Radiowise, I listened mainly to Radio 538 and Radio 3FM (since 538 was often hard to receive), along with local pirate stations that played a lot of dance music. In 1997/1998, I also tuned in to the local dance-focused station Radio Atlantis/Channel X.

⟶  Pic 1: A Radio 538 advertisement.  |  Pic 2: A longread about Radio 3 FM, published in the Dutch music magazine 'Oor'.  |  Sound: Radio Atlantis/Channel X, 1997/1998.

This era was still filled with home taping, complete with self-made ballpoint-pen cover art. Besides home taping, I also borrowed CDs from the local library, and sometimes I bought them. Most of those were compilation CDs. In the pics section below you can find some prominent names.

⟶  Pic 1: A ballpoint-pen cover of a tape recorded late in this era.  |  Pic 2: Now Dance Hits compilation.  |  Pic 3: Mega Dance compilation.  |  Pic 4: Yabba Dabba Dance compilation.  |  Pic 5: Club Trance compilation.  |  Pic 5: Another much played one, not belonging to a series: Mega Music Dance Experience 1995.  |  Pic 6: Where to buy those? Maybe at the Free Record Shop, which was the biggest music chain in the Netherlands at the time.

If you needed new audio equipment, maybe you bought it at one of the shops below. Online shopping didn’t exist yet.

⟶  Pic 1: Ben van Dijk was a huge (multiple football fields) store selling CDs, audio equipment and a lot more. If you lived in/near the Dutch village Uden in the 1990s (like me) and wanted to buy a new mini system or discman, you probably bought it here. The store looked like an audiovisual heaven, and quintessentially 90s.  |  Pic 2: At Kijkshop, a general retail chain, items were displayed in display cases. To make a purchase, you noted the item’s number on a slip of paper and brought it to the cashier. You can’t tell from the pic, but back in the 90s this chain also sold a wide range of audio equipment. My Philips mini system (CD, FM radio, double cassette deck) was bought there.  |  Pic 3: Buying your gear at BCC was also an option. Similar chain stores: It's, Dixons, Scheer & Foppen and De Harense Smid.

TMF, the main Dutch music video station, was also important. It was our Dutch alternative for MTV, and I could watch it for hours. Besides that I still read a lot of teen magazines, like Hitkrant, Popfoto/Fancy and Yes, partly writing about music.   ✱   In the latter part of high school I got internet. The dial-up version with the famous modem bleeps, provided by WorldOnline.

⟶  Pic 1: An article about TMF, published by the Dutch music magazine 'Oor'.  |  Pic 2: An article about the 'happy hardcore' act Party Animals, published by the Dutch teen magazine 'Hitkrant'.  |  Pic 3: This screenshot (World Of Techno, 2 Unlimited) shows wat personal home pages looked like in 1997.  |  Pic 4: Another screenshot from the same site.

In the first part of the era I was still a 2 Unlimited fan, although I preferred the first two albums over Real things. For a huge amount of old pics, check the Insta account 'BGfanunlimited'.   ✱   After that period, I was never a real fan of one specific artist anymore, though I did play some albums a lot.

⟶  Pic 1: Some background talk about the album Real things.  |  Pic 2: What the digipack version of Real things originally looked like. On the first day, I already took it apart and put the contents into a standard jewel case.

Most of these songs were played in the local discotheques. You can find a few of the ones I used to go to in the pics section. The pics show the rural version of the average Dutch mid/late 90s nightlife. In rural areas large multi-hall complexes were common. The big ones had a 'disco bus' to bring people there and back. I was 16/17 years old at the time.

⟶  Pic 1: De Morgenzon, a mainstream multi-hall complex located in the Dutch village Zeeland.  |  Pic 2: Kobus, an alternative pub/discotheque. It was located in the same village.  |  Pic 3: Lunenburg, which was similar to De Morgenzon.

I was very focused on recent releases, although there was also older music played, which was mostly danceable and released from around 1987 onwards.

⟶  Pic: In 1994 I bought this 'Greatest Dance Album of the World' compilation filled with (fairly) old dance tracks.