Dance-music history advances by inventing potent clichés — effects so good everyone copies them

Reynolds offers an evaluative framework for dance music: its history is the creation of clichés — not pejorative filler but shared sonic vocabulary so effective it proves culturally sticky and gets copied to death. His examples span genres: disco’s snare-crash, Acid House’s Roland 303 bass, garage’s skipping snares, Rave’s piano vamps, Hardcore’s Mentasm stabs, Jungle’s Amen breaks, gabba’s distorted kick. ‘To invent a cliche from scratch is a great feat.’ The critique of neurofunk is that it yields only subtle tweaks, not potent, copyable innovations — hence a genre that risks appealing ‘only to headnodders and trainspotters’.

Examples

Acid House’s Roland 303 bass; Jungle’s Amen break; Rave’s Morse-code piano vamps; gabba’s distorted kick — each became a defining genre-marker copied by scores of producers.

Assessment

Apply Reynolds’ cliché framework: name a sonic innovation from a genre you know that qualifies as a potent cliché, and say what made it sticky.