The Greatest Eurodance Songs of All Time According To Laut.de
Eurodance is a genre that in its essence is a crossover between the techno music of the rave culture, pop rap (which was the first impression a wider European audience had of hip hop), and catchy choruses of pop music - depending on the song and artist either of these elements were more or less present. While in the USA several forms of alternative rock took over the charts, eurodance is synonymous with the 90s in Europe (and some individual Asian countries), the first major successes having been in the very late 80s, the last ones in the early-to-mid 2000s. Throughout almost the entire decade, eurodance was a crucial part of Europe’s pop culture and many hits were inevitable and turned to classics. While in more recent years, grunge and hip hop albums also achieved the cult status they have in the USA, buying a best of 90s compilation in some European countries means a majority of the songs on the tracklist are eurodance. Despite this often chart topping success in a variety of countries, very few eurodance songs became noticed in America, and those that did are often from a more comical, cartoonish subgenre of it called bubblegum dance.Now, in 2018 the popular German online music magazine laut.de decided to honor the genre by picking the 30 greatest eurodance songs of all time. To my surprise, this may become my favorite list by them. Those who know laut.de also know that eurodance is pretty far off their comfort zone, and that they can be pretty respectless towards (mostly pop) music they don’t understand. But on here, they stayed fully neutral and picked a fine selection of mostly classic tunes and a few forgotten pearls, and wrote some really decent texts to go with the items. On a few of them it sparked through that they themselves aren’t into the respective songs as much, but they still acknowledged their meaning within the genre (as for number 7, they stated that they don’t regard this band and song as eurodance themselves, but that since they are generally associated with the genre such a list would be incomplete without their inclusion). The list could have as well been compiled by a genre fan. Interestingly, both “serious” eurodance songs and bubblegum dance tracks made the list. To me, the biggest surprise is that the top spot actually went to the genre’s most beloved hit song, as laut.de usually likes to pick fairly unknown songs as their number ones on such lists, leaving people a bit puzzled. But this list is actually what I expect a music critic website’s list to look like.
Here's the full list:
30. Captain Jack - Captain Jack
29. Captain Hollywood Project - More and More
28. Mr. President - Coco Jambo
27. Double You - Please Don’t Go
26. Blümchen - Boomerang
25. Vengaboys - We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)
24. Marky Mark & Prince Ital Joe - United
23. Black Box - Ride on Time
22. Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe
21. Reel 2 Real - I Like To Move It
20. Rozalla - Everybody’s Free
19. Capella - U Got 2 Let the Music
18. Urban Cookie Collective - The Key, The Secret
17. Whigfield - Saturday Night
16. DJ Bobo - Everybody
15. Scatman John - Scatman
14. Mo-Do - Eins Zwei Polizei
13. Aqua - Barbie Girl
12. Falco - Mutter, der Mann mit dem Koks ist da
11. Scooter - How Much is the Fish?
10. La Bouche - Be My Lover
9. Technotronic - Pump Up the Jam
8. Culture Beat - Mr. Vain
7. Ace of Base - All That She Wants
6. Haddaway - What is Love
5. Leila K. - Open Sesame
4. Army of Lovers - Crucified
3. Dr. Alban - Sing Hallelujah!
2. Snap! - Rhythm is a Dancer
1. 2 Unlimited - No Limit
Oh, and for the younger ones, number 24 is actually Mark Wahlberg before he became a popular actor. And yes, at number 12 the legendary Falco actually briefly tried out eurodance, and it's a great song.
Source: https://www.laut.de/News/Baby-dont-hurt-me-Die-besten-Eurodance-Tracks-24-08-2018-15043, Created on 8/24/2018
The Top Ten
1 No Limit - 2 Unlimited
2 Rhythm Is a Dancer - Snap!
3 Sing Hallelujah! - Dr. Alban
4 Crucified - Army of Lovers
5 Open Sesame - Leila K
6 What is Love - Haddaway
7 All That She Wants - Ace of Base
8 Mr. Vain - Culture Beat
9 Pump Up the Jam - Technotronic
10 Be My Lover - La Bouche