trends

I started listening to music in 1990, and remember a time when 2 Unlimited where classified as techno, and Dr. Alban was cool. Which wasn't so far from the truth, but Dr. Alban never really made any impact. 2 Unlimited, however, were part of the making of a trend that still exists and influences dance. I'm talking about the girl-sings-boy-raps trend.

girl-sings-boy-raps also started out as white-girl-sings-black-boy-raps, because only black people could rap. As dance artists came to realise that they weren't really rapping, they eased up a bit and let white boys rap as well. Still, the combination black-girl-sings-white-boy-raps is very rare.

You don't always have to have someone rap on your dance albums -- several pieces of evidence indicate that a bustful-girl-singing will do the trick. This is the next trend I'd like to talk about. The first case of bustful-girl-singing I can think of is Swedish Pandora. You might not have heard of her, which doesn't really come as a surprise. She surfaced with a hit ('Trust me') in 1993, and I never saw her in any dance collections again. The bustful-girl-singing is still very popular. A bright and shining example of that is Sweden's La Cream -- very bustful, and people doubt it's really her doing the singing -- the perfect bustful-girl-singing.

making a difference

The producers of 2 Unlimited made a large, continous difference with their albums, but there are two other dance artists/bands that I think made a huge difference in their time -- Dutch 2 Brothers on the 4th Floor and Swiss DJ BoBo.

2 Brothers on the 4th Floor set a standard for dance artists with 'Dreams (will come alive)'. It has everything -- cool beat, nice electronic effects, girl-singing (to my knowledge, she isn't bustful), and white-boys-rapping. The album '2' was a great follow-up to 'Dreams', and further enhanced the use of eletronic effects combined with the female vocal. Today's dance artists mostly follow the trend that was started with 'Dreams'.

DJ BoBo was on the same track. His number one hit from 1993, 'Somebody dance with me', along with 'Keep on dancing', and 'Take control', used many of the elements found in 'Dreams'. He also managed to write softer dance without getting moushy, a skill few dance artists master.

Ace of Base are the unsurpassed rulers of early 1990's dance. 'Happy Nation' was the most selling album in the world after its release, helped by the re-mixed 'US version' featuring some new, popular tracks. Their next album, 'the bridge', saw Ace of Base matured in a way that ruined their dance appeal. The album features some very nice songs, but the magic of Ace of Base as a dance group faded. Still, they share credit with 2 Unlimited and other similar groups for having brought people's attention.