You didn't say that there weren't any great ones - you lamented "The complete absence of ANY big 'dance' record in the list..."

 

Which is plainly untrue. The quality or otherwise of the tracks is not what I am disputing - you just said something that was untrue to make a point.

 

there's a colossal difference between a big 'chart' dance record and a seminal dance record, though. And that list doesn't include a single one of the latter.

there's a colossal difference between a big 'chart' dance record and a seminal dance record, though. And that list doesn't include a single one of the latter.

 

 

Maybe we have a different interpretation of the term "ANY big 'dance' record"

Obviously. Unless one of us is being wince-inducingly pedantic, maybe?

Yeah, I suspect one of you is.

 

Not interfering here..but each genre has its hardcore fans who think the popular acts/songs don't represent it. I know metal fans who like nu-metal but loathe Linkin Park and others which from outsider's point of view is a bit weird.

Obviously. Unless one of us is being wince-inducingly pedantic, maybe?

 

 

I dont really understand this statement.

 

My understanding of a big dance record is a big hit or a track that has had influence over the development of the genre.

 

There are a few of those in the list.

 

Can you explain how there is another definition of a big dance record? I'm open to listen to your views. I'm not being pedantic.

 

 

a 'big' dance record is a record that rocked the clubs - all of them, across the board - at the time. A big dance record has nothing at all to do with chart placings- in fact, quite the opposite - the dance genre used to be so snobby, as soon as a record did eventually chart, probably several years later, it was ignored by those very same dance clubs that'd championed it in the first place.

 

I DJ'd throughout the 90s, and I was as guilty of this as all the other DJs.

 

A big dance record defines a time in clublife, really, or defined a genre or spawned copycats - and none of the songs on that list came even close... the nearest was Daft Punk.... but they really weren't the first to make French disco music in the 90s - they just did it with a bigger video budget. And Basement Jaxx - they, too, have released some incredible music - but nothing that you'd care to recall as a decade-defining classic, really.... except perhaps Kish Kash, which came much later after the sugary carnival poppiness of Remedy etc. And as much as I adore Underworld, Born Slippy really was plunging the depths, regardless of it being from a cool soundtrack... especially after the sublime first album and the incredible singles that spawned - each of which made more of a mark in the dance genre than Slippy ever had. Slippy was for most fans the end of the band we loved - a crass attempt at chart stardom (that worked), for a band so usually vague and out-there, it was just.... horribly obvious. Tongue in cheek, yes, but it ended up being the anthem of the people it was meant to sneer at.

 

Defining moments of the 90s dancewise? The obvious - Sasha, Digweed, early Danny Rampling, anything on Cheeky Records, anything on React records, Nick Warren / Way Out West, lots of the early am:pm releases (Alcatraz especially), the early Positiva stuff...... Age of Love, Jam and Spoon, Tony de Vit, Bedrock.... and lots of the German and Dutch imports from 92 - 97 (Commander Tom, Marmion). Loads of others, too..... I'll dig out my old record boxes.....

Thanks for the explanation. That is what I wanted and it was very informative.

 

To take the Born Slippy example - Pitchfork either have not heard (which is unforgivable - since they claim to be stating the best tracks of the 90s) the earlier Underworld singles, or do not rate them as highly as Born Slippy - which is their opinion.

 

They seem to consider the merits of the music they listen to in the home-listening or live environment and never take into consideration the craft that is involved in making a dance track that works amazingly well in a club environment.

 

Critics of a wider musical knowledge will often do that and shun or have no respect for a really great trance track, for example. It takes dance music critics to really understand what's what.

 

 

This is a shame.