The Best Dance Tracks Of The 21st Century So Far

[Peter Kay voice] "Here, remember the Millenium?" Well, there's a good chunk of you that probably don't. In fact, there is probably a pretty significant percentage of you that weren't even born when we thought all the computers would shut down and cause a global apocalypse. For those that do remember it, whether you want to face up to the cruel mistress that is time or not, we're now a full frontal lobe development into the 21st century.

Though the days of dot-com panic, VHS tapes, N64s and being able to light up a cig in the club are a distant memory; before you start dashing to your garden to bury your CD collection like Samuel Pepys; we're here to assure you that one thing has remained everlasting, stoic, unchanging against the passage of time — and that is our love of a stone cold dancefloor banger.

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Whether released via vinyl, iTunes or a SoundCloud upload, 25-years-old or two months old, a banger is still a banger. The dance music scene has changed dramatically in the last quarter of a century, though each year we still get weapons-grade dancefloor destroyers trickling into our collective consciousness.

So to truly pay homage to this beautiful, raucous era of dance music that we've been lucky enough to witness, we decided to consult the Mixmag archive, alongside our current reflections of some of the 21st century's biggest dance moments, to pick out the biggest dancefloor banger from each year of the last 25, alongside honourable mentions that simply could not be ignored. Check them out below, and we'll see you in 2050!

In our December 2000 issue, we described 'Dooms Night' as “Mr Oizo's older, scarier brother”, and that description holds true 25 years later; Timo Maas' remix, with its delicious two-step riding alongside that neural-enlivening wobble, transformed this track from menacing to the kind of banger that would have you firing gun fingers into the apocalypse. With the sheer calibre of dancefloor bangers that we were blessed with in Y2K, it's a testament to 'Dooms Night' that it still managed to stand out above the noise — pull your Paul Frank shirt on, download The Sims on your Windows 2000 computer, and get to work.

Honourable mentions: Darude ‘Sandstorm’, Spiller ft. Sophie Ellis-Bextor ‘Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)’

Crying on the dancefloor is great, isn't? Still hitting with the same impact as a gigantic red heart on Times Square, Roger Sanchez's bittersweet anthem has remained a staple for club world catharsis ever since it hit the UK Number 1 spot in 2001; luscious percussion, sweet synths, and just enough of a kick to throw crowds into a frenzy on the drop. We're not crying, you're crying.

Honourable mentions: Sia ‘Little Man’, Rui Da Silva ‘Touch Me’

In an interview around the release of his X-Press 2 collaboration, the Talking Heads' David Byrne said he was convinced to work on the 2002 single due to "loving the idea of a throbbing beat, and a dancefloor filled with energised bodies, and the singer proclaiming the merits of laziness." With its blistering house beat and tantalising catchy lyrics, 'Lazy' is still seeing Byrne's fantasy come to life across the club world; few tracks can have you working up a sweat as worship at the sloth altar — by god we're still wicked, we're still lazy.

Honourable mentions: DB Boulevard ‘Point of View’, Panjabi MC ‘Mundian To Bach Eh’

It's difficult to think of another track that, with just a meagre tease of its opening bars, can send shockwaves through the world's most edgy underground nightlife spaces and your local hometown Yates with equal force. That bassline, those robot vocals, that pummelling kick; in its simplicity, 'Satisfaction' has remained the not-so-secret weapon for anyone with the desire, nay good sense, to light up a room like Blackpool Illuminations ever since it was officially released outside Italy in 2003. You love it, your favourite DJ loves it, your mate who claims they only listen to Burial fucking LOVES it. I bet as you read this, you don't even need to put it on, it's ringing around your skull like a Lime bike on a canal path. But you know what? Just treat yourself. Happy New Year.

Honourable mentions: Tomcraft 'Loneliness’, Room 5 ‘Make Luv’

Phwoar. This is when dance music was dance music, am I right? Sweaty hip thrusts as a marketing technique have (thankfully) not continued to have the same sway in our listening habits as they did upon the release of Eric Prydz's iconic 'Call On Me', but the track itself has held true within the dance music canon. Originally created by Together, AKA DJ Falcon and Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter, Eric Prydz enlisted Steve Winwood to provide the vocals on his version of the raucous electro-meets-trance banger, landing him a UK Number 1 and a co-sign from, erm, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair. Well, we still like it anyway.

Honourable mentions: Armand Van Helden ‘My My My’, The Shapeshifters ‘Lola’s Theme’

Fuedal Japan had its Samurai, the Norsemen had the Vikings, Medieval Europe had their Knights — but the UK in the 21st Century, we have an even more powerful, more honourable, more esteemed combatant: the weekend warrior. Michael Gray's disco-meets-electro banger became the battle cry of these brave soldiers upon its official release in 2005, with an accompanying music video that dared to ask the question, What if we did just throw all our paperwork out of the window and start straddling the copy machine? Maybe that is less of a fantasy in the era of Google Drive and Microsoft Teams, but regardless, when the clock strikes six on Friday night, I need to blow it all awayyy.

Honourable mentions: Daft Punk ‘Technologic’, Audio Bullys ft. Nancy Sinatra ‘Bang Bang’

"Lovely city" or "love this city", it matters little. Fredde Le Grande's massive electro banger continues to have us surrendering to its raucous combination of steely bass, bubbling bleeps and bloops, and that unforgettable vocal line demanding we, you know. Maybe this isn't the ultimate love letter to Detroit, but in 2006, it was near-impossible not to throw your appendage skywards at the demand of Mr Le Grand for techno's birthplace.

Honourable mentions: Hot Chip ‘Over And Over’, Bodyrox ‘Yeah Yeah’

It doesn't get much better, more Chemical Brothers than this does it. As we moved towards the end of the '00s and the indie sleaze explosion began colliding with the club world, 'Saturate' was practically a How To for instrumental-meets-dancefloor sensibilities. Rough-edged, yet still wholly euphoric; a bass guitar riff that feels as satisfying during a mid-afternoon festival set as it does lighting up a basement venue. The soundtrack to first heartbreaks, first nights out, first pills; a canary in the coal mine for dance music's departure from the mass market status and chart success it had enjoyed throughout the early '00s, but into something infinitely more beautiful and, arguably, deeper.

Runners up: Mason vs Princess Superstar ‘Perfect (Exceeder)’, Justice ‘D.A.N.C.E’

While we don't exactly want to get on the wrong side of dubstepforum.com here, Benga and Coki's earth-shattering 2008-released banger is undeniably one of the most famous and perhaps enduring tracks in the dubstep canon; released in the brief halcyon days of the late '00s, when dubstep grew beyond subculture and found commercial success, 'Night' transcended beyond the discerning Plastic People crowds to the drive time ears of BBC Radio 1 listeners. 17 years later, it's still getting more rewinds than your ADHD mate trying to watch Mullholland Drive. A crowd pleaser? Sure. An easy bet? Maybe. But 'Night' in its guaranteed replayability manages to bottle up something magical bout the early days of dubstep. Can I get an oggy oggy oggy?!

Honourable mentions: MGMT ‘Kids (Soulwax Mix)’, Hercules & Love Affair ‘Blind’ (Frankie Knuckles Remix)

It's a testament to the sheer magnitude that is Skream's La Roux rework that a track with the tag 'Let's Get Ravey Remix' is one of the biggest, most prolific edits of the 21st century. Joining Todd Terry's version of Everything But The Girl's 'Missing' in the ranks of iconic remixes, Skream's dubstep-tinged 'In For Kill' reimagining has not only enjoyed chart success and endless film/TV features, but became the new benchmark for remixes in the years following, showcasing exactly how producers can stay true to source material, while still leaving their own rowdy mark.

Honourable mentions: Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden ‘Bonkers’, Joy Orbison ‘Hyph Mngo’

Inspired by the '90s glory days of The Haçienda, Tensnake's 'Coma Cat' managed to excel beyond being simply an authentic nod to its source material, instead heralding in a new era of deep house appreciators, ready to embrace the euphoria of proper dance music. For those who felt those nostalgic pangs in 2010, and for those who have found themselves lost within its braceless optimism since then, 'Coma Cat' remains a beloved bastion of all that is good about club music.

Honourable mentions: Art Department ‘Without You’, DJ Fresh ‘Gold Dust’

If there was any justice in the world, UK athletes during major sporting competitions would hold their fists to their chests and belt out "when we erupt into the room" in tear-eliciting earnest. Sadly, we'll just have to do with Katy B's 'On A Mission' being our unofficial national anthem. Decadent, wobbling bass and furious synth stabs perfectly accompany the Peckham-hailing pop star's commandingly catchy vocal hooks, resulting in a track that you could probably recite in perfect pitch in your sleep. Exquisite encapsulation of the early '10s electronic and pop scene aside, it's also a tried-and-tested, guaranteed-gun-finger dancefloor banger.

Honourable mentions: Azari & III ‘Hungry for the Power’ (Jamie Jones remix), Julio Bashmore ‘Battle for Middle You’

The Mayans had predicted the world would end in chaos in 2012, and we're so grateful that they were right. Now as much of a byword for “naughty” as Dennis the Menace, Julio Bashmore's cheeky roller proved a defining anthem for the UK's brief yet beautiful deep house obsession throughout the mid-10s; with its disobedient scattered hats, buoyant synth stabs and THAT vocal sample 'Au Seve' has remained a guaranteed dancefloor disruptor 13 years on. Oh Baby!

Honourable mentions: Todd Terje ‘Inspector Norse’, Jessie Ware ‘Running’ (Disclosure Remix)

It's one thing to create a perfect tribute to the golden era of '90s rave - complete with mind-blowing breaks, hypnotic synths, and a glorious diva vocal sample - it's another thing to create the kind of track that feels so timeless that it has taken on a mythical quality. While it allegedly debuted in 2013 by a pre-Overmono Tessela, can anyone really, honestly, remember a time when 'Hackney Parrot' wasn't vibrating out of soundsystems? Simultaneously old skool and futuristic, you could easily be convinced that it had debuted decades earlier or last week. Maybe it has always been soundtracking rowdy basement raves; maybe it's just a figment of our collective imaginations.

Honourable mentions: Paul Woolford ‘Untitled (Call Out Your Name)’, Breach ‘Jack’

While the original, 2013 version of Robert and Lyric Hood's bittersweet banger had already managed to leave tear stains on dancefloors across the globe, the 2014-released “Re-Plant” of 'Never Grow Old' has undeniably lived up to its name. As likely to be rolled out by Carl Cox as Ricardo Villalobos, 'Never Grow Old''s quickening synth stabs and piercing symbols wrap tenderly around Aretha Franklin's heart-wrenching vocal to make up a track that is both poignant and euphoric. It's the ultimate crying in the club track, the cheat code to getting crowds to embrace each other, and the track you'll probably want to ring your loved ones to tell them about, all wrapped into one.

Honourable mentions: Martyn & Four Tet ‘Glassbeadgames’ (8 Hours Fabric Dub), Caribou ‘Can’t Do Without You’

'Glue', 'Apricots', 'Opal', or 'Atlas', many of your favourite BICEP tracks may not have reached your ears without the banger that changed everything. With a jab and a flex, the Belfast duo departed from their signature Italo-inspired sound and set their sights on electronic icon status with 'Just' in 2015. The beginning of many dizzying synth-meets-breaks odysseys, 'Just' signalled the beginning of a new big room era, melding UK garage and trance influences into a seemingly primordial soup designed to elicit dancefloor epiphanies.

Honourable mentions: Eric Prydz ‘Opus’ (Four Tet Remix), Duke Dumont ‘The Giver’

Brimming with latent groove and hypnotic bass, Midland's scintillating house track continues to provoke ecstatic dancefloor moments with its stripped-back chug, soul-affirming vocal courtesy of Gladys Knight & the Pips, and winding sax riff. At the end of 2016, we remarked that few headline DJ sets had ended that year without a beginning to end run of 'Final Credits', yet since then it has gone on to be so much more — it's soundtracked birthdays, anniversaries, breakups, fallouts, and makeups. It's the track that got your friend into dance music, and the track that you listen to when your faith is tested. And in helping to make a household name out of the London-based DJ and producer, 'Final Credits' was only the beginning.

Honourable mentions: Låpsley ‘Operator’ (DJ Koze’s Extended Disco Version), Lindstrøm ‘Closing Shot’

Objekt's dancefloor banger genesis saw the experimentally-inclined producer take a deviation for the tongue-in-cheek with his 2017-released tribute to the now-shuttered Berlin nightclub, Basement Q (or so he says). Bolstered by vaunty UKG, whopping bass and that naughty organ hook, 'Theme From Q' has held steadfast in its room-riling utility. Tacit, unruly, and utterly gratifying, it's that cheeky wink to your mate at the bar in sonic form.

Honourable mentions: BICEP ‘Glue’, Gerd Janson & SHAN ‘Surrender’

You could have been in the world's most remote places - Pacific Islands, remote research stations in Antarctica, that house on the Icelandic island of Elliðaey that everyone (wrongly) believes Björk lives in - and we'd wager that in 2018, you somehow probably still heard 'It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)'. A catalyst for Peggy Gou's ascension from dance music favourite to global superstar, 'It Makes You Forget' captured our imaginations with its decadent mixture of acid, house, and electro. As applicable to dancefloors as it is a hot bath at the end of a long day, Gou's breakout single manages to toe the line between sophisticated and hypnotic, making for an undeniably addictive track that is as impossible to get out of your head after your first, or thousandth, listen.

Honourable mentions: DJ Koze ‘Pick Up’, BICEP ‘Opal (Four Tet Remix)’

Something truly magical occurred when Canadian musician Marie Davidson invited the expertise of legendary Belgian duo Soulwax to rework the irreverent lead single from her LP 'Working Class Woman' in 2019. Combining the pair's trademark blistering electro with Davidson's commanding vocals, this remix reached titanic proportions upon its release, with nary a dancefloor untouched by a foot stamping to those kick whallops, a vocal chord unblemished by the words “sweat dripping down your balls.” It's the kind of dancefloor banger that will send your eyes rolling to the back of your skull at those analogue scrapes, just seconds after you have been Posh Spice pointing toward any slightly male silhouette. It worked is what we're saying.

Honourable mentions: KH AKA Four Tet ‘Only Human’, Instinct ‘Someone’

It may have felt like an incorrigible task for a track to achieve dancefloor banger status in 2020; the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic saw the vast majority of dancefloors across the world empty for nearly the entire year. Yet somehow, against all odds, Pangaea's cheeky swerve into confetti canon territory still exists. The combination of Hedkandi-esque flavour, fidget house glitch, and roaring speedy g bass on 'Like This' helped many of us endure those long months of lockdown, a vivacious reminder of what would be waiting for us once we could be back in the club once more. While it's an undeniable tragedy, 'Like This' never got its dancefloor-destroying moment upon release; it's a testament to its banger-ability that it became the gun-finger-slingers' answer to Vera Lynn.

Honourable mentions: Maurice Fulton and Peggy Gou ‘Jigoo’, Jayda G 'Both Of Us'

In June 2021, when Overmono's turbo-charged synth-meets-breaks banger first landed, the UK was still in the midst of lockdown — eagerly awaiting the all-clear for us to descend upon clubs and festivals once more. It's difficult to remember it, right? We'd wager that is probably because the first time you heard 'So U Kno', and we mean really heard it, it was enlivening every nerve end in your body as it pulsated from a soundsystem. Despite helping to bolster Truss and Tessela's journey to stardom, the pair created something unmistakably underground and the perfect track to welcome us all back to nightlife spaces with 'So U Kno'; that cavernous bass, scuttling percussion, and oscillating vocal simply don't sound the same unless they are rattling your bones on a dancefloor.

Honourable mentions: SOPHIE ‘Bipp’ (Autechre Mx), LSDXOXO ‘Sick Bitch’

"DoOoo you wanna dance baby?". As it rang around our office during her Mixmag Lab on its release day in 2022, it was obvious that Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal had created something special with 'B.O.T.A (Baddest Of Them All)'. Though we doubt many saw the track, which samples Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam's 'Let the Beat Hit 'Em', was on track to not only be the UK underground's sound of the summer, but the entire country's. Rose's endlessly catchy vocals combined with slick speed garage euphoria from IPC helped 'B.O.T.A' become the most Shazammed track in the UK, spurned on hundreds of thousands of TikToks, and hit the UK #1 spot. Though, in the year's since then, it's become clear that we're likely we're still experiencing the "'B.O.T.A' effect" — having been a rare example of chart success for a dance music track with underground origins in 2022, since then even more producers are seemingly hitting the mainstream with rave-inspired gems.

Honourable mentions: Two Shell ‘home’, PinkPantheress ‘Boy’s a liar’

Surely nothing less than 2023's biggest dancefloor banger could come from the "god-tier link-up" between Nikki Nair and Hudson Mohawke? There was little argument that 'Set the Roof' was destined to be just that upon its release with its downright disorderly combination of just about everything that is good in dance music — chipmunk vocals, a searing bassline, billowing breaks, wobbling synths, it's got it all, and then some. Raucous, speedy and a little bit cheeky, this Glasgow-meets-Atlanta crossover will live forever.

Honourable mentions: Fred again.., Skrillex and Flowdan ‘Rumble’, Minor Science ‘Workahol’

Ok, look, it's unlikely you are on anything below your 800th listen of Joy Orbison's earth-shattering 'flight fm', so we'll spare the descriptions of its seismic bass, riotous breaks, and spine-tingling synth stabs. Though with the gift of hindsight, its worth noting how thoroughly and unrelentingly 'flight fm' still makes us want to hurl ourselves against a soundsystem with abandon, even with the festival and club domination its enjoyed since its debut in January 2024, withstanding. The kind of track that you could hear 50 times in one day and on the 51st you still find your hands reflexively shaping themselves into a gun finger, like 'flight fm' is sending a signal straight to your brain to curl your facial muscles in anticipation to shout “phwoar”. Think we're being ridiculous? Give it a go again and tell us we're wrong.

Honourable mentions: Charli xcx ‘Von Dutch’, KETTAMA and Interplanetary Criminal ‘Yosemite’

Sugary, whimsical, and endlessly fun, it feels symbolic that the biggest dancefloor of 2025 is PinkPantheress' Underworld-sampling 'Illegal', mostly due to the fact that it feels like a direct descendant of the 25 tracks prior on this list. Part sparkly pop track, part sunshine-tinged UKG, part glorious rave tribute, 'Illegal' - either in its primary release or the countless remixes it's instigated since then - has invigorated dancefloors this year, rounding off a bangerific 25 years in style.

Honourable mentions: KETTAMA ‘It Gets Better’ (Forever Mix), Vanco ft. Aya ‘Ma Tnsani (Yalla Habibi)’

Megan Townsend is Mixmag's Deputy Editor, follow her on Twitter