Dance music producer and DJ David Guetta is chasing down the late Michael Jackson's Thriller. The French Grammy-winner's track with Sia, "Titanium" (listen below), has charted on the Billboard Dance/Club list for 28 weeks, making it the longest-charting dance song in nearly three decades.
Thriller charted for 36 weeks in 1983, when the chart not only included singles but albums and/or song bundles. The longest-charting entry since the list started in 1976 is Kelly Marie's "Feels Like I'm In Love"/"Loving Just For Fun."
With tracks featuring Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Usher, Fergie, LMFAO and more, Guetta is at the forefront of European pop-house's takeover of American pop music, infecting many genres with club-ready electronic dance jams. If it's somewhat formulaic (songs generally include soaring vocals intercut with stabby synths and four-on-the-floor basslines that drop out before massive "breakdowns"), pop music fans don't seem to mind. Rihanna ("Where Have You Been"), Minaj ("Starships"), Justin Bieber (multiple tracks off Believe, out in stores Tuesday), Usher ("Scream," "Climax") and countless other pop/hip hop/R&B stars have flocked to the genre as it continues to dominate radio and club rotations.
Other European DJs and producers making similar waves include Guetta's mentee Afrojack (who produced Ne-Yo and Pitbull's "Give Me Everything), Martin Solveig (the French DJ behind much of Madonna's last album, MDNA) and Calvin Harris (who made not only the aforementioned "Where Have You Been" but Rihanna's other wildly popular song, "We Found Love").
Even if Guetta passes Thriller on this particular list, it remains to be seen if today's crop of dance music producers will attain the same level of respect afforded to Jackson and his producer, Quincy Jones. The press has only recently warmed to the genre, though it's becoming increasingly difficult to read any music magazine without a breathless take on "how EDM exploded."
Fans of EDM (a reductive term in and of itself) have long flocked to dance music festivals, which routinely bring in hundreds of thousands of revelers at a time (over 300,000 people attended Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas earlier this month).
For more of HuffPost's coverage of EDM, check out our big news page on the topic.
