Dance music dominates 2014 chart with record-breaking year

It's been a vintage year for dance music; the genre is responsible for eight out of 14 debut chart-toppers this year, and earns its highest haul of Number 1s in history. 2014 was the year when young underground electronic noisemakers rose to mainstream chart success.

Breakthrough house DJ/producers including the likes of Route 94 (Number 1 in March with My Love FT Jess Glynne) and Oliver Heldens (Number 1 in June with Gecko FT Becky Hill) assisted the genre to its highest ever volume of Number 1 singles in a calendar year.

No less than 14 dance tracks made it all the way to the top in 2014, from the breezy, blissed-out guitar riffs of Waves by Mr Probz , the folk-dance of Lilly Wood & Robin Schulz’ Prayer In C to huge floor fillers such as Clean Bandit’s Rather Be and Duke Dumont’s I Got U.

Two dance acts have managed to claim the Number 1 slot twice this year – first up was global DJ Calvin Harris with Summer (May), and again with Blame FT John Newman (September). Plus breakthrough British production duo Sigma snared the Official Chart’s highest accolade with their debut Top 40 outing Nobody To Love in April - a drum and bass reworking of Kanye West’s Bound2 - as well as securing a collaborative Number 1 in the autumn with Paloma Faith for Changing.

On why the British dance scene has connected so strongly with the mainstream this year, Sigma told OfficialCharts.com: “We think it's a mixture of a number of things really. Production, great songs, a change in the way music is found and consumed.

"For us personally, it's not really our music that's changed. As it's very similar to what we've always made, but everyone is just much more open to it. Which is amazing.”

Official Charts Company chief executive Martin Talbot added: “The Official Singles Chart got people off their feet more than ever before in 2014, thanks to a record number of dance Number 1s. And, with so many new acts debuting at Number 1, it sounded fresher than ever."

The biggest selling dance Number 1s of 2014 are:

© 2014 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

All the Dance Number 1s of 2014:

• Rather Be – Clean Bandit FT Jess Glynne
• My Love – Route 94 FT Jess Glynne
• Tsunami (Jump) – Dvbbs & Borgeous/Tinie Tempah
• I Got U – Duke Dumont FT Jax Jones
• Nobody To Love – Sigma
• Hideaway – Kiesza
• Waves – Mr Probz
• Summer – Calvin Harris
• I Wanna Feel – Secondcity
• Gecko (Overdrive) – Oliver Heldens FT Becky Hill
• Lovers On The Sun – David Guetta FT Sam Martin
• Prayer In C – Lilly Wood & Robin Schulz
• Blame – Calvin Harris FT John Newman
• Changing – Sigma FT Paloma Faith