First dance choon you loved

Far too broad a categorization. Do you count my hearing the remnants of disco on top 40 in 1981? My hearing Soft Cell and Duran Duran in '82? "Rocket" and "Jam On It" in 1984, "Blue Monday" in 1985, etc... Seems to me all have good arguments to fit within 'dance/electronica,' however conceived. So what do you mean by that, then?

I was thinking more along the lines of rave music and house/techno/jungle....personally I hated dance music before I heard Underworld's "Cowgirl" in a club once and then it just clicked...I just wanted to see if other people had other such epiphinal(?) moments..

Under Ned's broad definition, my first tune was probably "Pump Up The Volume" (198-something, I don't quite remember).

Under the clarified category, I think it was either "Pro-Gen" by the Shamen or "Weekend" by DJ Dick (both 1990). Another possibility would be "Now" by Meat Beat Manifesto (also 1990) or "Big Car" by Severed Heads (you guessed it, 1990).

If you couldn't already tell, 1990 was a pivotal year for me as far as dance music was concerned.

Yeah, "Pump Up the Volume" definitely. In the stricter definition: I woke up one morning and heard "French Kiss" - Lil'Louis, that's when I really saw the light. Still a brilliant tune after all these years.

For me it was "What Time Is Love?" by the KLF in the charts - but I'd liked Kylie Said To Jason and still thought of them as basically a synth-pop band (!). So "Little Fluffy Clouds" really cemented it.

At first I'd been really hostile to 'dance music' - fucking hated the first wave of house/DJ records in the charts. Then I got into PE and realised that what the DJ people were doing wasnt so different, so I borrowed the first Bomb The Bass album off a mate but it didn't really take. By the time I went to my first night where dance music was being played - the Stone Roses at Ally Pally had Oakenfold as support - I still didn't get it (mostly cause I, duh, didn't dance!).

Then came the above 'oh right, now I get it' experiences. I think the Orb's was one of the first electronic records I bought, and I taped most of a comp of rave classics.

It's an interesting subject because there really are 'gateway' records which got former indie boys into dance. Orbital's "Halcyon" did it for loads of friends at University and the remix of Sabres' "Smokebelch II" was another one. I'm too out of touch to be aware of more recent ones alas.

For me, it was hearing "Pump Up The Volume", "Ebenezer Goode", and The Prodigy's "Poison", (on Beavis & Butthead, of all things) that got me hooked.

Yeah 'gateway' records. Although for me personally some rock-music was already getting into rave-like intensity. I'm thinking here of Jane's Addiction who I adored at the time. Happy Mondays of course were a useful bridge and of course metal with the harsher rave coming out in '91. Also a important gateway tune KLF's "3 a:m Eternal", i had a bit of an epiphany, shivering and drunk at an Adamski gig (remember him) when that track came on it all made sense. And a good pop tune too ;) Also a gateway record: Dee-Lite, esp. "The Power of Love".

The KLF, "What Time Is Love". The stadium house trilogy were the first records I was ever obsessed with, FWIW.

Probably "Analogue Bubblebath II" by Aphex Twin. At least, that was the record that made me decide to start *buying* that kind of music.

Some credit should possibly go to the DJs at Krystals nightclub in Loughborough who gradually wore down my deep-rooted resistance to 'ravey bollocks' by dropping T-99 and Joey Beltram into 'Alternative Night' sets back in '91. I knew how to dance to "Freak Scene", but not that stuff.

I find this an impossible question to answer. Am I the only person round these parts who didn't have a dance epiphany, who was ALWAYS into all available forms of dance? That's all I've ever been into. Do a discussion on the first rock tune you loved, THAT I can answer.

Why do I always feel like I'm opposites day to the people here? And why didn't Moby paint himself blue for the Grammys? Questions I'll never have answers to.

Yeah, there are two interesting assumptions here.

i) that you're into dance at all ii) they you haven't always been

Actually we did do a my-first-indie-record thread a bit ago, though, Ally.

First rock record? I've never bought a rock record.

Ally:

I could probably be put into a similar boat, except that I didn't know that the majority of music that I was listening to at the time could go into a special "dance" sub-category until "Pump Up The Volume" came out. I always looked at Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, OMD, New Order and Depeche Mode, to name a few, as straight-up pop music before hearing M/A/R/R/S.

So, it's not so much that "Pump Up The Volume" was the first dance track I heard as it is that it was the first track I heard that I recognized as "dance music" rather than some other genre (pop, rock, r&b, etc).

At Tom's request for "younger people" (or later-bloomers...), replying to this thread, I must say that music based on electronics baffled me for a long time (I was stupidly anti-synth for most of my teens - Johnny Thunders all the way). I liked a few Orbital or Leftfield tracks, but techno to me was mostly summed up in Saint- Etienne's "Stoned to say the least", which remains part of a pop songs record. Thus it was ultimately Goldie's "Timeless" (the triptych) that drew me in, back in 1995. Before hearing it, I could not imagine a techno track to be so soulful, cold and fasssst at the same time. A repetitive aggression of breakbeats (I had never heard that either), a proper "song" and a long, entrancing development, like a whole new landscape unfolding before my very eyes and inbetween my ears.

I suppose I always liked dance music....I remember taping early 90's Italian piano house tunes and Black Box's "Ride on time" off the radio but I always considered those tunes as "pop". When I first heard house/techno or hardcore I just couldnt get my head around it...I tried to get into it but I felt it had no tune and was boring and repetitive...It wasnt as if I had a problem with the fact that the music was made solely for dancing or the fact that it wasnt made with guitars...I just didnt "get" it.

Around 89/90 I remember being very excited by Bleep. It was the first kind of dance music I'd heard that seemed worth listening to in your own bedroom, where I was mainly to be found. 4-hero's 'Mr Kirk's Nightmare' was a big favourite. Maybe before that I'd bought 'A Day In The Life' by Todd Terry/Black Riot. I think I could definitely say I really loved that and I want to hear it right now.

Then I heard 'Little Fluffy Clouds' over my headphones one night listening to John Peel and that remains one of the best things I have ever heard in my life.

n.

Cabaret Voltaire : "Sensoria". Kraftwerk "The Model" - (I didn't get 'Trance Europe Express' until later).

I guess "Blue Monday" was a real eye opener (and feet mover) for myself and a generation of Joy Div worshipping overcoat-clad grims.

From the Charts : Lipps Inc - "Funky Town". And Chic.

The first dance tune I really liked was probably something like "What Time Is Love?" by the KLF or "In Your Face" by 808State or something like that. But I didn't really see the point of dance music until I went to an Underworld gig and [ahem] began to see why people liked dance music.

That one about Star Trek..."theres Klingons on the Starboard now, shake them off Jim!" I Forget the title and the artistes.

Weighing in...I suppose I'm in there with Ally, but Dan's explanation of pop as separate from dance makes a certain sense. Still, it would be pretty hard for me to say when I wasn't enjoy 'dance' music, which naturally developed into house/techno/etc as a matter of course. I guess the first 'dance' record I ever had was good ol' _Sesame Street Fever_ in 1979 when I was eight or so. And that thing ruled. ;-) Stuff that fit under dance music just kept coming from there, as my first post suggested, but mainly through pop radio. In terms of discovering more of what *wasn't* on the radio necessarily, that along with a lot of other things came around via college radio, 1989 and after -- but there was no one 'moment' or song, it was just what for me was pretty much a logical enough progression.

It's not very surprising to me that MBV's "Soon" did what it did to me given its component parts. That *was* a revelation, but of a very specific individual sort. The fact that it mixed, however obliquely, overdriven guitars glazed into something breathtaking with a constantly roiling beat and what I at least imagined to be (the joys of press context) what a 'rave' was allegedly like was its own special bonus. It didn't really convert me to trying out something else new per se, it just set the bar so high for what I expected out of music -- regardless of where it came from and what inspired it -- that everything else since then has been found wanting.

The answer for Jel: "Star Trekkin'" by The Firm.

Ohhh, Ned, did you ever have that video game AstroGrover? It was for Commodores. It was a learning game, you'd answer math questions. If you'd get enough right, this banging techno tune would come on and AstroGrover (ie Grover in a space suit) would come out and dance for you. That was the bomb. That was the first dance song I liked. There you go.

Tom: I know we did an indie thread, my reply: Uh, I don't remember. Musta not been anything that stuck out as indie. ;)

AstroGrover! Wow, what a name. I can't say I was blessed with this one, but it sure sounds like something utterly worthy. Too bad the name almost sounds like what a member of Phish would call his 'experimental ambient dance' project. *cries*

For me the epiphany came with my first experience of MDMA. It wasn't anywhere cool, just in my friends flat, and he put on one of those compilation albums. It had that Chris and James choon with the "Calm down..Let's just take it easy" line, and that Mrs Woods choon Joanna with immortal line "Hit im with a mop". So I would pick either of them, as it was them, and the E, that helped me understand what all the fuss and nonsense was about dance music.

I've decided that it must have been C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat" when I was 8 or so. The parent album was also my first ever musical purchase.

For me dance music was always an ever-present entity that I delved into lightly every so often, an area that (like hip hop, punk and krautrock) I had simply assumed I would get around to exploring more deeply at a later date. Then at some point two years ago I played a six degrees of separation game on AMG and realised just how much there was left to explore. Soon after I attended my first rave and had my first e. The ratio of rock to dance releases I bought suddenly switched from about 5 to 1 to about 1 to 5, although strangely I've only had ecstacy twice again since.

"Gloria" by Laura Branigan was the first dance record I loved. But if we're talking about songs that made me want to investigate the territory more thoroughly, then I guess it would be "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer and "Apache" by the Incredible Bongo Band, both of which I'd known for a while but hit me hard only recently.

Like Ally, I don't really have a Road-To-Damascus-type darnce epiphany. When I first started admitting to myself that I loved pop music, much of what I loved *was* dance music. I got Michael Jackson's *Thriller* on my first record purchase excursion, and Herbie Hancock's *Future Shock* (the one with "Rockit") on my second. It took me a year or two to realize that disco didn't suck and that being a "slut" didn't necessarily invalidate Madonna's musical career, but after *Thriller*, none of that was much of a leap for me.

Liking techno music has never been a problem, but finding my own way through it and trusting my instincts as to what's Godhead, good, boring and overrated had always been hard -- until *Generation Ecstasy* and Napster, that is.

I think the first house record I LOVED as opposed that was just merely interesting or cool would be Ten City's "That's The Way Love Is." I must've heard it several dozen times on WBLS without paying the slightest bit of attention to it, until I lifted my head from whatever it was I was reading and noticed the fake strings as the "Deep House Mix" melted to a close. They were so pretty.

The first techno record I loved was the very first one I heard. Coming home from college one night with "Strings of Life" (the "stringless" version) on my mom's car radio triggered a very powerful, almost hallucinatory reaction. It took me *years* to find out what it was.

The first rave record I loved: L.A. Style's "James Brown Is Dead", which someone played during a college dance party. Scary!

The first drum & bass record I loved was the second one I heard. I bought this semi-ambient jungle mix CD called *Counterforce* 'cause it had "Inner City Life" which Nelson George raved about in one of his quoted comments for that year's Pazz & Jop poll. First track nice, the second track -- Hyper-On Experience's "Disturbance" -- was one of those WOW moments musicophiles live for.

BeeGees -- Stayin' Alive. But I couldn't really appreciate it 'till I learned to play it on the piano. But I only got into electronic music later -- via MTV's late night show they ran circa '96 -- I forget the name. I used to have great fun deadpanning "I'm a firestarter. Twisted. Firestarter." in various situations. Future Sound Of London did it for me first, I think. Then... nothing until a party my freshman year of college where I couldn't really place the music.. And I suppose I still don't view "dance" music in that context -- as something to actually dance to. My friends will tell you that I do dance, and very entertainingly, but largely to hip-hop and club friendly pop. I tend to approach "dance" music for its musical qualities which don't involve makeing the body move. Don't know why.

That show was AMP. Whatever happened to it, it was so cool. MTV2 has a program called AMP, but it's not AMP the electronica show, it's something else, I believe it's like a live concert show.

Erm... Actually, I've always been into electronic sounds as long as I can remember. (eg Roxy Music appearing on TOTP with "Virgina Plain" and Eno hammering out on this extraordinary keyboard with wires all over the place, and even more extraordinary noises coming out of it!) So probably the actual proper dance record with electronic stuff all over it I heard was "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer!!!

Old Fart!!! (And you can tell it now!!!!!)

The first House tunes I can remember loving where when I was 11 or 12 and "Jack The Groove" by Raze was out at the same time as Steve "Silk" Hurleys' "Jack Your Body" - but I just thought of it as a pop tune at the time. The latter went to number one for weeks - on I believe an Indie - and Farley refused to do any press or appear on TOTP, at the time I thought this was cool as fuck, but he was probably just really shy.

I also remember listening to loads of remixes of "I.O.U" by Freeze before this, which I seem to rememeber was classified as house at the time.

I think I'm probably one of the only people I know (and perhaps one of the few people anywhere) that can honestly say that I've been litstening to dance or proto-dance for as long as I can remember. I started breakdancing when I was six years old; that was about 82 or maybe 83. The first record I ever owned was "Jam on Revenge", which doesn't itself count, I don't suppose, but I distinctly remember listening to Cybotron and other Detroit electro/techno tracks not too long after that. I don't remember a time that I wasn't at least aware of and partly interested in dance music. It was always just part of the landscape. I guess if I had to point to a single tune it would have been Cybotron's "Clear"; I was also really into that Paul Hardcastle tune "Nineteen". It's all been so long ago that its kind of hazy now. When did "Nineteen" come out, and would that count as proper "dance" music, or just as old school hip-hop?

By the time acid house happened I had kind of lost interest in techno for a while, but I got back into it after having been through an acid- jazz phase; it would have been '96 or so when I decided that drum and bass was pretty much the music for me. It hit me upn having heard the Pete Nice Trio track "Harp of Gold" for about the fifth time. I had been listening to a little bit of jazzy electro and hardcore also, but I never really made a generic distinction between those styles and jungle until "Harp of Gold" hit me that day. That was probably my first real epiphany, and later that day I went and bought like four drum and bass compilations and listened to them until they were basically worn out.

The first time, it was probably something C + C Music Factory- related, but I couldn't have been more than nine or ten. But grunge kind of stomped all over electronics for me, and I completely disdained dance music for a really long time.

As a North American, I never heard most of the Acid House tunes people mention on the list. It didn't become acceptible to like dance until the Chems / Prodigy explosion. I had bought "Exit Planet Dust" on a whim and hated it for a week, and have loved it ever since.

As a bandana wearing G'n'R/Nirvana fan, I did'nt discover dance music for myself until well into my teens. A bit of a shame looking back because I'm from Coventry, which had clubs like the Tic Toc and the Edge(later the eclipse)which were apparently at the fore front of hardcore/techno scene. As I got older and became more of an "indie boy", I was litening to the Mondays and the Primals and the Stone Roses of course. This music was already a bit old by the time I got round to listening to it. The tunes that stick in my head are JX's you belong to me, Camisra's let me show you, Snap's the power, Blue pearl's Naked in the rain etc... The tune that made me start bying and listening to dance music was The Prodigy's ruff in the jungle business, or Mighty dub cats Magic carpet ride. The reason I decided to write to this address is because my mate is burning cd's and I want him to do me a few dance compilations from the early-mid nineties. However I'm finding difficulty remembering the tunes. I was wondering if anyone knows of a site, listing the best dance tracks of the nineties or all of the singles of the nineties so I can sift through and unearth these lost gems for my self. I saw this thread and thought you maybe the people to talk to. I would be very grateful to anyone who could point me in the right direction and would even be willing to send them a copy, for free...!! And I live by the rule "if it's free it's good". Thanks -Ben.

benadict_alan_peter_pinfield@hotmail.com

Steady Mike said:

>>> Some credit should possibly go to the DJs at Krystals nightclub in Loughborough who gradually wore down my deep-rooted resistance to 'ravey bollocks' by dropping T-99 and Joey Beltram into 'Alternative Night' sets back in '91. I knew how to dance to "Freak Scene", but not that stuff.

I know you know how to dance to 'Freak Scene' - I mean, don't we all? But do you know how to dance to 'Ravey Bollocks'? I think the 'Bollocks' aspect makes it hard. It's such a 'whole-body experience'.

As a youngster I was obsessed with the The Jackson 5's 'Blame it on the Boogie', which has to count surely.

New Order's 'Blue Monday' and 'Confusion' were crucial, then A Guy Called Gerald's 'Voodoo Ray' and 808 State's 'Pacific State'. (Manchester, so much to answer for)

Robert Armani - Circus Bells, Hardfloor remix.

that is a good record tracer, thanks for reminding me about it...

You're welcome. I had forgotten it too until this thread jogged my memory. That song was the first techno I'd heard to put all the elements into place for me - funky synth bassline, huge drumroll buildup, catchy gimmicky treble bit. I loved how almost naively manipulative that track is.

I've been thinking about what got me into dance music, and it really isn't that song. It's the social context in Glasgow 1994 that I found myself in. I had to adjust my expectations about music in order to get something out of that song - by the time I heard it I was ready.

The club scene for me has a LOT to do with what I get out of the music (remembrance of DJs past?). I guess any kind of music provides a kind of instant access to "that other world", a particular mood, a place in your thoughts. Techno's "world" is just so extreme, and visceral - hard to imagine listening to it without bringing all that context to bear.

one song for me got me into the dancier side of things and that was Chime by Orbital, still my favourite dance tune, absolute belter both on record and live (especially at Ally Pally on new years eve 1996 when they mixed the bongs from Big ben into it. a true moment of perfection for me).

funny that you mention chime..I was listening to the song as I read your post. It's a great one.

I listened to alot of madonna growing up, and I regard her as dance simply because I used to make up dances to her songs (ok, it was the eighties, and I was 7 ok!). If we're talking techno/dance-ish stuff then I'd probably have to go either with "Where the Streets have no name" by the Pet Shop Boys or "Halcyon & On & On" by Orbital. I absolutely *loved* these songs when I first heard them, and they're still amoung my very favourite songs now.

Oh my god, Taylor, I listened to all that stuff. "IOU", "Nineteen", you name it. It's not a boast, though - I was sick of top 40 radio and stumbled on the (sorta legendary) late night house shows on WBMX. This was in the early to mid 80s. All I had was a crappy record player and a crappy radio, so I did the cliche teenage thing of staying up late at night with the covers over my head and my ear to the radio. I had no idea that this was "house" or that SOMETHING BIG was happening. We called it "club music" back then. I went to college and kids in flannel and Chuck Taylors laughed at me for liking it, and I eventually caught up the post-punk bug, but I never got too "flannel" in my tastes. Thank god for those radio shows - they affected my imagination as much as punk / post-punk, but I didn't experience it as some sort of magical scene / subcultural happening. It was just popular dance music - lots of kids liked it. When I got my drivers license, I *loved* driving through the city with that stuff on. It's really resonant with my favorite parts of a bad, bad decade.

When did "Nineteen" come out, and would that count as proper "dance" music, or just as old school hip-hop? (Taylor Guillory )

I think that was 1985 or 86. I suppose it was a halfway house between old school hip hop (or 'electro' as it was frequently known then) and the dance/sample cut-up aesthetic of 1987 onwards (eg MARRS, S Express, Bomb The Bass). I was never a fan of Paul Hardcastle though - the 'n-n-n-n' stuttering sample triggering was crass even then.

I suppose it was Morris Minor and the Majors who made that effect seem *risible*.

(interesting idea for a thread: novelty records which actually made it harder to take their source material seriously ...)

None.

What is that song that was out in 1989 and it was a dance/house song, that says, "I'm giving you acid", "This is Acid". And that's all they really say in the song if I remember correctly. Please shead some light on this for me. Thanks Patric

'This is Acid' - Maurice. Yes? Pretty good track.