In 2002, a new genre was born. Incorporating elements from the earlier Hard Trance & Dancecore, taking vocals and catchy tunes from Eurodance & Happy Hardcore, this unique blend of dance music took Europe by storm in the early 2000s.
Hands Up, which has seen better days, now celebrates its 20th birthday as its own genre, diverting itself away from the „Commercial Trance” or „Club Trance” sound from which Hands Up music slowly but surely morphed into something different.
20 years ago, summer dance hits were among the hottest phenomena. From Ibiza parties and packed club nights to free open air festivals like Loveparade, Street Parade and Budapest Parade, dance music was everywhere. Mainstream radio stations played hands up singles at day and DJ shows at night. This kind of idillistic setup lasted until about 2006, when Hands Up was kicked out of the mainstream and had to move back underground.
The irony of fate is that – despite all the success it enjoyed in Europe – Hands Up music never really took root on the other side of the ocean, not even by every burnt out Hands Up artist putting out cover songs of American R&B hits or incorporating hip-hop vocals into their songs in the latter half of 2000s. For comparison, Hardstyle, which took the Hands Up formula (hard kicks & drums, simple and catchy melodies, emotional or feel good vocals) to the extreme succeeded after a few attempts, as every major american music festival seems to host at least one hardstyle stage on its grounds.
Hands Up enjoys a special place in my heart, and it remains my all-time favourite music genre even after 20 years filled with ups and downs and some love-hate relationship with its producer scene that seems incapable of achieving the same success and showing the same enthusiasm as Hardstyle producers constantly do with their music & events.
Below is the list of some big summer dance hits from about 20 years ago. All the clips & songs have a summer theme which represents a long forgotten era of people enjoying life & each other’s company – without any pre-determined and cemented expectation. As we see history, the era of 2000-2006 may be the final years where this kind of warm & lovely environment was possible.
Early Hands Up songs still carry the commercial trance vibe this genre was born from, and the list also contains a few pieces which may be better categorized as Hard Trance / Acid Trance, but the distinction of genres wasn’t yet emphasized as much as in the later years.
Now let’s ride on the train of nostalgia!
