David Guetta news round-up

David Guetta news round-up

22 February, 2010 | 10.08AM

• Written by: Kirsty Kane
• Filed under: Videos: david guetta

The link between what David Guetta is currently doing in the US, and 1980 hip house pioneers Kool Rock Steady & Tyree Cooper, Fast Eddie, and the UK’s Beatmasters might seem tenuous, but the results appear to be the same.

David Guetta has successfully managed to market house music to pop fans in the US by sugar coating it with r&b vocals and commercial hip hop sounds, an impressive achievement, even if you dislike Guetta’s pop take on club music.

Hip house crossed over magnificently in the US and UK at the end of the 80s and early 90s, thanks to commercially successful acts like Technotronic, who reached the Top 10 in the US pop charts with their single ‘Pump Up The Jam’.

Guetta’s rise to the top of the American pop charts used a similar Trojan horse.

His recent album’s first single ‘When Love Takes Over’ netted him a Grammy, and he performed the song on high profile TV shows like TBS’ Lopez Tonight.

David Guetta also co-produced The Black Eyed Peas’ recent No.1 hit ‘I Gotta Feeling’, and his album’s second single ‘Sexy Bitch’ featured r&b singer Akon (it reached No.5 in the US pop charts). His latest single ‘Memories’ (video above) features American rapper Kid Cudi, and is on course to achieving similar pop status.

All of that has made Guetta a huge star in the US, where he is now seen as the man to work with when rappers or r&b singers want a house beat (R&b star Rihanna is apparently the latest artist to ask for Guetta’s help in the studio).

DJ Magazine called 2009 Guetta’s ‘Year Zero’ - an accurate suggestion that the Frenchman saw something of a rebirth last year. He came third in the magazine’s Top 100 DJs poll, the highest position he has ever achieved.

Unsurprisingly, Guetta has amassed over two million Facebook fans, and last October launched his own iPhone app, that uses MXP4 technology to allow users to ‘remix’ his tracks on their phones, as well as purchase his music, and keep up-to-date with his latest Twitter thoughts and tour movements.

He’s also on course to reaching 100,000 Twitter followers, and is currrently running a competition to encourage people to follow him (the 100,000th follower will get to meet Guetta in person).

But whilst Guetta’s fanbase has increased hugely thanks to his pop movements, he has no doubt lost a few of his DJ followers - hardcore dance music fans generally dislike seeing their DJ idols go mainstream - something that he clearly hoped to rectify with his recent solo track ‘Grrrr’, a dirty instrumental prog house tune released in January on Toolroom.

Ultimately though, David Guetta has always straddled the warped world in between hip hop, pop, and house music.

You could even say, his recent r&b/pop stardom in the US was predictable - Guetta’s first ever release in 1990 was the hip hop track ‘Nation Rap’, which featured French rapper Sidney Duteil.

Pop music is all well and good of course, but Guetta still insists he’s a club DJ at heart. A recent Tweet by the Frenchman read, ‘2 months promoting the album around the globe. Pop life can be cool but there is nothing I love more than DJing in clubs for my people.’

Whether or not Guetta will be able to be both a big pop star, and a credible club DJ, only time will tell.

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• Get David Guetta 'Memories feat. Kid Cudi'