Top 20 Classic Dance Tracks From Insomniac’s Pasquale Rotella

Pasquale Rotella has been at the forefront of dance music culture since the ’90s. He got his start throwing underground parties here in Los Angeles and has built an empire with his company Insomniac. That troupe puts on Electric Daisy Carnival, Nocturnal Wonderland and dozens of other festivals and events (including Dreamstate, a trance fest they are launching this weekend in L.A.).

Metropolis host Jason Bentley invited him to our studio to talk about the songs that started it all: classics that made him fall in love with dance music a decade before the term EDM even existed.

Pasquale talked about discovering this new genre through tracks like “Voodoo Ray” by A Guy Called Gerald, originally released in 1988.

Hearing two electronic experts discuss these songs is quite a treat and a great primer if you aren’t familiar with the roots of EDM.

View his list of the Top 20 Songs that impacted dance music below and stream via Spotify.

Pasquale Rotella’s Top 20 Songs

Stardust – “Music Sounds Better With You”

Daft Punk – “One More Time”

A Guy Called Gerald – “Voodoo Ray”

Jay Dee – “Plastic Dreams”

Future Sounds Of London – “Papa New Guinea”

Joey Beltram – “Energy Flash”

Robin S – “Show Me Love”

Café Del Mar – “Energy 42”

Crystal Waters – “Gypsy Woman”

The Orb – “Fluffy Little Clouds”

Deee Lite – “Groove Is In The Heart”

Justice – “D.A.N.C.E.”

Armand Van Helden – “U Don’t Know Me”

Black Box – “Everybody Everybody” (1990)

The Prodigy – “Charly” (1991)

Inner City – “Good Life”

The Bucketheads – “The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind)” (1995)

Outlander – “Vamp”

Second Phase – “Mentasm” (Rns Records)

Manix – “Feel Real Good”

Moby – “Go”

Jam & Spoon – “Stella”

Lfo – “Lfo”