Dolly Parton has died. And some of the first to speak about her were the last people you would expect

Dolly Parton died on 25 August in Nashville. She was 80; according to her publicist, her death followed a brief battle with cancer.

The news was announced by her nephew Brian Seaver in a video on her Instagram; the response from the electronic community was gathered by Resident Advisor.

Obituaries ran everywhere, from NPR to CNN. But a separate set of farewells came from a place where country music is not usually discussed: among DJs and electronic producers.

What came from the dancefloor

The Welsh producer Kelly Lee Owens, whose records come out on Smalltown Supersound and Dh2, wrote something short and to the point — and it was that line that travelled furthest.

“You paved the way for female songwriters everywhere. Thank you,” Kelly Lee Owens wrote.

The Japanese composer Akiko Yano, one of the central figures of Japan’s electronic scene, put it differently: “She was a musician who proved through her way of life that a resilient will, the power of song and dimples could all coexist.” The American producer Suzi Analogue kept it to one line: “I would like to cancel the rest of today on behalf of Dolly.”

Why a country singer is mourned by club culture

The answer is simpler than it looks. Parton wrote songs built to survive any arrangement: “Jolene” and “9 to 5” have been sampled, covered in disco, house and drum & bass for decades, and none of those versions broke the original. For a producer that is the highest compliment there is — material you can do anything with that still remains itself.

The second reason is authorship. Parton wrote her own songs and held her own catalogue throughout a career in an industry where that was hardest of all for women. That is exactly what Kelly Lee Owens was writing about, and exactly why the farewells came from a side that at first glance has nothing to do with country.

As ONE//FM reported, a song recorded at 52 recently passed a billion streams — further proof of how long well-written material lives.