This playlist honors the dance music of 1989. That year was marked by synths and 808s returning to charts while rappers such as Beastie Boys and Public Enemy promoted teenage machismo.
House music became immensely popular throughout Chicago and Detroit, producing their own distinct styles. Breakbeat hardcore brought techno and acid house energy to illegal raves held across Britain by providing chopped drum breaks and four-to-the-floor kicks – creating an energy that was often absent at these raves.
Voodoo Ray
At Manchester’s legendary Hacienda club during the second summer of love in 1988, local DJ Gerald Simpson released an iconic record that defined that momentous period: Voodoo Ray by Gerald Simpson was released as self-released album Voodoo Ray which became one of the first acid house hits to reach number 12 in UK charts and used spoken-word samples by comedian duo Peter Cook and Dudley Moore to turn the short thudding bass line, curling acid loop, and distended bar of female vocalist into an intoxicating dancefloor anthem.
At the height of his career, Simpson’s Voodoo Ray remains his crowning achievement; an acid house classic which continues to have an impactful sound across dance music worldwide.
24 Hour Party People was inspired by Factory Records and Madchester culture, and can even be heard as part of the fictional house radio station SF-UR in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2004 videogame.
One More Time
Felix Buxton and Simon Radcliffe, better known as Basemant Jaxx, created an irresistibly Eurodance floor filler in “Wicked Eurodance Floor Filler,” helping propel them to new levels of success. Boasting rock attitude coupled with pulse synths this track became a classic across clubs and radio airplay across Europe in the mid 90s; today it remains one of their most beloved hits to this day.
Taylor Swift used 1989 as a way to showcase where pop music was headed in 2014. From its minimal tracks such as Blank Space and New Romantics to sophisticated French disco of Style and brassy big band maximalism of Shake It Off – Swift provided us with her vision of pop’s future.
Hardly anyone could imagine life without this iconic song: with its mesmerising vocal trance symphony and Tiesto remix being voted 12th best ever by Mixmag readers, Insomnia stands as an undeniable classic. Additionally, ATB became the first artist ever to top both UK and Ireland charts simultaneously with this release making Insomnia their biggest single ever produced since and still remains popular worldwide.
Where Are U Now?
As America’s dance music craze spread to Europe in the mid 1990s, its influence gradually evolved into new forms marked by irregular rhythm patterns and unexpected textures. British production duo The Prodigy led this change with their string of innovative releases which inspired everyone from Squarepusher to Autechre.
Hyperballad, produced by The Prodigy and released in 1996, marked an unexpected departure from the rigid rules of 80s disco music by encompassing multiple styles in one album and demonstrating that one did not need to conform to one mold for dance fans to enjoy your work. Through its mix of ambient synths and drum’n’bass beats, Hyperballad captured alternative listeners’ hearts while inspiring many young producers who followed its example.
Swift was at the forefront of pop in 1989 – and she wanted to make sure it was apparent her musical ambitions were ambitious. To that end, she collaborated with some of the industry’s best producers – like Max Martin and Shellback (who had helped craft some of pop’s biggest songs) in creating an album which encompassed several dance subgenres; Blank Space featured minimalist production while French disco style Style provided sophistication before finally New Romantics brought brassy big band anthems for full effect.
But her most overtly pop track may have been Shake It Off with its iconic bridge (“You could’ve been getting down / To this sick beat”). This song’s success indicates there was genuine appreciation of electronic music within 1989 – as well as helping disprove any doubters who may have believed her genre shift was simply for financial gain.
Belfast
Belfast’s music scene began to expand beyond rave culture into more structured forms of techno. Producers like Darren Mohammed (known by his stage name Heychild) helped establish second wave house with his debut record eponymous while Lost released its inaugural techno release by Musicology (Golding and Rutter).
1989 also witnessed two Number 1 singles: Band Aid II by The Beatles and Kylie Minogue’s festive smash Hand on My Heart by Kylie Minogue produced by Stock Aitken Waterman and Tom Jenkins was an enormous crossover hit, drawing inspiration from similar pop influences as The Prodigy’s Born Slippy NUXX that would later influence a whole generation of dance producers and DJs.
Roni Size and his Reprazent collective were playing an instrumental role in shaping drum & bass music. Through combining jazz, hip-hop and Roland 808 drum machine beats, their Brown Paper Bag album pioneered genre-defining records like Inner City Life. Belgian artist Frank De Wulf was equally influential; with Hyperballad serving as an ode to alienation while creating his visionary album Music Man which projected into future sonicscapes.
Bjork was exploring new forms of experimental pop with her 1996 wandering daydream Hyperballad, with its haunting synths and contorted vocals creating the sound of psychedelic folktronica. Later she brought this style to a wider audience via her album Hyperballad.
E Talking
Once the Berlin wall had fallen, something remarkable and wonderful occurred in Germany: youth from both East and West came together on dancefloors to party with music that heavily featured techno influences. Their musical playlist included elements of hip hop, eurodisco, Hi-NRG house music combined with rich vocals such as rapped verses. This genre would go on to play an integral role in dance music for 1989 and beyond.
This song became one of the biggest dance hits of 1989 and reached #2 on Billboards Hot 100 chart. Renowned for its catchy keyboard hook, this track became a huge success across both America and Europe – inspiring artists like Cher, Peter Cetera, & Debbie Gibson to create big ballads during their respective 90s careers.
Real McCoy’s Eurodance hit “Wild Thing” has also reached #2 on the charts, thanks to being featured in 1996 Danny Boyle film Trainspotting and featuring vocalist Karin Kasar as well as band founder O-Jay Jeglitza’s signature rap style.
Jazz Scatting, Rap and House Music come together seamlessly in this club-banging song for a true Trance Symphony experience. A worldwide success that spent 57 weeks on the charts. Influences from this track include rappers such as TI, Styles P and Ty Dolla Sign sampling this track as part of their work.