Hard as it may be to believe, there was once a musical landscape that wasn’t dominated by dance music. Even though the heady days of 1988 and the Summer of Love had firmly planted house music roots deep into the subconscious of the club-going nation, it still appeared to be considered a niche thing by a lot of the major labels – at least in terms of imprints dedicated to this funny, four-to-the-floor, bleeping music coming out of the clubs of Chicago, Detroit and New York.

Yeah, there were cross-over hits, quite a few in fact – some even pre-dating ’88 – Farley Jackmaster Funk had a top ten hit in 1986 with “Love Can’t Turn Around”, and Joe Smooth, Frankie Knuckles and Inner City all made a mark on the charts around that time. But it wasn’t until 1993 that a credible dance-music focussed imprint was set-up by one of the majors – and the name of that pioneering label? Well, that would have to be EMI’s now legendary Positiva, which, over the years been home to acts as massive as David Guetta, Axwell, Deep Dish, Paul van Dyk, Ferry Corsten and Reel To Real.

Prior to this, house and dance music was predominantly put out by smaller, independent labels, tending to a public that was hungry for this new electronic sound. EMI had some flirtations with it, mainly through the Syncopate label, putting out tracks by artists of the ilk of Kym Mazelle and Ruthless Rap Assassins, but it was with Positiva they really struck gold, both in terms of quality and quantity of electronic music.

It happened in 1993, when EMI realised this burgeoning dance scene in the UK was maturing, was here to stay and was inspiring a generation of kids to make some of the most forward thinking and exciting tunes to soundtrack a scene that was to prove more important and influential than anything since punk. After seeing the success he was having at XL with bands like The Prodigy, Nick Halkes was approached by EMI to set up their own dance imprint – Positiva – and a legendary label was born.

It wasn’t long before success arrived on a large scale – in February 1994, a relatively unknown DJ (at least outside of New York) called Erick Morillo produced a record under the guise of Reel To Real. The record was called “I Like To Move It” – you may have heard of it. A testament to the all-encompassing power of house music is that this song is now as famous for being a club classic as it is for being covered by Sacha Baron Cohen in the animated smash hit movie Madagascar. Rather a good starting point for the label (it was the 10^th release) , and an example how what was once considered a niche sound is now as ubiquitous as the house remixes that now accompany every pop record that is released. And the fact that it shifted 1.5 million units worldwide on its way to number 5 in the UK singles chart was an indication of how popular dance music had become.

A scan through the release schedule of those early years reads like the track listing of a hypothetical “Best House Music of the 1990s” compilation. Following hot on the heels of Reel To Real, there was a slew of hit records that wore the white cross of the Positva logo on their sleeves with pride. Barely a month after “I Like To Move It”, Barbara Tucker’s seminal Beautiful People hit the top 30, and further chart success came with Reel To Real’s follow up singles. 1995 saw the immense Bucketheads’ track “The Bomb” pouring sounds into the minds of thousands of dancefloor denizens, and the next year, a departure from the house sound came with the release of one of the first trance classics: “Seven Days and One Week” by BBE. Trance was to find a good home at Positiva towards the end of the millennium, with PVD, Ferry Corsten, Brainbug, Fragma and Binary Finary all scoring big for the label. The lasers never seemed so reachable – when trance was big, Positiva was there championing it and bringing us some of the undisputed giants of the genre. And aside from trance, D’n’B was given a look-in with the release in 1997 of Adam F’s album “Colours”, which, if you ask any drum and bass fan, is up there with Goldie’s “Timeless” and Roni Size’s “New Forms” as part of the holy trinity of that genre.

Towards the turn of the Millennium, it wasn’t just the underground sound that we were treated to – big pop/dance crossover hits from the Vengaboys, Alice Deejay and Lasgo was also born from the Positiva stable, proving to be a refreshing change from the too-cool-for-school and somewhat pretentious attitude that was prevalent with a lot of dance music heads. If it sells well, and these records certainly did, it means that a lot of people like it. And what is the point of making music if it isn’t to bring aural pleasure to the masses? Exactly.

But the greatest pleasure of all was to come in the summer of 2000 – the press had had a few years since the great Oasis v Blur battle of “Roll With It” and “Country House”, and it was Positiva that gave them their next great heavyweight bout for number one. Fresh from the Spice Girls, Victoria Beckham had teamed up with Dane Bowers and True Steppers to create the heavily vocodered garage track “Out Of My Mind”, and was seen dragging poor old Dave to Woolworths’ all over the north-west to help promote it. What could have spurred such a powerful marketing ploy? Well, it was a then-little known collaboration from Positiva between Spiller and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, entitled “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)”. The lines were drawn and the battle commenced. The result? Well, would you say I was out of my mind if I told you that the winner went on to be the most played track of the decade on UK radio, and the loser….well, that Spice Girls reunion was only seven years away. And a tidy footnote to the success of Spiller and Sophie’s tune is that around this time Apple were testing a new gadget called an iPod (whatever happened to those?) – and the first tune ever played on this game-changing white box? “Groovejet”. If that ain’t love, then why did it feel so good?

Since the start of the noughties, Positiva has further cemented its place at the head of the major label dance table, consistently putting out tunes that rocked dancefloors before rocking the charts – top ten hits in the first half of the decade were provided by Fragma, The Ones, Lasgo and Moony, before the appearance of arguably the most popular party tune of summer 2002 – Shy FX and T Power’s stomping D’n’B classic “Shake Ur Body”. It was the perfect accompaniment to all those early morning World Cup shindigs – if only England’s performance against Brazil that year had been as lively.

Another number one came along in March 2003 in the form of Room 5’s “Make Luv” – helped along the way by a memorable Lynx TV advert – which sampled a classic Oliver Cheatham vocal and gave it a funked up and up to date groove. Positiva’s habit of providing the soundtrack to an amazing summer continued the next year, when in July ’04, The Shapeshifters pinched the opening lick to Johnie Taylor’s “What About My Love” and spun it into what we now know as “Lola’s Theme”. The word “anthem” is much overused, but this string-laden dancefloor packer is one instance where that tag is spot on. Not wanting to rest upon its laurels, the fanfare of “Lola’s Theme” had barely left our consciousness before we were delivered another massive slice of house in the form of Deep Dish’s incredibly different and incredibly catchy “Flashdance”. The tune of Ibiza and Miami in the first half of 2004, it reached number 3 in the autumn, and gave rise to one of the classiest, cleverest and coolest mash-ups ever conceived when it was spliced with Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing and turned into a monster. Guitars and house music never sounded so good.

Summer 2006 saw the resurgence of one of the most popular house tunes ever created, with the release of Cicada’s New Voyager remix of The Source feat. Candi Staton’s seminal “You Got The Love”, reintroducing a classic to a new generation of ravers, and scoring a berth in the top ten for the third time. And it’s a testament to the quality of this version that it is now the most requested take on that track to be played on radio.

It was also in 2006 that the first rumblings of a future Positiva collaboration with EMI stablemates Virgin appeared, when a Swedish producer by the name of Axwell took the sweet vocals of Steve Edwards and came up with “Watch The Sunrise”. A cracking tune, but it was Axwell’s next hit, in the summer of ’07, “I Found U” that truly alerted the masses to a man who would go on to be part of one of the most successful cabals ever to conquer the dance music universe. But more of that later….

Hot on the heels of Axwell was the signing of a gentleman who had long been a face on the house scene of France, famed for putting on legendary nights with his wife Cathy in Paris – a man called David Guetta. Already signed to Positiva’s parent label EMI in France, Positiva joined forces with David towards the end of his “Pop Life” campaign in 2008, putting out the singles “Tomorrow Can Wait” and “Everytime We Touch” – if you were in a club in late ’08 or the first half of ’09 – you danced to it. Guaranteed. But it was David’s track with Kelly Rowland in the summer of ’09, “When Love Takes Over” that launched the Guetta machine into a stellar orbit, providing him with that year’s first number one. He followed this with another chart topper, “Sexy Bitch”, this time with Akon, and another, with Fergie and LMFAO, “Getting Over You”. Talk about a Midas touch. The parent album, “One Love”, went on to sell over 350,000 copies in the UK alone. Prior to this, dance music was seen by some to be struggling in the mainstream, but David was at the head of a movement that would breathe life back into the relationship between cracking house tunes and the charts, revitalising and reinventing it with superior production skills, and more importantly, a cracking ear for what will work well on the dancefloors and the popular radio.

It was around this time that structural changes in parent label EMI brought Positiva closer together with Virgin, and aligned it with artists of the calibre of Deadmau5, The Japanese Popstars and a trio of Scandinavian producers who went under the name of Swedish House Mafia. SHM consists of Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso and that chap we met before, Axwell. As well as an existing relationship with Axwell, Positiva had been behind another project involving the future SHM members – Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso’s cunningly titled Buy Now! project, which gave us the single “Bodycrash”.

An indication of how big the Swedes, and David Guetta have become is that between this pair of acts, they have the two most popular nights at Pacha Ibiza to brag about, what with the Swedes Masquerade Motel nights on Monday, and David’s F*** Me I’m Famous night on Thursdays. Sell outs? Only in terms of ticket sales, baby.

The future for Positiva, and parent label Virgin, is looking extremely positive. Along with the SHM album to look forward to, David Guetta has a new single and album coming in the summer of 2011, Alex Metric’s new record is as hotly anticipated as any other in recent memory. Other recent hits for the label include works by Pitbull, Riva Starr and Gramophonedzie, which proves the connection with the underground club hits is as strong as ever.

It’s been a hell of a ride so far, but with what’s on the horizon, you get the feeling that Positiva will remain a stalwart of the dance scene for years to come. The final word should be left to label boss Jason Ellis:

“It’s a great feat that the label has been running for 18 years, uninterrupted. I’d like to think that we can carry on working with the right artists, moving forward as dance music evolves and changes. It’s always been about seeing what’s working in clubland and trying to bring the best of the underground into the mainstream and to a wider audience really. We’re all about mirroring what’s big and happening in clubland at any given time. We’re about reflecting what’s really doing it out there and pushing it to the forefront.”