1994

I remember it being an identity-crisis kind of year, musically--not for me personally but because the post-Nirvana alt-rock glut had cleaved a space between indie and mainstream-alt, and I f'in' HATED a lot of what got popular that year (Collective Soul, for one; NIN for another). Hip-hop lost me because I distrusted the "keepin' it real" aspect of it; it seemed more austere and less fun than it had been the previous few years. And dance music seemed less juicy, less fun, moving toward arena-techno and stadium house instead of the goofier, more fun stuff I'd been into. Then I went to First Avenue on the last Sunday of the year for their "best of 2004" night and was blown away by how much of the music was really good. I still prefer '91, '93, and '95, but yeah, great year.

"best. fucking. year. ever."

couldn't have put it any better.

Also 1994 was the first time I heard Scooter...

pre-1994: Italo House, Kiddie Rave, Stadium Techno, Ragga Jungle
post-1994: Big Beat, D'n'B, Trance, Trip Hop

actually I think it was when it started getting serious that I went off dance music completely for a few years.

May '93 to May '94 was my year off from dance music. I spent most of it listening to Pearl Jam, STP< Soundgarden and Senser. It didn't take much to get me into Jungle from Autumn '94 onwards but it wasn't until the following Summer that I started to like House and heard stuff like 'Acperience' and 'Higher State Of Consciousness' and even 'Strings Of Life' for the first time (shockah)

Wasn’t 94 also the start of the rise of handbag/glam house, the superstar dj and the return of dresscode elitism?

I don't really remember Detroit Techno making that big of a commercial impact - it stayed underground. I guess Big Beat was a bit silly but it was featured in Q and Select and other supposedly "proper" music mags whereas Black Box wasn't. I'm just saying that suddenly dance was recognised as "proper" music as opposed to throwaway rubbish that was beneath song-based pop and rock.

I think two meanings of 'serious' are getting mixed up a bit here though. I would dispute that idea that dance music was not taken seriously by the music press until 1994.

This was manifested with Melody Maker putting Underworld on the front cover and introducing an expanded dance section in early 1994. They had a big issue on electronic/ dance music.

Indeeed this proved so successful that a year later in Spring 1995, Muzik magazine was launched by IPC Media.

[In 1993, Melody Maker's dance music coverage was limited - and they were relatively slow on the uptaking of Brit Progressive House Scene which can be traced back to early Summer 1992 and Mixmag]

95% percent of my purchases from 1994 were from 1994 because there was so much good stuff coming out, whereas in the previous years i was buying a lot of old hardcore, metal and rap i'd previously missed out on.

Favorites from 1994 :

Alloy-paper thin front.ep.

Born Against/Man Is Teh Bastard-split 8".

Kyuss-welcome to sky valley.lp.

Lady Of Rage-afro puffs.12".

Nas-illmatic.lp.

O.C-word..life.lp.

Drive Like Jehu-yank crime.lp.

Indian Summer-7".

Swing Kids-7".

Universal Order Of Armageddon-12".

Universal Order Of Armageddon- lp on Kill Rock Stars.

Craig Mack etc-flava in ya remix.12".

Craig Mack-get down.12".

Notorious BIG-ready to die.lp.

Unwound-m.k ultra/totality.7".

Unwound-new plastic ideas.lp.

Unwound- 7" on Troubleman Records.

Beatnuts-street level.lp.

Gang Starr-hard to earn.lp.

Organized Konfusion-stress..lp.

Method Man-tical.lp.

Gravediggaz-6 feet deep.lp.

Soundgarden-superunknown.lp.

Outkast-southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.lp.

Notorious BIG-ready to die.lp.

I forget this stuff all came out in 1994. I didn't really start hearing Bad Boy stuff until 1997 or so.

That Bone Thugs and Harmony ep that i forget the name of that came out in 1994 was also great. "Foe da love of money" with that ridiculous Eazy E verse was a personal favorite.

That year seemed especially exciting and full of promise. Rockers were listening to techno and the fresh wave of dub reissues. Experimentation was catching on, metal, dub, hip-hop and global ethnic music were all bed swapping. Based on just one single I felt like Tricky would be the start of a new breed of pop stars. This was before he and Goldie were tussling in a love triangle over Björk, already dissolving from public consciousness, other than as great names for pocket puppies.

Even stodgy The Wire magazine seemed to have a bit more whimsical spring in its step that year.

Stuck in traffic on 35W going toward Edina to work in a Wal-Mart portrait studio - "All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow

Getting in high in some dudes' two-story apartment, playing that race car game on Nintendo, Leineys staying cold on the stoop outside - "Black No. 1" by Type O Negative

Buying gas at that store with the big fiberglass trout, off 35 a few miles above Albert Lea, on my way back for a weekend visit to Mizzou - "Mannequin Shop" by Paul Westerberg

Pulling up into the parking lot of Perkins off Riverside - "Seether" by Veruca Salt

Driving back home from the Depot after eight miserable hours of scanning vodka and Pig's Eye - "Interstate Love Song" by Stone Temple Pilots

Hanging out in Macalester lesbians' apartment, deciding if I want to adopt their cat - "Leaving Las Vegas" by Sheryl Crow

I remember thinking at the time that 94 was a great year for music. Some albums I loved (and still enjoy to varied degrees) were The Downward Spiral, Music For the Jilted Generation, Senser's Stacked Up and Troublegum. It was the year I turned 16.

My 1994 in singles, alphabetically:

alex party - saturday night party (read my lips)
artemisia - bits & pieces
atlantic ocean - waterfall
beck - loser
blue bamboo - a b c & d
blur - end of a century / girls & boys
bruce springsteen - streets of philadelphia
carleen anderson - nervous breakdown
counting crows - mr. jones
crystal waters - 100% pure love / ghetto day
dj shadow - lost and found
doop - doop
elastica - connection
elevator - shinny
elvis costello - sulky girl
fruit - the queen of old compton street
the grid - swamp thing
hed boys - girls and boys
jah wobble's invaders of the heart - the sun does rise
jx - son of a gun
kristine w - feel what you want
kristin hersh - your ghost
kylie minogue - confide in me
leena conquest - boundaries
loveland - let the music lift you up
mary j. blige - be happy
m beat/general levy - incredible
michelle gayle - sweetness
morrissey - the more you ignore me, the closer i get / hold onto your friends
motiv 8 - rockin' for myself
moving melodies (ethics) - la luna (to the beat of the drum)
m people - renaissance
mr. roy - something about you
neil young - philadelphia
nush - u girls
oasis - whatever / live forever / supersonic
omar - outside
the o.t. quartet - hold that sucker down
paul weller - hung up
pizzaman - trippin' on sunshine
portishead - sour times / numb
the pretenders - i'll stand by you / 977 / night in my veins
primal scream - rocks
prince - the most beautiful girl in the world
the prodigy - no good (start the dance)
r.e.m. - what's the frequency, kenneth
r.kelly - she's got that vibe
sister bliss - life's a bitch (can't get a man, can't get a job)
sonic youth - superstar
suede - stay together / we are the pigs / the wild ones
t-empo - saturday night sunday morning
tindersticks - kathleen
transglobal underground - taal zaman / protean
tricky - aftermath
warren g/nate dogg - regulate
whigfield - saturday night
youssou n'dour/neneh cherry - 7 seconds

I forgot Dummy came out in 94! One of my favourite albums to this day.