In my opinion, I have chosen the 5 best techno songs from 1995 to 1999. I enjoy a wide variety of electronic music, so some of these selections could be better classified as Rave, Electronic Dance, Trance, Eurodance, Electronica or maybe even House. The genres are getting too specific anyway, and there are too many different classifications. So if the song was at least partially synthetic and had a good enough beat to dance to, then it was on my list. Techno songs usually have several different mixes of the same song, so if there is a specific version that I like, it will be noted after the song title.

Here are my top 5 picks, in chronological order …

1. Children (Eat Me Edit) by Robert Miles, 1995

I chose this specific mix because it contains the famous piano riff, which was ironically not in the original version of this song. One of the reasons this song was written was to have something quieter to listen to at the end of a dance to help reduce the number of car accidents. No matter what the reason for its creation was, it is a wonderful song.

2. Insomnia by Faithless, 1995

I was introduced to this song recently so I didn’t know anything about it when it first came out. This song was made by a British dance group and was released as their second single. Of course, it became one of the most popular. It is the best song to play late at night when you can’t sleep.

3. Travel Like Me with the Crystal Method, 1997

I will be honest; The main reason I like this song is because it uses lines from the movie The Dark Crystal. It has always been one of my favorite movies and possibly Jim Henson’s best work. Oh, and I almost forgot, the song is good too.

4. Believe de Cher, 1998

This song was the first to use vocal pitch correction software called Auto-Tune. Since then many bands, especially in dance music, have taken advantage of this effect. I’ve used it myself and it’s a lot of fun. Now, I wouldn’t consider Cher a Techno artist, but this is still a fun dance tune with great effects.

5. Blue (Da Ba Dee) from Eiffel 65, 1999

A lot of people misunderstood the lyrics when this song came out, some of them are quite funny, but they were actually nonsensical lyrics. The music video includes CGI animation of blue aliens and live band members fighting them. I would recommend watching it with subtitles. It’s a great song that’s fun to sing along with your own lyrics.

Some others I considered for the list were: Around the World from Daft Punk 1996, Barbie Girl from Aqua 1997 and Ray of Light from Madonna 1998.

Whether you agree with my choices or not, there is no question that techno music is one of the most influential genres out there, and a dance is not a dance without it.