Most novelty dance hits remain just that, a pure novelty that burns bright for a second and then fades into derision and hatred. Looking back at tracks like Rednex’s Cotton Eye Joe, or anything the Venga Boys did and you will feel faintly ridiculous about the whole thing. Scatman John transcended that, while most definitely a novelty track, Scatman turned out to be more like a fine wine that got better with age. The video is stylish, fun, and not terribly dated. The song is extremely catchy, unique, and has just that right combination of weird/catchy that a whole room of people will rise to excitement if its played, regardless of venue. The song is fucking beloved amongst fans of the genre. His popularity was so great in Japan that even Japanese legendary superhero Ultraman parodied Scatman while wearing Scatman John’s signature hat.

- Luke

Sometimes artists don’t crete music videos, they create spectacles of a magnitude that other artists in their genre cannot hope to match. The KLF (AKA: The Timelords, AKA: The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu) was this band for most of the 90s. Their videos were the dance music equivalent of arena rock shows. Huge productions, with elaborate sets and models, a seemingly infinite roster of backup members and musicians, a strange post apocalyptic religious revelations vide running throughout. They were also notorious for their almost dadaist live performances and art statements. They are reputed as having fired a machine gun at a live audience, dumping a dead sheep into an after show party, and unexplainably burning 1 Million British pounds in an act that baffles to this day.

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Damn catchy! Rozalla’s biggest hit was released in 1991, and has been a huge hit multiple times over with a variety of remixes and re-releaes stretching out in the 2000s. There are so many different versions of this video available that it was a little hard to pick. So I’m going to give you two different flavors of Rozalla. The first, above, is the original video, its your standard 90s semi live performance with bad clothes and worse hair. Looking back, you sort of have to feel faintly ridiculous for her over what she’s wearing, no matter how good the song is. The second version, below, is a 2002 Remix with Aquagen, which in my opinion is easily the best version of the song that exists, and the one the Rozalla looks best in, she somehow comes off as younger than she did in the original.

- Luke

I was blessed, as a pop starved teenager growing up in the 90s, to receive several copies of the Dance Mix USA series of compilations from well meaning but misguided relatives. The end result of receiving these caused me to grow into a twitchy and strange grownup with an unhealthy fascination with all the dance music of this era, as well as a nearly violent need to dance any time I hear Scatman John. One staple you may remember from the terrible late night television ads shilling the series was this video by Amber. Let’s just jump right to the chase with a rundown of exactly how many 90s cliches they jammed into one video with a running time of 3:43.

Words projected on dancers – check
Muscular man dancing in a localized rain storm – check
Bubbles – check
Terrible 90s pantsuit – check
Choreographed group dance scene with all dancers noticeably out of step – check
Pajamas in bed scene – check
Film Noir Inspired mirror scene – check
Terrible prints on clothing – check
Midriffs – check
more midriffs – check

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