Busta Rhymes - Fire It Up
Yep, the Knightrider sample. Remember when this first came out? Hell yes.
22 plays
Faithless - Drifting Away (Paradiso Mix)
This is one of my favourite Faithless tunes, probably because of the length of the intro, a solid 2:30 before the beat kicks in. It starts off with some acapella opera singing, followed by a gorgeous little piano melody, which just builds and builds until the bassline drops.
The rest of the track is brilliant too, but that intro is enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
30 plays
Whatever happened to Busta Rhymes?
Her first baby come out sideways; she didn’t scream or nothin’
Trains, Planes & Automobiles, one of my favourite ever comedies is on E4+1 at the moment.
Randomly, we were talking about this film earlier at work today, saying that it was one of the those true comedies that stood the test of time. We compared it to Shaun Of The Dead, which is probably the 2000s film which will be one of the defining comedies of our era.
I’ve been trying to think of anything else that has made a similar impact in terms of defining a generation, or at least a period of comedies in terms of film-making, and the closest I can get is There’s Something About Mary, which was utter, utter genius,
Any other suggestions?
Sash! Ft. Tina Cousins - Mysterious Times
I was in the gym the other day when a Sash! megamix came one, and it amused me that I still knew all the words and could tell the exact moments when one song mixed into another. I was so into Sash! back in the day, and was one of the few people to own their second album.
This is probably my favourite tune that they did, although Encore Une Fois holds a place in my heart. I just remember the video for this one being really moody, set in a wind tunnel or something, and the song itself being relentlessly danceable.
Good times.
16 plays
M Beat Ft. General Levy - Incredible
For those who didn’t get the joke a few minutes ago.
There’s only one word for this song, and that word is TUUUUUUUUUNE!!!!
A joke for those of you who still remember the various subgenres of mid-90s dance music:
Q: Why did the tiger get lost?
A: Because JUNGLE IS MASSIVE!!!
The 90s really was a great time for music. I know that everyone says that about the years during which they first got interested in music, but the 90s had some cracking songs pretty much the whole way through.
I was browsing through the list on Wikipedia of British Number One Singles during the 90s, and it struck me that there were a number of little sequences when one truly fantastic song followed another at the top of the charts.
Usually, I’d expect to see something brilliant replaced by something mediocre but publicised, and this was often the case. However, there are a few months when the British music-buying public were really at the top of their game.
The decade started with a bang, going from Sinead’s epic tearjerker into a little run of early dance tunes during spring, and then the best ever football song (until 1996’s ‘Three Lions’) to support the England team ahead of that summer’s World Cup.
It’s also interesting to see little juxtapositions, where genres collide at the top of the charts. Who knew that two of the most-requested karaoke songs of recent years actually followed one another to the Number One spot at the tail end of 1990?
Ah, the summer of 1993. I remember this period vividly, as it was when I first started seeing music videos rather than the usual live performances on Top of the Pops (RIP). The Freddie Mercury (of Queen fame) was actually a posthumous hit, and it was a remix that got it to the top. I’m amazed that I can sit here and still know all of the words to all six of these songs, and it’s also mind-blowing to think that Meatloaf’s track is 16 years old. How time flies.
Early 1997 saw the start of what was to become the norm from then on, and which lasted until legal downloads became part of the chart: one-week stays at Number One. If you look at the Wikipedia page, the lists for the latter years of the 90s are so much longer than those at the start, with a much quicker turnover of artists and singles. Manufactured pop groups and singers also became more prominent.
This last sequence shows that until this aggressive marketing at young teens really took hold, it was an eclectic mix of genres that made it to Number One. We go from a full-on house track to a one-hit wonder (incidentally, I love this track, a real mellow dancey number), then my favourite Blur tune. Rap gets a look-in, although if memory serves this was as a result of being tied-in with the Beavis & Butthead film more than any real love for LL. Discotheque came from U2’s experiments with electronica on the eponymous album, and then the British public got their first experience of Gwen Stefani.
I really do love the music that came from the 1990s, and still listen to a ridiculous amount of it. I grew up with it, and it helped to shape the musical landscape that I listen to now. As I said at the very beginning, we’re all a bit rose-tinted when it comes to musical history, but I’m one of the biggest fans of the 1990s.
My 90s playlist
I’ve been making a 90s playlist for a mate of mine after we were chatting the other night about some classic dance tunes from that decade. It was early 90s dance that really got me into music as a whole, and I still love listening to it now. It brings a massive smile to my face whenever one of these tunes pops up on my ipod. There’s some classics, such as: Snap! - Exterminate The Grid - Swamp Thing K7 - Come Baby Come Gala - Freed From Desire East 17 - It’s Alright Alisha’s Attic - Indestructible It’s just the text playlist, but give me a shout if you want any of these tracks. EDIT: 500 tracks, 2.9GB, 35hrs
