House music exploded in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s, and much of the credit must be given to Paul Oakenfold. The Londoner was born in 1963 and was already mixing tracks in his teens, before most people were even privy to the concept. He worked his magic at Covent Garden, but his skills soon led him to the place where dance music was exploding, New York City. There, he learned from the legendary DJ Larry Levan, and he brought those lessons back with him to the UK. He started working as a promoter and signed groups like DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (Will Smith) and Salt ‘n Pepa.

He soon went to the island Ibiza, Spain, where he found a unique sound that mixed many genres into a style of dance music. Inspired, he took the sounds back with him to the UK and introduced it into the club scene there. It turned him into s superstar in the late 1980s. This led to him producing bands like Happy Monday as well as many DJing gigs, including one on tour with U2. He was in high demand by labels to remix stars ranging from the Cure to New Order to Snoop Dogg. Oakenfold released a slew of mix tapes during this time that had such a range of genres that fans couldn't get enough of what he was doing.

The 2000s have seen a variety of albums from Oakenfold. In 2001, he released the soundtrack for the John Travolta film, Swordfish. That same year, he also released Ibiza, which gives tribute to the style he learned at that island. His 2002 album, Bunka, reached number one on the Top Electronic Albums as well as number 65 on the Billboard 200. He had other top 10 electronic albums like Creamfields, A Lively Mind and his 2007 greatest hits album.