Remembering 1996: January

Given how much we're bombarded with and irritated by adverts these days its strange to believe that songs used to get to number one in the charts simply because they appeared on an advert.

This is what happened in January 1996 with the then current Levi's advert. By this point the concept of the Levi's advert song was a big thing and this time it seemed like they had the best song ever to feature on their adverts.

Then we heard the song in its entirety only to find the 30 seconds worth of intro and outro which appeared on the advert were the only good bits of the song. What came in-between was completely different, the advert gave the impression it was a dance record but it was mostly a rock one. Many people went from praising it to calling it crap. Still those people who kept it at number one for a 5th week must have heard it in full by the time they purchased the record.

It was the moment in the spotlight for dub music with "Little Britain" by Dreadzone and "Release The Pressure". The concept of mixing reggae with dance music was nothing new but this was bringing to the mainstream an alternative to jungle music that used this concept.

Speaking of jungle, I had regularly been listening to a Best Of Jungle compilation and the final track on CD1 was "Retreat" by The Dubster which was very much a reggae influenced jungle track.

In January 1996 I was hearing the name Dubster being mentioned frequently. I wondered whether this tune had gone mainstream or another Dubster record had or if they were even talking about the same person (or group for that matter, I knew nothing about them).

Turned out they were in fact talking about Dubstar whose latest record was "Not So Manic Now". Not jungle at all then but a pleasant chilled out but upbeat record that I likened more to Saint Etienne. Not too similar though, the 2 blokes with a blonde female singer no doubt played its part in that comparison.

The Chemical Brothers released the "Loops Of Fury EP" which was a limited edition with 20,000 copies available which took it to a solitary week in the charts at number 13.

Their music had a crossover appeal between dance fans and rock fans and as such had been a good middle ground to make the transition from rock to dance music.

Another crossover record from Jan 96 was a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" by Goldbug. I was firmly in the dance music camp by Jan 96 so did question whether I should like a Led Zeppelin cover but it's essentially a dance record with sampled guitars and I loved it.

I was mostly listening to the rave music I acquired in 1995 but what we have here in the space of just one month are several examples of dance records that are a bit different and not part of the rave scene and not house music either. That includes 30 seconds worth of "Spaceman".