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Essential Mix

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Essential Mix
Running time2 hours
Country of originUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Language(s)English
Home stationBBC Radio 1
Hosted byPete Tong
Original releaseOctober 30, 1993 –
present
WebsiteEssential Mix

The Essential Mix is a weekly radio show broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and features all styles of electronic dance music. Originally the brainchild of Eddie Gordon, the producer of the show from the very first broadcast in 1993 to 2001. After receiving weekly mix shows from DJs Tony Humphries and Frankie Knuckles on 2 hour cassettes from New York's Hot 97 and KISS 100 respectively in the early 90s Eddie felt that a BBC Radio 1 weekly show with DJs of different styles of music would offer more variety and the chance for the ever burgeoning UK dance music scene to flourish. He further encouraged the DJs he scheduled to flex their musical knowledge muscles by pushing the fact that the DJs were not strictly playing to a dance floor but to people listening in their homes all over the world. Hence the need for a straight out "4 to the floor" mix for 2 hours was not essential. DJ Paul Oakenfold particularly benefited from this direction with the now famous Goa Mix which was not only voted the best Essential Mix ever but also won a Silver Award in the Specialist Music Programme category at the 1997 Sony Radio Awards. The previous year, 1996, the Essential Mix Show picked up the award of Radio Show Of The Year from Muzik Magazine. Later on it was David Holmes who created another 2 legendary hours in the history of the Essential Mix: His set on June 15th 1997 – a surprising journey from Nancy Wilson to Jimi Hendrix – redefined the DJ as a collector of musical history.

The show has been hosted since its conception in 1993 by DJ Pete Tong who was also the first performer, broadcast on 30 October 1993. Every Friday late night/Saturday morning a two hour programme is broadcast, usually between the hours of 3am and 5am UK-time (the programme was previously broadcast between Saturday late night/Sunday morning 1am and 3am, and before that, between 2am and 4am and originally midnight and 2am). The standard format of the show is an uninterrupted guest mix of two hours provided by an invited DJ, group or producer, introduced by Tong. The mix is usually studio recorded in advance. Another Eddie Gordon initiative was to take the show on the road with live broadcasts from clubs or festivals, particularly during the Summer months (Northern Hemisphere) and at the New Year's Eve end of the calendar months. The live broadcasts started from within the UK and soon broadened out as live from Ibiza, North America, Australia, South Africa, Germany, Hawaii and other destinations in Europe including Rome in Italy. The BBC Radio 1 - One World Millennium celebration starting with DJ Carl Cox from Bondi Beach in Sydney Australia (more Eddie Gordon origination) before heading to Cape Town South Africa with DJ Danny Rampling prior to broadcasting DJ Dave Pearce from Glasgow, Scotland, DJ Pete Tong from Liverpool, UK then DJ Junior Vasquez from New York, USA before closing with DJ Carl Cox who had flown backwards across the dateline to complete a DJ World first with two Millennium gigs by broadcasting from Honolulu, Hawaii.

The forerunner to this mammoth New Year's Eve Essential Mix was the three cities broadcast on the New Year's Eve of 1997 into 1998 with simultaneous broadcasts from three clubs directly to each dance floor with DJ Pete Tong at the Ministry Of Sound, London, UK, DJ Todd Terry at the Nynex Arena in Manchester, UK and finishing with DJ Eddie Baez at the Tunnel venue in Manhattan, New York, USA.

The broadcasts from Ibiza have taken place every summer since the first Essential Mix live broadcast from Amnesia. The first ever Essential Mix from Ibiza came in the summer of 1995 Ibiza as a pre-recorded broadcast of Nicky Holloway playing live at Ku on 2 July 1995.

Overview

The Essential Mix quickly established a strong reputation within the dance music community and has gained prestige both in the UK and internationally. Although Eddie Gordon originally had his work cut out attracting big names to the program due to their busy DJ schedules but armed with determination and a broad knowledge of the big name DJ's dance music styles plus the hugely successful live Essential Mix the list of performers now essentially reads as a "who's who of dance music". The shows success can perhaps be partly attributed to Radio 1's unique ability to offer DJs the chance to play a relatively long set on radio uninterrupted by advertisements, something which cannot be matched by the BBC's commercial rivals (the BBC is funded through TV Licensing). The absence of any kind of interruption in music has led to the show being touted as a "two hour musical journey" rather than as simply an assortment of records. The show has been used as a platform for artists to showcase their talents, and for some is seen as a major boost to their careers.

Significance

Like all of Radio 1's dance music output, the Essential Mix is seen as significant in its contribution to the popularization of dance music in the UK. The programme has chartered the development of the dance music genre from 1993 to the present day and shows no sign of losing its influence.

New Technologies

The advent of the internet brought the programme to an international audience for the first time (the Radio 1 website launched in 1996). In 2002 the BBC launched their 'listen again' online radio service and the Essential Mix (along with the Essential Selection) became consistently the most popular specialist music show of the whole BBC Radio network amongst internet users. According to BBC server logs, the show receives around 50,000 online requests per week (though this can be much higher, with the 2003 Ibiza show attracting 96,682 requests), which compares to the shows 'live' audience of 80,000. Whilst demand for a podcast of the show is high, the BBC has resisted in making the show available in this way due to copyright issues. The development of peer-to-peer internet technologies spawned a new trend in which fans of the show made recordings of mixes available to users of services such as BitTorrent and eMule. Although technically illegal, as of yet the BBC has not taken any action against such activity.

Essential Mix of the Year

At the end of each year, a shortlist of the most popular Essential Mixes from that year is drawn up by the BBC. Listeners are invited to vote for their favourite shortlisted mix in a poll on the Essential Mix web site around two weeks before the final show of the year. The mix with the majority of the votes is given the title of "Essential Mix of the Year" and is replayed in the final show of the year. The exception for the proper nomination of the essential mix of the year award was in 2007 - when voting and competitions were suspended on Radio 1 until further notice. So for that year, the essential mix of the year (High Contrast) was chosen by Pete Tong and the Radio 1 Essential mix team.

See also

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