sadly, the demo you want to reach will see you as
irrelevant.
Another MAJOR recommendation is for all of you at Dream Lab to go
www.tastyfresh.com and get plugged in the current community of
Chrisitians who love dance music. Tastyfresh is THE site with fans,
DJs, and producers and it is essential for you to be involved.
Thank you for reading this and I DO mean this email to be help and
good advice. God bless
