Culture
This Video Will Take You Back To Ibiza's Insane '90s Club Scene
Massive.
No word expresses dance music’s hedonism, escapism and excess like Ibiza. By the early ’90s, the small Balaeric island had become a central destination for acid house and rave’s explosion; swapping its origins in sweaty basements and warehouses for the white sands of the Mediterranean.
By the end of the millennium, Ibiza had become the glamorous, sun-kissed face of electronic music’s staggering commercial popularity. It was no surprise then, that some of the titans of the music industry like MTV began to take serious interest in the small rocky outcrop. In the summer of ’99, the music television channel shed its grunge and alt-rock skin and threw a massive party in an outdoor rock quarry on the island.
MTV booked acts that now read as a who’s who of ’90s electronic music royalty. UK duo Orbital was joined by Paul Oakenfold, trance group Faithless in full live-band mode, the Jungle Brothers and Chicane. The all-night party was then turned into a one-hour television special featuring live footage and interviews with all the artists. It’s an entertaining look back at a fascinating moment in dance music: the moment when electronic music started to shift into wider musical consciousness, and institutions as large as MTV began to take notice. Watch it below.
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