"Children" | ||||||||||
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Single by Robert Miles | ||||||||||
from the album Dreamland | ||||||||||
B-side | Remix | |||||||||
Released | 14 November 1995 (Germany) 12 February 1996 (UK) |
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Format |
CD single, CD maxi, 12" maxi, cassette |
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Recorded | November 1994 | |||||||||
Genre | Dream trance, dream house | |||||||||
Length | 3:49 (radio edit) 7:21 (original version) |
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Label | Arista (US), Deconstruction (UK), Motor Music (Germany), BMG (Japan) | |||||||||
Producer(s) | Miles | |||||||||
Robert Miles singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Children" | ||||
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Single by 4 Clubbers | ||||
B-side | Remix | |||
Released | July 2001 | |||
Format | CD single, CD maxi | |||
Genre | Trance | |||
Length | 3:38 | |||
Label | Dropout | |||
4 Clubbers singles chronology | ||||
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"Children 2012" | ||||
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Single by Jack Holiday & Mike Candys | ||||
from the album Smile | ||||
Released | 3 February 2012 | |||
Format | CD single | |||
Genre | Electro house | |||
Length | 3:07 | |||
Jack Holiday & Mike Candys singles chronology | ||||
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"Children" is a song by Italian trance composer Robert Miles. It was first released in Italy in January 1995 as part of the EP Soundtracks on Joe Vanelli's DBX label, but it did not chart. Vanelli brought the track to a nightclub in Miami where it was heard by Simon Berry of Platipus Records. Berry worked with Vanelli and James Barton (of Liverpool's Cream nightclub) to release the song in November 1995 as the lead single from his album Dreamland. The song is Miles' most successful single, being certified Gold and Platinum in several countries and it reached number one in more than 12 countries.
Miles has stated two motives for the writing of "Children". One was as a response to photographs of child war victims his father had brought home from a humanitarian mission in the former Yugoslavia; the other, inspired by his career as a DJ, was to create a track to end DJ sets, intended to calm rave attendants prior to their driving home as a means to reduce car accident deaths.
"Children" is one of the pioneering tracks of dream house, a genre of electronic dance music characterized by dream-like piano melodies, and a steady four-on-the-floor bass drum. The creation of dream house was a response to social pressures in Italy during the early 1990s: the growth of rave culture among young adults, and the ensuing popularity of nightclub attendance, had created a weekly trend of deaths due to car accidents as clubbers drove across the country overnight, falling asleep at the wheel from strenuous dancing as well as alcohol and drug use. In mid-1996, deaths due to this phenomenon, called strage del sabato sera (Saturday night slaughter) in Italy, were being estimated at around 2000 since the start of the decade. The move by DJs such as Miles to play slower, calming music to conclude a night's set, as a means to counteract the fast-paced, repetitive tracks that preceded, was met with approval by authorities and parents of car crash victims.