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But nothing better exemplifies ’90s dance music than house, whose pumping groove supplies the heartbeat of club culture. Those springy piano chords, those kaleidoscopic synth stabs, those driving beats… They just always sound great. Detroit’s Derrick May (working under the name Strings of Life here) might be a techno pioneer, but he arrived there by feeding Chicago house through a futuristic, funky shredder, epitomised by this timeless track.
St. Germain: “Alabama Blues (Todd Edwards Dub Mix)” (
Mr. Fingers is Larry Heard, a totemic figure in the history of Chicago house music. ”—produced alongside Robert Owens and Robert Wilson as Fingers Inc.—endures today as one of the genre's most iconic tracks, and has been remixed and reworked by countless producers who came after. Throughout various interviews, Heard has characterized himself as an instrumentalist who prefers the more organic songwriting process to computer-based composition, and his 1992 album testifies to that. While much of it is built on top of drum machines and synths, it often sounds more like fully formed R&B or soul than the stripped-back club tracks many of his contemporaries were producing at the time. The double platinum-selling debut album from the Italian group Black Box played a huge role in bringing house music to pop radio the world over. To add insult to injury, the group then hired a tall, skinny model to lip-sync in the music video for their album's second single—rather than giving camera time to the more heavy-set Wash.
House Hits That Defined the 90s
It’s been a DJ favourite ever since (for everyone from Ellen Allien to Julio Bashmore) thanks to its pulsing bleeps and plaintive vocal vibes. From 1994 until the turn of the millennium, Gemini, aka Spencer Kincy, was one of the most revered figures in the second wave of Chicago house. A decade ago, when a reporter tracked him down, he was homeless and apparently struggling with mental illness, even as a fresh crop of reissues, edits, and bootlegs was boosting his popularity among a new generation of clubbers and DJs. Read Pitchfork’s list of the best songs of the 1990s here and best albums of the 1990s here, and check out our full ’90s package here. African music continued to become a power player in the worldwide ecosystem in the 1990s, with superstars like Ali Farka Toure working with legendary American polymath Ry Cooder.
Blackstreet – No Diggity
'90s rave and acid house documentaries to be screened in Berlin for short film festival - DJ Mag
'90s rave and acid house documentaries to be screened in Berlin for short film festival.
Posted: Thu, 04 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
There are plenty of early ’90s tracks that mixed house and rave to great effect, but perhaps none more so than this impossibly energetic stomper. The manic piano stabs, rushing rhythm and commanding vocals provide a soundtrack for burning more calories than any exercise video ever did. From New Wave dance and Hi NRG to classic House music in the 90s, the genre’s influence has permeated every dance floor. This smashing 1999 release put iconic DJ and Producer Paul Johnson on the global radar. "Get Get Down" is one of those tracks that everyone has heard at least once.
Garth Brooks – The Dance
Angelique Kidjo, meanwhile, became a sensation in her home country in Benin and around the world thanks to her thrilling blend of Afropop with R&B and soul music. Elsewhere, Baaba Maal brought Senegalese folk music to a wide, adoring audience. To those who regard electronic music as being devoid of emotion, we give you this staggering 1986 masterpiece from the saintly Larry Heard (under his Mr Fingers alias).
They, along with contemporaries like LFO and Baby Ford, put their own psychedelic spin on the stripped-back Chicago sound of the mid-’80s, leading to the birth of a distinct UK rave movement. State 90 was their first album to be distributed in the U.S. and came with a re-edited version of their breakout single, “Pacific State,” a track you may recognize from its infectious saxophone riff if nothing else. It laid the groundwork for the UK's electronic music explosion, and it inspired everyone from Björk to Aphex Twin and the Chemical Brothers. This memorable track, produced in 1991 by the Basement Boys harmoniously fuses a crispy house beat with Waters' background in Jazz. House was still very much underground when "Gypsy Woman," was released.
In recent years its joyous hooks have been sampled by modern house stalwarts Hercules and Love Affair and pop superstar Rihanna. Originally a riff on a proto-house classic, Isaac Hayes’s 1975 disco foray ‘I Can’t Turn Around’, this collaboration between turbo-lunged singer Darryl Pandy and Farley Keith blew the roof off house music at the time. It still has the distinction of being a true crossover hit that’s maintained its dancefloor appeal decades on.
Background singer turned vocal queen Cece Peniston's bright and colorful “Finally” was a strong debut for the former gospel singer. Considered one of the top house tracks of all time, it showcases Peniston’s bold voice, a euphoric riff, and chorus quintessential of the disco influences in house music. Next time you go to a festival, count how many times you hear that iconic synth line break through the mix. Though genres like indie rock and grunge became mainstays during the 1990s, the behemoth that is pop music still dominated the charts and the cultural zeitgeist during the decade.
In the U.S., house music had already climbed the pop charts by the late ’80s, and underground producers were signing major label contracts. There were formidable domestic movements in Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, and South Africa, each with their own sound and style. A number of electronic and electronic-leaning acts changed the course of music in the 90s. Aphex Twin brought a unique perspective that captivated hip audiences previously hesitant to listen to “electronic music.” Plenty of other acts broke through to the mainstream thanks to their pop and rock-leaning styles as well. Moby blended lush, catchy samples with hazy downtempo electronics, and Nine Inch Nails found a middle ground between electronic and acoustic instruments. Stereolab combined French pop with Krautrock to create one of the most unique sounds of the decade, and Portishead used the aesthetics of hip-hop to help introduce trip-hop.
Despite the deeply shady business dealings, Dreamland remains one of the most iconic albums of the ’90s, even for non-house heads. This 1997 album is a masterpiece of audio collage, pulling in samples from jazz, gospel, funk and disco and threading them together into a hazy, hour-long dream sequence. Kenny Dixon Jr.—who, alongside artists like Theo Parrish and Marcellus Pittman, helped define the endearingly unpolished sound of deep house in Detroit. The album is a collection of previously released tracks from Dixon's own KDJ Records, which were then re-edited and re-issued as a long-player for Planet E Communications, the label owned by Detroit house and techno hero Carl Craig. Carl Craig's Landcruising from 1995 was certainly influential enough to be included on a best ’90s electronic albums list, though traditionalists would say it veers too far into techno territory to count on this one in particular.
First Floor saw the Chicago-born, Detroit-based producer re-writing all the rules with his unkempt and unfussy approach to deep, soulful house. Much like Moodymann, Parrish weaves a vibrant tapestry of gospel and soul sound bytes—though his stuttering loops, damaged samples, and general lack of respect for musical conventions set him apart from the rest of the pack. His famously adventurous DJ sets—which extend up to eight hours—touch on a broad range of genres across four or five decades, and have given him a reputation as one of the great record diggers of our time. Danny Tenaglia never enjoyed the pop success of contemporaries like Armand Van Helden or Deee-lite, but to this day he remains one of the seminal figures in New York house music. The prolific DJ and producer began his career in Brooklyn, DJing at roller discos in the late ’70s and early ’80s and later became a resident at legendary downtown dance spots like Twilo, Tunnel, and Vinyl. You can still catch Tenaglia playing all-night sets at spots like Output in Brooklyn or Space in Ibiza.
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