On the walk back home from canvassing today my mp3 player shuffled up a few 90s tracks including a long Orb album track and Ebeneezer Goode by the Shamen.  These are not things I often choose to listen to, but I don’t know why because i really enjoyed hearing them again.

We all know what the 80s is supposed to be (new romantics and synth bands) and the 70’s (punk/disco/prog) and the 60s (Beatles, flower power, Motown) but I don’t really think about the 90s. Listening to those tracks I realised that it really was a great time for dance music. Or maybe it was a great time for dance music for people who normally listen to rock music?

Apart from the Orb and the Shamen there was Deee-Lite, Stereo MCs, the Chemical Brothers, Propellorheads and all the rest of the ‘big beat’ bands. There was a lot of good reggae – I think 1993 was a classic year for reggae. We had Betty Boo, Apache Indian, Deep Forest and Afro Celt Sound System. It may be true that the 90s is when I got into African music in a big way with Angelique Kidjo and Baaba Maal, and French music. It was also when I got into Faith No More, Metallica, Megadeth, RATM, Crowded House, and other rock acts, and when the whole Brit Pop thing came along but, looking back, I listened to a lot of dance music then.

I have decided that, henceforth, I shall think of the 90s as the dance decade, despite all the other things going on.