Table Of Content
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.
‘Good Life’ – Inner City
And then the song fully emerges, the bass suddenly going like something stolen out from under Bernard Edwards’ fingertips, the hi-hat doing that bright, open chhh business on the offbeat. The up-from-underground stuff turns out to have been sort of poignantly appropriate. “Around the World” was an exhumation, disco as reworked in post-industrial Chicago and Detroit, then adapted anew by two blessed weirdos from Montmartre, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo.
Bonnie Pink – It’s Gonna Rain
In its stead came artists willing and insistent on changing the rules of the game in favor of something weirder, edgier, and rule-breaking. Female stars like Fiona Apple and Alanis Morissette proved that women not only had a seat at the rock table, they were sitting at the head. Elliott Smith appeared to be the second coming of Bob Dylan, infusing his folk-inspired 90s songs with tales of heartbreak and depression. Jimmy Eat World helped usher in emo music’s ascension within mainstream rock, and Pavement brought slacker cool to campuses across the country. Bands like Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers, though, continued to make sure that mainstream rock would continue to be a dominant force in the music industry into the 21st century.
Daft Punk: “Around the World” (
For more hip-hop, check out our list of the 100 best hip-hop songs of the 90s. One of the finest example of how dance music could do more than just borrow hooks and melodies from pop, ‘Where Love Lives’ went one step further. Britsh singer Alison Limerick’s rich vocal lines are layered over upfront house beats, creating the perfect crossover record, aimed right at the mainstream, but still retaining the dance music credentials of all involved. Though it originally dropped in 1990, it wasn’t until 1996 that a remix package finally sent ‘Where Love Lives’ into the dizzy heights of the UK top ten, where it really belonged. The same year, it also climbed into the upper echelons of the US club charts, where it also deserved to live.
30 of the best Chicago house tracks - Features - Mixmag
30 of the best Chicago house tracks - Features.
Posted: Fri, 03 Apr 2020 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Women continued to innovate, too, as acts like The Dixie Chicks and solo stars such as Lucinda Williams and Shania Twain began chiseling the genre in their image. This number from Chicago’s Lil’ Louis was one of the first house tracks to enjoy both considerable commercial success and heavy club airplay on its release. Even one listen to its infectious, unrelenting groove and orgasmic tempo shifts is enough to understand exactly why it got everyone so excited. Having your track remixed by every DJ and their dog doesn’t necessarily mean that the original is a classic. The bubbling, filtered blips are so beautifully weird when mixed in with a driving Chicago rhythm that it’s impossible to ignore it. If you’ve been to more than a handful of club nights, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll have heard a DJ drop this deviant dancefloor-filler.
“Little” Louie Vega and Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez are two of the most prolific producers in the history of house music. Together as Masters at Work, they helped define the funky, Latin-flavored sound of the New York club scene in particular and can still be found controlling the decks at top dance spots downtown. This 1993 album provides a vivid illustration of how hip-hop, house, and reggae once mingled on the streets of NYC, with an opening track that features Jamaican dancehall emcee Screechie Dan. The great producers of the 90s are known for successful singles that grew beyond the rave into mainstream radio culture. Below you can dig into some of the house tracks that made an impact in the 90s.
Rancid – Time Bomb
Back in 1987, it heralded the era of rave, it accelerated house, it sounded sublime then and still does now. "Missing" is a song by English popular music duo Everything but the Girl, taken from their eighth studio album Amplified Heart (1994). Released in August 1994 as the second single off the album it was an initial failure until their label Atlantic commissioned a remix by Todd Terry.
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.
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.
And despite its crossover success, Waters kept her day job for two years after the record hit the top of the charts. With that, the hook and perspective of the song were crafted, leading to the first socially aware classic house track to top the charts. Cajmere—aka Curtis A. Jones or Green Velvet— released this iconic track in 1992 during the second wave of Chicago House. Composed of a drum machine, Cajmere on the vocals, and a bed of silly synth sounds it paved the way for a free frame structure not common in house music. Just like its hip-hop sibling genre, R&B had a bounty of great songs during the 90s. The list of superstars emerging in the R&B lane are too many to name, but Aaliyah, Mariah Carey, and Mary J. Blige blended pop ballads with lush, R&B-inspired instrumentals, bringing a groundbreaking style to the genre.
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.
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.
Between 1994 and 1999, under the sequential series of aliases Round One through Round Five, they applied their spatial sensibilities and exacting production skills to deep house. You can hear their dubby signature in the chest-massaging sub-bass and glancing chords of “New Day,” but what makes the song so powerful is the guest vocal from UK session singer Andy Caine. From its 1980s roots in Black, Latinx, and queer communities in cities like Chicago, Detroit, and New York, electronic dance music exploded in the 1990s, taking techno, rave, jungle, and other permutations around the globe.
Unlike many of the genres in this list, these are songs that could have only been made in the 90s. First recorded by Jamie Principle (hailing from – you've guessed it – Chicago), the ‘Godfather of House’ Frankie Knuckles made the track famous with his slightly punchier version, still featuring Principle. It’s been covered and reworked by many different DJs and producers over the years, but Knuckles and Principle’s version is the one that has rightly gone down in dance music history. After evolving on the Chicago club scene in the early ‘80s, house music exploded at the end of the decade to become the world’s most exciting and innovative dance genre. By the early ’90s, massive pop stars like Madonna, Janet Jackson and Kylie Minogue were all incorporating elements of house music into their sound – a sure sign that it had infiltrated the mainstream. If you prefer your grooves rough around the edges, Theo Parrish's 1998 debut album is the one for you.
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