The use of house production styles to make traditional pop artists more acceptable on the dancefloor results in the pop house phenomenon. 1988 Jellybean houses Whitney Houston's "Love Will Save The Day" into a pop hit, while C&C do Natalie Cole's "Pink Cadillac", two early examples of house's pop potential. * Andrew Komis puts Canada on the house map with Big Shot Records' megahit, "Come Get My Lovin'" by Dionne. 1989 Direct from Belgium, Thomas de Quincy and Felly invade the world as Technotronic with "Pump Up The Jam". * Madonna's heavily housed hit, "Vogue", further displays the mainstream crossover potential of the sound. 1990 The floodgates are open as house mixes become more and more standard on pop releases. Snap, D-Mob, Lisa Stansfield and Betty Boo all rack up big hits, while even more underground tracks like Deskee's "Let There Be House" and the Mixmasters' "Grand Piano" score big. 1991 Crystal Water's "Gypsy Woman" and CeCe Peniston's "Finally" mark the ultimate acceptance of house by the general public. The gates seem wide open. 1992 With great vocals, well-written songs and excellent hooks, Clubland and their self-titled LP define the perfect pop house group. 1993 Commercial house comes in all flavors. Hits keep getting cranked out by groups like 2 Unlimited, Bizarre Inc., Snap, Sound Factory, Felix, Lulu, Clubland...the list seems endless. Ironically, more and more quality underground acts disappear from view. * Robin S' "Show Me Love" becomes the crossover hit of the year. * The compilation album finds popularity across the board, as labels package 12" material for mass consumption. These collections are a compromise: they bring the music to a wider consumer audience, but they do little to build individual artist careers. 1994 More then ever, house music has entered territory where its never been heard before. Who'd have thought that the likes of Reel II Real would have reached the heights that they did? Even tribal-y records like Deep Forest cross over. Meanwhile, the invasion of Euro-pop groups like Culture Beat, Rozalla, Captain Hollywood et al continues to dominate dancefloors. |